Tuesday, January 18, 2011

What Is In A Name?

"The Man upstairs"
"The Main Man"
"The Head Honcho"
"The One in charge"
"Jesus"  (used as an expletive)
"Jesus Christ!" (used as an expletive)
"HIM" (while pointing skyward)
"My Friend"
"The Big Guy upstairs"
"You know Who"



We call the Creator of the Universe, The Lord God Almighty, The Holiest of Holies, The Messiah, The Lord Jesus Christ, The Lord God Most High and we give meaningless, trivial pet names to HIM.  We trivialize the very name of Jehovah GOD.  We fail to understand the very importance of a name, particularly HIS.

In today's so-called modern, enlightened society, we give our children the names of soap/sitcom/movie characters, rock bands, made up spellings of normal names, names of cities, names of constellations and whatever else our pitiful little brains can come up with not giving one whit of thought to naming a child something that will direct their life.  We give names like Le-a, pronounced "lee dash a".  That old Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue" is just about ten leagues above what we do now.  At least there was a point to saddling a man with the name Sue.  I would not do that to a child, but somehow I can understand the twisted logic behind the father's decision.  I was given my name because my mother said that she and my father could not agree on anything else.  It does not matter why any more.   When I asked why I was named "Pamela" I thought I was going to get a sweet loving story about how both my parents just adored the name and what it meant and that is how I got my name.

GOD has a name.  HE has many names that HE can be called which mean much, much more than the frivolous names we so flippantly attach to HIM.

EL
ELOHIM
EL SHADDAI
ADONAI
JEHOVAH    Yahweh
JEHOVAH-JIREH   The Lord Will Provide
JEHOVAH-ROPHE    The Lord Who Heals
JEHOVAH-NISSI     The Lord Our Banner
JEHOVAH-M'KADDESH    The Lord Who Sanctifies
JEHOVAH-SHALOM    The Lord Our Peace
SHEPHERD
JUDGE
JEHOVAH-ELOHIM     LORD God
JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU     The Lord Our Righteousness
JEHOVAH-ROHI     The Lord Our Shepherd
JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH     The Lord is There
JEHOVAH-SABAOTH     The Lord of Hosts

In the New Testament.Jesus is derived from the Hebrew Y'shua or Je-Hoshua  meaning JEHOVAH IS SALVATION.  The names of God is a link that has the meanings and where those names are found in Scripture.   When the Saviour called Himself "I am" He equated Himself with God.  He did not use that Name lightly.  HE said it with purpose and to explicitly let the Jews know Who He was.

HE has told us Who He is and what His Name is.  He has told us what to call Him.  Can we call HIM anything less than THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY?

Shalom.  Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.

2 comments:

  1. Pamela,
    The name's of God. They are so important. Ya know there are times when I say dad, daddy abba, pop's. But when I am telling him about others and lifting him before my other brothers and sister,
    reminding him I know him as all the names you mention, brings joy to him. I love God so much for what he has done for me. We have so much in common, yes pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
    I see you were born in the mountains of Virginia. I was born in Clintwood southwest Virginia, Wise CO Dickenson CO area. I am a direct descendant of Pocahontas, I contacted the Lt Gov. Bill Bolling and he talked with me about our history. The bolling family has all the papers they need. He's a nice man, I feel like God gave me that nugget. God does funny little things that personally touch our hearts at odd time. He's like that. I am glad he led me to you. Have a wonderful Blessed Day. say a prayer for my daughter she is 10 and took her nitendo ds to school, she should not have but she wanted to show it off a little and someone may have taken it. she is sad, but if this teaches her to be honest with me, then it's worth it.
    Sandi Fassbinder aka Sandi Buenie Gann from facebook)

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  2. Hi Pamela -

    Right on - this is a great post!

    Thank you

    GOD is holy and we are to reverence Him as the holy GREAT I AM that He is.

    Glory to GOD!

    Thank you, Pamela for posting this highly meaningful piece.

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