Month: May 2009

Hello Friends,

First off, I apologize for putting this out a day late. Holiday activities to blame… 😉

Well today’s look at another name of God shows a name full of history and promise. If you like history and consummation of promises, you’ll love this!

Way back in Israel’s history, during the time wilderness wandering with Moses, they were frequently attacked by hostile neighbors (like nowadays too). One of those hostile neighbors was called the Amalekites. The Amalekites were descendants/ relatives of Amalek. And Amalek was the grandson of Esau.

Do you remember who Esau was?

Genesis 25:24-26

So when her (Rebekah’s) days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over, so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob…

Wow! Jacob grabbed hold of Esau on the way out of the womb! These twin brothers would be the Fathers of warring descendants. Check this out:

Genesis 25:30

And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom. (Edom means “red”.)

Can you tell me another group of people hostile to Israel? Edomites! Okay, so just remember there is hostility amongst the descendants. Centuries later, Moses and the Israelites encountered the hostile Amalekites and had to fight them…

Exodus 17:11-13

So it came about when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set. So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

How awesome is that? Israel had to rely and trust on the power of God through Moses and his staff. But now notice what God said regarding Amalek…

Exodus 17:14

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” Woah! God will utterly blot out… If God says it, He means it and it will come to pass!

Now we’re ready to see another name of God…

Exodus 17:15

(After the battle..) Moses built an altar and named it, “The Lord is My Banner…”

JEHOVAH NISSI = The Lord is My Banner

What does this mean to me? The Lord will fight my battles, The Lord will oversee my struggles, the Lord is on my side, The Lord is present even in the midst of apparent chaos! And I give a loud “Amen” to that!

When we are right with God, in a proper and loving relationship with Him through Christ Jesus, then any difficult circumstance need not trouble us. Why? Because all the power of God (His omnipotence) is on our side.

“But Jim, how does this actually come into play?” Life is tough, right? People are not nice, right? We grow up, grow old and die, right? Well, God’s grace to us helps us to endure the trials and difficulties of life. His grace comes in the form of inner peace, inner contentment despite circumstances and strained relationships. Fully trusting God beyond a shadow of doubt absolutely casts away all worry. And experiencing the Lovingkindness of God brings such joy that it can be said…

Ephesians 3:19

To know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Being filled with the fullness of God! Just comprehend that for a moment…

And you can be sure that if you know/ understand something that “surpasses knowledge”, most people will not understand how you can be so happy (joyous) when life is giving you lemons. 😉

Are you still thinking how this relates to God’s promise to wipe out the Amalekites? Again, (centuries later), before David became king of Israel, his predecessor (King Saul) was commanded by God to wipe out the Amalekites. Read what happened…

1 Samuel 15:18-20

Now the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ “Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?” And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek…”

King Saul spared Agag, the King of the Amalekites. Centuries later, when Israel was under Babylonian bondage and then Persian bondage, the hostility remained… Guess who was a descendant of Agag?

Esther 3:1-2

After these things King Ahasuerus (Greek name Xerxes) promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. And all the king’s servants who were within the King’s gate bowed and paid homage to Haman, for so the King commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not bow or page homage.

Mordecai, a Jew, would not bow to Haman, an Agagite (descendant of King Agag of the Amalekites from King Saul’s day)! Wow! This defiance by Mordecai so greatly angered Haman that he ordered all the Jews in the Persian Empire to be wiped out.

Ah…. But God’s said “I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”, remember??? And God’s promises stand! It may take thousands of years, but they will come to pass! Later on in Esther…

Esther 8:11

By these letters the King (Xerxes) permitted the Jews who were in every city (of Persia) to gather together and protect their lives- to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both little children and women, and to plunder their possessions..

Thus was God’s decree to Moses fulfilled!! God (Who we cannot see yet) can be trusted!

1.  Seeing God is a promise keeper, why do we doubt Him at times?
2.  Circumstances of life may sometime seem hopeless… it is really?
3.  Do you have a story of the Lord being your banner?

 Peace,
Jim

Greeting Friends!

Wow, do I have even less time today! Nothing like last minute meetings…

Okay, so God made man right? God is our Maker. So the logic goes; He knows how we are put together and how we work on the inside. He knows exactly how our mind functions, how our emotions play off our thoughts, how to best provide for any and everything we may need to live a happy and meaningful life.

And if we remember just one major attribute of God- it is this, He loves. So, say a person has some troubling condition… what do you suppose God (via He love for us) would want to do for them? I would say make the troubling condition go away… remove it… heal it…

Exodus 15:26

…, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

Here, God is called “JEHOVAH ROPHE”- The Lord Who Heals

Now God certainly can heal if He so wills to… Just look at all the healing Jesus did during His three year ministry. One huge way God heals in our day in age is spiritual… spiritual healing.

Frankly, any true believer has been healed in a miraculous way… healed from spiritual death!

Ephesians 2:1

And you (true believers) He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

And the motivation to do so was love…

Ephesians 2:4-5

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love for us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…

Oh, thank you so much Jehovah Rophe! Why are You so loving?

1.  Do you have a healing story to tell?
2.  What is the cancer that affects us all?
3.  Would you go to the Divine Doctor if you knew you were sick?

Peace,
Jim

Hi Everyone,

Got a short message today…

Last week we looked at YHWH. The Bible uses YHWH joined to other words to give specific meaning to a characteristic of God… His attributes… His ways…

For the purposes of the next several studies of YHWH joined to other words, I will pronounce YHWH as Jehovah.

Let’s look all the way back to Genesis…

Genesis 22: 14

And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

“The-Lord-Will-Provide” is Jehovah-JIREH.

Now what was the place Abraham named? It was the place where he was about to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. But right before Abraham would have killed his son, God miraculously provided a ram caught in a thicket by its horns!

So Abraham was simply affirming a truth of God, namely He provides. And oh did He provide!

God the Father provides for His children. He meets their needs. Listen to King David…

Psalm 37:25

I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants *begging bread*.

Amazing! This just solidifies my faith more and more! It should yours too. This silly economic downturn is no cause for worry to a child of God. All you have to do is recall the ravens feeding Elijah! Ha! God Almighty can do anything right? How foolish for us to worry. If you are worrying, then your faith is not where it should be.

I feel compelled to mention the flip side… What about those who are not children of God?

Matthew 5:45

… He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

God is a God of grace… but Jehovah-Jireh all things for His beloved children. Make sure you’re one of God’s children.

1st John 3:10

In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

   1. Could you share a time when God provided for you despite the circumstances?
   2. To worry is to not trust God. Why can we worry?
   3. Do you “practice righteousness”?

Peace,
Jim

Good Afternoon!

I am currently enjoying a little bit freer movement of my fingers as I type, for I popped the poison ivy blisters between them at lunch time. Yippee! I’ve also my cup o’ joe (blended with chicory- given to me by a friend) handy… so we’re off to learn more about God through the means of His names in the Bible.

So far we’ve looked at “EL”, “ELOHIM”, “EL SHADDAI” and “ADONAI”.

Today we look at: YHWH, God’s personal name for Himself!

The Jews viewed this word as so sacred, they would not pronounce it. Us English speaking folk pronounce “YHWH” as YaHWeH or Yahweh. There is also JeHoVaH (JHVH) or Jehovah. Both Yahweh and Jehovah come from Y/J H W/V H.

Our Bibles usually translate YHWH into LORD. The Hebrew letters come from the verb “to be”. This covenant name of God occurs close to 7000 times in the OT. I think one of the most memorable scriptures where this name occurs is at the Burning Bush…

Exodus 3:13-14

Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Wow! “I AM”! Not “I WAS” or “I WILL BE”, but “I AM”! Current, existing One, no beginning and no end… i.e. Eternal! When you see “LORD God” in your Bible, it is usually YHWH Elohim in the Hebrew.

Okay, so YHWH/ JHVH/ Yahweh/ Jehovah is God’s personal name. It is nice to know our Eternal God is a personable God too. There’s no questioning His absolute being!

   1. How are you getting along with YHWH lately?
   2. Is Yahweh’s eternality a cause for joy or fear for you?
   3. Why does Jehovah stoop sometimes to dialogue with man (ex. Moses)?

Peace,
Jim