The Names of God: El Shaddai

El Shaddai: The Almighty God

Psalms 91:1 KJV

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Psalms 84:10-11 KJV

10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Thursday night, I held my youngest son and cried myself to sleep, cried because of the cruelty of this world. Earlier in the evening I had been reminded of just exactly why I don't watch the news. The headlines and stories are heartbreaking, full of evil, and leave me physically sick thinking of how much my small town has now become like the world, they've become the same, no longer inseparable. No longer can I say I live in a Mayberry-esque town because the things that I read Thursday night don't happen in Mayberry. Parents in Mayberry loved their children. They protected them from all harm and taught them right from wrong. The parents in Mayberry didn't become the monsters hiding in the closet. Abuse, sexual, physical, or mental, was unheard of in Mayberry, unthought of. But the reality is that Mayberry was never real. Sheriff Andy Taylor never existed. Aunt Bee never cooked and cleaned the house while Opie was at school. Barney Fife never carried his single bullet in his pocket. Mayberry was too good, too innocent to be true. 

Today, children aren't safe in their own homes, aren't safe from their own parents and siblings, much less the strangers that live in their towns. The reality is that sin entered into the world with Adam and Eve and the majority of the generations of men living today have given up on fighting the evil battling to completely possess their hearts. What other explanation do we have for a "mother" to allow the sexual abuse of her own children and knowingly allow them to sexually abuse other children, innocents as young as 6 and 3 years old?

My first reaction to this news article was to call for a courthouse lynching, to string this woman up and send her straight to hell. But as I cried myself to sleep, clutching Devlin and breathing in his sweet baby scent, I found myself asking for forgiveness of those thoughts. What that woman did deserves eternal punishment, hellfire and brimstone, unending torment. But I was reminded that as a sin sick, flesh woman myself, I too deserve the same fate. No, my crimes, my sins, in no way amount to the sickness, evil, and dementedness that her actions do, but that doesn't matter because our fates were once the same. I would still be headed towards an eternity in flames where the worm dieth not, if not for El Shaddai, The Almighty God, The All-Sufficient God. El Shaddai, in His infinite love for us sent His only begotten Son to take our punishment. His sacrifice became sufficient for my sins and all I had to do was accept Him as The Almighty God, my Savior.

If she so chooses, this woman too, as vile and evil as I believe her to be, can find forgiveness, mercy, and grace, just as I did at the feet of The Almighty God. And the children involved will find love, pure, selfless, all encompassing love in El Shaddai. Though they have a lifetime of issues to work through, He is sufficient. His unending mercy and grace will be sufficient to see them through this lifetime until they are in His presence. I just pray that they have someone in their lives who loves them enough to introduce them to the Man who can be their strength and sustainer, El Shaddai.

The Names of God: Adonai-Lord

Adonai-Lord: Master

Adonai-Lord indicates the sovereignty of God. The Master is the one who assumes control of a situation. The servant, seeks to know and to do the will of his Master.

Genesis 15:2 KJV
And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

Abram was in a pickle. He was old, rich, and had no heir. He knew if he were to die, all that he had worked for, all that God had blessed him with, would go to some servant in his household, not his own flesh and blood. Never mind that he was being less than grateful or faithful. God had already made a powerful and bountiful covenant with him in Genesis 12:1-3 and renewed that covenant again in Genesis 13:14-18. God had assured Abram twice now that his seed would number as the dust of the earth. But Abram, like the rest of us doubted after time had passed and he was still childless. Abram was flesh, just like you, just like me. His faith faltered a little. He stumbled a bit in his walk. 

Yet the knowledge that God was still God was clear when Abram called upon Him in Genesis 15:2. The Hebrew for Lord GOD in this verse is Adonai-Lord, Master. There may have been a little doubt creeping in and beginning to clutch at his heart but the truth remained, the truth that God is Master, He is in complete control. And because He is our Master, we are to serve Him, trust Him, and have faith in Him.

And like the loving and merciful Master He is, when Abram reminded Him that he was still childless, God, Adonai, promised him his heart's desire. But not only did He promise Abram an heir from his own loins, He promised for the third time that Abram's seed would number as the stars in the heavens. 

Three times now, God had spoken to Abram and told him he would be the father of many nations, and somehow this was still not sufficient for him. Once again he got impatient, restless, and he took matters into his own hands, and Ishmael was conceived. 

Astoundingly though, God once again renewed His covenant with Abram after Ishmael's birth. This was a sure sign of His love and patience with us. Were it any other father and son, I imagine there would've been much yelling and throwing hands in the air. But He remained long-suffering, even through His promise to Sarah of a son as she laughed at the absurdity of a child at her age. 

Finally in Genesis 21, when Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90, Isaac was born and the rest is history as they say.

It took 25 years for Abraham to begin to see the fulfilling of the covenant God had made with him in Genesis 12, but that certainly did not mean that God was not in control every minute of those 25 years. And when you think about it, to only have to be reminded 3 times in a quarter of a century that God is in control, that He is Master and you are servant is pretty astonishing. It seems He has to remind me at least a dozen times in 24 hours. 

But He is. He is Master. And He is in control of each and every situation, whether it be spiritual, financial, physical, or mental, He is Master. He created the heavens and the earth...He can cure cancer with a single thought. He breathed life into dust and made man...He can put life in even the most barren of wombs. Through His Son, He took 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes and fed 5,000...He can see any bill paid, any mouth fed. 

He took one man's faltering faith and made him the father of many nations. 

Here I am Adonai-Lord, use me up, make me your righteous and faithful servant.

Adonai

One single drop of rain

Your salty tear became blue ocean

One tiny grain of sand turning in your hand

A world in motion

You're out beyond the furthest Morning Star

Close enough to hold me in Your arms

Adonai, I lift up my heart and I cry

My Adonai

You are the Maker of each moment

Father of my hope and freedom

Oh, my Adonai

One timid faithful knock

Resounds upon the Rock of Ages

One trembling heart and soul

Becomes a servant bold and courageous

You call across the mountains and the seas

I answer from the deepest part of me

Adonai, I lift up my heart and I cry

My Adonai

You are the Maker of each moment

Father of my hope and freedom

Oh, my Adonai

From age to age you reign in Majesty

And today You're making miracles in me

Adonai, I lift up my heart and I cry

My Adonai

You are the Maker of each moment

Father of my hope and freedom

Oh, my Adonai

The Names of God: Jehovah-LORD

Jehovah-LORD: "The Self-Existent One"

Exodus 3:14 KJV

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

I think that there are several stages in a person's life when "Why" becomes their favorite question. I know my boys have certainly tested the limits of my patience with that question. And sometimes my favorite response is "Because I said so." And I imagine as they grow up and continue to test the boundaries their Daddy and I set for them, they'll continue to ask "Why" and my response will probably continue to be "Because I said so" or some variation. And as they continue to grow into adults and have disappointments and curiosities, they'll keep asking, and they may receive an answer and they may not. But eventually it's the "Whys" that drive us. They can drive us mad or they can drive us to action. They can drive us towards God or away from God. 

I've uttered the question in disbelief, I've screamed it in anger, I've groaned it in pain. And in those times the answer is the hardest to understand. Each and every time I have lost a baby, I've run the gauntlet of these emotions and I've wanted that one question answered.

This past week as I listened to a woman recount her friend's story of tragic stillbirth, I softly asked "Why Lord?" Why did He let her pregnancy reach 30 weeks and then call her baby girl home? Over the weekend I sobbed "Why Lord?" in crushed disappointment because I missed the birth of my first great-nephew. Why when He knew how much I wanted to be there for my niece did He keep me from her?  And as I sat tonight and heard a sweet friend confide in me her loss of a precious baby boy 11 years ago, I wondered "Why Lord?" Why has she had to carry the burden of this loss alone all these years? 

I think as a Christian the "Whys" are harder to deal with than any other question because we have to have faith that He has a perfect will for each and every one of us. It's not as simple as asking "Why does the Earth revolve around the Sun?" or "Why do earthquakes happen?" We can't just pull up Google and ask God why life happens the way that it does. But we can turn to His Word and find comfort. The great I AM sent me each and every one of my babies, just as He sent Moses to lead the children of Israel out of bondage. And when they fulfilled their earthly purpose He called my babies home again, just as He'll do with Kieran and Devlin when they fulfill their purpose for Him, just as He did with Moses, just as He does with us all. Each positive pregnancy test was not a promise of a life here on earth with that baby but an eternity spent worshiping my Jesus side by side with my baby. We are never promised eternal life here on earth but in a perfect Heaven with a perfect Father when we accept His perfect Gift.

We may never have an answer for our "Whys" here on this earth but we can have faith that the Self-Existent One, the great I AM, has a true and perfect answer.

The Eternal Life

(to the tune of Auld Lang Syne)

It singeth low in every heart,

We hear it each and all;

A song of those who answer not,

However we may call.

They throng the silence of the breast;

We see them as of yore;

The kind, the true, the brave, the sweet,

Who walk with us no more.

 ’Tis hard to take the burden up,

When these have laid it down;

They brightened all the joy of life,

They softened every frown.

But, Oh, ’tis good to think of them

When we are troubled sore;

Thanks be to God that such have been,

Though they are here no more.

 More home-like seems the vast unknown

Since they have entered there;

To follow them were not so hard,

Wherever they may fare.

They cannot be where God is not,

On any sea or shore;

Whate’er betides, Thy love abides,

Our God, forevermore.

The Names of God: Elohim-God

Elohim-God, The Strong and Faithful One. 

Psalms 90:2

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

I'll just be honest tonight. I'm sitting here in the middle of my very own pity party, ugly crying and everything in my living room while Brandon and the boys sleep soundly. 

And over what? 

My time. 

There aren't enough hours in the day to do all that I need or want to do. Not enough time for housework or homework, not enough time to blog or to update our ministry website, not enough time to prepare for my women's meeting devotion next week or vacation Bible school, not enough time to cook supper - much less eat it, not enough time to do our yard work, not enough time to play with my boys, not enough time to spend with my husband, and not enough time for me to read, to sew, to sit down and enjoy Netflix without worrying about my never-ending "to do" list. And someone please tell me where to find enough time to sleep. I am crying over time spent doing everything but what ought to be done, time spent on everyone else but myself. It is a selfish, hateful pity party. 

And as I sit here typing my list of obligations, priorities, and wants and crying because there is not enough time for myself during the day, it is glaringly obvious that there isn't enough time for what ought to be my number one priority, my Jesus. Where in my list was I worried that there wasn't enough time for Jesus in my day? I wasn't. He was an afterthought, put on the back burner until I could find 5 minutes for Him that I wasn't selfishly wanting for myself. 

What if Elohim-God felt that way about me? What if I was just an afterthought to Him, just a muttered prayer at bedtime, what if He went all day and never once thought of me? If The Strong and Faithful One were as selfish as me, I'd not even be here, none of us would be. He'd never have sent His Son to shed His blood on Calvary if He were as selfish and as hateful as I am feeling right now. 

But from everlasting to everlasting, He is Elohim-God, He is strong and He is faithful. And He'll still love me when I wipe the tears from my face and ask forgiveness for the selfish way I've behaved. He'll still love me even though there wasn't enough time to finish my homework this week. He'll still love me even though there is a mountain of laundry to do and a pile of dishes to wash. He'll still love me even though my yard needs tended to. And He'll still love me even though I desperately want to sit down and binge watch Netflix and eat the hidden stash of Easter candy I have. 

But what He wants is for me to give Him my time. He wants me to wake with His name on lips and fall asleep uttering His praises at night. He wants me to spend my time in His Word during the day and come to Him with thanksgiving not just wanting and needing. He wants me to grow strong in His Word and be faithful in my love. He wants me to spend as much time with Him as I want to spend on myself. 

From everlasting to everlasting, He is Elohim-God, He is strong, He is faithful, and He deserves my time.