day one

The journey has begun.  I'm so pumped and excited about all that God is going to teach me and show me through this lifestyle.  God is already showing me what it truly means to be transformed in my heart, mind, and soul.  I want Him to create a desire in me and a hunger for his word.  I find my stomach growling and hungry at normal meal times already but my hunger and thirst for the spiritual is far greater.  

I want to close myself off from any grey area.  I do not want to compromise on anything that our culture tells me i should.  I find myself much more cautious in what I think, say, and do.  I think God is laughing at me saying, "So you consecrate forty days to me...what happen to the forty before that, and the forty before that?"  I am convicted that I have compromised with small stuff even on a Christian campus.  Nothing that most people would even call sin, but being set apart means literally everything.  

I am reading Louie Giglio's book called, "i am not but i know I AM."  This book has been a great read for me today.  I am a third of the way through it and and really excited about what I am learning from what he has to say.  I just finished the chapter that was kinda of the punch line behind the book talking about the conversation between God and Moses.  The place in Scripture where God gives himself a name for the first time.  Moses has the audacity to ask the voice that is speaking to him while watching a burning bush not be consumed what is your name.  A fair question considering the task God has just placed upon him.  Moses basically asks God, "Who do I tell them sent me?"  God says, "tell them that I AM sent you." This is so powerful.  Louie puts a new perspective on it for me though.  I have heard different theological discussions about referring to YHWH which are definitely interesting.  Louie says that the Hebrew word for I AM is Hayah (like a karate expression) which carries with it the idea of the very breath of God.  In English I AM translates into the verb to be or simply be.  Therefore Louie stated that God's name is BE. I AM = I BE.  "Not great grammar, I know, but powerful theology." Giglio says in his book.  He goes on to suggest that God is declaring that he is unchanging, constant, unending, always present, always God. God was telling Moses:

I AM the center of everything.

I AM running the show.

I AM the same every day, forever.

I AM the owner and author of everything.

I AM the Lord.

I AM the Creator and Sustainer of life.

I AM the Savior.

I AM more than enough.

I AM inexhaustible and immeasurable.

I AM God.

Saying all this, God must be implying that if his name is I AM, then Moses' name must be I am not.

I am not the center of everything.

I am not in control.

I am not the solution.

I am not all-powerful.

I am not calling the shots.

I am not the owner of anything.

I am not the Lord.

I am not running anything.

I am not the head of anything.

I am not in charge of anything.

I am not the maker.

I am not the savior.

I am not holding it all together.

I am not all-knowing.

I am not God.

That is my name too.

Books I read today:

i am not but i know I AM - Louie Giglio

Messy Spirituality - Mike Yaconelli

Scripture I read today:

John 8

Matthew 4

Psalms 139

Verse of the day:

John 8:12