Greetings CrossTrain family and Merry Christmas! We pray that your families have had fruitful opportunities to learn the word together and store His word away in your heart. We also pray that the first three passages of scripture have helped to teach our children and families what the Bible is and why it is so important so we can guide our children to saving faith and to view the world through the lens of absolute, objective truth… God’s word.
We will begin to transition in our passages towards learning who God is. We will spend all of eternity growing in our love and knowledge of God and will never exhaust the depths of who He is, so we dare not think that these passages are by any means exhaustive, but by His grace He has made it possible for us to at least touch the surface. We will simply let God Himself speak to this topic through these passages.
Most clearly taught from cover to cover is the idea that there is one God… period. Scripture is clear and exhaustive of this. He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, and he is the only One, he knows of no other. He is. In Isaiah chapters 40 through 48, God takes to trial all the false gods that the Israelites and surrounding nations were following and He lays down the hammer in his heavenly courtroom! Therefore, we will learn one of the many verses He gives us to make it clear that he is THE ONE AND ONLY GOD.
“Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.” Isaiah 43:10
Why this verse? Well, God could make it no clearer. He is the only God; there has been none before him, there will be none after him. He is Yahweh, He is the Lord, He is the Almighty God. And he continues by telling us that beside him there is no savior. As sinners we constantly create fake “gods” or idols as we place our trust and hope in things other than the one true God. Yahweh is the only one who can rescue us, save us, sustain us. He is the only one to whom we are to turn and to trust.
Follow up questions that Isaiah 43:10 can answer:
How many true Gods are there?
Does God have a beginning? Will he have any end?
Who is our only Savior?
We have MUCH to continue learning, and only by learning the truth of who God is can we truly love him. We will continue to learn more of what God has to say about his nature and character in the coming weeks. May this be a part of all of our conversations inside our homes and when we are together in fellowship. And if you would like some great reading for peace and assurance of God’s love and power and protection, check out the beginning of this chapter in the first six verses of Isaiah 43. It’s a GREAT passage to read before bed with the kids!
We pray that this passage in particular is used to grow our knowledge and love of our only God and Savior. Until then, may God richly bless you by the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ!
We love you all,
Adam and Audra Griffin
Family Ministries