{"id":32163,"date":"2021-05-18T03:30:40","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T10:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=32163"},"modified":"2021-05-17T21:06:26","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T04:06:26","slug":"may-18-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2021\/05\/18\/may-18-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"May 18, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\u201cAnd when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, \u2018Who is this?\u2019\u201d<\/em> Matthew 21:10<\/p>\n

\u201cBut immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, \u2018Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.\u2019\u201d<\/em> Matthew 14:27<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd God said to Moses, \u2018I AM WHO I AM.\u2019\u201d<\/em> Exodus 3:14<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The letter \u201cI\u201d is a singular letter, written tall and straight and alone in the English language. It encompasses all that is in<\/em><\/strong> a person\u2014all that a person is<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

When Jesus said \u201cIt is I\u201d<\/em> to the fearful disciples out on the stormy sea, He meant that they should not be afraid because they knew who He was, knew what was in Him. When God said, \u201cI AM WHO I AM,\u201d<\/em> He indicated it was His Name. It encompassed all that He is, all that is in Him. He then said, \u201cThis is My name forever\u2026\u201d<\/em> (Exodus 3:15), and began explaining exactly what that meant: \u201cI have visited you; I have seen you; I will bring you up out of affliction; I will meet with you; I will stretch out My hand; I will give you; I will send you; I will go with you; I will have compassion on you\u2026<\/em>\u201d On and on it goes throughout the Bible, and in this life we will never comprehend all that God is when He said, \u201cI AM.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And though we are connected to one another as the church, and as the Bride of Christ, living in unity with one another, a truth remains: when we stand before God, we will do it alone. I, myself\u2014all that is in me and all that I am\u2014will stand before God alone. I will not be able to look to your recognition of my deeds; I will not be able to lean on your love for me or your approval of me; your words about me will not be acceptable testimony of my worth. Only the witness of One who knows me intimately\u2014Jesus Christ\u2014will be admissible as evidence of who I am, of what is in me.<\/p>\n

Each of us only knows others by what they reveal of themselves to us. We may or may not know the \u201creal\u201d them, and certainly not to the extent that God knows them. (This is a good reason not to listen to gossip about others.) We can\u2019t know motives or underlying issues or everything about their past\u2014and we certainly can\u2019t know God\u2019s plan or path for them.<\/p>\n

Who am I? I am God\u2019s image-bearer, made in His likeness. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am the adopted child of the Most High God. I am His servant and His friend. I am a part of His Bride and a member of His Body, the church. Nothing can take this identity away from me. Whatever He appoints for my life, whatever pleases Him, whatever fulfills His purposes in me, wherever I go, whether I fail or succeed\u2014I am still these things.<\/p>\n

Lord, help us to realize our identity in You. You are the absolute center of our lives around which everything revolves, whether we know it or not. Help us to know it deeply. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-8mL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32164,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32163\/revisions\/32164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}