November 1 - Glorify I AM

Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, 'He is our God'; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. John 8:54-59 

Glorify. I like the definition that the Blue Letter Bible gives “glorify”… to cause the dignity and worth of some person or thing to become manifest and acknowledged. That is what the Heavenly Father is doing for Jesus. Drawing people’s attention to Jesus. Those Jews didn’t seem to “see” Jesus for who He was and is. The Son of God and the Messiah. Do we see the truth? Do we give dignity to the very name of Jesus? 

Then Jesus goes on to tell the Jews that He is the “I AM” that existed before Abraham. When God made a covenant with Abraham He said, And He said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it." Genesis 15:7. God declared that He is the Lord. When He spoke to Moses from the burning bush, before He sent Moses to rescue the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, Moses asked what name for God he should tell the Hebrew people sent him. God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" Exodus 3:14. I AM. God is saying that He existed always and forever. That thought—forever—is beyond our comprehension. Being the finite beings that we are it is difficult to think beyond our lifetime…our recorded history…except to fantasize about the future, like “Star Wars” or “Hunger Games.” I AM. Does it offend you that Jesus is claiming to be God? It offended the Jews with whom He was speaking. It would be better to be offended and really think about Jesus than to just obliviously go to hell for ignoring Him. Who IS Jesus to you? 

Dear Jesus—I acknowledge You as my Savior, as God and creator of the universe. You were before time existed…and You will be after time ends…even past the time of our imaginations. Thank you for having a plan for our lives.

© 2012 by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.

All scripture quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB).

Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for doxazō (Strong's 1392)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 30 Oct 2012. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm? strongs=G1392 >