Who Am I?

by Keith Gardner

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I often begin my Christian thinking with “if…then” statements. For example; “if God loves me then, I do not have to be afraid of him.”  Or, “if God calls Himself, ‘Johovah-rapha’ (the Lord that heals), then I can trust Him to heal me.” There is one “if…then” idea that bears a great deal of consideration. If the Bible is a set of stories, fairytales, and fables, then I can read it as entertainment. If the Bible is documented history, I can understand it in context of the past. But, if the Bible truly is the Word of God, then it requires reading, learning and applying to the way I think, act and live my life.  Think about it. God the creator of all that is, a Spirit, a being so vast that He holds His creation in His hand. A timeless One, who holds all eternity past and eternity future in a single thought. He loved His creation so much that He empted Himself of all His Godness and became finite, he became a man. He did this not for the sake of Himself, but for the sake of His creation; to reconcile it back to Himself. To reclaim for Himself all that was lost in the original paradise. That One, the One whose love is without end, has poured infinity into understandable words, and recognizable ideas, so that we could grasp Him and learn to love Him back. Those stories are no longer just stories; they are now instructions; glimpses into the eternal nature of the One I call Heavenly Father.

That leads me to one of those glimpses I was just talking about. Judges 6-9 tells the story of Gideon. Gideon was a man who lived in Canaan, or the Promised Land. The people of Promise, the Hebrews, decedents of Abraham, did not see themselves as a nation yet, but rather as a group of twelve tribes related by a common ancestry.  For several years the Israelites were attacked and robbed, of their produce, by a band of

nomadic rival hoards. The Israelite’s fear was so great that Gideon was threshing his wheat in a winepress. During his secret work, the Lord came to him and addressed him as “mighty warrior.” Gideon was cow tailing down in a winepress so no one would steal his wheat, and God calls him a “mighty warrior”? And that’s the lesson. Too often I judge myself by my circumstances. I look around and see my troubles, my mistakes and my misfortunes; and use what I see as a description of who I am. Then God comes along He sees me the way He created me. He calls me by the description of his intention. I am not limited by my circumstances. I am not defined by my past or even future mistakes. No, I am described by the One who created me, and I am pointed in the direction of my intended destiny. Gideon was willing to take a hold of his new identity. Some what reluctant at first, Gideon became just as God describes him. What is the “if…then” statement that points me in God’s intended direction? What is that descriptive identity that calls me into my purpose?