Don Crawford

Don Crawford

President of Crawford Broadcasting and the voice of the STAND Podcast

You Know Me

YOU KNOW ME.

You know me, oh created man for I made you. You have a sense for me, an instinct. I AM YOU, and you are me. You know me, says the God of all things.

The prophets of the Old Testament told us that time and again. The Great I AM is everywhere and in all things and all humans. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea and many others confirmed in writing what we know:

I AM IN YOU

YOU KNOW ME

And the Apostle Paul did the same. Even the natural man, says Paul, knows there is a God for THE GODLY is in him. THE GREAT I AM is in the genes, all of them. The Great I AM is in the DNA. THE GREAT I AM is in the brain cells, the heart tissue, the pulsing blood. You know me, says the God of the Universe, because I am in you, I am you. The natural man, the unbeliever fights against this reality, resists it, defies it but to no avail. Even that natural man knows THE GREAT I AM way down deep.

I walk at night beneath majestic skies

And know behind them is a God all-wise

Who pinned all stars each in a lonely place

Then wrapped them in the darkened robe of space

If you want evidence of the great God of the Universe, says this writer-poetess, take a walk at night. If you want to see the handiwork of the God-Creator, take a long nightly look at the heavenly skies. Take a long, loving look at the stars, pinned by God and wrapped in the darkened robe of space. Stare and wonder in awe how great this God is as you observe HIS brilliant handiwork. God made the heavens even as he made you. The majestic heavens are marvelous to behold.

2,000 years ago, there were shepherds abiding in the fields keeping watch over sheep as shepherds do especially by night. They perhaps knew the majestic heavens better than anyone. They knew the stars, the planets at work, how wonderful the moon was in all of its glorious splendor. And that is why the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of this Lord-Creator shone all around them. These shepherd men knew the glory and wonder of the heavens but they had never, ever seen anything like this. They had never seen the glory of the Lord shine like it did that night.

And from the majesty of these heavens and the angelic messenger came GREAT TIDINGS, tidings of great joy. From these majestic skies came the word that a very special Savior had been born in the City of David. Rejoice they said and be exceedingly glad.

And then those angels broke into song, SONGS OF PRAISE. See in your mind’s eye this unbelievable, this glorious and wondrous multitudes of angels dancing in praise to God. Hear them singing, chanting this praise. Hear their words then and for eternity:

GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST

AND ON EARTH

PEACE AND GOODWILL

TO ALL MANKIND

Those were the words of the great I AM. That was the message of the great YOU KNOW ME. The Creator of the Universe, the Creator of all things gave to mankind His greatest creation:

THE BABE OF BETHLEHEM

JESUS OF NAZARETH

This great Creator turned FATHER and gave us his son. As the poetess Esther Duvall Eden so beautifully wrote:

WHAT THE HEAVENS PRODUCED IN TURN PRODUCED RAPTURE IN THE SOUL.

And then this rapture produced for her, her very own praise to God:

OH LORD MY GOD

HOW WONDERFUL THOU ART

For you not only made our world and all things in it, but she said you have now in Bethlehem satisfied man’s heart. And, I bow before you wonderful, mighty and loving God and thank you, thank you.

And then there were the Wise Men, early astrologers who knew the signs of the times. Men who watched the stars, their movements knowing the divine was among them. But there was that one night, that special night when there appeared in the heavens a very special star, A STAR OF WONDER, a star with ROYAL BEAUTY BRIGHT. They followed, these Wise Men did, the star as it settled over Bethlehem and they went in haste to find HIM, for them the long-awaited Messiah. These Wise Men had waited patiently for the God of the Universe to reveal His special love gift and they knew it, HE had come. And they the Wise Men followed that star, found and worshipped him as all WISE MEN AND WOMEN, truly wise did then and still do today.

And then there were three kings from the Orient. And they too followed the star, coming from afar. For they were determined to find and worship this wondrous, loving, glorious gift from God. One brought Frankincense. The other brought the gift of Myrrh, the world’s most expensive fragrance as a gift. And the third brought gold, the most precious metal to honor the Babe of Bethlehem. And, like the shepherds and the Wise Men, when these kings who traveled from afar found HIM, they worshipped him. It was as though the great I AM had said to them and all mankind that the birth of Jesus of Nazareth:

NOW YOU REALLY KNOW ME!

And these kings and Wise Men said with the poetess Esther Eden:

OH LORD MY GOD

HOW WONDERFUL THOU ART

HOW GLORIOUS ART THOU!

And after the stars at night, there is the wonder and glory of the morning, says Esther Eden. The colors of the earth and the sun in all of its majesty and glory overwhelm the eye. The great I AM, the one who reminds us in so many ways that YOU KNOW ME reveals his MORNING GLORY. There comes another day, a rapturous, glorious day to experience more of HIS handiwork. A day which gives us another opportunity to say with the angels of old:

GLORY TO GOD

HOW WONDERFUL ART THOU

AND THY CREATIONS

How blessed we are to know more of this great Creator and this FATHER. The earth is indeed the Lord’s and He has allowed us the privilege of sharing it with him. We can have our souls restored and we can be once again led by him in paths of righteousness. How wonderful, how glorious, how blessed we are. Morning and night, we see and know His handiwork within and without. His message, the evidence of Him is everywhere as He reminds us:

YOU KNOW ME

The glories of the night and the colors of the morning are followed by NOON, says the poetess Esther Eden and the warmth of the shining sun. Watch carefully, observe the YOU KNOW ME at work in the flowers, the glorious colors of those flowers. Observe the Creator in the tender blade of grass, the stately trees and all of his NATURE made by HIM for us to enjoy. The writer at Noon, and at night, and in the morning admits she:

FAILS TO COMPREHEND IT ALL SOMEHOW

So that she lives with a rapturous soul and then prays in glory to the God of the Universe and the Father of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of Glory and simply says:

HOW WONDERFUL, HOW WONDERFUL ART THOU

It is so interesting today how modern man, naturalist to a fault, denies this God. With evidence everywhere of a great Creator, EVERYWHERE AND IN ALL THINGS, ALL THINGS AND IN HIM AND HER. And yet they deny. And consequently they deny themselves. How tragic is the plight of the natural man who cuts himself off from the glory and wonder of creation. For creation is everywhere and in everything. It is a constant process, God at work, making and remaking, creating and recreating. And doing that marvelous work in you, every day if you will but allow it. How tragic the natural man will not. That the power of the wonder of it all, the glory of it all, the creative power that emanated from Bethlehem is there every day, ready to bring out the best in the genes, the DNA, the brain cells, the heart tissue and the pulsing blood, the YOU KNOW ME at work. If only one would open and receive, understand with eyes to see and ears to hear, how that life would be changed. It is so easy to claim the message of love and reconciliation from the Babe of Bethlehem and yet so hard, almost impossible for the natural man. For pride, destructive pride prevents that from happening. The Bethlehem event for them is myth only, not reality. But in fact it is the ultimate reality, the ultimate revelation, the ultimate act of creation by the God of the Universe who then and now reveals Himself as Father of the Lord Jesus Christ to all mankind, if you only accept and claim. If you do, then you can say with the poetess Esther Duvall Eden that in fact man’s heart has been satisfied.

The shepherds knew him. The wise men found him. The Orient Kings worshipped him. At this wonderful Christmas season, I pray that we would be like them, claim this Babe of Bethlehem as our very own so that we can say with the angels now and always:

GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST

AND ON EARTH

PEACE AND GOODWILL FOR ALL MANKIND

For the goodwill and peace the world so desperately needs can come only from:

HIM

Then we can truly say to the great I AM, to the YOU KNOW ME:

HOW WONDERFUL ART THOU

HOW GLORIOUS ART THOU

I am proud to say that this loving poetess Esther Duvall Eden was the sister of my mother:

MY AUNT WHO IS NOW WITH HIM!

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