Does “God will change your life” seem scarry to you? I realized I was so zealous that I was scarying ladies and keeping them from the very thing I was wanting them to do with me.
“Come, to retreat with me. It’s 3 nights, Thursday, Friday and Saturday”, I would say. “I know it is a sacrifice to be away from your job and family that long, but it is so worth it. Come and God will change your life.”
That is what I would tell ladies when I invited them to a Burning Fire Within Retreat. After a while I realized that I scared people away with “God will change your life” because they did not trust God. They did not know that allowing God to change their life would be a good thing or a bad thing.
How would you feel if someone said, “Come and God will change your life”?
That is when I realized that I need to help people to know God, to really know him.
How can we know the creator of the universe, the maker of heaven and hearth? It is just like knowing anyone else. You need to spend time with Him. That is how you got to know your spouce or your best friend. You sat and had coffee and talked.
Pull up a chair and a cup of your favorite drink and let’s serch the Scriptures on the character and attributes of God.
Why is the word lord written in all caps sometimes and other times not? Maybe even in the same verse.
Psalm 8:1 says “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
Did you know that is not the same description of God. LORD is Jehovah and Lord is Adonai.
Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew and the first thing is to address God as Father and hollowed be His Name. That is intimacy and respect all rolled up into one.
I want to help you know God. To know him well enough to know you can trust Him.
We first meet him in Genesis as Elohim, Creator of all we have on earth. Then in chapter 2 He become more involved in our lives as Jehovah Elohim (LORD God) when He breathed life into man and he became a living being.
We can meet Him as El Roi, the God who sees me (Genisis 16:14-15) when he visited Hagar. No matter where you have been or what you have done, God sees. I know that is a little scary, but His love overcomes whatever we have done. He see you when you are lonely and scared. He sees how people treated you and hurt you and he wiped your tears. Psalm 139 says there is nowhere we can go that He is not there, even darkness is light to Him.
On the mountain Abraham discovers that God is Jehovah-Jira. God is provider. You can pick that story up in Genesis 22. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham trusted God and knew that He would allow the boy and himself to go back down the mountain. Abraham had told the servents to wait at the foot of the mountain and that they would return to them. He did not know what God would do, but he trusted him. Just as Abraham was obedient to put Isaac on the altar and raised his knife an angel stopped him and showed him a ram that was caught in the bush. The ram would be the sacrifice that day. I like to think of how God’s provision (the ram) was walking up the other side of the mountain while Abraham and Isaac was walking up their side. God’s provision is coming toward you, you just must trust Him. There is a very important lesson here for us about obedience. Abraham obeyed God.
In Psalm 23 we find many of the descriptive names of God. We get to know Him when we know His ways. There are 11 hidden names of God in Psalm 23.
The Lord is my shepherd
[He is Jehovah-Raah – The Lord my Shepherd!]
I shall not want.
[He is Jehovah – Jireh – The Lord, my Provider.]
He makes me lie down in green patures: he leads me beside the still waters.
[He is Jehovah Shalom – The Lord, my peace]
He restores my soul.
[He is Jehvah Rophe – The Lord my Healer]
He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
[He is Jehovah-Tsidkeneau – The Lord of Righteousness]
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil; for you are with me.
[He is Jehovah – Shama – The Lord is Present!]
Your rod and your staff they comfort me.
[He is Jehovah – Ezer – The Lord, my Help!]
You prepare a table before me in the preence of my enemies;
[He is Jehovah Nissi – The Lord, my Banner of Victory!]
You anoint my head with oil
[He is Jehovah-Miakassesh – The Lord, my Holiness, my Santification!]
My cup runs over.
[He is Jehovah-Manah – The Lord my Portion!]
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
[He is Jehovah-Cheleq – The Lord my Inheritance!]