The I AM

Jesus was encountered by Martha first [after Lazarus died], who spoke in terms of past and future. The past was, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” The future was, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” But there was no sense of the present tense with her.

It is ironic that she made those remarks about the past and the future to the One who is the I AM, who know no past or future, and only lives in the present. “I who stand before you am the resurrection and the life. That which you await in the future tense, in Me is reality now...”

I was teaching once at a church, giving my testimony and saying that I had a forgiven past and a certain future. I was asking the group questions, and they were giving the “right” answers-the typical evangelical answers. Past and future. Past and future. That really is the Christian scene, isn't it? I don't intend any condemnation, but our sense of certainty is in the past and future, and we have a sense of nothingness in between, in the present. So we fill it up with activity. What else can you do? But Jesus is the present; He gathers all up in the now.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 179, 180

<idle musing>
Interesting observation—about Martha, I mean—I AM, but we relegate him to the past or the future. How sad, but how true. So, we fill up the present like a hamster on a wheel; we spin and spin and get...nowhere.
</idle musing>