“MY NAME IS I AM”

  Where do you live? 
  No, I don’t mean where’s your home.  I mean where do you live mentally?  Where do your thoughts usually travel when there’s a free moment?  Do they pack up and head for the past?  For many, that’s exactly what happens.  One moment everything is fine, and the next, their thoughts have them slumming through shameful mistakes of yesterday.  
  For others, the problem isn’t regretting the past, it’s worrying about the future.  You’ve seen the kind, fingernails bitten down to a nub, chewing on antacid tablets, always lamenting the present with some “yeah, but” negative about the future.
  Helen Mallicoat understands what it’s like to live with regret and worry.  She also understands where to find joy. 

I was regretting the past and fearing the future…
Suddenly my Lord was speaking:  “MY NAME IS I AM.”   He paused.
I waited.  He continued,'”WHEN YOU LIVE IN THE PAST, WITH ITS MISTAKES AND REGRETS
IT IS HARD.  I AM NOT THERE.  MY NAME IS NOT – I WAS.
WHEN YOU LIVE IN THE FUTURE, WITH ITS PROBEMS AND FEARS,
IT IS HARD.  I AM NOT THERE.  MY NAME IS NOT – I WILL BE.
WHEN YOU LIVE IN THIS MOMENT, IT IS NOT HARD.  I AM HERE.
MY NAME IS – I AM.”

What is the name of the God you serve?  Is it “I Was”…”I Will be”…or “I Am?” 
(Helen Mallicoat, “I Am,” as quoted by Tim Hansel in Holy Sweat (Waco, Tex.:Word Books, 1987), p.136)

  I listened to Dr. John Dorsey, with a group of minsters, and the only thing that really stuck in my mind was when he said, “WE LIVE IN AN EXPLOSION OF NOWS.  NOW IS ALL WE HAVE.”
How very true, we can’t live in the past nor in the future but in the present.  Our God has forgiven and forgotten our past in Christ and He has promised to be with us in the future, “I am with you always even to the end of the ages.”  God is with us as we serve Him in the here and the now.

  Remember, when God called Moses to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt.  Moses tried to excuse himself from the task by saying, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  God told Moses that He would be with him.  Moses asked God, what shall I tell them if they ask, “What is your name?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you say to the Israelites: I am has sent me to you.”   Exodus 3:11-14 
According to Charles Swindoll in his book on Moses, God is speaking His most intimate name, Yahweh.
The only self-existent, infinite Being, in all of the universe is sending Moses to be His representative.

  This same God, “I AM”, calls to us to live for Him, represent Him to our Egypt, this world. We cannot fail when we go in HIS NAME.

BENT NAILS

  Did you ever save bent nails?  I remember saving bent nails, thinking that the day will come when I will straighten them and use them.  Probably in our day of prosperity, there are not many of us saving bent nails. In our mass production nails can be turned out so cheaply that if one bends when using, we just discard and get a new one.  In days of plenty, values are difficult to maintain. 
Thinking of bent nails, two questions need to be asked; how do nails get bent and how can the nails be straightened?

  How do nails get bent?
One way is by using a nail that is not the right size for the job.
Another way, is trying to drive a nail into a place where it does not belong.
A third way, is that a nail is bent because it is not struck properly.
  How do nail get straightened?
To straighten a bent nail, you lay it on a hard surface, hold it firmly and pound it gently.

  People are like bent nails. 
We become bent out of shape because we can’t keep pace with the complexities of our world.  Too many demands, always the over-load, puts a terrible strain on us.
Also, when we are put into situations where we do not belong, we become bent.  Our hunger ego pushes us into situations where we are not happy.  Finding our niche in life, sometimes, is no easy matter. 
We become bent because the blows of life are just too difficult.  All of us have had enough problems, so we know that life can really upset and hurt us.

  But, there is GOOD NEWS.  There is a note of encouragement, mankind can take hope, in that faults can be rectified, mistakes forgiven, errors erased; people straightened.  Every person ought to have the opportunity to get unbent.
How is this done?  I believe, if you take a person who has been bent and lay that person along the teachings of Jesus and then just quietly, sweetly drive home God’s truth, the person will straighten out again.  The Gospel of Christ is the power of God to straighten people out.
This is what makes the gospel story so thrilling and meaningful to us for the pages of the Bible are filled with bent lives straightened by the power of Jesus.    
Matthew was a bent nail.  He was a Jew who  had hired out to the Romans to collect taxes from his own people.  James and John were bent nails. They shared in the selfish request of the best seats beside of Jesus in His kingdom.   Peter was a bent nail.  He was headstrong, hard to handle, impossible to reason with.  Jesus had to straighten Peter out repeatedly. 

 The primary principal in Christianity which changed the world, and can change us, is forgiveness, second chance, newness of life, salvation.  This precious message must be pounded gently into the hearts and minds of all people.  Each of us need to allow the message of God’s love, forgiveness and worth whileness sink into our minds and hearts and straighten us out.  All of us get bent out of shape at times, still no one needs to stay bent.  The straightening power of the Gospel is available to all.

MY FATHER

  Let me share some information about my earthly father, as we share Father’s Day.  My father, Floyd Smith, was a hard worker.  During the depression, he worked in the fields, following the combine, making a dollar a day.  He worked in the factories the largest part of his life.  He came home dirty and tired.  He provided for his family, as we had need.  Dad was a disciplinarian.  We children could get away with a lot with my mother, but not with my dad.  For instance, bed time for we three sons was a difficult time to settle down. We slept upstairs in our house. We would get to fussing and fighting among ourselves.  We would throw each other out of bed.  Mother always said, it sounded like we were going to come right through the floor.  Mother hearing, would come to the stair door and tell us to quit the fighting and go to sleep.  When we didn’t stop, she would come again to the stair door and yell that we had better stop or  dad would come up there.  Our commotion continued and the next time the stair door opened, it was our dad and all that he said was, “Boys, you heard your mother, now go to sleep or I will come up there.”    You would have thought that we would have learned.  But,no, right back to fighting we would go.  The final time that the stair door opened, nothing was said, only we heard the steps of our father coming up to our bed room. He never said a word.  He just threw back our covers, took out his belt and spanked us on our bottom. He didn’t know much about Hallmark, but he cared enough to give us his very best.

  I want you to know that in spite of the discipline, or because of it, I believed that my father loved me.  He disciplined me because it was just, right.  I deserved it, as consequences for my actions.   

  May I turn from my earthly father to my Heavenly Father.  There are two things that we must believe concerning God: One, we must believe that our Father would want to be known by his children. He would find no satisfaction in remaining a mystery or a stranger to His creation.   Secondly, we must believe that our heavenly father wants to have children, to have a family. He wants to love and be loved. Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, God has been preparing a home for His prepared family.  He has sent His Son, to reconcile us unto Himself.  Jesus is the means to bring us into harmony with God.  God takes upon Himself the shame and guilt of sinful man and bears it on Calvary in front of the whole world. The Father offers forgiveness through Jesus.

  The forgiveness of our Father is dependent upon our proper response to His love.  We are saved by grace through faith.  A faith that saves is a faith that works, obeys.  Our obedience to what God has asked in His Word, the Bible, is an expression of our faith.  There is no faith without obedience from the heart to the teachings of God.  He calls us to Himself through hearing and believing His Word.  He disciplines His children by His Spirit through His Word.  God disciplines those He loves.

  Just as I believed that my earthly father was just (right) in disciplining me, yet he loved me, so I believe the same about my Heavenly Father. 
He loves us and desires love in return.  Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”   If we fail to love Him, we must suffer the consequences of disobedience.  You can’t have it both ways.  Love Him who loved you so.