IF God is I AM

A couple of weeks before Easter, our Ladies Bible study (following the IF: Equip online daily Bible reading) began a study of the days leading up to Jesus death, His death and resurrection. It started with Jesus’ last supper with His disciples and the first communion supper. Immediately, I started reflecting on communion and then started reading about Passover. My limited knowledge of Passover consisted of assisting in a Vacation Bible School center about Passover. It was a while back, so I remember eating lamb and spray-painting the doorpost to look like the lamb’s blood for the passing over of the angel of death.

I have a funny personality quirk, when I start looking into something I obsess over it. I want to read everything I can find and share with everyone what I’m learning. It’s a thing, get used to it. I was fixed on Passover. I began to read about Christians who have an adapted Passover meal, which includes the fulfillment of Christ. Then, I found out that one of my good friends, Monema, from my home church actually does it every year. She sent me everything, which I began obsessing over and every detail of the meal. I found approved substitutes for things I wasn’t able to find in Rwanda and began shopping. I asked a few of the ladies in our group to help with the meal—Stephanie providing gluten-free matzoh for our glut-free friend and Lauryn whipping up some Passover-approved desserts. (You have to celebrate no longer being in slavery with the sweets!)

I found a Passover app and spent time on Pinterest to make sure the table was set properly and we were honoring each piece of the Passover Seder, and didn’t forget Elijah’s seat in case he showed up! I began practicing how to say all the words in the 15-page script and when I was supposed to hold things up and when to eat them (which I ate things too early…twice). Good thing for grace!

We reflected on the sadness and hardship on the Israelites slavery and the hardship of our slavery in sin. We honored the God of Israel who passed over the homes of the Israelites sparing the lives of their firstborn sons. We honored the God who sent his Son to die for us as the perfect sacrificial lamb, without sin. We praised His name!

One of our group shared a song she had written:

Oh Grace, You came and died for us

Oh Grace, You came to fight for us

Your face, I cannot fathom Your love

Oh Grace

We lift You higher

And when You come

In all your victory

Angles will bow

In awe of your glory

The one named Lord

Will come to save all our souls

Because of grace

We’ll see Your face.

Then we all made a wish that we would celebrate Passover next year in Heaven!

All this made me ask, “Is the God of the Israelites, the same God today?” He was pretty specific and strict on a bunch of stuff, is He still that strict or have we diluted Him down? Yes, there is grace, but have we diluted the Gospel?

For our wine substitution, we used black current juice. According to the Seder, we are supposed to drink four cups of the juice throughout the evening. I didn’t read the instructions on the front of the juice saying that the juice was a concentrated drink and should be diluted to your taste. O Jesus, have we diluted your sacrifice to our taste? When drinking these cups, you are supposed to drink it all in one drink. This very concentrated, very sweet drink, was supposed to be downed in one gulp. Our lips were puckered; our eyes were bulging. It was sweet and hard to drink. After the second drink, many were watering down their drink. (Now, I’m not saying my friends shouldn’t have diluted their drinks. Had I thought about it, I would’ve done the same. It was REAL sweet.)

But bear with my comparison of a concentrated Jesus being diluted by a people who decide how much we want to give over to Him. He is I AM. Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit, too. He is the same today, yesterday and forever. Of course, I am the one to be convicted by concentrated juice.

God, please help me live a concentrated life, not diluting who You are and what Your message is!