Well we had an incredible Bible study on Friday, done by two people, Vicki and Ed

Vicki spoke about the names of God, reminding us that God gave us these names in His relationship with people, and that we can use them when we need to in our prayers. She covered several of them and gave us scriptures where they were given. There are over 700 names of God in the Bible

Psalm 34:3 “Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.” An archaic definition of magnify is to praise highly, esteem greatly.

Psalm 111:9 “He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever: Holy and awesome is His name.”

The name of God is Holy, so holy in fact that when the Israelites wrote the Torah, when they came to the name of God, they would stop, cleanse themselves, change their clothes and write the name with a new pen. We need to spend more time honoring God, and the names He has shared with us.

1. Elohim – which means God our creator – Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Elohim is a plural word. El  is unity, Elohim is more than one, it is the first place we get the glimpse that there is a trinity. Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” The word God here is also Elohim. and God is using the terms us and our, implying more than one. God is the strong one, mighty leader, supreme deity, with a plentitude of power and majesty.

2. Jehovah – Our Eternal God – Genesis 2:4, 2:7 (4)”This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. (7) And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

This is an active God, Israel’s redeemer. The name Jehovah is listed 6,823 times in the Old Testament. It is associated with God’s holiness, hatred of sin, and gracious promise of redemption. He was, is and is to be. The creator of men, the covenant giver, the atonement for our sins. He desires relationship with us for we can’t worship Him without relationship. Every time you see the name LORD in caps, it means Jehovah.

3. Jehovah El Shaddai – God our supplier – Genesis 17:1-2 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God, walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” He is a God of right, nourishment, bounty, and blessings. Abram’s response to God was to fall on his face and worship. It means mountain, overpowering, almighty, one standing on a mountain, the God who is enough.

4. Adonai – Master, Lord – (Dr. Ed went to Hebrew School as a boy, so he gave us some of the pronunciations – I will try to phonetically spell out how the word is to be said, maybe it will be of some help – AD – DOE – NOY (rhymes with boy).) Genesis 18:3 ”and  said “My Lord, if you have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by your servant.” This is when Abraham addresses the three angels before the destruction of Sodom is revealed.  And when God appears on the earth in the Old Testament He is always accompanied by angels, for He is the Lord, the master. It implies ownership, possession, lordship over our lives.

5. Jehovah Jireh -God my provider. 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.” He provides all we need, and he provided His son for our redemption, he provides for our physical and spiritual needs. And our greatest need of all is Jesus. Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Notice it is need, not needs. What we really need is Christ Jesus.

6. Jehovah Rapha – God my healer Exodus 15:22-26 Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the LORD and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and He tested them, and said, “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.” When we are sick it is important to call on Jehovah Rapha. In fact Vicki said that there was a period where she was sick and all she did was spent time singing, “I am the God who Heals you..” and over time she got over her sickness. We cannot get scared by a diagnosis, for God is a more powerful healer than any sickness that could come on us.

7. Jehovah Nissi – God my Banner – Exodus 17:15 And Moses built an altar and called its name, The LORD is My Banner.” God provides a covering and a protection over us. He can bring us to victory, but we must obey Him. He cannot protect or cover disobedience. 2 Cor. 2:14 “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

8. Jehovah M’kadesh – God my Sanctifier (Dr. Ed gave us this pronunciation – know that I may not have heard correctly, but this is to the best of my knowledge the phonetic sounds, Meh COD esh) sanctify means to set apart for service, holy to the LORD Exodus 31:13 “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.’” We must walk in the holiness of God, and obey Him. Jesus prayed this for us: John 17:17 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

9. Jehovah Shalom – God my Peace Judges 6:23-24 “Then the LORD said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The LORD Is Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.” We have peace with God through Jesus. Psalm  119:165 “Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.”

10. Jehovah Tsidkenu- God my Righteousness (Another phonetic rendition, important to pronounce both the “t” and the “s” in kind of like a slur sound, Tsid Kay New) We are made righteous with God through Jesus. We cannot achieve righteousness by our own efforts. Jeremiah 23:6 “In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely: Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 1 Cor. 1:30 “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God– and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—”

2 Cor. 5:21″ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Jehovah Rohi – God my Shepherd (Phonetic Row He) Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…” God provides leadership, protection, close intimacy, and all that a shepherd would provide for his sheep.

12 Jehovah Shammah – The Abiding Presence – (Phonetic Shah – Ma) God wants to walk with us moment by moment. Ezekiel 48:35 “All the way around shall be eighteen thousand cubits; and the name of the city from that day shall be: THE LORD IS THERE.” God is abiding with us, He does not just come for short visits.

As you can see from these names of God, it is a progression in how we know Him from the creator to abiding with us. Or from head knowledge to heart knowledge. When we use the true names of God it enhances our relationship with Him, enriches it.

Someone asked about God providing, and wanted to know about the prosperity messages preached on TV – and we were told that we are to be happy with what we have, but desire all that God has for us. Not always is an overabundance a good thing. Sometimes it can be our downfall. Not everyone can handle having tons of money and using it wisely for the Lord. Someone might give a diabetic an overabundance of sweets, but that will not be in their best interests health-wise. 

I will try to write Dr. Ed’s teaching tomorrow or Monday. It is an incredible teaching that He calls the Jerusalem Road – sort of akin to the Roman Road. And it is passages he used to talk to his Jewish Father about Jesus, all from the Old Testament.

Have a blessed Sunday,

Heather

I discovered this website you might enjoy, it is a live picture of the wailing wall. This is a note from Friday: seems that they have different views of the wall, yesterday it was lower and the people were visible, today it is higher. I think I like pictures when there are people better, so if there are no people when you check, then come back another day and there may be people.

http://www.aish.com/wallcam/Window_on_the_Wall.asp

When God wakes me up at three o’clock I know that I have to do a bit of prayer. I still have to work a bit on the sitting and waiting for God’s response. Seems that is the part I am still weak in, and it is the part that is the most important.

Can’t yet fall back to sleep, so thought I would share an old hymn with you. Last Sunday Pastor Don was cantering across the stage singing the refrain of this hymn. It was perfect for it was 5th Sunday, which in our church is the time when the kids put on skits for the church. They were setting up the puppet ministry, which was so awesome a production, that they are going to give a repeat performance this Sunday, God willing. Anyway, after a bit, Pastor Don asked us to reach under the seats and pull out the red hymnal and turn to a particular page – usually our praise and worship team sings from foils. Anyway, not growing up in church, I don’t know all the old hymns, and I exclaimed, “I didn’t know this was a real hymn”. Pastor Don laughed because he knew that I thought he had just been joking around. It is a kid’s song, but I really hope to one day be a sunbeam.

Heather

I’ll Be A Sunbeam
Hymn Lyrics

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam,
To shine for Him each day;
In every way try to please Him,
At home, at school, at play.

Refrain

A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam;
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
I’ll be a sunbeam for Him.

Jesus wants me to be loving,
And kind to all I see;
Showing how pleasant and happy
His little one can be.

Refrain

I will ask Jesus to help me
To keep my heart from sin,
Ever reflecting His goodness,
And always shine for Him.

Refrain

I’ll be a sunbeam for Jesus;
I can if I but try;
Serving Him moment by moment,
Then live with Him on high.

Refrain

I have been doing the Beth Moore Bible study, Breaking Free. This was a tough, tough week for me, but I learned a lot as well. We have been doing week 6 which is “Beauty from Ashes” sounds wonderful doesn’t it – perhaps it is, but first in order to attain the “beauty” we have to scrape out the infections of the hurt and pain, sigh. so that deep healing can occur. Now this is not to say that God cannot instantly and completely heal, and he does in many instances.

The main Bible story we worked from was 2 Samuel 13:1-22 which is the rape of Tamar. Those of you who know my past can pretty much presume my hackles were raised by the handling of Tamar by her brother and father. In those days sackcloth and ashes were used to show mourning. In our past people wore black and tore their clothes, but in today’s day and age we are pretty much told to suck it up when we face a loss – bear up under the sorrow, and there is less emphasis on the outward signs of mourning. I am not sure that that is the most healthy way to deal with this. Beth Moore contends that “Squelching emotions only stores them in explosive containers. God’s Word constantly recognizes our emotional side.” p. 117

What interested me in the discussion today is that one of the members of our group said that this story had further reaching implications than the rape of Tamar, that it could stand for the violation of any area of our lives, not just sexual. That sometimes how we are treated in a relationship or at work, or in another aspect of our lives can also feel like a rape and abuse. And again we are told to hide those feelings by society.

Then another member mentioned how wonderful this was, that God could redeem any violation of a person and she found a positive aspect to the lesson. I am constantly amazed at how rich and fruitful the Word of God is and how it speaks to a person so intimately, just where they are at and just what they need to hear.

She then talks about four dreams every little girl has, 1. to be a bride, 2. to be beautiful, 3. to be fruitful and 4. to live happily ever after. We were chuckling because in today’s time these dreams do not seem as prevalent as they were back in my childhood. I think little girls do not have the same sorts of dreams today, they are taught to look to their careers. What do you think?

A few points on being a bride that touched me is that we are a bride (not a wife). A bride implies newness of relationship, beginnings, excitement, virginal, desire, longing, etc. And that God will replace the ashes of our mourning with a crown of beauty. (Is 61:3), This was not Tamar’s story, but it can be ours, that Christ can lift our heads and give us this crown of beauty. What the bride must do according to Revelation 19:4-8 is to make herself ready, this is spiritually ready, repentant, prayed up, sins confessed, filled with the Holy Spirit and most important, clothed in Christ’s righteousness by his shed blood.

The chapter that gave me the hardest time was “To be Beautiful”, it is something I have never felt. Personally my father killed that dream so early on it wasn’t funny when he informed me that I was so ugly no one would want to marry me, so I had to learn how to put out so that I could at least get a man – he told me that at the age of 8 when he was raping me. That pretty much killed what tiny bit of self-esteem I had, and I am still dealing with some of the void of that.What I am beginning to try is to try and see myself as Christ sees me. There is a wide disparity between how I view myself and how others view me. I still struggle to realize that God views me so differently from my earthly father. I get glimpses, but it is so easy to lose those glimpses.

Then we talked about being fruitful, and that is not always having physical children, but it is also spiritual children that we raise up. And there is a place for everyone, at every age and stage of development to be fruitful, if we are seeking to serve Christ and reach out to others.

And then, the To Live Happily Ever After, went through a discussion about joy, gladness, and happiness. Happiness is not always present in our lives, but joy can be because joy is a  fruit of the Spirit, and is not dependant on external circumstance, it is based on God and God’s glory and love, which can give us joy in the midst of the hardest trials.

Next week’s topic, the potter and the clay, sigh. Beth Moore even warns us that it will not be our favorite week. Can we say some bondages shattered? Honestly I can say I am not gleefully looking forward to next week’s homework. 

I sure wish growth was not as difficult as it sometimes is. But I also know that God loves us so much that He wants us totally healed, healed from deep within, outward. And often in the healing there is a need to lance the hurts and let out the poison, so that it can be filled with God’s truth.

I once asked Pastor Don why sometimes there was so much hurt in areas of my life that I thought I had resolved, and he pointed out that now that I have God in my life and a good support system, God is allowing a deep healing. I have to admit that I thought I had dealt with some of these issues and put them aside, guess there was still some areas of difficulty. I also felt guilty because I thought that I had to have one of those instantaneous healings that some get with salvation. Pastor Don told me that God works individually in people, some build their faith and healing grain of sand by grain of sand (how I described it to Pastor Don-microscopic grain of sand…). Pastor Don also told me that as I heal and reach out to others I will have patience with them because I know how challenging and slowly I was healed of my past. And the truth is, I am so different today from when I first found God that I see in retrospect the mighty work He has done, we are cleaning out pockets of resistance.

And speaking of bondage, I spoke with Pastor Don about the inability I have to really be free in worship, how much of what I deal with is very controlled. There is nothing wrong with control and reserve, and it is appropriate at times. But there are other times when it is ok to be joyful, or more expressive. I have a hard time being expressive. Guess it comes from my past conditioning that made it necessary to be in control to preserve my life, but now that is not necessary. So I could use prayers that God frees up those areas that are held too much in control. It isn’t control if you can’t let go of the controls, it is bondage. And I am not talking about wild and crazy things, just ordinary expression of certain emotions. One day I was near tears and needed to really cry, but the tears get choked down, pushed under. This happens whether or not I am alone or with people – sometimes tears can be good and healing.

So now I have shared some of the tough stuff that I have been sorting out, but I also want to let you know that in looking back at the last time I looked at these lessons from Beth Moore my attitude was so different. God has grown and changed me so much. I think when we look at ourselves with the light of the Word, God will show us the next steps that need to be taken care of in our walk with Him. And He will not crush us with all the details, but just give us the next step, when we resolve that, we get the next step. I count it a blessing that God cares enough to show me the next step.

Have a blessed night.
Heather

Heather is chuckling very much after reading what I am going to share with you. (Remember the Seinfeld episode when Jimmy spoke of himself in third person, Jimmy feels this, Jimmy feels that, etc.). Well Heather is chuckling. I remember the struggles I had with philosophy classes. My father-in-law a rather curmudgeon of a man once surprised me when I commented that I had to carry around a dictionary to read Descartes. He asked me what word I wanted to know, I told him and he gave me definition. Go figure.

Anyway in this class we had to study all the well known ones including Spinoza and Hume and many many others. I struggled with that kind of logical thinking. Who would have thunk that this book shown above would have been prime digging for a term paper in those days. Almost makes me want to go back and take a Philosophy course to ask some of the questions this book poses.

I am going to quote from page 205 to 208, enjoy she says smiling. Trust me, it is EASY to understand. The authors are so clear in their description.

“…In fact, Hume’s argument against miracles is one of the pillars of the so-called Enlightenment (that’s where we supposedly become enlightened enough to abandon our superstitious belief in miracles and put our faith in reason and empirical truths found by the scientific method). Hume’s argument helped advance the naturalistic worldview, which later metastasized with Darwin’s theory of evolution.
     What follows is basically the material I presented to the audience at Harvard that day. I began by spelling out Hume’s anti-miracle argument and then moved on to critiquing it. Here is Hume’s argument is syllogistic form:

1. Natural law is by definition description of a regular occurrence.
2. A miracle is by definition a rare occurrence.
3. The evidence for the regular is always greater than for the rare.
4. A wise man always bases his belief on the greater evidence.
5. Therefore, a wise man should never believe in miracles.

     If these four premises are true, then the conclusion necessarily follows –the wise man should never believe in miracles. Unfortunately for Hume and for those over the years who have believed him, the argument has a false premise –premise 3 is not necessarily true. The evidence for the regular is not always greater than that for the rare.
     At first glance this might not seem to be the case. In the age of instant replay, premise 3 seems to make sense. For example, a football referee sees a play from one angle at full speed, while we get to see it from several angles in slow motion. We have greater evidence seeing a play over and over again (the regular) than does the ref who only sees it once (the rare).
     But what may be true for a videotaped football game is not necessarily true for every event in life. To disprove premise 3 we only need to come up with one counterexample. We actually have several and they are from Hume’s own naturalistic worldview:

1. The origin of the universe happened only once. It was a rare, unrepeatable event, yet virtually every naturalist believes that the Big Bang evidence proves that the universe exploded into being.
2.  The origin of life happened only once. It too was a rare, unrepeatable event, yet every naturalist believes that life arose spontaneously from non-life somewhere on the earth or elsewhere in the universe.
3. The origin of new life forms also happened only once. Those rare, unrepeatable events are nevertheless dogmatically believed by most naturalists, who say it all happened by unobserved (i.e.rare) macroevolutionary processes.
4. In fact, the entire history of the world is comprised of rare, unrepeatable events. For Example David Hume’s own birth happened only once, but he had no trouble believing it occurred!

     In every one of these counterexamples from Hume’s own naturalistic worldview, his third premise must be disregarded or considered false. If Hume really believed in that premise, he would not have believed in his own birth or his own naturalistic worldview!
     So we know by some of these counterexamples that Hume’s third premise, and his entire argument, cannot be true. But what are the specific problems with this naturalistic kind of thinking?
     First, it confuses believability with possibility. Even if premise 3 were true, the argument would not disprove the possibility of miracles; it would only question their believability. So even if you personally witnessed, say, Jesus Christ rising from dead as he predicted–if you were in the tomb, verified the body was dead, and then saw him get up and walk out of the tomb—Hume’s argument says that you (a “wise” person) shouldn’t believe it. There’s something wrong with an argument that tells you to disbelieve what you have verified to be true.
     Second, Hume confuses probability with evidence. He doesn’t weigh the evidence for each rare event; rather he adds the evidence for all regular events and suggests that this somehow makes all rare events unworthy of belief. But this is flawed reasoning as well. There are many improbable (rare) events in life that we believe when we have good evidence for them…. “(Geisler gives an example of a hole in one)”…So the issue is not whether an event is regular or rare–the issue is whether we have good evidence for the event. We must weigh evidence for the event in question, not add evidence for all previous events.
     Third, Hume is actually arguing in a circle. Instead of evaluating the veracity of the evidence for each miracle claim, Hume rules out belief in miracles in advance because he believes there is uniform evidence against them….”(a CS Lewis quote shows how this is circular reasoning)”….So Hume commits the same error as the Darwinists—he hides his conclusion in the premise of the argument by way of a false philosophical presupposition….Therefore, human beings may have experienced true miracles. The only way to know for sure is to investigate the evidence for each miracle claim. Assuming that each and every miracle claim is false, as Hume does, is clearly illegitimate.”

It goes on for some more about Hume, but I think this gives the gist of the argument. Then Geisler and Turek talk about how the stunned Harvard class had no questions, and how in the 1980′s he challenged a Princeton University professor to debate this. The professor asked for a copy of his presentation before the debate which was given to the professor. The professor did not show up for the debate claiming an emergency, and the meeting was canceled. I love it!!!

On Page 209 he concludes, “The reluctance to deal directly with the flaws in Hume’s argument tells us that disbelief in miracles is probably more a matter of the will than of the mind. It seems as though some people uncritically cling to David Hume’s argument because they simply don’t want to admit that God exists. But since we know that God exists, miracles are possible. Any argument against miracles that can be concocted, including that of David Hume, is destroyed by that one fact. For if there is a God who can act, there can be acts of God (miracles).”

AMEN AND AMEN to that!!!

Then he makes the perfect ending to the section on page 210, “Hume’s argument is hard to believe! We might say it’s a “miracle” so many people still believe it.”

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. What is good about this book is that the authors do not begin by using the Bible to prove points (although later on they will show that the Bible is real) but they lay out arguments that use science and logic to prove truth, absolute values, God, creation, how Darwin is false, etc. in a highly readable and understandable manner – it would be a good book to challenge an atheistic or agnostic friend to read.

Heather