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.

HE WHO STRETCHES OUT THE HEAVENS

Isaiah 40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

It was a few days back when we considered this verse, but in relation to the name of God being HE WHO SITS ABOVE THE CIRCLE OF THE EARTH.

As a refresher, Isaiah is speaking to the people of God as he compares their God with the idols they have chased after. In this passage, and specifically with this name. Isaiah provides a picture of One who stretches out the heavens.

Though the ancients didn’t have telescopes, radar satellites, or rockets into space, they did spend time under the stars. The life of the ancient Hebrew was not a life of ignorance regarding the heavens, for they spent much more time under the stars than the average modern. We may talk of light years, and galaxies beyond any distance we can comprehend, but the ancients, dare I say, comprehended the skies even as we do. With our eyes. And our minds, as much as possible.

Ask yourself – what is a light year? What impact is that on your life? Dare I say that one night under the stars, will communicate the vastness of the heavens better than a number that cannot be comprehended.

As some may know, I am an early bird, waking in the morning before 5 always, and sometimes before that. If it isn’t a work day, and I have the opportunity, I will venture outside to get in my hammock, and simply star gaze with the naked eye. The longer I stare, the greater the mystery of the heavens, the beauty of the stars, and the littleness of me. Stargazing is a very humbling experience!

How could Isaiah explain this other than to speak of the act of stretching out the heavens as a merely human activity, as if the wife was stretching the curtain over the window. A seemingly effortless task, and that is the point. Isaiah is describing a God who is not worn out by this impossible to imagine task, but completes it as if it was the simply pull of a curtain.

One additional item occurs to me. Isaiah mentioned our God stretches out the heavens, as if it was a current action on behalf of the Lord. Did he understand the idea of an expanding universe? Is this another incidence that the prophet spoke a truth that he may not have even understood in his day? The Scriptures are wild, and to find these nuggets of truth buried in the Word is truly a blessing to consider.

Let us be thankful to HE WHO STRETCHES OUT THE HEAVENS, for His mighty creative work, and the sacrificial blood He spilt for our lives. He is an incredible God that we will never be able to fully understand, or come close fathoming His incredible love for us.

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

HE WHO STIRS UP THE SEA

Jeremiah 31:35 Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar– the LORD of hosts is his name:

It seems like forever since I published on this general set of verses back in 2020. I was addressing the outworking of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the continual existence of Israel despite the obvious destruction and decimation of the nation in AD 70.

If this seeming unfulfilled promise of God to national Israel disturbs you, or fuels your unbelief in the God of the Bible, it may be to your benefit to consider what took me 20 years to figure out. The post should only take a few minutes to read, and hopefully my explanations make some sense for those who want to understand. Anyway, venture over to Nation or Church – Jeremiah 31:35-37 if I have piqued your interest.

A few verses to review to make this point. First, let’s consider Isaiah. He speaks of the abundance of the sea as compared to the wealth of the nations. A very common Hebrew parallellism!

Isaiah 60:5 …the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

Isaiah also likens the wicked to the foaming sea, with the mire and dirt being thrown on the shore.

Again, whne Isaiah likened the wicked, or the nations to a tumultuous sea, bringing it’s filth to the land, is it not picturesque of the influence of the nations on the people of God?

Even with this very short study, we can see the connection of the nations with the sea. Might we extend that thought in our phrase we are considering? (Hang on folks, for this gets knotty!) Is the picture of the Lord stirring up the nations an accurate picture? Might we see that the Lord is active in the tumult of the world for His will to be accomplished? This is difficult stuff, but consider.

Isaiah 51:15 I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar– the LORD of hosts is his name.

Consider the image and the impact of his name, for we certainly see much tumult in the world today. Thankfully, we know that as the people of God, we have a refuge in Jesus, a place where confusion is absent, where peace of heart and a quiet mind can rule the life of the saint and reside in the family of God.

1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

No matter how you see this verse in relation to the nations, let us thank God for the Savior Jesus, who is the ONE WHO STIRS UP THE SEA.

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

HE WHO SITS IN THE HEAVENS

Psalm 2:4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

I always liked this verse, but probably for the wrong reason. Hopefully it isn’t with evil intent, imagining our God in heaven, rubbing his hands together, laughing out loud because he knows the traps He has set for the “dirty sinners’ out there. Of course, I do not include myself amongst the intended victims. Maybe something wrong there! Yes there is something wrong when this old fellow thinks others deserve judgement but he is exempt from the fate.

This passage is dealing with the kings of the earth, those earthly rulers who seek to usurp control from the rightful King. In this context, the Lord on His throne and from that perspective, is reflecting the utter futility of the efforts of mere men, though they feel they rule over others.

When our passage speaks of the Lord holding them in derision, it speaks of a mockery of the situation. He is not concerned over any effort of man to dethrone Him. He is the Lord!

Yet the leaders of this world are drunk on power. They seek more and more authority over God’s creation, and in the process, reveal their mismanagement, and selfish motivations. Any desire of man to replace God as the King over any of creation is fraught with unassailable obstacles, most of which is the man’s own evil heart and wicked imaginations. Nothing good and meaningful can rise out of the self serving motivation of man.

Consider – even the King of Kings was a sacrificially serving man, One who sought out others, seeking their good as opposed to His will. Only the One who followed after God with all His life is worthy to lead, the One who showed His leadership by serving, His love by dying and His authority by rising up from the grave.

Yes, God mocks, laughing in derision those who oppose Him. Not in the manner I imagined, but in the futility of the effort. Mere man a king to replace Jesus.

He has risen and is the ONE WHO SITS IN THE HEAVENS.

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

HE WHO SITS ABOVE THE CIRCLE OF THE EARTH

Isaiah 40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.

Isaiah is in the process of comparing the God of Israel with idols, by way of questioning his people.

Isaiah 40:21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

Questions are a great way to stimulate a discussion. Jesus often asked questions. Questions are a fantastic teaching tool!

Don’t you think so?

As a question is provided, a recipient naturally builds a defence in thier mind. Once a question has been understood, hopefully a discussion can occur, an argument can be entered into, and minds can be changed. And when I say minds can be changed, I am referring to the Biblical concept of repentance! This obviously is the intent of Isaiah and he is brutal!

One question would be sufficient for Isaiah to deliver to the saints, considering the topic of the discussion. One well placed question about the God of Israel should “stop thier mouths”.

Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

Of course, when Isaiah “machine guns” multiple questions to God’s people, the recipients will not only be speechless, but dumbfounded. That is, if they are honest with themselves, with Isaiah and with the God they are related to.

Four questions were blasted to the saints regarding the difference of thier God compared with idols.

• Do you not know?
  • Of all the people of the earth, these folks knew God was unlike idols!
• Do you not hear?
  • Of all the people of the earth, these folks heard God speak, unlike an idol!
• Has it not been told you from the beginning?
  • Of all the people of the earth, these folks had been introduced to God at the beginning of their formation as a nation! Idols were to be rejected by this people from the very beginning.
• Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
  • Of all the people of the earth, these folks understood God hated idols.

Yet they worshipped idols.

Isaiah then begins to describe – once more for this people who knew and understood thier God – of the God they had walked away from.

Thier God is the One who is over, or above the circle of the earth.

He is over creation, not a part of it.

Whether the word “circle” can be describing the earth as a sphere or simply the horizon each man sees, the point is clear. The God they had abandoned, the God they were being called back to, the God who was leading, guiding, disciplining and teaching is not of this creation, but above.

And when Isaiah says above, though the immediate message is that God is in the heavens, above the creation in relation to distance, I want to consider it is more applicable that Isaiah is referring to God as being over the circle of the earth in relation to His authority over all.

God is in authority over all of His creation. He is in charge, unlike the idols that are merely stone and wood, made of the creation God created.

Yes, our God is more than any idol, much more! He is on His throne, and not only reigns by the authority of His creative acts, but more so through His defeat of death. Though the creation was plummetted into death by our decision, He has rescued it by defeating death itself. Death itself has died, and He rules!

Yes – Jesus is better! He is the One WHO SITS ABOVE THE CIRCLE OF THE EARTH

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

HE WHO SEARCHES MIND AND HEART

Revelation 2:23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

We touched on this verse in the previous post, observing a consistency of teaching in the Word about God giving according to our works based on His searching of the mind and heart.

This general teaching of a man’s works flowing from his heart and mind is a truth all honest people give mental assent to. It is a different matter when it comes to the heart accepting it when specific instances occur in a persons life.

What do I mean?

In the theoretical world, and due to our mind craving justice, we have no qualms with works recieving appropriate judgement. Good works naturally should recieve a good reward. Bad works naturally should recieve a bad reward. This truth makes sense logically.

In the practical world, and in specific cases, our hearts and emotional sensitivities get in the way of seeing this truth worked out in our experience.

Our culture, a reflection of a societies heart, increasingly seeks to protect the wrong doer, and to punish the righteous one. There are many instances in the news where it seems justice is upside down, where the acceptance of wrong is considered right.

Isaiah spoke of the tendency of a people to call evil good and good evil.

Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Even at the judgement of the Lord, during His humiliation in front of His accuser’s, the crowd sought the guilty and condemend the Righteous One.

Luke 23:18 But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”–

So it is natural, even expected that when we come to a harsh truth such as in the Lord’s message to the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2, that we tend to shy away from such stark statements.

Statements such as…

• Revelation 2:22 ….I will throw her onto a sickbed
• Revelation 2:22 ….those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation,
• Revelation 2:23 …I will strike her children dead

We tend to admit in our minds that evil works demand justice, but then we see the reference to children being struck dead. That is a heart wrencher!

But wait. What is it to be a child of “that woman Jezebel”? What is it that this woman, and any association with her, causes such a seemingly harsh judgement of the Lord Jesus?

A few verses back provides some guidance.

Revelation 2:20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

The church is tolerating Jezebel. This is the rebuke to the believers. Could it be a rebuke to a specific leader in the church? Maybe, for some of the ancient transcripts speak of “your woman Jezebel”, possibly referring to a leaders wife or his close associate.

As for Jezebel herself, she claims she is a prophetess, assigning God’s authority to herself. Incredible hutzpah for one to claim the authority of God as a prophetess, but seemingly an easy thing for some to assume, even in our day!

As a self styled prophetess, she influences the saints, and possibly her husband, an elder in the church, to enjoin into sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. Immorality and idolatry? Where have we seen this attack on the faithful before? She not only teaches the mind, but seduces the heart of the saints into both of these sins for the church.

It is noteworthy to understand that both of these sins were closely associated with the trade guilds of the city this church resided in. Somewhat similar to a union nowadays, but this guild would require participation in these activities to continue finding work, and therefore make a living.

To bring this post back to our original verse, it is important to note that Jesus has a problem with the church tolerating this teaching. Bad teaching is to be rejected from the body.

But judgement was falling on Jezebel, and her children. Those children most assuredly were adherents to this sinful teaching, following this self styled sinning woman. Those within the church had to repent, or judgement would fall on them.

As an aside, if those within the church community were true believers, how does my reader understand the Lord’s reference of the Lord striking her children dead? I have addressed this topic in a past post for those who many be curious – Conditional Security – Revelation 2:18-26

One of the outcomes of this judgement is that the church would know that God is the One WHO SEARCHES MIND AND HEART. He knows what is going on in the depths of our person. Those thoughts and emotions, if allowed to fester and grow, will produce works of a similar nature, and though He is ever patient, He is not One that will allow corruption in the body forever.

Galations 6:7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

He is the ONE WHO SEARCHES MIND AND HEART. For those seeking the Lord’s will, this is a comfort, and as mentioned in our previous post, we have the mind of the Spirit, which produces the right thoughts. A blessing we surely do not deserve!

For those following after anyone else, be it a false religion, a false prophetess, or a corrupt teacher, beware. He is seaching your heart and mind even as we draw our next breath.

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

HE WHO SEARCHES HEARTS

Romans 8:27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

To search implies there is an examination, an effort to find something, to investigate, even to hunt. To search is that something is being sought, that in the search there is a hunter and the hunted.

We see this image in the the Old Testament when Jeremiah reminds the saints in his 17th chapter

Vs 10 -“I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

The Lord is looking, searching the heart of man. Pursuing after the motives, hidden though they may be from the man himself, exposing the intents of our hearts, if we are honest with Him.

But note the difference in the two passages. In the Old Testament, there was a sense of exposure and justice, that with the exposure of the heart, equal and appropriate rewards would be granted out.

Now it depends on your stance regarding the heart of man in how you see the “rewards” being granted out by the Lord in this searching, but I would suggest the context is definitely of sin, death and judgement being meted out, for the very previous verse speaks of the deceitfulness of our hearts, and of the utter frustration of the man in understanding his own heart.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

So with Jeremiah, the context speaks of God searching out the heart of man, primarily for the exposure of this deceit, and the just recompence of his deeds, which is sourced out of his heart!

This teaching is not of the Old Testament only, for we find this very thought coming from the lips of Jesus in Revelation 2:23

Revelation 2:23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

The churches will know that the Lord, in striking Jezebel’s children dead, is He who searches the heart. In this verse, the Lord is revealing the at the death of the (spiritual) children of Jezebel, and the tribulation/sickbed that Jezebel in thrown into, will provide ample evidence of Jesus searching hearts and rewarding according to each ones works.

Now that we have established the searching of hearts resulting in just rewards, lets come back to our beginning verse in Romans 8.

Romans 8:27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit…

No recompense is mentioned in this verse. Notice that we have the heart and mind mentioned in this verse, much like the previous verses, but it is the saints heart and the Spirit’s mind that is discussed. No just recompence due to evil hearts, and wicked minds, but as the remainder of the verse indicates,

…the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Intercession occurs by the Spirit. Prayer and pleading for the saint.

Paul knew his Old Testament, and how the heart and mind were revealed by God in His searches, and the resultant “rewards” provided. Even in the church age, when those who rebel as Jezebel, this truth remains.

But Paul is speaking of life in the Spirit, of the grace filled, sacrificial love of God ruling in the saint’s life. Consider the difference, for the gospel of the Messiah provides His people the Spirit, and in the giving, provides support and encouragement we do not deserve.

There is a very real cause and effect in our practical lives, and bad decisions cause bad consequences. Yet for the Spirit led believer, there is a very real truth that God does not “give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

We are a most blessed people, having been offered “the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us.

Yes, we are a most blessed people!

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

HE WHO SANCTIFIES

Hebrews 2:11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

The apostle, (or his representative) is writing to the Hebrews, describing the salvation provided by Jesus, and that Jesus is far superior to every past blessing and experience of the faithful. In every instance of comparison, Jesus far outshines any claim to fame the faithful Hebrew might make.

There is simply no comparison! Jesus is better! Better than anything or anyone associated with the prior covenant.

Our passage highlights the act of sanctification, and the first consideration is to note that it is God who sanctifies. It is not that God tries to sanctify, or that He wants to sanctify, or that it is His pleasure to sanctify, but the He Himself sanctifies.

But what does that mean?

Well…

In the book of Hebrews there are two truths regarding sanctification, and to review these truths it is necessary to consider Hebrews 10

Hebrews 10:10-14

10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Notice in verse 10, that belivers are sanctified by the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The sanctification of the believer is complete, and completely dependent on the Lord Jesus, His past act on the cross, and according to the covenant He has provided.

It is done!

But wait. In just a few short verses, the apostle brings to us a process of being sanctified, for we must notice that he states that “by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified”

The eternal perfecting of the believer, is for those who are currently being sanctified.

Hold up now. Are we sanctified once and for all or are we in process of being sanctified?

You see now why I was hesitant earlier to define what is going on in the book of Hebrews. When we see a portion of Scripture that seems to contradict itself, we must consider that a mark of inspiration, a sort of proof that truth may have two faces. Let me try to explain, at least the way I understand it .

For the believer, the blood and body of Christ on the cross was the defining moment of sanctification for the believer. In the mind and heart of God the Father, the saint was one with the Savior, fully accepted, fully set apart and fully committed to the will of the Father.

But the apostle goes further, helping the believer understand that ths sanctification is to be experienced, pursued, chased after, desired and clung to. Our positional sanctification, which is such a precious truth, such a lofty possession of the believer, such a blessing only found in Jesus, is to be experieinced in our daily lives.

It is not enough to only be sanctified in the heavens, but to be sanctified in the earth, where we get dirty, where we stumble and toss about. Sanctification in the war we live in is the battle for the believer today. To know we are fully sanctified before the Father due to the body of Christ is the magnet that keeps pulling us to Him. The draw of the Son on the believer is never ending, a ceaseless effort of the Holy One to make us holy, to be sancitified before Him.

To be before Him, we must be holy.

Hebrews 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

For this we must be thankful that HE WHO SANCTIFIES is He who has sanctified us by His own death.

It is an astounding salvation, and I just need to say it one more time.

Jesus is better!

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

HE WHO REMEMBERED US IN OUR LOW ESTATE

Psalm 136:23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever;

In our psalm this morning, if we were to read the entire 136th Psalm, we would find the psalmist referring to the Lord’s mercy and steadfast love in the past for His people.

Over and over again the psalmist recounted the many acts of the God of Israel for His people. From creation through the deliverance of the exodus, along with battles fought to gain and maintain their time on the promised land, the Lord had proven His steadfast love to the nation in the past.

Our verse this morning speaks of the current time, of the times the psalmist lived in. It was no longer recounting days of old that the Lord proved His love, but the very time the psalmist lived in, the present situation.

And the psalmist claims the Lord remembered.

Now of course the psalmist is not merely referring to the fact that the Lord, who is all knowing, has a set of facts about His people before His eyes. The psalmist isn’t speaking of the Lord’s ability to recall He has a people. Does that even make sense, knowing the God we serve?

When the Old Testament speaks of the Lord remembering, it is not merely that God recalls his people. God never “recalls” a fact or a situation. He is all knowing. When the Old Testament speaks of God remembering, it is telling us that God is acting for His people, delivering them from a trial, or even refraining from a justified discipline. Examples are many.

Noah is a good example.

Genesis 8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.

God remembered Noah and acted. Another example was Rachel, and her childbearing.

Genesis 30:22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.

God remembered Rachel and acted. An example of God remembering not, (or not acting) may be found in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 34C… For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

God’s act of remembering in this instance, or should I say His active non-remembrance, entailed the death of His Son, the torture and crucifixion of His Only begotten.

Even in His promise to not remember, God acted.

So for our passage this morning, the psalmist speaks of the Lord remembering His people. For us today, we need the Lord to act on our behalf, to bring to life the Body of Christ that is dormant, quiet and self satisfied.

The psalmist speaks to us today, for if we are to see God “remember” us, it will be due to our lowly state, a time of humility, of lowliness.

A people of God that is proud, self sufficient and haughty will not see God remember them, acting on their behalf.

Yes it is likely the psalmist was speaking of an inflicted lowliness for God’s people, a difficult time for the people of God due to outer forces being unleashed on them. They had been humbled, and in the humbling, God acted.

The humbling of the people of God continues to be the playbook of the Lord, that those who are humbled are ready for grace, they are open to God “remembering” them. It is a consistent truth we would do well in remembering!

James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

The psalmist may have spoke of an inflicted humbling, yet for us today, we have the command to humble ourselves.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,

In both of the verses above, the humbling comes with an exaltation, with the Lord remembering and acting on behalf of the humble.

Our God hasn’t changed. He is the God Who remembers us in our lowly state. May we experience the exaltation, understanding it is through humility and seeking the low estate!

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

289

HE WHO RAISED CHRIST JESUS

Romans 8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Notice how clear Paul is in his description of the God who gives us life. He brings to the believer’s attention a number of clarifications that may be worthy of considering.

First, Paul speaks of the God who raised Christ Jesus as Spirit. His emphasis is on the person of God, not any moral codes, regulations, rules, bylaws or religion that we may be associated with. It is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, dwelling in each of us that Paul speaks of.

Which brings to our attention a second point to consider, that is the dwelling of the Spirit of God in the believer. Some may refer to this as the indwelling, and is an emphasis of the apostle Paul in this passage. His first reference to “dwelling” is in 7:17, where he speaks of sin dwelling in the body.

Romans 7:17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

For the remainder of chapter 7, he speaks repeatedly of sin dwelling in the body, but shifts gears in chapter 8.

Now in chapter 8, we are not considering death and sin in the body, dwelling and destroying, but the Spirit of God dwelling and enlivening the body.

Paul had laid a framework in our minds regarding the concept of dwelling in the previous chapter, helping us identify a parallel condition. Sin dwelled in our bodies. Dwelled throughout our lives, deeply in our innermost being, permanently in our actions and thoughts (seemingly), and without any respite or rest from it’s ravages.

It is that type of dwelling that we carry over into the next chapter, yet all the negative aspects of this dwelling will be turned on it’s head. It is not death dealing sin that dwells in our body as believers, but life giving Spirit permeating our lives.

Easy to say Paul, for you surely are using flowery words to build up your teaching. Au contraire, mon ami, Paul is not one to make a claim and then hope for the best. Paul is linking the life giving Spirit in our lives with the Life giving Spirit that RAISED JESUS from death. He refers to the most astounding, historically proven, evidentiary phenomenon ever witnessed on earth. The raising of the Son of God from a cruel torturous death.

Story Time

We had our grandsons out on the farm this weekend and as I was reading the Word to them as a bedtime story, I so happened to be in John 11, with the story of Lazarus.

As I provided more and more expression to the story of Jesus amongst those crying at the death of His friend, I ended the story as Lazarus came out of the grave, and then closed the Bible. I looked at my oldest grandson, and emphasized that no one has done this before. A man was dead and Jesus simply said to come forth. And he did!

His eyes expanded a wee bit, and though he has not experienced death in his young life, his expression reinforced the wonder of this miracle.

Yet as I considered the Messiah’s resurrection, I was reminded again that it is unlike Lazarus in many ways. Lazarus was raised to die again. It was as if he was resuscitated from death. Now I do not want to make light of the miracle of Lazarus, but in comparison to the raising of Jesus from the dead, it was a mere shadow of the reality.

Jesus was raised from the dead, never to die again. Never. Death has been killed, dying by the hand of God as the Messiah was called forth from the tomb!

This is the God we serve.

HE WHO RAISED CHRIST JESUS is the Spirit that resides in us, dwelling in our lives and providing guidance, compassion, strength and love.

He is good!

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

288

HE WHO OPENS AND NO ONE WILL SHUT, WHO SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS.

Revelation 3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

The concept of control is emphasized in this verse, of access to opportunities, to privileges and to greater blessings by the use of this terminology. It is somewhat common in the Word to find this over explanation of the authority over a situation.

Consider the Old Testament passage in Job

Job 12:14 If he tears down, none can rebuild; if he shuts a man in, none can open.

Centuries later, Isaiah picked up on this saying, expanded the emphasis and described the Messiah and His authority to provide access (or restriction) to the kingdom.

Isaiah 22:22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

This passage is the very passage John was referring to in our verse this morning. Isaiah is initially speaking of His “servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah”, and of how this man would be a “peg in a secure place”. It is a wonderful passage, speaking of the steadfastness and security of the Lord, that all the promises of God hang on God’s “Peg in a secure place” – that is the Lord Jesus in His ministry to His people.

A reiteration of a similar truth, that is of one having complete authority over a situation is recalled in Matthew when the Lord speaks to Peter this amazing promise.

Matthew 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

For our passage, the Lord is describing Himself with this name in the context of the Philadelphians being rejected from the synagogue. These young believers were being barred from the only religious community they had known, that they had grown up in, and that may still had many of their loved ones in.

Man, and any religion he is controlling, have just a few tools to influence their adherents. Peer pressure, fear and guilt are common, but their most powerful weapon is exclusion.

Take it from one who has been asked to leave a church body, a church body that we served in, we taught in, we gave to and we prayed for. People that we loved and prayed with, joined together under the church leadership and asked us to leave. It was heartbreaking, destructive and painful.

For these Philadelphians, they were rejected due to their allegiance to the Suffering Savior. The Jewish synagogue was committed in their denial of their Savior, and pain was the result.

Pain for the the Philadelphians, for they lost connections with loved one. Yet in the midst of this pain, they maintained a faith in the One who has the keys to the Kingdom, and not merely power over membership in a religious “club”. The Body of Christ is the greater good, the greater blessing, the greater connection. He is the One we need to look to for access that matters.

It is good to remember that the Body of Christ is a living organism that is not dependent on man’s rules, laws or organizations.

All of man’s religions have no authority like HE WHO OPENS AND NO ONE WILL SHUT, WHO SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS.

Let’s be so thankful, that though we may pass through some rejection from those around us, He who is above us has provided us access!

May God’s name 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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

287

HE WHO MADE THE PLEIADES AND ORION

Amos 5:8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name;

Amos is struggling with the people of Israel. He is pleading for them to repent, to consider the God they have abandoned.

His refrain throughout the first portion of chapter 5 is for Israel to “seek God and live”. Amos refers to Pleiades and Orion, major constellations referred to a number of times in the Old Testament and he speaks of the Lord making these two constellations. His hope is that the nation will understand the mighty Creator they have abandoned.

I’m afraid Israel did not “seek God and live”. Amos’ ministry was between 750 and 760 BC. Israel fell to the Assyrians, never to rise again, in 722.

They did not seek the One who made Pleiades and Orion, but another saint was challenged with these two constellations in his confrontation with the Creator God. That man was Job, and his encounter is worth considering, as we think of the Creator who made Pleiades and Orion.

God, in His response to Job’s whining, asks questions. A lot of questions. For our purposes, lets dwell on Job 38:3.

Job 38:31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?

Notice that God is asking Job if he can “bind” Pleiades, or “loose” the cords of Orion? In my imagination, these were simply poetic declarations of the Lord when speaking of Job’s inabilities. Simply a statement regarding Job’s inabilities when compared to the Creator of all.

I understood that no further details were intended for Job. But thousands of years later, astronomers have found that Pleiades, a grouping of 7 stars sometimes called the seven sisters is considered a “gravitationally bound” grouping of stars. These seven sisters are always together, always in the same position with each other. They are a stable constellation.

Now when I read that verse in Job, and consider His question to Job, I no longer simply think He was demonstrating Job’s inabilities. He was provided Job information that that he may not have understood. Did the ancients know of this trait of Pleiades?

Well, sit down, for the loosing of the cords of Orion also has additional truths revealed to Job and his friends they may not have known.

For you see, Orion with it’s seven stars, is unlike Pleiades, for it is a constellation that is drifting away from itself, gradually “falling apart” from its form. It is as if the cords keeping the seven stars together are being loosed.

Now doesn’t that make you thank God for being the Great and Awesome Creator that He is. He not only made the great constellations, but has revealed to his saints details beyond our comprehension.

For our Savior, the One who bled and died for us, is HE WHO MADE THE PLEIADES AND ORION.

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

286

HE WHO MADE GREAT LIGHTS

Psalm 136:7 to him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever;

We are visiting Psalm 136 again, and it is fitting that we do, for the psalm is a repetition of God’s great love for His people.

Throughout this psalm, the author has a refrain for every act of the Lord He has performed for His people.

That refrain is “His steadfast love endures forever.”

This must surely, I thought be the same psalm that in other translations speak of “His mercy endures forever”. But I am mistaken! The psalm I am thinking of is Psalm 118, where the psalmist picks up the same refrain, praising God for His steadfast love (again!)

Throughout the Old Testament, the scoffer and unbeliever focus on tragic history that occurs in the narrative, some of which occurred to accomplish God’s plan. This is a common, (and somewhat justified) complaint of those who have never met the Messiah. It is a method of deflecting blame from their own sin problem, blaming God for something they (and I) don’t fully understand!

Yet, it is repeated over and over again, not only instatements, but in His actions, that the Old Testament describes our Master as the One who is steadfast in His love for His people. Once the soul has tasted that the Lord is good, all complaints of prior history fades, for He suffered more than any, and He suffered for all.

We must remember that those who may have seemed to have died prematurely in a battle, in a war, or in fights that extended an earthly theocracy, were souls that belonged to God, that He is sovereign, and though I personally have struggled with some of the stories revealed in the Old Testament, it is of the will of God that has not only allowed or directed difficult times, but the same God who has revealed these actions to His people.

It is wise to not sit in judgement on the Creator!

Nevertheless, to Him who made the great lights, the great lights are referring to the sun, moon and stars as the following verses describes.

Psalm 136:8,9 the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever; the moon and stars to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever;

I could speak of the sheer magnitude of His creation of the lights, especially the sun. How massive in size, and critical for our existence is the sun. Yet the sun is simply one of a hundred billion million gazillion (alot!) stars spun out into space, that the psalmist could not have known of, yet the Creator provided.

This alone should stop us in our tracks, considering the incredible, unimaginable vastness of the creation! Yet the psalmist speaks of these creations, these great lights as they relate to the day to day order for lowly men and women on the earth.

Each day, the sun provides light, heat, and specific time periods for mankind to have order and experience a consistency of expectations. Each day, the sun will provide light, each night the stars will provide guidance and beauty. God’s people can rely on the Lord’s creation, and this provides a comfort to the saint, knowing God has provided a faithful creation, reflecting a faithful God.

But the psalmist speaks of steadfast love being the reason for this faithfulness in the performance of the great lights. It is the motivation of the Lord that the psalmist highlights, and that which we might do well to dwell on this morning.

His intention to us is fuels by a great steadfast love through creation, through our daily lives, through the food He supplies and the rest He provides. God has made the great lights because of His great love for us, even though we go about without recognizing this great blessing

Take a moment this day, in your travels, in the quiet, in that alone time and consider the great lights, whether daytime or nighttime, and give the Lord the recognition He so richly deserves.

For He is the God who made the Great Lights, and has given us the Light of Life to know Him.

Thank you Jesus.

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

285

HE WHO KEEPS WATCH OVER YOUR SOUL

Proverbs 24:12 If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?

Feigning ignorance is so common. In this world of knowledge, access to knowledge, abundant facts and figures, calculations, methods of analysis and data accumulation, to claim ignorance is a difficult sell.

Yet the argument can easily be made that with the abundance of knowledge available to the modern man, two results can occur.

With the flood of data pouring into our eye sockets, we may be numb to the impact of any specific piece of knowledge. We often do not have the time to consider the data, the impact of the data of our lives, and the proper response, if any. By the time we have consumed that morsel of information, another piece of information is knocking at the door of our minds, screaming to get in.

It is all a bit of an information overload!

Beyond the sheer over-abundance of information available to the modern man, we have an additional problem. Crappy data.

Information that is simply worthless, merely a distraction at best. I would suggest this is the bulk of information that is available today, and the motive is to gain the attention of a consumer, that soul who may not discriminate the data or the claims of the salesman, and simply be led into an agreement that will cost them more than the purchased product is worth.

Now, don’t get me wrong on this point, as the worthless data that I refer to is not simply associated with goods and services in the practical, physical world. Worthless data may also be information that is intended to distract the reader from better, wholesome, spiritual information.

Of course worthless data may be lumped in with data that is intended to deceive, to lead astray or to destroy.

Nevertheless, to feign ignorance in this modern age is a hard sell for the average person. Too much information is available, and our problem nowadays is sifting through to find the correct, factual and edifying information to build a correct and godly life upon.

Of course the data we can rely on is the Word, but as we read this passage above, I do not think Solomon is addressing scientific facts, mathematical equations or general truths all who breathe can know.

Solomon is talking of the responsibilities we have to live properly in relation to those around us. To love those whom we know, to care for those we may not know well, and to relate properly to those who may be our enemy.

After all, Solomon mentions our soul and heart, those containers of our lives that hold the important “stuff”, the stuff that we cannot feign ignorance of if we care about God and men.

If we are honest with ourselves, and avoid the distracting relentless barrage of data, we can know what Solomon is referring to. I suggest the Word provides guidance in this area through a prophet called Micah.

Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

We know inside and the Lord provides the external data to confirm our responsibilities before Him and His people.

He is the God who keeps watch over our soul, and though we know the best, He is the One who provides strength, guidance and external verification of our internal data, so we may be sure before Him.

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

284

HE WHO IS MIGHTY

Luke 1:49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

Grade 4, and Lyle was my bully. As a matter of fact, he was everyone’s bully. As I try to remember the times of grade 4, I can’t remember a time when Lyle actually proved his might, to establish this bully persona. He was all talk and never exercised any of the bravado he spoke.

What a great talker, and the threats he made to keep his people in order were poetic, majestic and terrifying. Remember – I was in grade 4 and Lyle was my first bully, (other than my two big brothers).

In that little mind of grade 4 Carl, Lyle was mighty. He had the power , the authority and the right to rule over all the kids in Miss Claxton’s class.

But was he mighty? Or is the secret of the bully fear induced submission? I think so, and there are a multitude of religions that are based on this model. Fear induced submission, from a bully type God.

The problem for the bully is that when push comes to shove, the bully usually collapses. His reign of fear begins to crack, and eventually those under him realize it was a might not based on fact but on fear!

Not so with the God of Israel, for He is mighty, and He proves it. The write of this verse confesses that God has “done great things for me”.

There are some in the Christian community that would view God as a bully type of deity, one who demands rule keeping, using threats to create obedience in his people. Is this the God we serve? Is this the message we see in the Messiah as He walked amongst us?

In this verse the Lord is one who is doing great things for his people. No hint of threatening, or danger of “being beaten up” if not compliant to his wishes. Nothing like that is mentioned in this verse. It is not the Lord who is speaking great swelling words, seeking to induce a fear based obedience, but the recipient of God’s goodness declaring the might of God because of God’s actual work the saint experienced.

So different than Lyle. Bullies have no might other than fear. God’s might is actual, experiential and evident.

We need to understand He who is Mighty is the God who shows His might by providing for His people, doing mighty things for those who love Him and even for those who don’t know Him.

He who is Mighty is better than Lyle. So much better, in so many ways!

---

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

283

HE WHO HAS PITY ON THEM

Isaiah 49:10 they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.

How often have we watched a poor sucker on the silver screen yell out “I don’t want your pity”, or “I don’t need your pity”? Admit it – even as this character is expressing his rejection of any pity, we tend to identify with him.

No one that I know seeks pity. Pity is a somewhat negative expression in our current understanding, toward those in a trial or difficulty. Pity in the English dictionary is defined as “sympathetic or kindly sorrow evoked by the suffering, distress, or misfortune of another”.

In our culture, to receive pity may be perceived as an expression of helplessness, of an inability to resolve a problem. It also places the one expressing pity as somewhat superior over the one receiving the pity, though I think this may be unintended many times. Nevertheless, the one receiving pity often considers the pity to be coming from someone who may never experience trials or troubles, and therefore cannot identify with them.

So when we see a passage such as today’s we may have incorrect thoughts regarding it. Let’s consider if this is a correct reaction.

First, for one to show pity, as expressed in this verse is to express compassion, as in a sharing of the burden. Per Gesenius’ Hebrew – Chaldee Lexicon, the term “pity” in Isaiah 49:16 has the idea of “cherishing, soothing, and in a gentle emotion of the mind, to behold with tenderest affection, to be compassionate”.

There doesn’t appear to be any expression of superiority in this display of pity over the one needing help. It is an expression of love. That is perty dang good news, if it was only in relation to those of our own peers. The simple understanding of “pity” in our verse as expressing “being with someone” in a trial is comforting to say the least.

To further assist in our correct reaction to this somewhat negative word is to consider the One offering compassion (pity).

He is superior, far above our condition and status, greater in every way, and if our understanding of pity was correct in the original discussion, we could assign it to the One above and it would correctly fit in expressing His possible reaction to those of us in trouble. All of us, that is!

But for the only One who is actually superior to us, He uses a different concept of pity, a pity that is better expressed as compassion in our understanding. He is “with us” in our trials. To have compassion is to be moved with the pity, to take action instead of simply feeling bad.

As the Lord walked this earth, He expressed compassion on many. Note that when He expressed compassion, actions accompanied this emotion.

Mark 8:2, 8 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.
And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.

So in summary, God truly is greater than us and in our current understanding of pity, could rightly express this emotion. Yet there is much more to this passage than applying our incorrect understanding of pity to our God.

He not only enters into our trial, but He takes action. It is not only an expression of emotion, but a solution provided, an action taken to assist in the trial.

For those Isaiah was preaching to, this assistance from the hand of God was His leading and guiding them through the wilderness and to the springs of water.

As I grow older in the Lord, this leading and guiding is becoming much more critical in my faith. To think the Sovereign of the Universe is willing, no, not only willing but desires to guide us is an incredible truth.

I will take His pity! I will seek His compassion. For HE WHO HAS PITY ON THEM has had much pity (compassion) on me.

May you find the compassion of God in His leading also. It is a blessing that should not be ignored nor rejected.

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

282

HE WHO GIVES FOOD TO ALL FLESH

Psalm 136:25 he who gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever.

We find this Name of God in a psalm that begins by thanking God for His enduring, steadfast love.

Psalm 136:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
Psalm 136:2 Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever.
Psalm 136:3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever;

I have been considering what it means for His love to endure forever, and the implications are somewhat disruptive to my current thinking of our God, but for this post, I would like to consider one expression of this enduring, steadfast love of God.

This one expression of the steadfast love of God towards His creation (all flesh) is His continual provision of food.

Some may argue that this provision is simply the “circle of life” or the ongoing process of nature. For the non-domesticated animal, the wildlife all around us, God’s provision is evident.

Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

These non-domesticated animals are wholly dependent on the Father, and all of creation exhibits this truth.

For the domesticated animal, farm critters that is, humans get involved, and these animals existence is directly dependent on a human intermediary. Of course this implies in both the man’s thinking, and the animal’s thinking (I assume) that man is the source of all provisions.

This passage forces us to reconsider that assumption. We will let the animal think what it wants, but for us who know the Lord, two things grow out of this statement.

A Thankfulness.

This is the natural, obvious result of a man or woman who understands all provisions come from the hand of the Lord. Whether it is through the sweat of our brow, (as a tradesman) or the pain of our brain, (as an office geek) or the reward of our labors (as a retired soul), each of us have been given in measure the ability, the energy, the desire and the work ethic to accumulate provisions for ourselves and for others. And we are thankful!

A Challenge.

In the day to day push and shove of all the trials in gaining our necessary provisions, we easily fall into the trap of thinking it is all about us. We go through the stress and worry (which is unnecessary and wrong), we go through the grind of employer’s and client’s expectations, and of course we endure the constant peer pressure of others. On top of all that, we may tend to want to escape, just to have a short time when the pressure has been removed.

No matter how much you may love your job, pressures mount, and we may very (very) easily fall into thinking it is all about us, that everything is dependent on our performance, our efforts, our work.

It takes a focused heart to reject that thinking and to see in each of our situations the hand of God providing (through our efforts) the good things we are provided.

Let me share a short story of my learning this truth a few years back.

I was fired from a job due to my wife being sick. A bit of a long story, but I gave my employer short notice, since the sickness did arrive abruptly, and he told me to get in to the office in 30 minutes or not come in at all. I lived 40 minutes away, but beside that, I was not about to leave my wife’s side!

For the next two months, we saw the Lord provide our needs, though we told absolutely no one of this situation other than Him. He was the One we prayed to, and He was the One who provided. In the end, He also provided a position with a firm that has given me opportunities beyond my imagination.

I am thankful for His provisions, whether it is through the sweat of my brow, the pain of my brain, or the direct intervention of the Father above.

He is good, and He is the One WHO GIVES FOOD TO ALL FLESH.

By the way, I saw that old boss at a conference lately. He thought I had died. (He is 15 years older than I!) Nevertheless, it was good seeing him and reconnecting!

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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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

To come in the Name of the Lord. What does that mean? What did it mean when these crowds shouted out “in the name of of the Lord” In the Name of the Lord, we may understand the Lord’s… IDENTITY Did the crowds understand this Rabbi’s true identity? Were they openly confessing He was Emmanuel, God with us? Some identified His person clearly and without hesitation. Matthew 16:16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” As He was heralded by the crowd as coming in the Name of the Lord, His disciples must have been beaming. They had hitched their horse to a winner! Little did they understand the extent this Rabbi would go to display the heart of God, revealing the identity of our God beyond what we and they could have imagined. Jesus identified the True God as a sacrificially loving Servant to those who despise and would crucify Him. Who could have identified God in such a way, providing to all such a glorious act of love to those who hate Him, even to death. None other than the One who came in the Name of the Lord. He revealed the identity of God in a manner beyond any of our imaginations. In the Name of the Lord, we may understand the Lord’s… CHARACTER Surely, after watching His miracles, listening to His message and seeing His life amongst them fully on display, the crowd most surely associated this Rabbi as God’s prophet. The Rabbi lived a life that could not be condemned and though He was sentenced to death, it was through deceit and malice. His character was stellar, without a blemish, and perfect for a sacrifice. 1 Peter 1:19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Perfect, without blemish as a sacrifice. In the Name of the Lord, we may understand the Lord’s… AUTHORITY Authority is the right to command an action without being challenged. Of course, the Lord is the Almighty, the One who spoke and galaxies began their existence, a small blue ball grew a garden and He granted life to two souls. He parted the waters, and defeated the enemies. Jesus, as He came down to be with His people, continued exhibiting His authority, over and over again. We see Him exercising His authority over the laws of nature (calming the wind and sea), the laws of physics, (walking on the water) the laws of biology (healing the blind and deaf), and the law of sin and death (raising multiple dead people). He displayed His authority over and over again, yet not for Himself. Throughout His time with us, He did not exercise His authority for His own sake, from not in creating bread for His hunger, through to deliverance from His suffering. The One Coming in the Name of the Lord truly exhibited God’s identity, character and authority more than any in the crowd could have imagined.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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.

I am going to confess to those who follow and read my rants, that I am a cessationist. A hardcore cessationist? It is a conviction I have developed over the last four decades, in my studies and in outworking of those who propose the continuation of the gifts in this age. Before I go any further, let me explain. To be a cessationist is to say that I do not believe prophecy, speaking in tongues, and apostolic healing have continued throughout the church age. These gifts to the church were provided to establish and authenticate the church, and once established as God’s Temple, was no longer required. We have the apostolic teaching, and the very present Spirit of the Lord with us each and every moment. The sign gifts are no longer required. Is this a stance that should separate true brothers and sisters in the Lord? Absolutely not, for I know I have things in my life many may consider “blind spots”, areas that may need correcting or at least discussion. Let each man have his faith, as long as it is in the Messiah! Habakkuk 2:4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. So when a passage describing the “One who works miracles among you” comes up in my reading, do I automatically refer that to the old days, to the times when God was establishing the church, authenticating His new Temple? Yes and no. You see, I have lived under His leadership and care for over forty years, and have seen His gracious provision in many quiet miracles in my life. The restoration of my grandson from a drowning, to the timely supply of 87 cents needed to feed my first born for a night. I might claim there is no global need for miracles, no global need for signs, no global need for establishing the church. The church is here and the church is established globally. But that does not restrict the Lord from providing miracles out of a gracious heart to His people. The time of providing authentication has passed. His Body is alive and active globally, triumphing over His enemies. But for the individual saint, the one who is following hard after Him, or for that saint who may be struggling, considering his options and in a place of weakness, the Lord provides miracles according to His wisdom, according to His kindness and care for His people, according to His mercy. Is He a God who works miracles among you? Definitely! Open your eyes and be willing to see the work of God in your life!

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible