2109AFC022621 – HERE I AM.
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Genesis 22:1-2 – 1 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”* 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”
Acts 9:10 – 10 Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.”
Genesis 22:7-8 – 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
Exodus 3:4 – 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Isaiah 58:9a – 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. * This declaration in Hebrew is hinneh, and it is used hundreds of times in the Bible. Usually it is translated as Behold! Or Lo and it carries a meaning of “Look here,” or “I am here” and usually occurs when a person in authority is speaking (God calling Samuel, for example, or Jeremiah surrendering to his accusers while relying on God’s Providence).
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. It is already the second weekend of Lent, and this weekend we will listen to some of the most remarkable passages in the entire Bible. First, there is the story in Genesis 22 where God “put Abraham to the test” by requiring him to sacrifice his precious son, Isaac. Abraham complies by acting in faith that God had promised him he would have heirs through Isaac more numerous than the stars and he reckoned that God could even raise Isaac from the dead. The Apostle Paul reminds the Romans that – like Abraham – God did not withhold his own Precious Son from death. God is for us so we have nothing to fear from those who would oppose us. Lastly, in the Gospel, we have the remarkable account of The Transfiguration (← Check it out!). Today I want to focus on Abraham’s absolutely resolute faith. As you can tell from the Key Verse passages up there, the response of a true Servant of God is “Here I am,” sometimes flipped to say “Here am I.” When God speaks the name of one of his servants, the ones who are committed to serving him and him only, and they reply in humble readiness, it reminds me of the response we were trained to give in the Armed Forces: Sir! Yes Sir! We enthusiastically show our readiness to serve as did the Psalmist in Psalm 40:7-8 – 7 Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. 8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” We know our duty – to Trust and Obey – and we discharge that duty without reserve.
God establishes servants wherever service is needed. That makes sense, doesn’t it? If something needs to be done, bring in those who are capable of doing it. And we can readily see that God’s servants know what he wants because they are prepared for whatever he asks (See in context Deuteronomy 30:11-14 – 14 No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.) In Isaiah 58:9, we have a prefiguring of the promise in Genesis 2 – the presence of God in the lives of his earthlings. After all, it is his Spirit that makes us living souls. God is always here, always near, always and all ways Always, and that means he knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. (See my “2nd-most-favorite-Psalm,” Psalm 139:13-16) God chose to make his Son – his ONLY BEGOTTEN SON – manifest in flesh, flesh like ours. He is always present (Omnipresent – here I am, not “here I will be”) He calls us to be present (Here I am Lord) (↔ Music Link) and when we respond, great things happen! We find Grace, Power in the Holy Spirit, Peace surpassing all understanding, surrender to God as he lays hold of us, our willingness to serve escalates, our preparedness is sharpened, we are aglow with the Presence of God. Of course, we are not as refulgent as Christ was as he spoke with Moses and Elijah, but we do shine! Have you ever heard God’s voice? I have. I have shared this before, but I want to share it again today.
Suppose we start out with Isaiah 6:8 – 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” I always liked that. It was, in a special way, part of my decision to give my life to “Full Time Christian Service” at age 10 at Camp IdRaHaJe – which is an abbreviation for “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” (↔ Music Link) Later – in high school – I thought I had a calling to the Ministry in the Reformed Church in America. Long story short, one thing led to another, the Draft happened, and that idea faded away. The message for that calling was “Preach my Word.” Once I was in the Air Force, I was led to my conversion in the Catholic Church. Just two weeks after my first fully-Catholic day, I married the love of my life – Crucita – and not long after, the message in the call became “Teach my Word.” I’m still working on that directive. Here is one way that happens.
The Psalm I love best is Psalm 138 (← Check it out!). It is my all-time-favorite Psalm. The first two verses are filled with wonderful praise:
Psalm 138:1 – I thank you, Lord, with all my heart;
in the presence of the angels to you I sing. New American Bible (Revised Edition)(NABRE)
I like that part about singing in the presence of the Angels. It reminds me of Psalm 22:3 which says that God “inhabits the praises of his people.” The rest of the Psalm is so reassuring. God will surely hear the cry of the suffering.
There is a passage in 1 Corinthians that steadies me with grateful conviction – conviction that enables my service because it matches up with my “Sir! Yes sir!” The Apostle Paul is describing how he received the Gospel, “as to one born abnormally,” when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus. 1 Corinthians 15:10 – 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. This verse always reminds me that I have not yet worked as hard as I should, or as hard as I can, on behalf of the Gospel. I am what I am by the grace of God, though, and he constantly challenges me to be a better steward of the many, many gifts he has presented me in my life.
I often remind myself and others to “Honor the Giver by accepting the Gift.” When I look at the faith of my Old Friend Abraham, or reflect on the determination and courage of Moses, or recognize in David a heart that God called “a man after my own heart” (See Acts 13:22), I know I fall far short of the servanthood to which I aspire. One of the many reasons for that is that he gifted me with words, and sometimes (way too many times) the words I use are not the Word from God’s own heart. Then he calls, and I remember.
When he calls us, we remember that he chose us, we did not choose him. To him, we are not “hey you” because he has called each of us by name. I remember that he comforts and consoles as well as corrects and counsels because he has given us his Holy Spirit – not just me, but all the faithful in Christ Jesus. Nothing can stop, divert, sully, or prevent his Love from filling our lives. We are victors, conquerors in Christ, and we have not only the Victory, but also the spoils of the victory: The repudiation of every evil that has tried to harm us. We have an indefatigable and inexhaustible source of Love and Protection called “God’s Providence.”
“If God is for us …” Sadly, that has too often been used as justification for ungodly acts. This kind of misuse of Scripture is false prophecy – falsely claiming that “what I am doing is right because God has ordained it” when what is being done is clearly wrong. I fervently urge you to make time to read every word of 2 Peter 2! I’m just going to pull out three verses so you can get the flavor of what The Apostle Peter said there: 12 These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and when those creatures are destroyed, they also will be destroyed, 13 suffering the penalty for doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! If you watch or listen to a broadcast news, we see and hear of such persons multiple times daily. They not only desecrate what Good the Lord has allowed to come to all (see Matthew 5:43-45) but despoil and detest all Good that is to come: Proverbs 17:15 – 15 One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous are both – alike an abomination to the Lord. Belovéd, we are called by name to serve God and one another. That means we serve Truth, and in the Truth there is no darkness, no pain, no toil, no trouble, no tears; because of and within his Word, we are assured that there is only God and God is Love. I’m hoping you remember this:
GOD ≡ LIGHT ≡ LOVE ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE ≡ ETERNAL ≡ MERCY ≡ GOD (↔ Music Link – really!)
Let those who have ears hear and those who have lips speak. God is not mocked, (← Check it out!) The warning is clear. That warning is what we started off with this year, and it is important that we do not ignore it. Do you remember that in 2101AFC010121 – Head for the Light we referred to believers who are endorsing what God has condemned? Take 
a look: Satan is darkness and in him is no Light at all. And yet, we have many people – thousands upon thousands – swearing that light is darkness and evil is good (See Isaiah 5:18-23, especially v. 20 which reads in part 20 Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light). There is 1 light and there is 1 darkness in the Spiritual War we act against, but that darkness is not merely the absence of Light, it is also the presence of evil and every bit as real as the Light we follow and eventually become. They are headed away from the Light. WE are headed for the Light, which is to say we are moving toward Heaven for and because of the Love of God.
We will touch on this often during this year because from the highest echelons of power to the lowest depths of perversion, we are being led away from the proclamation of and obedience to the Word. IF WE GO THAT ROUTE, we will go with those “irrational animals” to the Second Death to be destroyed with them. He chose us, he called us, he counts on us; but, more importantly, we can count on him because 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. God himself did indeed provide the Lamb! Now may God help us in this perilous time!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
