The Names of God: El Olam

El Olam: The Everlasting God

Psalms 90:1-2

[A Prayer of Moses the man of God.]

1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

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.

Isaiah 40:28

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

I like to do a series with the blog posts because it focuses my thoughts and writing rather than just writing about random thoughts. And I like the series posts because when I'm done with one I immediately begin thinking about the next. Sometimes this means I have the next post up in a couple of days but usually it's a week. But everyday for that week I am thinking about the next post in the series and how my life factors in to what I'm studying about. I know I probably sound redundant at times because I write about losing Lachlan and my other babies, about the changes in Brandon over the last 3 years, about my fears and dreams for my boys - but I can only write what I know, what I feel, what I see. I can only write my story because God has given it to me to use to glorify Him.

So this week as I thought about El Olam, the Everlasting God, and my story, I was overwhelmed at the magnitude of what this name of God means.

It simply means that God and all He is, all He represents, all of His promises are eternal, without end, lasting forever. His love. His mercy. His forgiveness. His grace. His compassion. His comfort. His shelter. His longsuffering. His glory. His goodness. His gentleness. His hope. His faith. His peace. His redemption. His righteousness. His joy.

We could never deserve Him. Never work to gain His favor. Never be good enough for His eternal and everlasting greatness. 

And yet in all His eternal majesty He still created us, still spared us from the flood, spared us from hell by sending His only begotten Son. He loved us more than we could possibly fathom. 

El Olam has been our dwelling place in all generations, from beginning to end. 

He fainteth not, neither is He weary. He never tires of hearing our problems but He deserves our praises. He never tires of comforting our sorrows but He deserves our sacred songs. He never tires of loving us in spite of our sins but He deserves our lives to be lived in fear and service, truth and love of Him.

There is no searching His understanding. We cannot know in this life why He chose to send Jesus to die for our sins, aside from eternal love. But He did choose to. Before the mountains were brought forth, before He formed the earth and world, the everlasting to everlasting God knew my story and chose to send His Son to die so that I could tell it. 

I Just Wanted You To Know

You made dry ground where once were oceans 

Where once were mountains You made them low 

Where there were stones, now there is water 

You satisfy my thirsty soul 

There's strength in knowing You are near me 

That peace that You, alone bestow 

I love You more today than ever and I just wanted You to know 

Where there is fear Lord You will hide 

when winds of danger around me roll 

I feel your arms of grace around me and I just wanted you to know 

All those times I've seen your glory 

And how You've conquered my every foe 

My love for you is overflowing 

And I just wanted-- Lord I just needed! 

My heart is longing for You to know... 

and I just wanted You to know

5 Crowns of the Christian Life: The Crown of Righteousness

The Crown of Righteousness

2 Timothy 4:8
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 

This crown is for those who look for the appearing of Christ, who anxiously await and look forward to the day when He will return for His saints. It is given to those who have lived a good and righteous life for God while here on this earth.

Before this past Christmas, I honestly did not know what Advent meant. I had seen DIY Advent Calendars on Pinterest, counting down the days until Christmas. But I didn't really think that is what Advent meant in the spiritual sense, little chocolates in calendar pockets. So I did a little bit of studying and learned that Advent is the preparation of our hearts for Christ’s coming. It is generally celebrated in the four weeks leading up to Christmas but truly Advent should be celebrated year round. We should continually be preparing our hearts for Him, looking for His coming, and love knowing that just any minute He could appear. We should be like kids waiting for Christmas morning.

There is an evangelist that Brandon and I like to listen to and one night on the way to church we were listening to him preach a message. In that message he told a story and it was so powerful and so convicting that I will never forget it. It went like this:

There was a man, a preacher, who went on a mission trip to Africa. He went with several other preachers and men of God, to preach the Gospel and spread Christ's love. After being there many days, they made one last stop before preparing to return home to the States. They stopped at an orphanage for mentally handicapped and disabled children, hoping to present the Word of God to them. The director led them on a tour of the home first, before meeting the children. The house was in immaculate condition, the men could've eaten breakfast right off the floor...except for one low corner window that faced the road in the front room of the house. Intrigued, one of the preachers asked the director why that window was so dirty, smudged and streaked with fingerprints, when the rest of the house was spic and span. She looked at him, and then looked at the children playing around them in the house and she told him that there was something that he needed to know. This group of missionaries he was with was not the first group of missionaries to pass by their little orphanage. Other men of God had been that way before and had told the children of a man named Jesus who loved them in spite of their imperfections, who loved them when they had been abandoned by everyone else, who loved them enough to shed His blood at Calvary for them and that He would return for them one day, to take them to an eternal home. The director looked from the children to the window and back to the men and told them that the window was so dirty because every morning after breakfast, those children crowded around that window, pressing their faces and hands to the glass, and they watched down the road for the man named Jesus who loved them enough to die for them. They waited and they watched for Him to come and take them home.

I can not think of a more beautiful description of what the receiver of the Crown of Righteousness looks like, lives like, loves like. Those precious children, whose minds weren't clouded and corrupted by the world, whose innocence was pure and sweet, they understood what so many of us can't. They understood that salvation is just that simple, that beautiful, that loving. They understood that all they needed to do was to believe that He had shed His blood just for them and believe that He would return for them one day. They believed so wholeheartedly that they sat, waiting and watching for Him every single day.

What have I done today? Have I thanked Him for His sacrifice for me, for my children, for the world around me? Have I shared His love with anyone today? Have I waited and watched for Him with the anticipation of a child on Christmas? Because what He did for me was a gift, a priceless gift. Do I cherish it enough to anxiously await His coming? 

I want to live my life in a season of continual Advent, preparing my heart for His return. I want to be there, with my face and hands pressed to the glass, anxiously awaiting Him when I hear that trumpet blow and I see Him step out on the clouds. I want to know that He has laid up for me in heaven a Crown of Righteousness.

The Beatitudes: Blessed Are Those Which Do Hunger and Thirst

Matthew 5:6 KJV
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

This morning I woke up as normal. Bright and early to two beautiful blond, blue-eyed boys. We went about our morning routine: potty, breakfast, Annabelle's breakfast (the 6 month old eats-me-out-of-house-and-home German Rottweiler puppy that my boys adore even if she does dwarf them in size and weight), cartoon time and my time to catch up on all that happened in the 6 hours of sleep I was able to get. Nothing unusual this morning. I scrolled through Facebook, mentally noting the prayer requests I came across, silently asking God to do His will in the situations. Then my phone vibrated with a text message. Another prayer request for a local family who lost their 17 year old son in a fatal car accident this morning. I knew the family, though not well, but knew many people who were very close to the family and their son. My heart began to break for his family and loved ones. A tragedy such as this is unimaginable. I prayed for the Lord to comfort his family as only He can. 

I thought about them throughout the day and tonight as I prayed with my boys and tucked them into bed, I thought about the boy.

I thought about him and his Momma and how I would feel if I were in her place. And the thought came to me as I kissed my boys goodnight, that we never know what the morning holds, much less the next minute. And if I were in this Momma's place, the one thing I would want to know for certain is that my boys had accepted Christ as their Savior. I would want to know that I had done everything in my power to show them Christ's love, to walk in His righteous path, to live in the Spirit and to direct them to Him. I would want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they loved the Lord Jesus with all their heart and believed that He was crucified on Calvary for their sins. I would want to know that I had so hungered and thirsted after His righteousness that my boys hungered and thirsted too. I would want to know that when He filled me up it overflowed and filled my babies up too. If I had to trade places with that Momma and think for a single second that I had not done every single thing humanly possible to lead my sons to the Lord, if I thought that there was even the slightest chance they did not have the full pardon of salvation, I would not be able to live another day. 

Our number one priority as a parent should be to raise our children to know the love of their Savior. If we never did another thing right but to see our children accept Christ as their Redeemer, then we'd have done the most important thing right.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.

Lord,
I pray tonight that you be with this family who has lost their son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, high school sweetheart, and friend. Lord I pray that they seek Your Face for comfort and for guidance. I pray Lord that they have the security in knowing their son was one of Yours, a Child of the King. I pray Lord that his death not be in vain, I pray that in seeking solace in this tragedy that some lost sinner may find You and Your Redeeming Grace. 

Lord I pray tonight and every night that you would take my hand and lead me, guide me, show me Your way. Show me how to be a godly Momma, wife, daughter, and servant. Show me how to raise my boys in Your glory and admonition. Lord I pray that when the time is right, when You prick their hearts and beckon them to come to You, that they not hesitate a single second. I pray Lord to always hunger and thirst after righteousness and to be filled by your presence in Heaven some sweet day with my boys by my side.

In Jesus Sweet Name I Do Pray,
Love You Jesus,
Aman

Child of the King

Once I was clothed in the rags of my sin,

Wretched and poor, lost and lonely within.

But with wondrous compassion, the King of all kings,

In pity and love, took me under His wings.

Oh, yes, oh yes, I'm a child of the King

His royal blood now flows in my veins.

And I who was wretched and poor now can sing

Praise God, praise God, I'm a child of the King.

Now I'm a child with a Heavenly home,

My Holy Father has made me His own.

And I'm cleansed by His blood, and I'm clothed in His love,

And some day I'll sing with the angels above.

Oh, yes, oh yes, I'm a child of the King

His royal blood now flows in my veins.

And I who was wretched and poor now can sing

Praise God, praise God, I'm a child of the King.