Sunday, January 9, 2011

His Name is Wonderful!

Shalom, Chaverim!

I pray that your Shabbat was restful and renewing! Do allow yourselves to take time to rest and be refreshed! His Word clearly teaches that we must set apart time to renew and rest...and to fellowship with Him...

I am often asked "what do I do about Shabbat since I am an Evangelical Christian Zionist?" My answer is simply this: Bill and I worship at either Jersey Baptist Church (our OHIO Home Church) or at First Baptist Church Naples (our FLORIDA Home Church) each week as His Word Commands... that we assemble ourselves together to Worship the G-d of Israel as His Word teaches...we are not to forget the assembling of ourselves together weekly for He INHABITS our Praise of Him and tells us that HE is in our midst as we gather together to worship Him....

While in FLORIDA, we worship at First Baptist Church Naples on Saturday night as the Shabbat draws to a close...it is a wonderful time of singing and praising Him Who So Loved Us that He Gave us HIS SON as the Sacrifice Lamb prepared from the beginning of time...prepared to be our "substitution" for the penalty of sin...that as the "Firstborn Lamb without spot or blemish" He would be slain as our Sacrifice...so that with His Blood we are washed as the Tehelim/Psalm 51 records with 'hyssop' - as His Jewish brothers and sisters were on the night when the Male Lamb was slain and the "blood dipped in hyssop" was used to mark the Lintel of each Jewish Home...sparing that home from the Death Angel who would strike the Firstborn of each Egyptian home...the final of the Ten Plagues that HaShem decreed against Pharaoh...proving His Sovereignty over the "gods of Egypt"...this act and symbolism prefigured the Fully Exacting Sacrifice that HaShem would accept from His Son...who, exactly as Avraham offered Yitzchak, The Father offered as the Substitution for the sins of the very World He had created...the Lamb Slain From The Foundation of the World...

One of the most amazing aspects of that "blood marking" on the Lintels of each Jewish Home in Mitzrayim/Egypt is this: the LINTEL of each home formed a perfect HEY - the EXACT SAME HEBREW LETTER that is used for HIS SACRED NAME: Yud HEY Vav HEY...the MOST HOLY NAME of our Creator G-d!

While in OHIO we worship on at Jersey Baptist Church on Sunday AM...the SECOND WATCH of the Day...when according to historical Biblical teaching, we are to pray for an outpouring of grace and supplication in our personal lives and for our Nation...we are also to repent during this time on behalf of His Body...His Church...praying that a greater love of G-d will spring forth through ourselves and His Body...His Church to the "spiritually lost" in our Nation...

The Prayer Watches are so important...we miss so much of the tremendous blessings and benefits of the Most High G-d because we fail to pray in these Seasons of Prayer...the Prayer Watches of the Night and the Prayer Watches of the Day...take a few minutes as each of these Prayer Watches of the Night and Day unfold and speak to Him in Prayer...thanking Him for allowing us to approach His Throne in Prayer...pray specifically for your loved ones and every aspect of your life at these times...and pray Intercessory Prayer for those He has placed on your heart...we "speak His Words" into the atmosphere and it is an offering of sweet smelling incense to Him...we are told that every word we speak is recorded...that thought should really change the way we speak to anyone...let alone to Him...

Speak to Him using His Names...they are AMAZING beyond anything we could comprehend...

His Name is WONDERFUL...in Hebrew the word "Wonderful" is pronounced PELI...there are only two times in the entire Hebrew Scriptures that this EXACT form of the Hebrew is used: in Shoftim/Judges Manoah asks of the Angel of YUD HEY VAV HEY: "What is Your Name?" But the Angel said to him, 'why do you ask My Name, seeing that it is WONDERFUL?'" Shoftim/Judges 13:17-18...

The second time this EXACT form of the Hebrew is used is in Tehelim/Psalm 139:5-6: "You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your Hand upon me. Such knowledge is too WONDERFUL (Peli: PEY LAMED ALEF YUD) for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it."

As Keith Johnson writes: "It is amazing that THE EL WHO WORKS WONDERS reserved this word of WONDER (Peli: PEY LAMED ALEF YUD) for His Name and His Knowledge. He chooses who, where, when, why and how to reveal His Name!

Isn't is knee bending to know that HE allows US to call HIM - YUD HEY VAV HEY - the G-D OF CREATION - by HIS WONDERFUL NAME?

Blessings to you and your loved ones as you dwell on His WONDERFUL Name!


Friday, January 7, 2011

The Lord, The Lord God!

Shalom!

The Name of G-d shown today is so powerful...as we enter this Shabbat on Sh'vat 2, 5771, let us bow before Him in Praise of His Name!

ADONAI, ADONAI EL
Yud Hey Vav Hey, Yud Hey Vav Hey, Alef Lamed

If you are following the Torah Portion readings of the Word of G-d, you know that the Sh'mot/Exodus is being recorded by the Hand of G-d through His Servant and Scribe, Moshe...G-d had clearly and specifically "called Moshe out" to bring the Children He Called His Own out of the Land of Mitz'rayim/Egypt...and to lead them to The Land that He promised these Ivyrim/Hebrew Children that He was giving them for all Eternity...

The story of the Sh'mot/Exodus of 2-3 Million Hebrew Men, Women and Children from one nation - Mitz'rayim/Egypt - to another - Yisrael/Israel - is recorded in great detail in the Torah. G-d said that not ONE "Yod or Tittle" would pass away...and that He would bring every Promise made about His Land and Eternal Covenant Children to pass exactly as He said He would...

The plagues He visited upon Mitzrayim/Egypt were so severe that the entire Nation was destroyed...G-d's choice of these plagues were critical - they proved His Dominance as the Creator and G-d of Israel over the false gods these Egyptians worshipped...each of whom was represented by one of the plagues that destroyed their Nation...

If you read the "behind the scenes news stories" of today's world, there are suddenly many similarities, ie: millions of fish are washing up on multiple shores around the world - DEAD...multiple thousands of birds are falling from the skies - DEAD...whales and frogs are washing up on shores around the world - DEAD...something is going. in the Animal World..there is no natural explanation for any of this...to many, it evokes thoughts of the Tribulation Period that is to come upon the Earth prior to the Second Coming of Messiah...we are told in The Revelation that "one third of the living things in the seas will die"...each day as His Clock ticks, the Second Hand that moves closer and closer to the Midnight Hour is Israel...She is HIS timepiece...we must watch Her to see Him...

"And Moshe said, "Please, show me Your Glory..." and Adonai passed over before Moshe's face, and proclaimed, YUD HEY VAV HEY, YUD HEY VAV HEY, ALEF LAMED: ADONAI, ADONAI EL, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loving-kindness and truth, keeping loving-kindness for thousands, taking away iniquity and transgression and sin, but not entirely acquitting...charging the iniquity of fathers on their children..." And Moshe/Mem Shin Hey hastened and bowed to the earth and worshipped and said, "If, please, I have found favor in Your eyes Adonai, let Adonai please, go in our midst even though they are a stiff necked people - and You, forgive our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your own."
Sh'mot/Exodus 33:18; 34:6-9

Show me your Glory, "ADONAI, ADONAI EL"

Shabbat Shalom!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

ADONAI - The One Name

Shalom!

Blessings upon you today as you read the first of His Names that He has shared with us! We are His Children, created in His Image, to bring Honor and Joy to His Name!

Z'kharyah/Zechariah 14:9:
" In that day, YHVH will be King over all the earth; in that day YHVH will be ONE and His Name ONE" (emphasis mine)

Yesha'Yahu/Isaiah 29:18 & 23:
And on that day, the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see...But when he (Ya'akov/Jacob) sees his children, the word of My Hands in his midst, they will sanctify My Name.....

As we begin to study His Names, it is evident that we cannot rely on our English translations of His Word alone...it is imperative that we examine the Hebrew Heritage of our Faith as Goy Believers in Messiah Yeshua...our Jewish Roots of the Faith...it is encouraging to me as a teacher of the Jewish Roots of the Faith that so many others are awakening to the fact that Old Covenant/Testament and Hebrew matters are not 'optional' things to discuss...but are the bedrock foundation upon which our faith as Christians rests...we must, as John Bright so forcefully announced, claim that the Old Covenant/Testament exactly as the New Covenant/Testament did, for it belongs to us Goy Believers no less than it did - and does - belong to Israel....

Christianity arose on JEWISH soil...Yeshua was born a Jew...He and His Talmidim spoke ARAMAIC, a language related to the Hebrew language...they were firmly rooted in the Old Covenant/Testament and lived in its world of images...the Hebrew language is the Language of G-d...no one can clearly understand the Scriptures without understanding what the Hebrew words mean...every one of the writers of the Holy Word of G-d were Jews - including Dr. Luke, the scribe of the New Covenant Book Acts of the Talmidim, who many have reported became a proselyte Jew who believed Yeshua was The Messiah...it is impossible to understand what His Divine, Inerrant, Immutable Word means without knowing what the Hebrew writers meant when they wrote His Words...

We are taught to pray:

Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad! "Hear Israel, The L-rd our G-d, the L-rd is One!"

His Name is ADONAI

Yod Hey Vav Hey
"Let them know that YOU, Whose Name is The LORD - that YOU Alone are the MOST HIGH G-D over all the earth!
Tehellim/Psalm 83:18

Sing praises to His Name today! He delights in our Praise of Him! Find your rest and peace and joy in His Presence! Adonai: every knee will bow to you, L-rd Most High!

Hineyni ADONAI!!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

His Hallowed Name

"A good name is to be desired more than great wealth" Proverbs 22:1

For some time now, G-d has been speaking to me about His Name. Over the years of studying to understand the Jewish Roots of the Faith, I have learned that He sends direct and specific messages to me about what He wants me to learn personally...and then share with others...this is certainly the case with His Name...

I began to notice the signs that there was something He was directing me to last Spring...a series of books began to come across my radar screen...they would come into view in different ways...on a Facebook page...in my morning devotional times...in the Publix Book Carousel by the Deli...in Airport Book Carousels...I ordered the first one of them: Intimate Moments with the Hebrew Names of G-d by Barrie Cae Mallin...then another one...then another one...then another one...until I had 4 books about His Name...they were all stacked up on my kitchen table with my daily devotional books and Bibles...I began to read Barrie Cae's Name of G-d one each AM and write the Hebrew letters for that particular Name of G-d underneath the English translation as a means of practicing my very limited Hebrew...

I knew that He wanted me to study these books and learn His Names...and I prayed about it and thought about it...but did nothing else about it all summer and fall...blaming the fact that I was so swamped with work and travel and all that entailed that I didn't have time for such a focused study...but I couldn't stop thinking about this subject and knew that He wanted me to delve into this...the subject matter would come up repeatedly...nearly every week something would "hit me" that dealt with His Name...as 2010 drew to a close I knew that I could no longer put this off...two final pieces of the puzzle were sent to me: the calendar that I use yearly is from The Galilee Experience...a Jewish Roots of the Faith Ministry in Israel...the order form for the 2011 Calendar came across my desktop...it is simply entitled: The Names of G-d...and each of the 12 Months is identified by a different name of G-d with beautiful artwork to correspond...then I read of a book by Keith Johnson entitled: His Hallowed Name Revealed Again...and I said "YES, L-rd" I will do as You have been instructing me for these past 10 months...

That is why you are getting this first blog of 2011: I am going to share His Names through this blog...one at a time...allowing each of you who read this to dwell on these Names in your own quiet time...it is time that those of us who call Him our Father show the respect and reverence due Him and His Name...and learn more about him through the study of each of these marvellous names by which He is known - or by which He calls Himself! After all, a person's name means something...describes a particular character trait of that individual...reveals who he or she really is...Our Creator G-d knows each of us by our names...shouldn't we know Him by His Names?

Tonight I will quote from "His Hallowed Name Revealed Again" by Keith Johnson...

Open your English Bible and look at the first 4 words of B'resheet/Genesis 1:3-'Let there be Light' ... Are you amazed and moved to worship? This English translation conceals the connection to the Hebrew Name of our Heavenly Father that is revealed in 1,574 pages of the HEBREW Bible...in these 1,574 pages of the HEBREW Bible there are 6,828 times that the name Yud Hey Vav Hey appears...this means that you can come across His Holy Name an average of 4 times per page of the Hebrew Bible...

This same Hebrew Name was taught to Moshe while standing at the Burning Bush...this same Hebrew Name was taught to millions of Jewish Men and Women standing at the base of Mt. Sinai when HaShem SPOKE HIS NAME for all to hear...in Sh'mot/Exodus 20:2 He says: I am The L-rd Your G-d"...do you see this

This same Hebrew Name was spoken in Hebrew by Yeshua who taught people on a mountainside 2000 years ago to pray: "Our Father, Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be YOUR NAME"...

This same Hebrew Name that was introduced in Heaven and taught on earth was placed in JERUSALEM and is still there today..."In THIS HOUSE and in JERUSALEM which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I WILL PLACE MY NAME FOREVER." M'lakhim Bet/2 Kings 21:7

As you think on this first of His Names, know that He is ZEALOUS OVER ZION and DWELLS in JERUSALEM!

Sing Praises to Yud Hey Vav Hey who dwells in Zion! Psalm 9:11