The Names of God: Jehovah-Roah

Jehovah-Roah: The LORD Our Shepherd

Psalm 23:1

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

John 10:11

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

Hebrews 13:20, 21

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Last night I sat, nursing my daughter, and watched men carry my Papaw into his home on a stretcher so that he might spend his last days resting comfortably, not surrounded by strangers and beeping machines, wires, and tubes. But in the home he built with his own two hands, the home in which his children grew up in, his grandchildren played in, and his wife passed gently through the Gates of Heaven in. Home is where he most wants to be. Home is the one place in this world that he feels safest in. He is surrounded by his books, his pictures of Mamaw, his family. But it is also the one place that I believe he feels closest to the Lord in. The walls of that home have seen much over the last 50 years and the Lord has met him there in times of both trouble and joy, in times of sorrow and praise. Papaw has met the Lord there in days spent pouring over His Word, in nights spent in prayer over his family, in theological debates with friends. I know He has met him there because He has met me there a time or two as well.  

And just like the sheep that we are, when in times of trouble, we look for, we run to our Shepherd. And just as He left the ninety and nine to seek out that one little lost lamb, I believe Jehovah-Roah is there by that bedside to gently guide my Papaw to his heavenly and eternal home.

The end for my Papaw is near and for those of us that he will leave behind, the coming days and months are going to be extremely difficult. He is not just our father or our grandfather, he is a friend, a mentor, a guiding light and a solid foundation. He is a testament of the Lord's goodness and grace. He is hard, he is stubborn, he is grouchy, but he knows just what to say in times of trouble, he knows how to make you laugh, and though his "I love you"s are few and far between, he knows just when you needed to hear them most. 

Yes, Jehovah-Roah is there with my Papaw this morning, but He is also here with me as I try to explain to my children what is soon coming. He is at the bedside of the baby who at only a month old has already endured pain and suffering the likes of which many of us will never see and yet is fighting to survive. He is with her parents and her siblings as they struggle through exhaustion, worry, wavering faith. He is with the Christian who has lost his way and is fighting the grips of addiction. He is seeking out the lost girl standing on the street corner doing the unthinkable just to live another day. He is with the child who is hiding in the corner while his daddy lays hands on his momma. He is with the tired saint who is sick of the sin and corruption in this world and is longing for a foreign land. He has given the sacrifice for His sheep that only He can give so that we may leave wild thorns of the wilderness behind and be welcomed into the fold.

Jehovah-Roah, Our Shepherd, He maketh us to lie down in green pastures, beside still waters so that He may restore our souls and lead us down paths of righteousness. He is there to guide His sheep safely through the valley of the shadow of death, be it a death of the flesh or a spiritual death, His rod and His staff there to guide us, comfort us. He preparest a table before us, while we are yet here in the presence of our enemies, so that we may be anointed, our cups running over, goodness and mercy following all the days of our lives, dwelling in the House of Jehovah-Roah forever. 

The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want.

The Names of God: Jehovah-Maccaddeshcem

The LORD Our Sanctifier

Exodus 31:13 
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The biblical means of sanctification is not an eradication of man's sin nature but rather God's setting a man apart for some reason. 

He sets us apart when we accept Christ as our Lord & Savior. This is not a setting apart like the 1% of the population that lives outlandishly with every material thing they could ever want or ever need at their fingertips. This is not a setting apart like a culling, where the sick & infected are removed & quarantined them to protect the rest of the population. No, the setting apart is not an isolation in either extreme. Rather its inclusion with a greater purpose, a calling, to glorify & honor God in every single situation & circumstance in your life...whatever, no matter what it may be. 

Sanctification by Jehovah-Maccaddeshcem comes in many forms, sometimes painful, sometimes joyful, always necessary. For us, sanctification by the Lord has looked like this: we lost our home to a fire, a month later we miscarried our first baby, 18 months of infertility followed. Infertility was ended by the joyful news of our second pregnancy, at 5 months pregnant we learned our son no longer had a heartbeat, I labored & delivered him & we laid him to rest. A third pregnancy followed, it included 20 weeks of bedrest, medication, endless tests, a failed induction & finally a c-section to welcome our son. A tumultuous year began as did a fourth pregnancy, a perfect pregnancy which resulted in another son. It also resulted in the disowning of my husband by his parents because of my husband's decision that we were lacking something in our lives that alcohol & a false knowledge of God could never fill, God Himself. One might think that once we made the decision to put God first in our lives that the sanctification process was complete. But that is wholly untrue. The next half of our story includes 8 months of unemployment, food stamps, financial ruin, 2 more miscarriages, an answer to the call of my husband to preach the Gospel, the pastoring & resigning of our first church, the birth & NICU stay of our first daughter, & the complete humbling of ourselves to God's will & purpose. 

What does any of that have to do with being wholly sanctified by God? It sounds like a pity party full of rotten & miserable circumstances with a few sunny times thrown in just to keep us off the ledge. But it is anything but that. It was opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to glorify & honor God. Sometimes we did & it made bearing the burden of that situation all the easier to bear, it made helping others who were in the midst of what we had come through a blessing & a privilege. Sometimes we didn't & we bore the hurt, the anger, & the bitterness of our situation. But God in His infinite mercy & grace, chipped away at those callouses on our hearts & He gave us a purpose. He gave us Himself. 

The biblical means of sanctification is not an eradication of man's sin nature but rather God's setting a man apart for some reason. It is a process. One that begins immediately upon Salvation & does not end until I kneel at His feet, where I pray that He lifts me up & proclaims "Well done my child". 

He has called us out to live out from amongst the world while still walking within it. It's hard. It's messy. It's painful. But it's also beautiful, joyful, & overwhelmingly good in so many ways. 

Sanctification means Living Him, Loving Him, Longing for Him, in every opportunity given, good & bad, painful & pleasant. 

The Names of God: Jehovah-Shammah

Jehovah-Shammah: The LORD Is There

This name of God emphasizes His presence. 

Ezekiel 48:35b: ...and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.

Exodus 3:12a: And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee:

Matthew 28:20b: ...and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

After a history of miscarriages, burying our stillborn son, and battling periods of infertility, my pregnancy with Reaghan was like a cool breeze on a sunny day. It was perfect. She was perfect. But still, I worried. Once that seed of doubt in your body's ability to carry a baby to term has been planted, it is hard to uproot. The devil tends to it, making it flourish with every twinge your body makes, at every doctor appointment where it takes a split second longer than it did the last time to find a heartbeat. He is the Master of Lies in the Garden of Doubt and Deceit. 

Yet, despite the odds that the devil made sure to let me know were stacked against me, I carried a healthy baby to term and had a healthy pregnancy. My water breaking in the middle of the night 10 days before my scheduled c-section was a fun and exciting surprise. We hurried to the hospital and Reaghan Delainey-James was born less than 7 hours later, tiny but oh so perfect. We were in love and praising our Savior for His mercy and grace. 

But our time in the sun was quickly overshadowed. 

She was tiny. Tinier than we'd expected at just 5lbs 1oz and seemed to be having trouble stabilizing her blood sugar on her own. She was working hard and nursing like a champion but was burning off all her energy as soon as she was taking it in. They were sticking her heel and checking her blood sugar at every feeding. She was pitiful and I felt like they were using her for a pin cushion. 

Then Brandon had to leave with my boys. He took them home, trying to keep as much normal in their little lives as he could with so much new going on. He was coming back first thing in the morning with the boys. We didn't plan on being there more than 2 nights anyway. It was a short inconvenience to deal with before we could all be together at home.

Then my Momma had to leave. She'd been up since I'd called her to come sit with the boys when my water broke and excitement was giving way to exhaustion. 

But it was fine. I had my baby and everything was going to be just fine. This was all just temporary.

But then the 24 hour mark came and Reaghan's blood sugar was still low and there I was alone as my brand new baby was taken from me and admitted to the NICU. I didn't even have time to call Brandon before they took her from me. I was nearly hysterical by the time I did get a hold of him and as I sat there alone, watching the nurses blow one tiny vein out after another trying to put an IV in her little hands and then her feet, and finally getting it placed in her scalp, the devil took me right over the edge into full blown hysteria. 

God had abandoned me right there on the C wing of the neo-natal intensive care unit. He had played the cruelest of tricks on me. He had taken me through 37 weeks of a perfect pregnancy, had given me the most beautiful daughter, had let me hold her, nurse her, kiss her, and now He was going to take her from me. 

The devil is most powerful in the art of persuasion. 

The next 5 days blurred one into another. I hadn't stepped outside the walls of the hospital since I had walked in to give birth. There were no windows in the NICU, just curtains separating the cribs from each other. Sleep was not allowed in the NICU and if it hadn't been from sheer exhaustion it would have been impossible to attain anyway. The constant beeping of the machines, the bright lights, the nurses calling back and forth to each other, but the worst was the silence of the babies. The NICU was at full capacity the entire length of our stay, 40+ babies fighting to survive. Some winning. Some losing. And with the exception of one little baby boy, there was no crying. It was haunting and terrifying. 

The only breaks I took were the mandatory hour in the morning and again in the evening when I would grab a bite to eat, for the doctors and nurses to do their rounds, and a scant hour or two for sleep if my Momma was there to relieve me. The thoughts of leaving Reaghan alone were suffocating. As if, if I left her alone, she wouldn't be there when I returned. Twice already I had left during a mandatory break only to return to her with more wires and more lights because once her blood sugar had stabilized and she was able to control it, her bilirubin shot sky high and entered dangerous levels. Our last night there, she was under triple photo-therapy and I could not hold her at all, not even to nurse her. It was the longest night yet that I'd had to endure.

I wish that I could say that these 5 days were spent spiritually trusting in God and leaving it all in His hands but I can't. I was hurt. I was angry. I felt completely and utterly alone. I was judgmental. I lashed out. And then I was taught a lesson. And it was a most difficult one to learn. But it was swift and it brought me closer to the Lord than I'd been in days.

It was a lesson that taught me just how present Jehovah-Shammah had truly been, not just during this ordeal, not just during my pregnancy, but in the last 5 years of our lives. He had set things in motion long before so that we would be protected in His love, mercy, and grace. Had Brandon and I continued on living the lives we had been after we got married, our daughter would not just have been battling low blood sugar and high bilirubin levels, but fighting to breathe, fighting to live, she may have been fighting a battle that she couldn't win all because of choices that I as her Momma had made, just as so many of the other babies laying in the very same NICU were. 

I look back now on that time spent in the NICU and realize how paltry that 5 days seems. So many of those babies had been there for weeks and for months, going days without a single visitor, only being held to be changed or to be fed. Yet the Lord was ever present there. He was there in the seasoned nurses who held me while I cried, who treated my baby as if she were their own. He was there in the volunteers who came in just to hold those tiny babies who had truly been abandoned so that they'd not starve for tenderness and human connection. His love was there, woven into the handmade blankets, hats, and booties given to the babies there in the NICU, some of whom would never leave. 

Yes, Jehovah-Shammah was there in the C wing of the NICU, of that I am sure.  Just as He is there in all the other times in our lives when we can feel Him the least.

The Names of God: Jehovah-Tiskenu

Jehovah-Tiskenu: The LORD Our Righteousness

Jeremiah 23:6 KJV

In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

After 18 months of silence on this blog I finally feel at liberty to write again. The last 18 months have been a mixture of both wonder and wretchedness. We have felt as though we were in a trial by fire and at times we were unsure of whether we would perish or persevere. 

I have questioned God many, many times in course of the last year and a half. There were times when I could not for the life of me understand why we were dealing with the issues that we were. And others times I was immensely grateful and thankful that He had chosen to put us exactly where we were at that time. 

However, regardless of our circumstances over the last year or the circumstances that we face in the future, one thing above all has been made clear, Jehovah-Tiskenu will stand above all. He is The LORD Our Righteousness and even when everything else in our lives seems steeped in sin and despair, He is always there, guiding, shining a light in the darkness. He is the Righteousness that will always prevail. 

I feel as though I am once more dwelling safely in Jehovah-Tiskenu and I am overwhelmed with joy and excitement to be writing for His Glory and His Honor once again!

The Names of God: Jehovah-Shalom

Jehovah-Shalom: The LORD Our Peace

Judges 6:24 KJV
Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Romans 5:1 KJV

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Philippians 4:9 KJV

Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

The Lord truly works in mysterious ways. Sometimes, even when I have the best intentions to get a blog post up, it just does not happen. When I finish one, I immediately begin thinking and praying about the next one. So when it takes a few days, even a week, or when a week turns to two, I start to stress and worry about getting it written. I do not ever want to grieve the Spirit, but I don't want to rush it either. So this post has taken some time to write and I couldn't figure out why until tonight. 

Last Sunday morning in our Sunday School class we studied Joshua. We have been doing a survey of the Old Testament and covering a book each week. As we sat there last week, listening to the man of God teach the lesson, I started writing the blog. I was inspired and I needed to get the words down before I forgot them. I carry a small notepad in my Bible to keep notes on Brandon's messages. I grabbed it and started to quickly scribble this:

God commanded the Hebrew children through Joshua to be strong and of good courage three times in the first nine verses of Joshua chapter one and a fourth time by the chapter's end. He tells them that He will not fail them or forsake them, that He is with them everywhere they go. We can find peace in Jehovah-Shalom in these verses today, even as Gentiles. We have been adopted into the family of God by accepting Salvation. Just as He told the Hebrews not to be dismayed, or afraid, He is with us! He is with us whithersoever we goest! 

I could end the post there because we can have the same assurance that Joshua gave the Hebrew children of His presence and peace in our lives if we place our faith in Him. But that still wouldn't explain why it took me another week to put the post together. 

Tonight was Brandon's Ordination service as Pastor at Laurel Hill Baptist Church, an event that you couldn't have paid me to believe was going to happen just 4 short years ago. One of the questions that was asked of Brandon during the Ordination Council, before the service began, was what kind of leader did Brandon want to be to the people of Laurel Hill. His reply was a leader like Joshua, strong and of good courage. Brandon's mentors and our former Pastors preached the charge to him and the charge to the church. The scripture that was used to preach the charge to the church was Joshua chapter one.  The Pastor preaching the charge to the church had no idea that we had been studying Joshua, Brandon had no idea that I had been writing the blog on Joshua, and Brandon had no idea what questions they would ask him on the council. Now you tell me God didn't have a hand in that. 

We are facing and have accepted one of the greatest privileges, challenges, and burdens, that could have been placed upon us, to lead a church and a flock of God's people. It is a serious undertaking, certainly not one to be taken lightly. Brandon is now the undershepherd to this congregation of good and godly men and women. It is up to him to follow the Lord so that the congregation can in turn follow Brandon. He is to lead by example, to be blameless, above reproach, sober minded. He is called to love these people, to rebuke, reprove, and exhort them. He is God's man in the pulpit. He is our leader. God has placed a love in our hearts for the people of Laurel Hill, it began to grow the first time we passed through their church doors. But having a love for the people does not mean this burden will be easy to carry. In fact it will make it that much harder. But we can serve the Lord as leaders to His flock of people by having faith in Him that He is true to His Word and is with us whithersoever we goest. We can be strong and have a good courage because we stand in His presence, we have His peace, the peace of Jehovah-Shalom.  

He has called us to arise and go forth to serve Him by leading His people.  And though there will be wolves and lions that seek to devour our flock, He will never forsake us, never fail us. We will stand in strength, boldly and courageously, with God by our side, and His peace in our hearts. Jehovah-Shalom: The LORD of Our Peace will never leave us, never fail us.

Multiplied

Your love is like radiant diamonds
Bursting inside us we cannot contain
Your love will surely come find us
Like blazing wild fires singing Your name

God of mercy sweet love of mine
I have surrendered to Your design
May this offering stretch across the skies
And these Halleluiahs be multiplied

Your love is like radiant diamonds
Bursting inside us we cannot contain
Your love will surely come find us
Like blazing wild fires singing Your name

God of mercy sweet love of mine
I have surrendered to Your design
May this offering stretch across the skies
And these Halleluiahs be multiplied

(Multiplied)
(Oh multiplied)

God of mercy sweet love of mine
I have surrendered to Your design
May this offering stretch across the skies
And these Halleluiahs be multiplied

These Halleluiahs be multiplied

(Your love is like radiant diamonds)
(Bursting inside us we cannot contain)
(Your love will surely come find us)

Like blazing wild fires singing Your name

The Names of God: Jehovah-Nissi

Jehovah-Nissi: The LORD Is My Banner or The LORD That Prevaileth

Exodus 17:15 KJV
And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:

There is a war raging in this world, in the hearts of Christians. It has raged for thousands of years, since long before the first coming of the Son of Man. There have been battles won and battles lost in the hearts of every man, every child of God that has walked in this world since the fall of man. But there is one thing that we can have certainty in, and it is this, we are not in battle alone. We do not march against the enemy blindsighted. We march with Jehovah-Nissi, and we have the assurance given to us from the Word of God, that whether we are fighting the battle against addiction, death, loss, grief, anxiety, financial burden, whatever the sin or trial may be, He has already defeated it. Jehovah-Nissi, The LORD That Prevaileth, has won the war! We must simply fight the daily battles with sin, with Satan, with the secular world, and march towards the finish line. 

My battle has been pregnancy loss and infertility. It wears me down, leaves me in the throes of defeat, makes every day feel like it is insurmountable. It wages war on my faith, my peace, and my joy. It is a fight that is invisible to others, which makes it harder to combat. But it is a fight that 1 in 4 women face. And with odds like that, there shouldn't be so much silence surrounding it. 

It is time to break the silence, to band together in our war rooms, and pray over our battle plans. It is time to fly our Banner, Jehovah-Nissi. Our loss is nothing more than a tactic from Satan to try to tear us from beneath God's wing, where we sit loved and protected. But he cannot. We serve a God who prevails in any and all circumstances, no matter the battle. But we have to do the work. We have to march on the battlefield and declare that we are His! We have to kneel in our war rooms and call out our prayers and build up our resistance to the devil's evil tactics. He cannot have what belongs to Jehovah-Nissi.

He cannot have our faith, our peace, our joy. He may wage war on our flesh but he'll never win. Though I have suffered miscarriages, given birth to a son born still, the victory is mine because they await me in heaven, in the arms of my Victor, Jehovah-Nissi, The LORD That Prevaileth. 

I am casting him out of my womb in the name of my Savior Jesus Christ. He will not dwell there anymore. 

My God will prevail. 

My God will triumph. 

My God is Jehovah-Nissi.

I'm Gonna Die On The Battlefield

One day while I was thinking

On unseen things above

The Savior spoke unto me

And filled my heart with love

I used to have some people

Who walked and talked with me

But since I've been converted

They've turned their backs on me

Some say give me silver

Some say give me gold

I say give me Jesus

Who saved my dying soul

I'll take this gospel trumpet

And I'll begin to blow

Oh Lord if you will help me

I'll blow it wherever I go

I'm gonna die on the battlefield

I'm gonna die in the war

I'm gonna die on the battlefield

With glory in my soul 

The Names of God: Jehovah-Rapha

Jehovah-Rapha: The LORD That Healeth

Exodus 15:26 KJV

And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Tonight I found myself requesting prayer of my prayer warriors for two Mommas with newborns, in two very different circumstances. 

The first Momma has a long history of drug abuse, of which I do not know all of the details. She is the Momma to three children, having custody of only one. While in a hospital this week awaiting a bed in a rehab facility after having completed detox, she delivered a son, her fourth child. Her Momma has requested prayer for her daughter and her grandson. 

The second Momma, has four children, and was overdue with baby number five this week. Having had an uncomplicated pregnancy with each of her babies, and with this one as well, she was planning a homebirth. Tonight she sits in a hospital, over a thousand miles away from her immediate family,  awaiting the delivery of her baby in the morning. Her baby, whom doctors have confirmed is already gone. 

Two Mommas. One struggling. One thriving. 

Two babies. One living. One departed.  

Broken hearts in need of healing left in the wake of circumstances unforeseen.

Broken hearts in need of Jehovah-Rapha, The LORD That Healeth. 

He is truly the only one capable of mending the lives and hearts of these Mommas and these families torn apart by addiction and death. There is none other that can bear the heavy burden life has given these women to carry. There is not a condolence or a kind word that can be uttered by mortal lips to soothe the grieving these Mommas are facing tonight. I would ask that you take a moment to utter a prayer for these Mommas in the days, weeks, months, and even years ahead as they go on living their lives, their future uncertain right now. Because "grief never ends...But it changes. It's a passage, not a place to stay Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith...it is the price of love" (Author Unknown). Pray for healing, pray for comfort, pray for peace. These can only come by the Lord. If Jehovah-Rapha can heal a nation, He can heal the brokenhearted. 

And we have all borne the grief and pain of a brokenheart at some point in our lives. Whether it has been addiction or death, disease or divorce, financial or family crisis, we have each been in need of Jehovah-Rapha's divine healing. It is my own experience that gives me that faith to know that He will heal these Mommas, of this I have no doubt. It will not be overnight. It may not even happen in the next year. But the moment they turn their hearts to Him, His healing will begin. 

Psalms 3:3 KJV

But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

Psalms 30:5 KJV

For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

It Singeth Low In Every Heart

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.