Here and Now

Names of God – YHVH           Genesis 2:4   These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.           The name YHVH (Yahweh – also Jehovah) first appears in Genesis 2:4, where God is referred to as the LORD God, or YHVH Elohim .   The name YHVH appears in the Bible over 6,500 times.   In most Bible translations, when the word LORD appears all in capital letters, it is done to specify when the name YHVH is used.           The name YHVH is God’s self-designation.   The word comes from the root of the verb “to exist” and means “self existent or eternal.”   The name is such a holy name that it was avoided altogether by the ancient Jews to avoid blasphemy.   It is said that when the scribes were copying the scriptures and the holy name was to be written, they would stop right before writing it, wash their hands and pray, then do the same after writing it.           In revealing this holy name t

The Joy of the Lord In the tenth chapter of the book of Acts, we find a story about an Italian man, Cornelius, who was a “God fearer”, that is, a Gentile who held the same beliefs as the Jews.   One day, God sends this man a vision and commands him to find Simon Peter the Apostle.   An angel of God appeared and gave Cornelius very specific information about where Peter was, and specific instructions about what to do.   You see, God wanted Simon Peter to preach the Gospel to this man and his house.   This would be the first outreach by the Apostles to a Gentile nation. The man’s servants travel and find Simon Peter, to whom God had just given a vision about the ceremonial cleanliness of previously prohibited foods.   It was, in fact, a vision about the cleanliness of the Gentile nations, if only they would believe in Jesus Christ.   God prepared Peter for the mission ahead: preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles. Ultimately, the servants find Peter, bring him back to their master, and

“In the beginning, God…”   We are introduced to God in the very first verse of the Bible.   The name used here for God is the word Elohim (appearing over 2500 times in the Bible), the plural form of the word Eloah (appearing 55 times in the Bible). The word Elohim was a word used in the ancient world to describe any number of pagan gods.   This is the word the serpent used to tell Eve that she and Adam would be as gods if they ate the fruit in Genesis 3:5, the word that Laban used to describe his household idols in Genesis 31:30, and the word the Lord used in the first commandment about having other gods in Exodus 20:3. The singular Eloah is also used to describe any god in comparison to another.   This is the word used by Sennacherib’s servant to warn the Israelites that no god of any other nation has protected them in 2 Chronicles 32:15, the word Nehemiah used to describe God as a God of grace and mercy in Nehemiah 9:17, and the word used by Daniel to describe the “foreign god” in

Here is this week's SFTW.  I pray it is a blessing! A Good Read           I touched last week on the fantastic stories of contained in the pages of the Bible.   And as some of you may know, I am an avid reader.   I used to lose myself in books by the dozens every year.   The classics, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, mystery; you name it, I read it.   My favorite book was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.   It is the story of a young man in love who is falsely accused of a crime and wrongly imprisoned.   Through a fantastic escape and an unlikely fortune left to him, He spends years planning his revenge.   It was the ending of this book that made it so unbelievably wonderful.   He sets his plan in motion and… well… I’m not going to spoil it for you… One of my pet peeves was a bad book.   This is mostly because I could not bring myself to put down an unfinished book.   Once I started it, I finished it, no matter how horrible.   I have read a lot of bad books…   I also never r