TLIC FAMILY. DAY 24. JANUARY 24: I AM.

THINK TOGETHER

What does your name mean?

READ TOGETHER

Have you ever heard a story end with “And they lived happily ever after”? That’s how the book of Genesis ended. God has protected Joseph and used him to save the world from a great famine. But the next book of the Bible, Exodus, begins with everything being bad again. 400 years have gone by, a new king in Egypt (Pharaoh) hates Abraham’s family, the Hebrews, and turns them all into slaves. But there was one Hebrew who didn’t become a slave in Egypt. In fact, he was adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter and became a prince in Egypt. Do you know who? (Moses)

God wanted to use Moses to rescue the Hebrews from slavery. But, like Jacob before him, Moses did ad things and ran away. He ran away from Egypt and he thought he could run away from God. But can you run away from God? Nope. So one day, while Moses was watching his sheep in the desert, God appeared to him in a burning bush – a bush that was on fire but not burning up. Amazingly God spoke to Moses telling him to go back to Egypt and rescue the Hebrews from slavery. Then God did something remarkable; he told Moses his name. Here is what he said:

Exodus 3:13-14. ¹³ Then Moses said to God, “What is [your]name?” ¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”

Did you know that God has a name? What is it? (I am) The name I am means that God is all powerful, and all knowing, and that everything comes from him. I am has no beginning and no end. I am needs nothing and he has everything. I am simply IS!

When Jesus lived on earth he called himself “I am.” Why? Because Jesus is God. He is eternal, without beginning or end. Jesus came to Moses as the burning bush, and then Jesus came to us as a baby. He came to rescue us from our slavery to our sin. Jesus came to give us his life so that his burning love and goodness might live in us just like it did in that bush.

Because of Jesus I can know and be with God forever.

With Jesus I can be a burning light of God’s love for others.

DO SOMETHING TOGETHER

Watch the burning bush scene from the movie The Prince of Egypt. Talk about how Moses must have felt when he met God.

PRAY TOGETHER

Jesus, thank you for coming to us so that we can know God and live with him forever. Amen.