Saturday, October 18, 2025

To Be Known

   


  This week Pastor Ben preached out of the book of Exodus and he started in chapter three when Moses encountered God at the burning bush. As God and Moses were talking, one of the questions that got kicked around is both parties asking the question of Who Are You? The song who Are You by the rock group The Guess Who came to mind as Ben was preaching, especially the line from the song “cause I really got to know” comes to mind. This got me thinking, as people, we want to know others and be known by others. God created us to be relational people, not only with Him but with others also. God has several names as Ben discussed such as Adonai, El Shaddi, and the ultimate name of I Am. Each of these names convey something about Gods character and who He is. We are the same, we are all called something different, depending on the group we are with. For me in high school I was known as Tommy, or in college Big Tom because of my size and my roommate was also named Tom. Finally, my family nickname is Shep. Often our names says something about us or comes from an important event in our lives. So here is my question for us, what prevents us from being known and knowing God? How often do we pull an Adam and Eve, and we put on fig leaves and hide from Him or others? This is often done by hiding behind screens or not completely being honest with ourselves, others, and God. 

  I think the other part of being known and knowing others is defining the relationship. Every couple, especially those who are married often have the “DTR” or defining the relationship conversation to find out where their relationship is not only going, but what they are to each other. Jesus has this conversation with the disciples when He asked them Who Do You Say That I Am?” Moses and God had the exact conversation Moses was wondering what he should tell the Israelites who sent him. Moses has been oh in the desert herding sheep for forty years as he was letting things cool down in Egypt after killing the Egyptian. Moses had to come to realty of who God was not only in all the universe but who God was to him. He also had to come to terms with how God saw him and how he wanted to use Moses to make His name great and bring the nation of Israel back into relationship with Himself. So here are some thoughts to ponder, the first one is, who do we say that God is? To paraphrase a C.S. Lewis put it, is God a liar, lunatic or is He really who He says He is and what does that mean for us. Something else to ponder, why do we have such a difficult time seeing how God sees us. We tend to live on one extreme of we are better than we really are or that we are worthless garbage and we can swing from side to side quite frequently. Remember, we are created in the image of God. 

  My final observation is that Jesus came and lived a life that we couldn’t live and took our punishment that He didn’t deserve so that we can be made whole again. Jesus did this so that we can know God and be in right relationship with Him. If we want to know who God is and what His character is, we can look at Jesus. I will close with this, with God making the statement of I Am, it means that He is all that and a bag of chips. God is eternal and hasn’t changed nor will He ever change and we can take this to the bank. God wants us to know Him intimately and vice versa, nor only so we can spend eternity with Him, but so He can be praised and that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven 

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead

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