Wednesday, April 15, 2009

As I was thinking about relationship with God, I was reminded that God was referred to by many names. Some of those names described His character. Some were titles that were assigned by people, but for the most part, the names were ascribed by God Himself as He was describing Himself. Even when no particular name is used, the occurrence of the phrase "the name of the Lord" reveals something of God's characterTo call on the name of the Lord was to worship Him. To take His name in vain was to dishonor Him. Not to follow the requirements of the Law involved profaning His name. Priest performed their service in the name of the Lord. So with that in mind, let me share with you the names of God as used in scripture. I was not aware of all the different meanings as I have read them in scripture. See if this helps you to get to know our God better. I will probably do this in a couple of blogs rather than make this so long you will not want to read and or respond.

1. Elohim (L O HEM)

The term elohim occurs in the general sense of deity about 2,570 times in the Old Testament. About 2,310 times it is a name for the true God. The first occurrance is in the first verse of the Bible. It is used in reference to false deities in Genesis35:2,4; Exodus 12:12: 18:11; 23:24

The meaning of elohim depends on its derivation. Some understand that it comes from a root that means fear and indicates that the deity is to be feared, reverenced, or worshiped. Others trace it to a root that means strong, indicating a deity of great power. Though not conclusive, the evidence seems to point to the latter derivation signifying in the case of the true God, that He is the strong One, the mighty Leader, the supreme deity.

El Shaddai is an Akkadian word that means "mountain". This name of God pictures Him as the Almgihty One standing on a mountain. It was the name by which God appeared to the patriarchs to give comfort and confirmation of the covenant with Abraham.(Gen. 17:1; 28:3; 35:11 Exod 6:3 Ps.91:1-2, Ruth 1:20-21

El Elyon means "the Most High God" and it emphasizes God's strength, sovereignty, and supremacy. It was first used by Melchizedek when he blessed Abraham (Gen 14:19)

El Olam means "the Everlasting God" from an original form meaning "the God of Eternity" Gen. 21:33 It emphasizes God's unchangeableness. (Ps.100:5 103:17 and is connected with His inexhaustible strength (Isa. 40:28

El Roi means "the God who sees" Gen. 16:13. Hagar gave this name to God when He spoke to her before Ishmael's birth.

I will give a total of seven names and many compound names in the next few blogs.

Question:

Do you know Him as Elohim? Get to know our God as Elohim. Be in awe of His power, reverence Him as the one and Only true God, Worship Him and Him alone, Acknowledge Him as our one and only strong , Almighty and Supreme God. He is our High and Lifted Up God, He is Everlasting and He see's and knows our every need.Get to know "the name of the Lord" He knows you.

Monday, April 13, 2009

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred bretheren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

Well what a great day we just celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and Savior and we are one day closer to our resurrection which is our hope in Christ. The Gospel is about Christ and the Crucifiction and the Cross and it would mean absolutely nothing without the resurrection. One thing that I noticed as I was reading the above scripture is that God wanted Christ to be seen after the resurrection and scripture list several people or groups of people who saw Christ. Well, the world today doesn't have that opportunity to see the risen Lord unless, He is seen in you or me. Yes, we can verify the scriptures by showing the risen Lord in us. According to scriputres, when the resurrected Lord steps out of heaven and into our hearts, change occurs. Without change, there is no Christ. Two questions that Christians need to answer today. 1. Has changed occurred since Christ came into my life and what is that change? 2. Because of that change, can others see the resurrected Christ in my life? If you were the only evidence of Christ resurrection, would there be enough proof to prove it?

I challenge each of you to read April 5,6,7,8,9,10 of My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. Awesome thoughts and such precision on the Cross of Christ.

God help us to allow you to be seen by those whom we come into contact with everyday.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Throughout scripture, we are told to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We don't have to guess at what love really looks like, because Jesus taught us that in every action that he took. Romans 5:8 says that in while we were lost, undone, not even caring about Jesus, He went to the cross and bore our sins. IN other words, He paid a debt He didn't owe to keep us from oweing a debt we couldn't pay. Everywhere you look in scripture Jesus shows us how to treat one another. I find it somewhat strange that in some places, as He spoke to His disciples, He informed them not to talk about what He had done or said, and in some places, He readily wanted those whom He was talking to, to tell everybody they came in contact with. In the old Testament, God told Daniel to shut the book and not show it to anybody and in the New Testament, in Revelation, God told John to tell everybody. Confusing, Huh? As I started reading Revelation, I quickly got to chapter two where Jesus, the Head of the Church, had John write about the seven churches of Asia and if I had been judging them, I probably wouldn't had to much good to say about them, but not our Savior, even in the bad, He also had some good to say. To each of the churches, regardless of how they were viewed, Christ first spoke of their what was good about them, then he said what was bad about them and then He admonished them and told them how they could do better. Wouldn't it be great if we did that with those we come in contact with. With our children, our friends, our family members. Jesus is the standard and none of us will ever match that standard, but we are challenged to be like Christ and that will only happen as we yeild our lives fully to His will and become obedient even until death. Christ is our example and we should become examples to others by living out the separated life that He calls us to live.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Have you ever been guilty of trying to change your past? You see, some people try to focus on the past. I've found as long as they do, change for the future will not be possible. Since no one can change their past, the past is really not what needs changing. In fact the past no longer exist. It is gone, never again to return. Because this is fact, then the present is what we need to work on. The best you can do, you can't change the past. What was; was, and nothing you can do, will change what was. Now you have today which you can effect and you have tomorrow (maybe) by which you can plan for, but you can't go back to the past. People who live in the past, are people who can't see a future. Now don't get me wrong, your past can have effect on the present and perhaps even your future, but dwelling on the past will keep you stagnant and will not allow growth in your life.

Have you ever been guilty of trying to live in the future? You see, some people try to focus on the future. As long as they do, the present holds little hope for them. Since no one can live tomorrow today, then trying to live in the future is meaningless. Nothing you can do, to live tomorrow, today. If these two facts are true, then we have only one choice and that is to live for today. You see, today is all you have. You have outlived yesterday and you haven't arrived to tomorrow. Living in either the past or the future makes no sense, therefore the past and the future do not exist.

If these are true, then living for today must be of upmost importance to each of us. I would give anything if I could change some things of the past, but I can't because it doesn't exist anymore, it's gone and will never return. I would give anything if I could change my future, but it doesn't exist, and I may never get to the future. Future is anything beyond the moment that I'm presently living. Past is anything behind the moment that I'm presently living.

Today is what I have and yesterday's gone and tomorrow has not arrived. Today is all I have and what I do with today will determine what my tomorrow might look like.So if you are one who lives in yesterday or tomorrow, your trying to live in an area that doesn't exist. Live for today, forget yesterday, learn from yesterday and make the most out of today so that if God allows you to have a tomorrow, it will be for HIs Glory and His Honor.