Jesus the Messiah – Considering the Bible

Names of God – GOOD SHEPHERD – 240

2025-12-19

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

240

GOOD SHEPHERD

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,

In my search for passages or verses that have this distinct Name of God, I retrieved only two. I was sure the Old Testament had much to say about shepherding, about God’s Shepherd and what the Good Shepherd was like.

The reason I was so sure of myself is because five years ago, I tripped over Ezekiel 34:2-4, where the Lord, through the prophet Ezekiel, exposed the shepherds of Israel, described their sin and proclaimed judgement on them. These shepherds abused, stole, killed and abandoned their sheep.

The passage spoke to me, and I found that the very characteristics of the “bad” shepherds of yesteryear were parallel to the “bad” shepherds of today. Not only that, but the points the Lord brought up describing the “bad” shepherds were rallying points for my understanding what a good shepherd actually may be described as.

If this topic interests you, consider the nine posts on this topic, beginning with Ezekiel 34 – Introduction -1

Nevertheless, the Shepherd to be sent by God, found after Ezekiel’s pronouncement of judgement on the “bad” shepherds, was that God Himself would search for His sheep, seeking them out.

Ezekiel 34:11 ESV – “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.

This is such a great summary of the nature of the Good Shepherd, and of the person of the Good Shepherd. God Himself is the Good Shepherd, and He will search and seek. By teaching His disciples He was their Shepherd, Ezekiel 34 may have been brought to the minds of the hearers.

Yet Jesus didn’t simply say He was their Shepherd, but that He was the Good Shepherd, and that He would be a giving Shepherd to His sheep, unlike those in Ezekiel. Beyond that, He would know His sheep, and His sheep would know Him. This is relationship, and not simply sone designated shepherd ruling over sheep for personal gain, as Ezekiel had described.

As a matter of fact, interspersed in the John passage, Jesus speaks of “bad” shepherds, but is blunt, renaming them as thieves and robbers. These thieves and robbers have the same characteristics as the “bad” shepherds in Ezekiel 34.

My friends, there is a competition for being your shepherd. There are many “shepherds” out there that would love to take advantage of you, take from you, abuse you and then ignore you, marketing your soul like a commodity.

Or there is the Good Shepherd, whom you can know, and who has proven His extreme love for each of us through His willing, intentional suffering and death.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Will you follow Him instead of your sin, taking on His yoke and obeying His leading?

Trust and obey – for there is no other way!

It is a choice you can make even now.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOOD – 239

2025-12-15

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

239

GOOD

1 Peter 2:3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

There are a few times in the Word when the message of God’s nature and being is simply stated. A short list is provided to remind my reader of a few of these short, succinct statements

“God is love” 1 John 4:8
“God is great” Ps 70:4
“God is holy” Psalm 99
“God is righteous” Daniel 9:19
“God is true” John 3:33
“God is one” Romans 3:30
“God is faithful” 1Corinthians 1:9

But for our time this morning, consider Peter, as he is writing to the diaspora, the scattered church, a church that was entering a cleansing persecution, and he speaks of the Lord as good.

Remember now, Peter is writing an epistle on the topic of suffering, and he has the audacity to say that the Lord is good.
It might be reasoned that it is due to the believers faith in Jesus that the persecution will fall on them, and Peter describes God as being good. Might it have been better for Peter to describe God as being a Savior, or a mighty Fortress, or a Rock. No – Peter focuses on the Lord being good.

So what is Peter trying to communicate to these believers who may already have suffered much for their faith, and will likely face more trials, more problems, more temptations to give up.

Is Peter describing God as good in an ethical sense, a God who acts in conformance to a set of standards. I think not for God is the standard.

Or when he speaks of God being good, might he be describing God as simply “not bad”? This also does not make any sense, and would be of no comfort of challenge for his audience.

Might it be that Peter is describing God as benign, good to the point of being of no threat, that God is only good, and this goodness is almost likened to niceness. Now we know that being nice is not God’s nature nor is it ever commanded, nor even suggested for a Christian to be nice – See Love Like Jesus – Kindness for a short study if this interests you)

So when Peter is telling beleagured believers, suffering saints that the Lord is good, what is the point?

Peter uses the Greek word chrēstós, and the root meaning is to be useful, profitable or fit for use. As the word changes over time, it became associated with pleasantness, and kindness, even graciousness.

Jesus used this word once when referring to His yoke, in that it was chrēstós.

Matthew 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Another time, Jesus spoke of God as chrēstós, being kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

As you can see, to nail this term down to one specific meaning is difficult, as least for me, but I will suggest that Peter’s intent, at least by using this term to describe the Lord, is to encourage the saints. Peter is telling them that He is One who is pleasant to know, as opposed to those who persecute, and that He is a useful God to know, since He is a saving God, who has exhibited His care for His people through suffering. He gets it, for He has entered suffering, experientially knows the fear, the dread and the pain.

Yes, the Lord is good, and He is good to all!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD WHO SHOWS ME STEADFAST LOVE – 238

2025-12-12

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

238

GOD WHO SHOWS ME STEADFAST LOVE

Psalm 59:17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.

Lets take a moment to remember the psalm we are in this morning.

Psalm 59 is a psalm of David, as he was being hunted down by the government in power, by his own king. King Saul has sent assassins into the city that David is hiding out in, looking for an opportunity to kill him before the sun rises.

1 Samuel 19:11-12
Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, “If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped.

Not many of us have been in the same plight. Having the government focus in one man’s life is a daunting prospect, and in this psalm, David describes what he faces.

Psalm 59:3
For behold, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men stir up strife against me. For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD

This is the beginning of Saul’s open persecution of his son in law David. Yes he had been laying traps for David, and seeking his destruction prior to this, but now Saul is marshalling the troops, bringing in specialized commandos that are on assignment to take David down.

The kicker in all of this is that David speaks of the God who shows him steadfast love. He is being hunted down by the most powerful and influential man in his nation, fueled by jealousy and animated by an evil spirit, and David has the audacity to speak of God who shows him steadfast love.

Now, for my own thinking, I had to understand the term “steadfast love” a bit better, and as I researched it, I found it is the Hebrew term חֶסֶד cheçed, and it speaks of mercy, goodness and favor.

That still doesn’t seem to help me, for David, due to the call of God on his life, is being hunted down by his king. He is facing death, and yet speaks of steadfast love, of kindness and mercy, of the goodness of God being shown to him. How does that compute?

Okay – I’m thinking that maybe David wrote this portion after he had escaped, and that may be the case, but it still doesn’t take away from the fact that David must have realized that Saul would not simple give up. This effort of Saul’s was simply the beginning of a mission that would end up with David’s head on a platter in front of Saul.

So with David speaking of God as the GOD WHO SHOWS ME STEADFAST LOVE, the context is a continual, life threatening experience. The beginning of a period in David’s life of being hunted down by professionals, of losing all the benefits and blessings in his life, a period of disruption, isolation, rejection and abandonment.

Let us not diminish David’s circumstance here. The natural man in me is thinking that David’s circumstances are directly related to the call of God on his life. The temptation to blame God for this plight would be incredible. Such an easy thought to accept.

But consider. Let us remember that God up to this point had been David’s Savior in many battles, even as a young teenager fighting wild animals. David was no stranger to conflict, to danger or to seemingly risky situations. He had experienced God’s saving work in very practical ways. He knew experientially of his God’s saving work, and he foresaw that his God would fulfill His word to him, though it be though trial.

His Son also faced the threat of death many times, and finally, and as the Word attests, willingly entered into death for our sake.

David expressed his faith by speaking of the GOD WHO SHOWS ME STEADFAST LOVE in the context of a life and death matter. Jesus though, experienced the terror of the judgement of God on His life, and willingly suffered the judgement of God on the cross for my sin.

On top of all that, He was the ultimate truth of David’s claim we read in the 3rd verse of Psalm 59.

For behold, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men stir up strife against me. For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD

Jesus was the innocent One that was slain. No, that is wrong. He was the Righteous One that was hunted down, condemned and murdered.

David lived under the threat of death. Jesus willingly entered into death. David spoke of his innocence. Jesus lived a righteous life.

My friend, as we walk with the Lord, we also will have many challenges that may shock us, that may knock us off balance and may initially discourage us. In the very midst of the trial, remember His past faithfulness in your life. He constantly shows us mercy and steadfast love!

Look to the One who faced every threat, even death itself, and in the end, fully experienced the GOD WHO SHOWS ME STEADFAST LOVE. For God brought Him out of the grave, and He is the King.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD WHO NEVER LIES – 237

2025-12-08

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

237

GOD WHO NEVER LIES

Titus 1:2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

Paul, is writing to his disciple Titus, as he seeks to instruct him in the oversight of believers in a local area. The local area Titus ministered in was the island of Crete, off the coast of Greece.

In order to lay a foundation for the instruction to be provided ahead by the apostle Paul, Titus is informed of the type of God he is serving on the isle of Crete. It is instructive to note that Paul describes those Titus ministers to as liars.

Titus 1:12 One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

The Cretans are self confessed liars. A people group known for being liars, deceptive, untruthful.

This brings up an interesting observation, in that every culture, or social group, there tends to be at least one predominant social weakness, a sin that permeates and is accepted by the group. For the people Titus ministered to, one of these acceptable social sins was the act of lying.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I think of a social acceptance of lying as a sin, it must be very destructive to the social order. Trust cannot be granted, relationships are always fragile, and commitments end up in courts.

Of course, lies have a wide range of descriptions ranging from equivocations, through exaggerations, understatements, concealments, deliberate lies and felony level lies.

Also, we often think of lies as directed outwards, but many times, to our own hurt always, we find ourselves lying to ourselves.

1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Before we proceed with the verse above though, one additional aspect of lying should be considered, and it is related to lying to oneself.

James 1:23 -24 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

To forget the type of people we are is a deception we allow in our lives.

It is to our wisdom that we are to continually realize the tremendous power and influence deception has in our own lives. It is easy to point a finger at a people group 2,000 years ago, on an island south of Greece, but at the very least, they had a poet that provided a self condemnation for their group acceptance of lying.

Do we (as believers in the Messiah) have anyone in our lives reminding us of our base nature, our deceptive self that turns from truth? Relationships, that is deep relationships which provide opportunities for confrontation, and subsequent confession are few and far between for many believers.

I myself find that it is much easier to listen to a preacher for 30 minutes, even in the car or late at night as I am falling asleep, than to look a dear friend in the eye and lie. To be engulfed in a lying lifestyle is to be alone, to separate yourself from others in order to continue in self deceit.

For Titus, he was in the midst of liars. Liars throughout the island. Titus was commissioned to find men who exemplify the life of the believer, the mature Christian man that would provide guidance and oversight for Christians in the church. Men who could be trusted, that would mirror the character of the Messiah, Who was the full embodiment of all truth, with no deception whatsoever. He is the source of truth!

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

At no time can a valid claim be made that God has varied in His nature or message, He is the truth! For Titus, this led to a massive challenge. Jesus’ representatives are to be of the same nature, and of the same character, and Titus had a pool of liars to choose from.

Of course, as Titus sought men of truth, he would find success, for the Lord changes liars into men of character, deceivers into men seeking the God of truth. On his own, Titus was provided a challenge that could not be met, but because he was serving the God who never lies, he will find his elders, and God continues to this day, changing deceivers into those who declare the truth!

To return to the context of this letter to Titus, Paul does remind him that though he was to find elders, men of integrity and seeking the truth, he also had a secondary assignment that was strengthened by Paul’s reference to our God as One who never lies. Since the island was full of liars, some who had not trusted in the Messiah remained in the cesspool of deception, and fought to stay there, continuing in their deception and being an active and destructive force in the church.

Titus, based on the truth that the God who never lies is commissioning him in his ministry amongst liars, has a twofold call to duty. Find truthful men through the work of God in their lives, and confront the liars.

Not to simply confront liars, but he was to silence liars!

A great example of this very action can be seen in the gospel. Jesus was being challenged in His teaching with questions one after another, and by the Wisdom of God, He provided rebuke and response that silenced his detractors. The 14th chapter of Mark is a fantastic retelling of how the Lord responded to deceivers with simple truth, and describes the unwillingness of the liars to continue attacking.

Mark 12:34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

He was awesome while on earth, and He is the same God today. As we follow, we also have the call to silence those who oppose the gospel, and this call will not be without struggle, but as we seek to silence those who oppose the truth, it is critical that we remember that we serve the God who never lies!

He can be trusted wholeheartedly and His message is the truth, for He is the God Who Never Lies!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD THAT MADE THE WORLD AND EVERYTHING IN IT – 236

2025-12-05

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

236

GOD THAT MADE THE WORLD AND EVERYTHING IN IT

Acts 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

A Christian and a evolutionist got together one day and began chatting about the beginning of creation.

The evolutionist made a bold claim, stating that science has actually created life in the lab. The Christian could not believe this statement and challenged the evolutionist to duplicate the miracle of creation we read about in the book of Genesis.

In an act of sheer pride, the evolutionist went on to accept this challenge and stated he would bring back evidence of life after a time in the lab. He would replicate the experiment he had spoken of, taking hydrogen and energy, and produce life.

With this bold claim, the Christian clarified the challenge. The evolutionist was to create life out of nothing, not simply rearrange and/or manipulate God’s creation.

I often think of this story when I consider the creation of the world, and everything in it. All that we see, feel, and sense in our lives, even our lives, is the result of God initially creating the cosmos out of nothing. To go further, things we cannot see, that is the building blocks of all matter was created by the Lord God. Atoms, quarks and protons all created out of nothing. Also, things we cannot see that is beyond the limits of our reach, beyond the furthest satellite and space probe was created out of nothing.

There are some in this age that think because they have studied matter, and may understand a process of nature, have actually explained away the need for God in understanding this world. This is sheer poppycock, for as the scientist delves deeper into the study of creation, the evolutionist continues to loose ground in his supposed logical rejection of a God.

Paul, as he addresses those of Athens, those who side with the evolutionist, was not shy in declaring the God we serve as the God that made the world and everything in it. In declaring God as the creator, he left no stone unturned for the Athenian to make excuse. He could not say that this God Paul preached simply rearranged preexisting matter into this world, that maybe God relied on material He found elsewhere.

God made everything is a stunning statement, declaring to a group of philosophers a truth that needed to be accepted by men that already had a systematized way of thinking regarding the existence of creation.

He is the God that made the world and everything in it.

Everything.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD THAT GAVE YOU BIRTH – 235

2025-12-01

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

235

GOD THAT GAVE YOU BIRTH

Deuteronomy 32:18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

The Lord is described as a Rock, depicting strength, stability and constancy. This terminology speaks of characteristics typically associated with the male, even a father figure. One who is an anchor and can be relied upon.

We considered this general description of our God as a ROCK in a couple of posts in this series.

Names of God – EVERLASTING ROCK – 122

Names of God – GOD MY ROCK – 179

Our name to consider this morning speaks of the female experience of birthing. I cannot speak first person on this action, but as I have been with my wife during each of the births of our children, I can tell you speak of that time for the mother as….

Agonizing, all consuming.
A point of connection.
Complete compassion.

When I consider the names of God, the descriptions He provides us in helping us understand His person, I sometimes relate to my own experiences in this life, I always, after considering the passage, come away thinking my experience is a dim shadow to the the Lord’s reality.

An example to help explain my thoughts

If I have experienced sorrow, a deep and painful sorrow, it cannot be compared to the sorrow He experienced in the rebellion of His creation, in the complete rejection of His mercy and forgiveness, of the sorrow He went through as He saw the destruction coming upon the city of Jerusalem, as He lamented over the city as He accepted their rejection. The sorrow He experienced as He died on the rugged cross, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

He died all alone, with even the Father looking away.

We as believers can never say that we are totally alone, for He has promised to never leave us.

As I mentioned earlier, I cannot speak first person in relation to experiencing child birth, but as our five children entered this world, standing beside my wife as she was going through the agony, I sensed a connection between this lady who loves me and these children who share her DNA.

Agony

First, lets consider the agony of the experience in relation to the birth of the nation from the standpoint of God and Israel. He underwent continued pain, disappointment and trials relating to the people He sought to create a nation out of. Even as they entered into covenant with the Lord at Sinai, accomplishing (in my understanding) the birth of the nation, the trials continued on. His mercy to the nation never wavered and He sought to protect, guide and care for them even as they wandered.

Connection

Consider the connection, not simply due to the agony experienced in giving birth, but also on the biological/spiritual level.

There is no connection that is stronger than that of a mother with her child. As one of many possible points of discussion, it has been discovered that during gestation, there occurs a two way exchange of cells between the mother and the child. I am no scientist, so I will refer my reader to their own research, but this exchange of cells speaks of a deep abiding physical connection a mother and child experiences.

The child has his/her mother’s cells for life. To think of this foundational connection in relation to God is somewhat mind numbing. How that connection may be described in the Old Testament is beyond this ol’ fellow, but we know in the New Testament, we have the very Spirit of God residing in our body. Our birth in Christ brought about the very presence of God in our lives.

John 1:13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Compassion

Consider the connection on an emotional level. As mentioned previously, I understand that whatever I experience is but a shadow of that which the Lord goes through. He is the God who experiences emotion, for we see the Word speaking of God experiencing grieving, jealousy, anger, etc.

For this specific passage we are considering this morning, I cannot comprehend the trial He went through in the birthing of the nation of Israel. The waiting while His people suffered, the delays because of unbelief, the frustrations with self centered leaders, and the never ending leading of a reluctant people into a life that is full and abundant!

Paul describes a primary characteristic of a mother as gentle.

1 Thessalonians 2:7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.

He uses this same Greek word, translated as kind, when speaking of the Lord’s servant in 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy 2:24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil.

When the Lord walked the ways and crossroads of the land of Israel, He also exhibited this trait, for of course, this is the way of the Lord in relating to His children.

He is gentle.

Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

He has suffered agony as in birthing.
He has connection with those He has birthed
He has compassion as a mother with her birthed ones.

He is the God who has birthed us.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD READY TO FORGIVE – 234

2025-11-28

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

234

GOD READY TO FORGIVE

Nehemiah 9:17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.

As some of you who may have read my testimony, this name was foreign to my understanding of God for all of my childhood, teenage years and even as I wandered through my walk of faith.

My overarching understanding of our God was that He is a judge (which He is), and that He is holy (which He is) and that He is unapproachable (which might be true).

At no time did I think of God Almighty as a God who is ready to forgive. Oh I may have hoped he would forgive if I was really good, or if I begged enough, or turned over a new leaf (whatever that means), but a God who is ready to forgive? No that didn’t enter my mind.

The term used here to describe God is that He is a God of סְלִיחָה çᵉlîychâh, and although the modifier of “ready” is not a word for word translation, the idea behind our Hebrew word is that the forgiveness available is abundant.

It is the same term used in Psalm 130

Psalm 130:4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

Note that the forgiveness is such that it produces fear in the recipient. Forgiveness in my world, in my everyday experience is such that it produces thankfulness, relief, a clearance of conscience. In my day to day, as I experience the forgiveness of my wife, my children, my coworkers, my friends and my acquaintances, fear is not the general outworking of this forgiveness.

So may I suggest that the forgiveness I experience in my day to day life is a forgiveness granted from one fallen person to another fallen person, both of the participants broken and weak, susceptible to offending and hurting each other. In no way am I implying the forgiveness is not deep felt, genuine and true. It is from an equal, a person who is of the same “stuff”.

Our God who is ready to forgive, or as in another translation, our God of forgiveness, is not of the same “stuff”. He is the Judge, the only Rightful Judge, the Holy One, A God who dwells in unapproachable light. He is the eternal God who has never, and will never experience the failures we succumb to. He is perfect, and has every right to condemn, and yet the Word speaks of Him being ready to forgive, of an abundance of forgiveness ready to be bestowed on the repentant.

He is not of the same “stuff” as us, and the forgiveness does not have a potential transactional component. It is not as if He forgives in order for some future need to receive forgiveness. His forgiveness is not only one sided, but when truly comprehended, produces the fear that the Psalm speaks of.

What type of God do we serve? Will we ever comprehend the depth of His mercy, His grace to us in Jesus the Christ?

He is altogether different than I, and for that I am so thankful!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF HEAVEN – 233

2025-11-24

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

233

GOD OF HEAVEN

2 Chronicles 36:23 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.

There are numerous passages in the Word that provide us our name of God this morning, but I chose this verse out of 2 Chronicles due to my recent studying of Cyrus as a type of Christ. (Jesus in the Old Testament – Cyrus – 01).

Beyond that reason, I find this verse to be comforting for our day, in that it contains a truth that hopefully will settle the heart of the faithful.

As I said, it is difficult times we live in as we see this old world crumble away, with cultural and societal degradation surrounding us, with national leadership being exposed for deeper and deeper corruption, and an ever-growing open hatred of the Christian faith.

The church seems to have entered a type of captivity, accepting the cultures social norms, (shifting as they are), as acceptable norms to conform to. As the ancient Jewish nation experienced their captivity in Babylon, the church – at least in the western world – has also lost touch.

But as we see in this verse, and understanding the background of King Cyrus, we see that the God of heaven is not limited by His location, or that He is only in charge in heaven. King Cyrus, a non-Jew, and an unexpected Savior for the people of Israel, readily admits to the authority and actions of the God of heaven on earth. This pagan king not only admits that the God of heaven provided him his success, giving him “all the kingdoms of the earth”, but that God has given him a charge.

King Cyrus – build the God of heaven a house in Jerusalem.

A charge was given to the King, and an allowance was provided to the people of God. They were granted freedom by this king, and supplied to those who had a heart for God, the very highest gift of the faithful saint, The king would build the temple of the God of heaven, and the people of God could see him do it!

Also, take note that the people of God, though given freedom to return, are a secondary item. By that I mean, they are allowed to get involved if they want, but the King will build the house for the God of heaven whether they choose to get involved or not.

The God of heaven rules over the kingdoms of the earth, and to rescue His people, (or better stated, to provide a salvation to those who seek it), He may rise up a man or woman that is totally unexpected, in order to fulfill His desires. And the people of God can watch the wonder of this saviors work, taking part if they want.

The Greater King, our Living Savior is building a temple for the God of heaven in our day also. Have you been granted freedom? Are you wanting to get involved? The opportunity, the blessing, maybe better yet – the obligation is in front of the saint to get involved in the work.

Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

He is the God of heaven, and He is working on this earth to build His Temple.

Wanna help?

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF GLORY – 232

2025-11-21

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

232

GOD OF GLORY

Psalm 29:3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over many waters.

Glory. It is the winning of the Boston marathon, or the receiving of an Oscar. It is often thought of as an ultimate victory, a great display of honor. For those who seek it, it is the attainment of fame and splendor. of an honor amongst their peers.

When it comes to how it is associated with God, we often think of a radiant light, a manifestation of God’s presence, or a recognition of His worth and beauty. He as God is the Only One worthy of glory in the most absolute sense.

For the verse we are considering, David associates the God of Glory with His message, specifically His voice in the world of nature, even a thunderstorm.

David, I would suggest, is watching a great thunderstorm, where the heavens are opening up and unleashing a power that cannot be resisted. Vast areas of the land, and in this case the waters of Israel, may be experiencing high winds, torrents of rain, fire from heaven and thunderous noise shaking the earth.

David is trying to express the might and power of the Lord in relation to the world about him. Throughout this psalm, David speaks of the “voice of the Lord”, and this is the first instance.

Yet I must consider the term glory before I finish this post. /I recall discussing a somewhat surprising association with the term glory with heaviness. (See Names of God – BEAUTIFUL AND GLORIOUS – 49).

I found also, that though the term “glory” not only had a sense of honor and esteem, and a sense of heaviness, (even fatness), associated with it, this term is also linked with suffering.

This particular word we see in this passage comes from the root word כָּבַד kâbad. We find this root word in the following passages, where I have italicized it’s use.

Genesis 18:20
Then the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave,

Note that the root word we read as glory in the Psalm is translated “grave” in Genesis 18. Some translations use grievous or serious.

Nehemiah 5:18
Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Yet for all this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because the service was too heavy on this people.

Nehemiah rejected the opportunity to enjoy great abundance due to the heavy burden placed on the people that required it.

2 Samuel 13:25
But the king said to Absalom, “No, my son, let us not all go, lest we be burdensome to you.” He pressed him, but he would not go but gave him his blessing.

David did not want to be burdensome to his son.

1 Samuel 5:11
They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there.

The term associates directly with suffering in 1 Samuel, where the hand of God was causing an uproar amongst the Philistines.

Psalm 32:4
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

But lest we think this suffering is only for those who know not God, we find it used by David when he is under the judging eye of His Master.

All of this is to simply admit that my concept of glory is too weak, too shallow. Bright lights, beauty and honor are the thoughts that typically rise to the mind when we think of glory, but let us not forget that it is a complex thought, a complex idea that has much greater meaning than first considered.

The God of Glory has Himself provided the greatest display of His glory in the man Christ Jesus, as He displayed His patient, kind, meek and loving interaction with those who had ears to hear. His character was a blinding glorious light in a very dark land.

He also displayed His authority, His heaviness amongst some lightweight religious authorities, literally tearing their arguments to pieces without breaking a sweat!

But if you ask me, the greatest display of the God of Glory for all to see was the Man Christ Jesus, bloody and broken, nailed to a cross, exposed to the public as if he were equal to a mere thief, suffering the indignities and insults of sinful man, all to rescue a thankless and hateful people.

He is the God of Glory and though many may look to the cross as simply an instrument of justice, for the believer, that cross provided the greatest display of who the God of Glory truly is!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF FAITHFULNESS AND WITHOUT INIQUITY – 231

2025-11-17

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

231

GOD OF FAITHFULNESS AND WITHOUT INIQUITY

Deuteronomy 32:4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

Our God is a God of faithfulness and without iniquity.

It is a common truth that believer’s rely on throughout our walk with Him, and yet when trials come or trouble rise up, our first inclination is to question his faithfulness.

Of course that is simply our rebellion rising up, blaming God for that which might be occurring due to our poor decisions, or maybe simply misunderstanding God’s way in our lives.

As I was reviewing this term for faithfulness, I found it to have a somewhat special meaning. It refers to being steady or firm. A very good example of how this term pictures the steadfastness of God is found in Exodus, when Moses was overseeing Joshua fight the Amalekites.

Exodus 17:12 But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

Moses hands were “faithful” until the going down of the sun. They didn’t move, and were not subject to any weakness that Moses was experiencing.

God is steady, firm and unmoving, and unlike Moses, did not require assistance from others in being so. He is faithful, and His nature of being so is a great comfort to every believer.

But this name of God we are considering this morning is not simply the God of faithfulness , but the God of faithfulness and without iniquity!

Faithful, unmoving, firm, resolute. God is the God of faithfulness. He is the ultimate expression of firmness, of unmoving adherence to His Word and Will. Then Moses adds the “without iniquity” description, as further emphasis on who God is.

May I suggest this double description of God works to bolster the image Moses was trying to get across to the Israelites by describing a positive attribute, and then further describing that attribute by negating any idea of unfaithfulness.

Let me try to explain my thoughts.

If God at any time and for any reason, was not faithful, and because He is known and described as faithful, this act of unfaithfulness would introduce iniquity into our thoughts. At any time, if God was not steady, firm in His nature and promises, iniquity could be claimed to be found in Him.

How preposterous, for it is His nature that defines righteousness, and there is no iniquity to be found in Him. And that is the point!

Moses is doubling up on his description of the faithfulness (firmness, steadiness) of God. No iniquity of unsteadiness, or unfaithfulness may be considered.

Don’t even think it!

Unless of course, you turn your eyes to see the Man on the cross, where a spotless God, firm in His will and in the keeping of His word, accepted iniquity into His own body. The mystery of One who, due to His faithfulness, became sin (iniquity), accepting the just punishment of sin within His own body.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Out God is a God of Faithfulness and Without Iniquity, even as He exercised His faithfulness to His own saving promises. To His own great hurt, that is His own death, He was faithful. No iniquity of His own may be found in Him, even as we see Him hanging on that cross, receiving the just punishment of our iniquity being placed on His sinless Body.

How can we understand such a faithful God, One who is without iniquity, and yet taking on our sin to maintain His faithfulness? It is not for us to understand, but only to bow before Him.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF YOUR FATHERS – 230

2025-11-14

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

230

GOD OF YOUR FATHERS

Exodus 3:15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

It was decades ago when my wife and I were in training for missionary work, hoping to reach unreached people groups to a far off land the Lord wanted us to go to.

Those were exciting days, and as Canadians in a US school, we lived by faith, and saw the Lord provide in many mighty and awesome ways.

He is truly a good God.

During those times, I listened to stories of missionaries that had ventured into perilous areas, breaking barriers with people groups who had never heard of the Master, living amongst them, learning their language and culture, waiting for the day to communicate the gospel to a people who had never met the God of Resurrection.

One particular missionary team, after spending years in tribe, eventually were able to share the gospel, finding much fruit in the tribe. Many came to know the Lord, and a vibrant small body of believers began growing weekly.

Exciting stuff.

During church services, these missionaries would introduce hymns, (translated into the tribes mother tongue), giving the young believers a chance to praise God with the classic hymns such as Amazing Grace, It is Well with My Soul and such.

One such hymn that could not be introduced immediately was the classic “God of our Fathers”, a hymn written in 1876 by Daniel C. Roberts. The hymn speaks of the blessing of a people that have history with the God of Creation, and since this particular people group had just come to faith, it just didn’t make sense to add it to their hymnology.

This story is provided to my reader to simply remind us of the rich blessing we have as a people group, of a history with the Living God. God has led our fathers, whether we speak of those directly related to us in our immediate family, to those who have been instrumental in shaping our Christian culture, or the very Patriarchs of the Old Testament, that led the way in understanding the Lord’s ways.

You know, in a way, these new converts could have sung this song in truth, for in following Jesus, we all, as the Body of Christ know the God of our Fathers, those who came before us in the faith.

It is such a blessing to live in a historically Christian culture, but I fear we are slipping away from a full and living faith in the God of our Fathers. May we live our days in a thankful and expressive way, sharing the truth of the gospel in any way possible, seeking to allow those who follow us to sing this song also.

May the God of our Fathers be praised!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF THE HEBREWS – 229

2025-11-10

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

229

GOD OF THE HEBREWS

Exodus 3:18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’

Funny how things work out sometimes. In my original compilation of the Names of God, I ordered them out alphabetically, not thinking of the how ordering the names may impact how I write about them.

Such is the case with our topic today. Our previous passage spoke of the “God of the whole earth” and I sought to make much of the fact that our God is not some local deity, restricted to a region or people.

And now we have a Name of God that seems to do that very thing, describing God as the God of the Hebrews. Is this a contradiction? A conflict? Mixed messaging?

I think not. Let’s consider the context.

Moses is before the Pharoah, the King of Egypt, king of a land with many gods, gods who would very soon fall victim to the True God. Each of the plagues addressed the specific influence of a false god Egypt worshipped. To define God as the One that would dominate over these false gods, Moses couldn’t simply say God. To do so would allow the Pharoah to mentally place the True God as simply one of the many in the pantheon of god’s they worshipped. And that would not do!

Moses was not restricting the God of whole earth when he called God the God of the Hebrews. He was not limiting God, but simply identifying Him as being other than those who would fall in submission to the false gods.

One true God. All other gods will soon be identified as false.

As for the term “Hebrew” we can all agree it was an early designation of the Israeli people. Some associate it as a name of those who had descended from Eber, harkening back to the tenth chapter for Genesis, where Moses calls out Eber as a descendant of Shem, in direct lineage of Abraham.

A tradition of the Jewish people was that Eber refused to take part in the building of the Tower of Babel, and by refusing to take part in this act of rebellion, retained the original language of Adam. Possible? You decide, but Eber was a consequential figure in the Old Testament and his name is associated with God in our verse today.

One other interesting tidbit about Eber (or Hebrew) is that the term עִבְרִי ʻIbrîy may be translated as “one from beyond” or “one that crosses over”

It is fitting that this name is associated with the One who “came from beyond” to rescue us, that He “crossed over” into our world to take on our sin, to take on our helplessness and to rescue us, even in like manner as He rescued the Israelites from a dominant, powerful and abusive enemy.

He is the God of the Hebrews, for He is the God who has crossed over to mankind, becoming the God-man. A truly amazing truth that He has completed!

May we honor the God of the Hebrews, knowing He is so much more than the gods we come into contact with in our daily lives!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF THE WHOLE EARTH – 228

2025-11-07

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

228

GOD OF THE WHOLE EARTH

Isaiah 54:5 For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.

I will never forget the day I discovered the Hebrew word for earth. That word alone ignited a change in my thinking that I completely was unprepared for.

You see, when the Old Testament prophets used the Hebrew term אֶרֶץ ʼerets, I did not know that it is sometimes translated as land, as in “the promised land”, and sometimes translated as ground or soil, as in the material that makes up the earth, and sometimes translated as earth, referring to the planet we reside on, as it is here in our verse.

To make matters worse, (at least for me), the same nebulousness occurs in the New Testament. But that will be for another day, for I want to focus simply on how this impacts the name of our God in this passage.

Isaiah is declaring to all who will listen of the restoration of Israel in this passage. He is looking down the corridors of time to a time when barrenness would no longer be associated with Israel. Let’s read the introductory verse to this amazing prophecy of Isaiah.

Isaiah 54:1 “Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the LORD.

He speaks of the barren one having more children (meaning greater honor in ancient Israel) than the married one.

What in tarnation is Isaiah talking about? Who is the baren one? Who is the desolate one? Who is the married one? I am so confused!

Thankfully the apostle Paul provides apostolic teaching in Galatians 4:27, referring to this verse in his discussion of the church in relation to Old Covenant Israel.

Galatians 4:27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.”

Paul continues with his discussion in Galatians, defining those in the New Testament Church, as being the subject of this prophecy.

Galatians 4:28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

Thank you Paul, for I was so unsure of where Isaiah was going with this verse, but in New Testament understanding, when Isaiah speaks of “enlarging the place of your tent”, he is speaking of the expansion of the church.

If I follow you Paul, when Isaiah speaks of expanding to the right and to the left, he is referring to the impact of the gospel beyond the restricted borders of the nation of Israel. When Isaiah writes of the barren one inheriting the nations, he is describing the influence of God on all nations, the complete unleashing of the truth of God throughout the earth.

All of this future honor, replacing the shame of captivity will occur due to the Lord Himself. The gospel of the resurrected Jesus is the message, and the power of the Spirit of God has multiplied the people of God, fulfilling the expansion Isaiah spoke of when he wrote that the “place of your tent” will cover the whole earth.

Now I get it! Isaiah saw it, knew it and taught it. Paul saw it, knew it and taught it!

He is the God of the whole erets! There is no opportunity for any confusion in the term erets in this verse. Isaiah may have used erets in this verse, but the intended message is that the whole erets will be impacted, the totality of the erets will be reached with the message of God.

Yes – He is the God of the whole erets, the God of all of creation, having exploded out of the land (erets) of Israel with the message of His resurrected Son, impacting all and every part of the created erets!

Let there not be any mistaken assumption on the readers part that God is some local deity restricted to a small patch of land far, far away from most of us.

He is the God of the whole earth!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF THE SPIRITS OF ALL FLESH – 227

2025-11-03

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

227

GOD OF THE SPIRITS OF ALL FLESH

Numbers 16:22 And they fell on their faces and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?”

Let’s get some background to this name of God.

Numbers 16 is the chapter describing Korah’s rebellion against Moses in the wilderness. It was a sizable rebellion, where Korah had assembled 250 chiefs of the congregation (vs2), and brought a complaint against God’s man!

Now remember, at this time, Moses has been established as the prophet of God to lead the twelve tribes out of Egypt and into the promised land. We all know of the miracles in front of Pharoah, and that the tribes had experienced, not only in Egypt, but as they fled their captors.

And what was Korah’s complaint? His complaint is as follows

Numbers 16:3 …“You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”

A common attempt to divide by a false prophet.

Korah’s argument? Since the entire nation was holy, (in theory, but not necessarily in practice), it is obviously unnecessary for one man to lead. Do not all the people know God, making your leadership unnecessary Moses? You only seek leadership because you want to exalt yourself!

So many contradictions and falsehoods in this claim, but the groundswell of opinion was growing on Korah’s side. A few verses later, (vs 13) Dathan and Abiram refused to respond to Moses, claiming Moses was exalting himself.

Something had to be done, or Korah would cause much damage, even the destruction of the mission of Moses!

It is interesting to note that Korah stood in the place of honor prior to his rebellion. Not only was Korah a close relative of Moses, but he was the head of the Kohathites, of the order of the Levites, charged with the solemn duty of transporting the things of the tent of meeting. (Numbers 4:15).

He had honor and prestige, yet it wasn’t enough. He led one of the most effective rebellions against Moses in the wilderness, and is famous for the eventual judgement that fell on him and his family.

Eventually, Korah “assembled all the congregation against them“. Moses and Aaron were being aggressively assaulted in their leadership positions.

And this is where Moses and Aaron fell on their face and called on the God of the spirits of all flesh? The prayer centered on personal responsibility, of how one man’s sin would not consume the relatively innocent caught up in the frenzied message of a man gone mad.

The prayer identified God as the God who knew each individual, who would account for each one’s actions, and that would separate those of rebellion from those of simple foolishness. Those of the congregation, who had blindly followed Korah in the rebellion, got away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, prior to the coming destruction.

The Lord showed up that day, directing His prophet to separate the fools from the rebels, and after the separation, proved AGAIN that Moses was His representative.

Moses spoke of the fate of these rebels, and the Lord opened the earth immediately after Moses informed the congregation of their fate. A direct and immediate demonstration of Moses as the undisputed leader of the nation!

God is the God of the spirits of all flesh, and He knows each of us. If this passage speaks of any truth, it speaks of how the Lord knows of the rebellion in His people, and of those who are simply foolish enough to listen to them. It also speaks of the Lord able to “clean house” when He deems necessary. He is not One who shies away from protecting those who are on His side!

As the God of the spirits of all flesh, we are to stand in awe of the One who knows each of us, but not only that incredible truth. He knows of my rebellion, of my turning from Him at times of weakness, of my listening to the wrong message and wandering off.

He is the God of the spirit of my flesh, and as that, I need to be committed to His Man, His Prophet, His Chosen Leader. I need to be committed to the Son, who has led the way, all the way to the cross and through the grave.

May we all seek to renew our commitment to our Greater Moses, rejecting the message of all the Korah’s in the church!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF THE LIVING – 226

2025-10-31

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

226

GOD OF THE LIVING

Mark 12:27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”

What a coincidence.

I hadn’t looked ahead on the topic for this mornings post, and as I was travelling to work this morning, I just so happened to be in the Gospel of Mark.

Now as the heretic that I am, I was listening to what many consider a paraphrase of the Word, as it often brings up shades of meaning that I pursue in studies later on. Yes – I was listening to the Message, and have found it to be a refreshing take on truths I think I am familiar with.

This time, my familiarity of the passage was way, way off base!

Let’s read the short response of the Lord in the Message.

Mark 12:24-27 (MSG)
Jesus said, “You’re way off base, and here’s why: One, you don’t know what God said; two, you don’t know how God works. After the dead are raised up, we’re past the marriage business. As it is with angels now, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. And regarding the dead, whether or not they are raised, don’t you ever read the Bible? How God at the bush said to Moses, ‘I am—not was—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? The living God is God of the living, not the dead. You’re way, way off base.”

Can you imagine any respected Bible teacher in a debate, using this type of language? Even more so, to think the Lord Jesus may have used this type of non-formal response to the “highly respected” Sadducees only makes Him to be more of a hero to me.

He is awesome in His response, and spoke the truth.

They were way, way off.

1. They Just Don’t Know Gods Word

He told them they don’t know God’s Word.

These religious practitioners boasted about their understanding of the Word, and though they disbelieved much of it, they certainly had knowledge of the words in the Book.

So how can Jesus make such a claim?

It is because of their approach to the Book, looking for “outs”, trying to find a way to fit the Word into their lives and culture, instead of fitting their lives and culture to the Written Word.

2. They Just Don’t Know God’s Works

They knew the facts, but they didn’t know the facts. I know it seems confusing and I have tried to explain this difference in a previous blog (Inherit the Kingdom? Who Knew?)

It is the difference between experiencing God’s works and simply knowing facts about His works. There is a massive difference, and I am speaking to those who experientially know the work of God in their lives, even on a daily basis as He proves Himself over and over again, for He is the God of the Living.

The Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection), coming to the Scriptures with that bias, completely miss the fantastic implication of the burning bush Moses faced. For God spoke of being the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Not that He was their God, but that He is their God, even at the time Moses was before the burning bush, hundreds of years after the Patriarchs passed.

Don’t they ever read the Bible?

Someone with a bias against resurrection truth would be blind to this implication. They would be way way off.

So sad.
So blind.
So unnecessary!

Imagine being way, way off base!

Thankfully, for those of us who have experienced the work of God in our lives, and seek to follow after Him in a daily walk, we are privileged to find these implications everywhere!

It is wonderful to travel the Word and trip over these implications as we seek Him.

I would love to hear from some of my readers of their experiences in the Word and how their eyes lit up when they discovered an implication they had not experienced before.

For He is the God of the Living, even on this very day, and all who worship Him, either living or having passed from our view, have experienced the wonder of His Word and Works.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF THE ARMIES OF ISRAEL – 225

2025-10-27

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

225

GOD OF THE ARMIES OF ISRAEL

1 Samuel 17:45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

David didn’t differentiate did he?

He wasn’t unable to see how heaven and earth coexisted together, even on a battle field. After all, David was the one who worshipped God in the field, as he was tending his sheep, or who expected direct communication with God, even apart from the Tabernacle.

The Word speaks of his dependance on God through his defense of the lambs he was responsible for. He had a connection with the Almighty that is more like the modern believer than the Old Testament Jewish adherent in many ways.

The concept of heaven and earth coexisting in the same area, at the same time, and for the same purpose speaks of the faith and insight of this young man who would become Israel’s second greatest king, coexisting as he uses two names for our God.

When he speaks of the Lord of Hosts, he is referring to the many mighty angels swirling about the throne of heaven, spread out over the earth and crowding around the tiny nation of Israel, especially on standby as this plucky teenager makes such claims to this formidable opponent.

But when he refers to the Lord as the God of the Armies of Israel, he speaks of the army that was cowering in the corner, turning their eyes from that giant, whispering about what to do. He speaks of the earthly army, supposedly at God’s disposal to enter into God’s plan for the nation.

Given this understanding, David didn’t look at the situation he knew of, for he had just came from the camp, where all the knees were knocking. He knew the reality of the situation, yet he also knew the God of the Armies of Israel was the One who led, the One who was able to work in the midst of weakness and doubt.

Of course that army of Israel needed to be brought to understand the absolute truth of heaven and earth being one and the same when it comes to knowing God, and when it comes to facing the enemies in our lives.

What was the missing component, the information that was lacking for this army, in that they were not “in the know”, according to David? He spoke to his nation’s army prior to approaching that giant of his shock at their reluctance to approach and dominate this soon headless foe!

Now he was on the field, expressing to the enemy the truth of Israel’s armies calling, if not exactly the condition of their experience. And in moments, he was about to act to provide the missing motivation to enliven an army that was standing still.

Once he stepped toward the lumbering enemy, the die was cast and soon the armies of Israel would be reminded of their calling and abilities as they look on God, the maker of heaven and earth. One stone, and the lifting of the enemies sword over that giants neck provided a reminder of the amazing privilege the army of Israel resided in, and the motivation to pursue the enemy to dominate.

It all hinged on David describing God for not only the enemy to understand, but also to remind his people of their tremendous calling. Notice just a verse later, David speaks of the importance of the army of Israel experiencing his victory.

1 Samuel 17:47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

David stepped forth, describing the coexistence of heaven and earth, and spoke many parables to enhance this truth. Oh – did I make a mistake in calling Jesus David? How could I slip likfe that? After all, they both were men who understood the coexistence of heaven and earth in the same place, same time and for the same purpose.

For Jesus, He also stepped forward amongst the people of God and pronounced the same truth, and was to provide to the people of God, who sometimes (often?) forgot this seeming contradiction of heaven and earth being one. God and man inhabiting the same space and time. The intended plan of both God and man enjoying the same purpose!

David defeated the enemy, that giant opposed to the nation. That enemy fell, and he fell hard, for all the world has heard this story. He lost his head and his reputation, becoming the giant who was taken down by a teenager. How embarrassing!

Jesus also defeated the enemy, the giant opposed to all of creation! The enemy fell, and he fell hard. Paul describes the shame of those Jesus defeated.

Colossians 2:15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

This victory of Jesus didn’t look like a victory though. Battered and bleeding, He suffered shame, and died the death of a lowly criminal. He very life was lost in an apparent defeat. How disappointing.

Until heaven and earth could not accept the death, could not maintain the process of death and decay upon the most Righteous One. He arose to show us all of who He actually was, and who He did battle with. And heads rolled!

How utterly shocking! How dumbfounded those disciples were to be met with the Risen Savior after such a seeming decisive defeat.

Yes, heaven and earth do coexist. As the current physical army of the Lord on earth, commonly thought of as the Body of Christ, we also have seen our David approach the enemy, take out the enemy and become the King of all, both in heaven and on earth.

Let us remember our calling, remember who is leading us, and take our motivation for holy living from our Master, living a contagious joy as we spread the knowledge of the Lord to all the world.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF OUR SALVATION – 224

2025-10-24

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

224

GOD OF OUR SALVATION

1 Chronicles 16:35 Say also: “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and deliver us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.

We live in a very individualistic, self focused world. It is me and the Savior. My Savior. My personal Savior. Me and God.

Even the last three posts in this series on the Names of God have emphasized the personal, singular relationship a saint has with the Lord.

Now this post does not intend to ignore the very truth of God being the God of My Praise, or the God of My Righteousness, of the God of My Life. The fact that we have a God that is so personal, so intimate, so close to us in our pain, our misunderstandings, or trials and our joys is an incredible blessing.

Yet this verse speaks of God as the God of OUR Salvation. I would encourage us to consider this truth for a moment. Christianity is a group movement, and is a body of believers that work together in the ministry of the Christ for this sin sick world.

God is the God of our Salvation, and as such, we should expect, even look for times of giving thanks and praise, that is only appropriate in a group setting.

David’s psalm is recounted here in Chronicles. It is hundreds of years since he wrote this portion of Scripture, and as the exiles were returning from Babylon, this passage must have meant much to them. A ragtag group of Jewish exiles, returning after 70 years of immersion in the Babylonian culture, returning to an abandoned, and desolate promised land.

And yet in the midst of all the trials, and troubles, it was obvious that God was bringing them out of captivity, saving the nation from their captives, providing them a second chance even though the judgment of captivity was fully deserved.

Note the psalm refers to the saints being delivered from the nations. As believers in the Risen Christ, we have been delivered out of this world and provided great freedoms, freedoms that include escaping from the grasp of those who want to pull us back to the old life.

But in each of these individual deliverances we experience, we have a responsibility to give thanks and praise in a group setting, as a Body of believers that understands God is in the business of making a kingdom of saints, not individual islands of proud lonely saints.

Without experiencing the group environment, it can sometimes appear we have little to be thankful for. Doubts, fears and crazy exaggerations can erupt in our mind – it is as if we are lone targets getting picked off by a spiritual sniper. The fact of the matter is that many of these errant thoughts are so untrue, and that is where the Body of Christ is most relevant, for the saints feed each other in encouragement, exhortation, correction, comfort and when necessary, some good old rebuking! But it only happens in the group environment, where God is the God of OUR Salvation.

Community, group dynamic, fellowship, congregational spirit. However you may want to describe it, let us not abandon the times we can be together in giving thanks and praising the God of OUR Salvation.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF MY LIFE – 223

2025-10-20

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

223

GOD OF MY LIFE

Psalm 42:8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

Throughout my Christian life I have heard the call to obey the commands of God, to be a disciple, to seek Him with all my heart, soul mind and strength. This is the call of any who would seek to know the Living God, the Redeeming God, the God who provides, guides supplies and comforts.

It is the clarion call for the believer, for the saint who seeks to honor the One who loves him and gave himself for his life.

It is the expression of our acts that proves that God is the God of my life, and with the remaining portion of this post, please try to hang onto that truth.

Hang on now, for we are going to consider our verse above, and at first blush, I see no call to obedience in this verse. No sacrificial love demanded for the saint to practice. David focuses on the Lord’s actions, His commanding of steadfast love to be on the believer, and His song over the believer at night.

David is dwelling on the goodness of God when He speaks of the God of his life. He isn’t speaking of our response to this incredible love provided, but simply dwelling on the person of God, on the actions He supplies to the saint.

This concept, I believe is fleshed out clearer (for myself at least) when Paul writes the following.

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Did you catch it?

We, as believers, are doing nothing in this verse except beholding the glory of the Lord. It is that beholding, that looking at, that staring at the glory of the Lord that has transformative impact on the believer.

The transformation is being done to us!

Our looking at each and every of the glories of the Lord will have two effects on the believer.

Effect #1

The first is that we are so undeserving, so far from the mark, so unworthy of any recognition by the Master that His kindness towards us becomes unfathomable. To become more familiar with all His beauty and grace, with His matchless character and humble kindness, is to find our place in this universe.

Effect #2

The second is like that, in that whoever we honor, whoever is our ideal, our model, our god, is who we actually aspire to be. It is a characteristic of the human psyche to aspire to be like our hero, and our consistent gazing at our Risen Savior, at His patience with sinners, at His kindness to those who persecuted Him, at His suffering even for His enemies, which places the challenge before each of us to be like Him.

For God to be the God of our Lives does not require perfection, does not require obedience to a set of rules, does not require faithfulness to specific doctrines or teachings that may be found in the Word.

It is to follow a Person, to know the Living God in all His perfections, in all His character, as described in the Written Word.

Take time to look to Him today, and in the looking you will be changed. If He is the God of our lives, and as we gaze upon Him, we will be transformed, for He is the God of our lives.

He is the One who saves, provides, guides, supplies and comforts and from this verse, we find He also transforms us little by little into more of His likeness!

Now that is good news!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF MY RIGHTEOUSNESS – 222

2025-10-17

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

222

GOD OF MY RIGHTEOUSNESS

Psalm 4:1 To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!

David is in distress in this psalm. As I have been dwelling in David and his writings for a time, it has become evident that David was in distress often, almost constantly it seems.

The distress he is in is often related to the struggle to rise to the throne promised to him by God, and the obstacles to attain the throne seem insurmountable. Obstacles not only physical, regarding his very existence, but the slander and lies that were spread by his enemies that would (humanly speaking) derail any chance of his gaining the throne.

This psalm speaks directly of David undergoing some serious slander. Consider the next two verses for some context.

Psalm 4:2-3

O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah

But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.

David’s honor was being turned to shame. The very things that David did in obedience to God were being upended and twisted by the enemy, with many lies being spread to diminish his character.

And David calls upon God. He refers to God as the God of his righteousness, for he is in the midst of a “righteousness reputation” battle, and he knows that it may end up badly for him. Some lies may stick in the population’s perception, some of the slander may remain in the peoples mind’s.

That is the condition we all live in! No matter how desperately we seek the Lord, and how dedicated we are in obeying His will, we should not expect our names to be lifted high amongst our enemies, those who attack the Risen One and His people. This is the fallout of being in a battle with a worldview that accepts the use of lies instead of truth.

But as each of us may go through unjust character assassination, let us remember that our God is the One to look to for our righteousness, that we need to pursue His character and His nature, His desire to be of the truth, and to live in a gracious, forgiving and loving manner to both our brothers and sisters, and our very enemies, those who may be actually tearing us down.

For our God is the God of our Righteousness, even as we may be defamed by the enemy. We need to recognize that the enemy will not advance any description of “rightness” of our lives in following God, for that would be an admission of their own error.

They will not willingly admit their position to be in error, so they must lie about the truth.

But our God is the God of our Righteousness, and He has prevailed in the resurrection, and shall prevail in our lives!

He is the God of our Righteousness!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF MY PRAISE – 221

2025-10-14

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

221

GOD OF MY PRAISE

Psalm 109:1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Be not silent, O God of my praise!

I occasionally attend a church my daughter and her family attend, and it is a growing church, filled with young children, young adults and young families. With such a mix of folks making up the congregation, it is full of energy.

It is a church that I have found to be filled with the Spirit and upon every attendance, during the praise session, I almost invariably shed tears, trying to offer up praise with the congregation. I typically can’t express my emotions during the praise songs, but when they bring out the old hymns, I totally break down.

To hear the old hymns in this day and age of the church is so refreshing, so Christ centered, so historic for my own walk with Him.

It is a church that I have begun to learn to praise the Lord Jesus for all He has done in a outward, emotionally manner that has somewhat taken me aback. To actually try to sing, despite those around me being affected by my out of tune, out of time, out of tone type of singing. (I can hear my voice and trust me – it is awful!) has not been a typical expression of my faith in my four decades as a believer.

He has become more than ever the God of my praise, and yet as we read this passage, David doesn’t relate this name to the times of rejoicing amongst the faithful, of singing songs to the Lord to the point of tears, but is facing enemies that are overwhelming him.

David begins this psalm with an expression, a confession of his faith regarding who his God is and how he relates to Him. God is the God of his praise, the only one who receives the praise he offers up. But this psalm speaks of difficulties, of threatenings, of dire possible consequences on David’s life if God doesn’t show up. David is on the edge, but no matter, he is not about to forget that God is still in control, that God is worthy, no matter the circumstances he finds himself in.

Is he expressing the same emotion and heart felt praise I mentioned above? Possibly, but I think David may be praising God out of his will as opposed to the emotion I experience in church on Sundays.

And there is a difference I fear, for when a believer comes to a time of difficulty in his or her life, is God still worthy of praise? Note that I refrain from asking if it feels good to praise God in difficult times, for I think that a poor motivator. There are times when it hurts to praise God, when things are falling apart, and it seems many enemies are surrounding us, and there may seem to be no escape.

Is He the God of my praise then? When lies are spread about your character, do you look to Him and praise His name? When struggles come, and pile up in your life, is He still worthy of your expression of praise, your commitment to praise His name, even in a whisper to Him, a prayer asking for help?

Don’t get me wrong. I love to go to my daughters church, for it is a time with her and her family, and a time I can express my faith openly in the midst of the congregation. Good times and a good life, and I am so thankful for what the Lord has done in my family.

The challenge though, as hard times may be around the corner, is will I continue to praise His name, even though struggling with serious challenges, disappointments and discouragements?

This is the backdrop of David’s expression in our psalm today, and I pray for this type of will in our soul to conquer over difficult times with praise to the God of my praise.

May He gives us strength to be the men and women that praise Him at all times, and in all circumstances.

We truly need Him.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF LOVE AND PEACE – 220

2025-10-12

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

220

GOD OF LOVE AND PEACE

2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you

I was born before the hippy movement, and I will admit it – I wore bell bottom blue jeans in my high school years. I listened to the music, took part in the rejection of a stiff conservative culture and experimented with mind altering drugs. Even to this day, the music catches me and takes me back to “good” intentions and a carefree attitude.

The cultural revolution was breaking forth on the western world and it’s impact on our society has been catastrophic.

One example will suffice, for I do not want to delve too deep in the problem and not consider our Lord in this post. Back in the day there was a popular song about the sharing of land.

Maybe I’ll be there to share the land That they’ll be givin’ away
When we all live together, we’re talkin’ ’bout together, now

As a teenager, who could argue of the merits of such a culture, where all are sharing and there is togetherness, love and peace?

I listened to this song a while back, and realized it was normalizing a socialist / communist condition, describing it as full of togetherness, with peace and love. A culture that provides love and peace without God.

What I was experiencing was a relentless barrage of this message, along with a complete twisting of what true love and peace really is. Lust was called love, and forced pacifism (by the end of a gun) was named peace.

This is not the message of the Word, and it certainly does violence to the name of God we are considering if these twisted messages are considered when we read of the God of love and peace.

The God of love represents the very opposite of lust, of the unbridled release of the wants and desires of a sin sick heart, of a self satisfying seeking of all things no matter the damage causes. The God of love provides motivation and strength to live a life of constraint, of be self controlled, to consider others instead of being a slave to our needs and wants.

The God of peace provides the believer a calm in the midst of a storm, a freedom of the soul in the midst of trials, a release of concern over those circumstances that are beyond our control.

The world tried to convince me of the benefits of its definition of love and peace. It only took a few years of following after that elusive promise that I realized it was an empty, hollowed out promise that provided disappointment, despair and eventually death.

And then one day, a young lady asked if I would like to sit with her on a bus ride to Toronto. As we spoke, she testified of Jesus, and of His saving actions in her life. She had recently been in a car crash that should have taken her life, but the God of love and peace preserved her. The God of love and peace kept her so she could introduce me to this same God, the God of love and peace that shattered my understanding of love and peace.

No longer did the message of lust and pretend peace have control over my thoughts, and my outlook on life took a complete turnaround.

Do you understand God as a God who allows lust and provides a pretend peace? Consider who the God of love and peace is, for He is a self sacrificing God, a God who considers others first, who came to serve and to give His life for others.

To understand the gospel is to be shocked at the difference between the message of the world and the message of the Messiah, for He is the very embodiment of who the God of love and peace is.

And the world crucified Him as they sought their “love and peace”.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF KNOWLEDGE – 219

2025-10-06

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

219

GOD OF KNOWLEDGE

1 Samuel 2:3 Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.

As we venture through the Names of God, it should become obvious of how great and awesome our God is, of His multifaceted, unfathomable depth of character, of His ability to address every one of our needs, concerns and questions.

Each time we consider a certain characteristic of the Lord, we by necessity exclude other characteristics of His Person simply because we cannot plunge the depth of His goodness, grace, justice and love.

Out of each of these short studies, I tend to come away thinking of Him in a slightly different way, and find my understanding of Him to somehow expand. He is really beyond our imagination.

One additional outcome of these short posts is that the God we learn about in each study is also teaching us of our own condition, our weakness, our inabilities and our sin. We are not God, and every time we consider the greatness of our God, we consider our own “not greatness”. We are not God!

In our passage this morning, a woman has suffered years of provocation, sadness, distress

1 Samuel 1:7 So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the LORD, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat.

1 Samuel 1:8 And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”

1 Samuel 1:10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.

Hannah suffered for years, being taunted and without child, praying at the temple with such deep emotion that the priest assumed she was drunk.

1 Samuel 1:13 Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman.

Hannah received answers to her pleadings before the Lord, and a son was born to her that would grow to be one of the greatest prophets Israel has known. After the arrival and weaning of the child, Hannah gave back to the Lord that which she prayed for. A tremendous sign of self sacrifice for the Lord’s sake. She gave her only child up to be dedicated to the Lord, being separated from him for most of his life.

1 Samuel 1:28 Therefore I have lent him to the LORD. As long as he lives, he is lent to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.

After all of this, Hannah prays again, and we find she describes the Lord as the God of Knowledge. After all her struggles before the Lord, she brings up the topic of arrogance and pride in relation to our God. Now I know it is easy to relate this statement to Peninnah, her husbands other wife, and likely this is the aim of the claim, for she speaks of her mouth deriding her enemy.

1 Samuel 2:1 And Hannah prayed and said, …My mouth derides my enemies…

She provides counsel for the arrogant and the proud, a rebuke to those who speak great pompous words.

But Hannah speaks of God as a God of Knowledge. Now it may be said that Hannah is not referring to God’s ability to perform calculus, or His knowledge of number of stars in the sky. No – she is speaking of God’s knowledge of a souls actions, even of His knowing of our reasonings, motivations and desires that produce our actions.

Now there are often times when I have thoughts or desires to perform some action, but after consideration (or by distraction), I do not complete those actions. Truly Jesus knows my heart, but Hannah speaks of His knowledge as it pertains to our actions, our work. That which I do, not what I think.

Now there is no denying that what and how I think is critical in my life to perform works that may be judged positively, but for our verse this morning, Hannah is not considering only motivations or secret thoughts, but actions that are evident to all. Nothing is hid.

Jesus spoke of the eventual revelation of our actions while He was walking amongst us.

Mark 4:22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.

Luke 12:2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

The proud and arrogant are to recognize this truth, but as the proud and arrogant, they reject our God of Knowledge, sometimes with great violence, and pursue selfish goals.

But no matter our reaction, whether by violent rejection or in a peaceful acceptance, He is the God of Knowledge. He knows our lives, our works, our actions, and it is the wise one who recognizes the God of Knowledge in a spirit of humility.

To know the God of Knowledge, to walk with Him, demands a humility before Him. We need to recognize Him as much greater that us, as the One who knows and who judges our actions.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF GODS – 218

2025-10-03

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

218

GOD OF GODS

Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

Moses is speaking to the nation, describing the tremendous privilege and benefit they possess being the people God has called out from the heathen, from those whom Abraham, Isaac and Jacob rubbed shoulders with.

God needs the nation to know what is required of them to maintain this blessedness, to experience the goodness of God in their national experience. He is not asking them to swear allegiance to some tribal god who rules over a patch of land, or some family spirit that favors only those of the bloodline of Abraham, or to bow to a god who controls the weather or the flood of a river.

Moses understood that this ragtag group of whiners and complainers had been extracted from the land of bondage, a land they had become accustomed to, a culture they naturally relate to, including gods who have some power, some authority, some seeming control over circumstances. They lived in this culture all their lives in Egypt, and understood, not just theoretically but in experience the worship of many gods strewn through the land of the Egyptians.

Moses needs them to understand the God they are required to serve as the God over all these other gods, and rightly so, for during the plagues, God showed Himself over the Egyptian gods in each plague, and during the escape He showed Himself dominant over nature with a fiery column leading them, a pillar of smoke directing them, provision of food from heaven, and the splitting of the sea for their safe passage, even with the nation witnessing the collapse of the Red Sea on their enemy.

God is the God of gods, and for those Moses spoke to, they had ample proof, ample evidence of the superiority of Jehovah Elohim over the paltry powers of their previous masters.

God is the God of gods, and He is proving that to us as we see His power working through the world, frustrating the powers that be, bringing life through the gospel and healing to the nations.

God is the God of gods. And due to His elevated position over all gods, Moses calls upon them to do the bare minimum.

Deut 10:12-13
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?

As indicative of the love of God, note that all the requirements prescribed to the nation are not necessarily for God’s benefit. He is God of all gods and requires nothing from us for His benefit. No, these requirements of obedience bring us into the experience of God He wants for us, and that we desperately crave for.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Names of God – GOD OF ALL GRACE – 217

2025-09-29

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

217

GOD OF ALL GRACE

1 Peter 5:10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you

I am beginning to see a theme in the last few passages that I have wrote on. The idea of suffering before comfort is granted is a theme that is throughout the Word, and by coincidence, the theme has erupted in the midst of a few passage we have recently toured. (2 Cor 1:3).

Passages such as when Jeremiah in his purchasing of the land in chapter 32, not experiencing the land but a sign for the future in the midst of trial. I will let my reader consider others they may remember!

It is the same in 1 Peter, a letter Peter writes to dispersed believers, believers who may be on the run due to persecution by authorities, persecution by enemies, persecution by friends that have turned on them. Peter speaks of the sufferings they would or were presently enduring. Note the time factor “suffering a little time” added by Peter, giving the believer hope. Again we see the cross before the crown teaching we so often find in the Word.

How long is a little time? Forever, for when suffering comes upon a soul, time creeps by, seemingly creeping by to allow for every sorrow or pain to be experienced fully. Time stretches out to infinitum and as the hope of relief fades, it is common to experience the wearing down of the soul’s inner man, a fragile heart being beaten down, discouraged and depressed.

How is the time element instructive for us as it relates to the name of God we are considering? The God of all grace is the God of yesterdays, today’s and tomorrows needs. He is the God of all grace in the midst of trials and sufferings. He is the God of all grace, able to restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish each of us no matter the condition we find ourselves in.

All grace.

He is not the God of partial or just enough grace. Elsewhere, the Word speak of His grace as sufficient to our needs.

Have I not seen grace as being described as abundant?

In this passage, Peter speaks of God as the God of “all” grace. Might he be stretching the truth, or are we the type of people that want to limit our God.

As life may bear down on us, let us seek to rest in the God of all grace, even as some difficult trials come upon us “for a little time”.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

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Category: Jesus the Messiah

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