God Blog

I'm thinking about going to the God Blog Convention

Update on the way

Hey guys I'm gonna get an update later on today with some of the stuff that Scott talked about last night. Check back to see what's on there.

The Theology of Popeye

Imagine Popeye, go ahead close your eyes imagine the skinny biceps and the abnormally large forearms. Now Popeye's arch enemy, his exact opposite is Bluto. Bluto draws his identity from the things that he's done, or the

things that he has. Popeye on the other hand has a higher calling. In fact one of his most famous sayings is "I yam what I yam." Now that's deep, I wonder if they got that idea from somewhere. "I yam what I yam" is especially interesting when we see how God reveals himself to Moses.

Exodus 3:1-15

Interesting observations:

• Moses went further into the wilderness than he had ever gone before
• God knows Moses' name first
• The ground was holy (When did it become holy? Give me your thoughts)
• Moses did not know God's name

God reveals his name as YHWH, which in most translations comes to I am that I am. Well that clears it up some. There is so much debate about what this name means, it's awesome. I love that no one can seem to quite put their finger on it. I mean who can truly knows God for who he really is, who knows his name? Mystery......that's the only word that I can find to describe it.

In Matthew 14:27 most translations read: "fear not it is I" when it really says, "fear not I AM." That's powerful. Jesus, in not so subtle terms was saying I am God, I am YHWH. If you read John 8:12-59 you can see how this got Jesus into some hot water. It's simply fascinating.

God's name is ancient and sacred. It's a mystery that we are all fully wrapped up in. That's why it kills me, absolutely kills me when I hear someone misuse his name. When someone swears and they throw in a "Jesus Christ" or "Oh my God" it makes me cringe. Swearing by His name is essentially claiming authority over YHWH. Not that they're is anything mystical about His name, but when you do that you show your ignorance of your roots, and what it means to know God's name.

Lets remember that we are dependent on His revelation to understand Him.

Some articles if your interested:

Popeye

Some deep reading

Something to check out

I thought that my blog was getting kinda boring. I don't live an exciting enough life to post something everyday, but I'll try to keep it semi interesting. Anyway I thought I'd link up to my bud Corey's blog at Xanga. Corey's an amazing guy who is going to school at DTS (Dallas Theological Seminary). You should check out some of his stuff sometime, it'll challenge you if you let it.

Anyway if you wanted to get a jump on me for Wednesday you could start by reading Exodus 3. That's the second book of the Bible, so just open it up and it'll be real close to the beginning. When you read it keep in mind what we talked about last week. I'm out for now.

I thought that I'd post a picture of The General for your viewing pleasure.

So What's a Name?

Your name implies who you are. More importantly a good name in biblical names meant more than just a good reputation, it expressed the essence or identity of that person.

There are 3 aspects to names and naming that we need to be aware of, especially when talking about biblical names.

1. Identity

A person's name identified something about that person's character or circumstances. For example Sarah (Genesis 17:17, 21:6) had her first son Isaac when she was in her 90's, do you know what the first thing she did was? She laughed. Do you know what Isaac means in Hebrew? Laughter. Another great example is Moses, when he was born his mother put him in a basket in the river, and Pharaoh's daughter drew him out of the the river (Exodus 2). What do you think Moses means? To draw out. If you dig a little deeper, peel back another layer you find that Moses drew the people out of Egypt. Amazing, simply amazing.

2. Knowledge

It was understood that the namer knew something about the named and his/her circumstances. For example Adam named (or classified) the animals (Genesis 2:18-25). This knowledge implies more than just knowing something about who they are individually and goes much deeper than that. It means that namer understands us completely, from begining to end, top to the bottom. In Exodus 33 God told Moses that he knows him by name, this was huge for him and it's huge for us still today.

3. Authority

In order to name someone you had to have authority over that person, or things (Adam and the animals). God changed Abram's name to Abraham (Gen 17:5) and Pharaoh changed Joseph's name (Gen 41:45).

I go through all of this to tell you that your name is who you are. When people hear your name they think of you. They picture the things that you've done, or haven't done. Our name can shape who we are.........

BUT

If you look in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 you find this guy named Jabez whose name means pain, or sorrow, or suffering. What a horrible name to walk around with, almost as bad as a boy named Sue. Now Jabez did not allow his name that his mother gave him to dictate what his future would be like. He drew his Identity straight from God...... WOW. That's what we can do today. No matter the crap in our lives or the things people associate our names with we have the oppurtunity to draw our Identity from God. Which is what he intended for us to do in the first place.

Here's a good site to find out what your name means: Behind The Name

Show some love

Alright I see that there is only one comment on my blog and guess what it's from me. Because I was getting depressed. Anyway I thought maybe I needed to walk you through how to do it.

Click on the comment

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now click other, fill in your name and leave me some love.....it's that easy.

Come on folks I'm dying here.