And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19

(source)

Meaning of His Name:

When God gave Himself the name El Roi, the God who sees me, He let us know that He sees where and who we are. He sees ME— the real me, with all my flaws and failures. He looks at you and me and chooses to love us. How stunning is that?!

Yet there is another way in which God says He sees us. The name Yahweh Yireh, meaning the LORD will provide, can be more graphically translated as, the LORD who sees ahead of me.

He not only sees me now, right where I am, but He also is looking ahead at where I am going. He sees what I cannot- every twist and turn of the path ahead.

And in all His seeing, He provides.

This name for God, Yahweh Yireh, is first mentioned in an uncomfortable moment of Abraham’s life, and then used over and over again in Scripture to point to what it looks like to be a man or woman of real faith.

Abraham had already made his mark as a man of faith by leaving all that he knew— his home, his career, his security, “not knowing whither he went”[1]. He’d heard from God and followed in heroic faith.

And God had honored that faith by giving him land and riches and what he wanted more than anything else in this world— a son of his own.

It’s the kind of fairy tale-like story all of us love: Abraham’s welling up of courageous faith and God’s generous pouring out of blessing, making all his dreams come true.

And that story might have ended nicely right there, except that “later on, God tested Abraham’s faith and obedience.”[2]

Just like God tested Job… and Peter… and even His own Son.

God asked Abraham to take what he treasured most, “your only son, yes, Isaac, who you love so much-“[3] out into the bleak wilderness of Moriah[4]. There Abraham would be required to “offer him up” in absolute dedication to the LORD.

I squirm in my seat as I read those words.

How could God ask that of one He called a friend?

Why would He?

Yet Abraham, father of our faith, didn’t ask those questions. He just went.

Setting off as the sun was rising over the desert, Abraham saddled his donkey, hoisting his young son on it’s back along with a bundle of wood for the sacrificial offering. All the boy knew was that he was on an adventure with his father and a couple of servants.

A strange entourage trekking across that barren land.

Three days into the journey, Abraham spotted way off in the distance that place where all his dreams would die.

And still he went.

When his little boy asked, “Father where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” Abraham must have choked on his answer. “God will yirah, my son.”[5]

Can’t you see them?

Father and son walking together towards death.

How God must have loved His friend in that moment. Did tears spill from the Father’s eyes as He watched the determined steps of a father willing to let his own son— his only son, die just because God said so?

At the last moment, God caught Abraham’s hand in His and provided a ram caught in the thicket to sacrifice in his son’s stead.

Can you imagine the worship that went on there on that mountain? Father and son, arms wrapped around each other in heart-pumping relief. Weeping, laughing, hollering, as shouts echoed off barren cliffs.

There was nothing tame about Abraham’s faith!

What is it that you love more than anything else? What are your dreams?

Will you walk in Abraham’s story to lay down your loves at the foot of the Cross? Willing, even eager to leave it all to go after Jesus?

And will you, instead of striving and fretting, trust Him to look ahead and see what He knows you need?

Will you trust Him that much?

Could you? Could I?

Dare we?

With a heart longing for that kind of reckless faith,

Diane

Genesis 22

Philippians 4:19,20

Hebrews 11:17-19

2 Kings 4

---

[1] Hebrews 11:8 KJV, I love the way the words go!

[2] Genesis 22:1

[3] Genesis 22:2

[4] which, strangely enough means Jehovah seeing (All the Divine Names and Titles in the Bible, Lockyer)

[5] Genesis 22:8 provide, or see ahead

“The Name of the LORD is a strong tower;

The righteous runs into it and is safe.”

Proverbs 18:10

(source)

The Meaning of His Name:

In ancient Israel men and women often spent their days toiling in the fields surrounding their towns.  While sweating under the sweltering Mesopotamian sun, they kept a wary eye out for enemies whose antics threatened their survival.   In the time of the Judges, the beleaguered nation suffered for seven consecutive years from these invaders who would sweep in at harvest time to steal a season’s worth of supplies.  On their great lumbering camels, armed bohemian bandits overwhelmed the Jewish farmers, seriously jeopardizing their fight to survive. Year after year, hard working mothers and fathers watched in tears while their children were reduced to poverty because of these invaders.

Do you know how that feels?

Has an unexpected illness or a failed relationship stolen your future?

Have your dreams been swept away by the enemy?

Have you forgotten what it is to feel safe and secure?

Are you worried?

In answer to their dilemna, the men of the town would painstakingly build a tower out of mud bricks right in the middle of their village. It became a central defense fortress against these inevitable invaders. When the watchman sounded his alarm, the people would run into the strong tower and wait out the invasion. Supplied with food and water and their stored harvest, they could outlast their enemies, eventually emerging safely when the enemy rode away empty handed.

God gave Himself a name just for you: Migdal-oz. He is a Strong Tower.

Someone you can run into in times of fear or insecurity or doubt.

A place to hide.

A safe place.

But strong towers were not all that easy to enter.  There was always just one accessible opening through which the pursued could run.  No one stumbled in these ancient strongholds by accident. Once in, with great relief, the victim could bolt the door and live off a storage room of supplies until the danger passed.

Running into God as your Strong Tower is a purposeful, intentional plan of action. He wants us to run into Him before we try fighting back, before we wound with our words, before the enemy of our souls has a chance to destroy the harvest of our lives in one fell swoop.

Do you see why He calls Himself by such a name?

Are you learning the way into His refuge, heading there at the slightest hint of trouble?

Have you discovered yet that He is…a Strong Tower?

From my heart,

Diane

Psalm 61

2 Samuel 22- This is a beautiful song David wrote after he’d been safely delivered from a giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on his feet. No sooner was the monster, Raphah defeated, when David was all but overcome by another massive warrior wielding an intimidating sword weighing 300 shekels (that’s a seven and a half pound sword!) Several of David’s friends saw what was happening and intervened to rescue David in one triumphant show of solidarity. Sounds like the kind of deliverance we all need at those overwhelming times of our lives!

“Trust in the Lord forever,

For in God the LORD

We have an everlasting Rock

Isaiah 26:4

(source)

The Meaning of His Name:

At 5:08 on October 17th, 1989 an immense earthquake rocked our home in Santa Cruz, California.

The walls in the hallway seemed to bash into me as I scrambled to find my children. We huddled in a doorway watching pictures fly off the walls while hutches fell, plates crashed, and havoc reigned. When it was over we-tip toed our way barefoot through a living room strewn with shards of glass, desperate to flee the destruction in our home.

Outside, the news was not good.  Whole buildings had collapsed in the downtown area; bridges as far away as San Francisco had become tombs and people had died.

Yet our house still stood. Aside from a few broken pieces, damage was minimal.  Less than a mile from the epicenter, our little wood frame cottage held up admirably.

Why?

We were built on a rock.

Apparently, a solid ledge of basalt held our home tight throughout the thunderous shaking while buildings and bridges built on sandy loam collapsed like cards.

Just like God, the Rock.

When the houses we call our lives are built on God, the unpredictable events that rattle our realities will not collapse us. But if instead, we see a nice stretch of sandy soil and build our lives conveniently there, then when the earth shakes we get entrapped in the terror.

And the earth will shake, my dear friends!  Plates shift, pressure builds, and unforeseen circumstances change everything. That’s just the way it is down here in this place we call the real world.

What kind of soil are you building your family on?

Your relationships?

Your worth?

Just a couple of days ago I got one of those phone calls none of us much like. Someone close to me, someone I love a lot, was calling to let me know I’d let her down. I’d inadvertently embarrassed this dear friend in one of those flinging sentences that mean so little and hurt so much.

And now she was calling to let me know.

On my side of the AT&T airwaves I cowered a bit, shrinking from that mix of hurt and anger in her voice.

My bright day dimmed.

My heart cringed.

In the space of a few seconds, I started to sink.

The next couple of irretrievable hours were entirely devoted to picking up the pieces of own tumultuous emotions. Anger- how could she so misinterpret me? Embarrassment- how could I have missed that? Shame- what must she think of me? And rejection- will she love me now?

Notice the common denominator in all my questions— ME!

Suddenly I’d become the epicenter of my world and one good shake of disapproval knocked me flat.

Will I ever learn?

If, like me, you find yourself emotionally messed up by something so simple as a little bit of well-earned disapproval, or even an unjust criticism, maybe its time to ponder the problem.

Could it be that you need and want and crave approval so much that you’re building your emotional house on something you actually have very little control over?

That morning’s melt down made me think and pray long and hard about my own inordinate cravings for approval.

And here’s what I’ve come up with...

I am not the center of my world. And I do mess up. And people will disapprove. And sometimes they’ll even call on a sunny Saturday morning to tell me about it.

But if God is really my Rock, then when real life shakes me up, this little cottage I call me will hold firm.

Picking up a few broken pieces of my still unstable heart,

Diane

Psalm 40

Psalm 144:1-2, 7-10

Isaiah 26:1,2

Psalm 95:1

Matthew 7:24-29

“Stop weeping- behold the Lion…has overcome.”

Revelations 5:5

Meaning of His Name:

John was tough. A strong, can-do kind of man.  Raised on the rustic shores of the Sea of Galilee, he followed his father into the backbreaking work of wrestling fish from those harrowing waters.  There, in teams of five, men cast enormous nets, hoping to earn enough to pay the brokers (called tax-collectors or publicans) and to have enough left over to feed their families. Not exactly the sort of work for touchy-feely sensitivity! Yet this man, whose ferocious reputation earned him the nickname “Son of Thunder”, would one day be selected by God to inscribe that wildly apocalyptic book we call Revelation.

In the fifth chapter of his spellbinding story, John saw something that left him shaking in his boots. Something terrifying. Something so hopeless and so real that he couldn’t speak—something really bad.

He saw the end of the world.

As John stared hopelessness in the face, he began to cry. To weep.  To choke on the loss of dreams and the end of everything and everyone he loved.

And all of heaven wept with him.

Do you know how he felt?  Have your dreams been crushed?

Has your story ended before it had a chance to happen as you so hoped it would? Are you agonizing over a picture so bleak you cannot face reality?

Or even just worried that the grey will go on for the rest of your life?

As all of heaven and earth gathered to gawk at John’s vision of disaster, the silence of sheer terror choked the air.

And no one knew what to do.

They were mortified.  Without solutions.

Lost.

But in that thunderous silence a sound was heard.  Faint at first, just enough to make everyone hold their breath in hope. The noise drew nearer, closer to the crowd.  And suddenly, there He was.

The Lion.

Jesus.  God.  The Savior.  The only one able to overcome.

And the Lion became a Lamb… and the Lamb laid Himself on the altar… and let Himself be slain.

John’s tears dried as he watched in wonder as angels and creatures and elders and people by the thousands and thousands sang. The singing rose to triumphant shouting and victorious dancing, gathering each one into a worship of such passion that every part of their bodies were enveloped. Then, one by one, they fell on their faces before the beauty of what they were seeing.

The world gone wild in worship.

Why? What caught them so?

Here’s what I see:

when the hopelessness of their reality hit them full in their faces,

and there seemed no way out,

the One who could have

but shouldn’t have,

the perfect One,

stepped in to do what no one else could.

Are you watching?  Listening for the Lion who comes close?

You’ll find him at the Cross when you lay all those burdens and worries and impossibilities at the feet of the only One in all the world capable of doing what no one else can.

For He is…. the Lion.

From My Heart,

Diane

Revelation 5

Amos 3:6-8

John 3:16

Matthew 11:28-30

I John 4:14

I do believe, Lord help my unbelief…

The Meaning of His Name:

Thomas was a close-in follower of Jesus.  He’d spent lots and lots of time with Him; shared meals, inside jokes, intimate unveiling of souls.  He’d watched Jesus decimate spiritual snobs and lend dignity to a prostitute. He’d felt the rush of joy as a little boy climbed out of his closed coffin. Thomas had seen the tears He’d wept over the lost-ness of wayward people.

But when push came to shove, Thomas walked away.

When Jesus told his disciples to believe in Him, He wasn’t referring to their intellectual ability to grasp reality. Nor was He asking them to drum up a mass of misguided emotion in order to feel something.

Instead, He reached into the simple vocabulary of everyday people and drew out a word that in English carries rich connotations.  To believe (pisteuo), means to entrust yourself to someone.  It is a word that implies obedience.

He was asking His followers to fall back in faith and completely entrust their lives to Him.

And He hasn’t stopped asking.  What He still wants from each of His followers is all tied up in this name: Lord.

Do you get that?

Not just warm-fuzzy, nice and cozy friend.

He is Lord!

He wants to own you.

He wants to dictate your days, rule over your relationships, and heap the riches of His kingdom on your life.

Okay, you say, I’m going to do better today, I promise. Today I’ll obey.  I’ll be good.  I know what He’s asking of me and I’m gonna do it, yes I am!

But you won’t.  Not a chance.

And here’s why—you keep trying to obey without believing.

Of course you fail! The minute He asks something of you that seems unreasonable, something that you cannot analyze or categorize— something that wiggles your soul out of the status quo, you bail.

Like turning the other cheek.  Like submitting to your not-always-nice husband or boss or teacher or dad. Like giving instead of grabbing.  Like loving instead of walking away.

Without faith, without intensive entrusting of every facet of yourself to Him

you cannot,

will not,

won’t

allow Him to be Lord of your life.

His Lordship rides on the back of His love for you, my friend.  Will you entrust your mind, your heart, your very soul to that love?

After all, Jesus is…Lord.

From my heart,

Diane

Mark 16:14

John 20:19-29

John 6:22-30

Hebrews 11

“Let the words of Christ, in all their richness,

live in your hearts and make you wise…”

Colossians 3:16

(source)

The Meaning of His Name:

Words are powerful.

Words build up and words tear down.  Words lure open hearts and shut down relationships.  Words wound and words heal. Words alter everything.

But only Logos has the power to actually change us deep inside.

Jesus is Logos, a continuous stream of words and wisdom and hope and life pouring out of God’s heart. This logos of God is able to see through the façade of our inglorious attempts at being good, straight to our hearts.

He speaks and we are never the same.

Every day we have a chance to hear God.  He speaks directly through His Word— pages and pages of stories and shadows and truths and wisdom fraught with the power of His Voice. And He speaks indirectly as well— through the words of men and women of faith who have captured His words in their own lives and long to tell us how.

And every day we face a choice. Do we listen, or do we turn a deaf ear on all those streaming words? Do we trot on about our business, or do we pause and consider?

I, being deaf, know a little about not listening. In fact, even as I write these words, that little computer which keeps me connected to the world of the hearing is broken, rendering me completely and totally unable to hear even the slightest sound.

While I wait for a new cochlear to bring words once again through my ears, I have some choices to make. Will I still try to listen? Straining to see words formed on lips moving fast? Searching faces for clues? Connecting the bit of information I can come up with to decipher what is being said?

Or will I just shut it all out, wrap myself in my world gone silent, and go about my business… alone?

It’s not an easy choice, you know. To hear without ears is hard work. Exhausting. Draining. Embarrassing at times. Awkward.

The words are there, but is the effort to catch them worth it?

And, my dear listening sisters, is it worth it for you to strain and try and fail sometimes and then work again to hear the Voice of the One who calls Himself your Logos?

Or are you willing to give up and go about your days blundering through, all deaf to Him who calls you as His own, unable and unwilling to put out the effort to really hear?

He who has ears to hear, let him hear

~Jesus

From my heart,

Diane

John 1:1-4

Genesis 1:1-5

Hebrews 4:12

John 5:24-26

I Timothy 3:16

Psalm 119

James 1:22-25

Jesus said to the people,

“I am the light of the world.

If you follow Me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness,

Because you will have the light that leads to light.”

John 8:12

NLT

The Meaning of His Name:

God sits on a throne of light. He revealed Himself to Moses in as a burning bush, lighting up the desert with His presence. He wrapped Himself in a pillar of light to lead His people out of the darkness of slavery.  He flashed a streak of blinding light to get Paul’s attention.

God basks in light.

When I was a little girl growing up in the tiny village of Oberhurchstadt, Germany, we often had tremendous thunder and lightening storms. In fact, a tall metal spire to draw the lightening away from the roof— just in case, topped every house in our village. One night, especially thunderous hail pounding against our tile roof had me cowering as close to my Dad as I could get. He wrapped his arm around me and spoke reassuringly of how safe we really were.

Boom! Oh, that’s just the lightening rod on the roof, taking the brunt of the storm.

Crash! Probably just a few roof tiles, nothing to worry about.

Bang! Mmh, we must have a shutter loose somewhere, I’ll fix it in the morning.

But when the lights went out, cloaking our cozy home in sinister darkness, my terror reached a turning point. Words from my father meant nothing. I was just too afraid to hear him.

And so my loving dad did what he’d always done when fear overwhelmed me.

He fixed it.

Handing this histrionic prone girl to my less-than-fully sympathetic mother (a woman who honestly is not afraid of anything), he simply got up and found a flashlight. Then he lit the beautiful Tyrolean carved candles on the coffee table, creating an aura of safety for his family.

He didn’t scold. He wouldn’t allow my big brother to laugh (though I definitely recall a snicker from his corner). He just brought me some beautiful light to ease my fear.

God knows how terrifying the darkness is.

In the dark we hurt ourselves, we get lost and feel intensely alone.

Darkness is dangerous. And frightening.

Knowing this, Jesus gave Himself a new name: Light of the World. By His name He banished the darkness, flooded our lives with light, and opened the world of His Kingdom.

Are you confused about what to do?  How to think? Where to go?

Are you tired of bumping into people, leaving bruised bodies behind?

Have you succumbed to insecurity?

Let Him shine Himself into your darkness by inviting Him to be who He is to you.

He is… the Light of the World.

From my heart,

Diane

John 8:12

John 9:5

John 1:1-5

Isaiah 9:2

Isaiah 60:2

Matthew 17:1-2

I John 1:5-7

Psalm 139:11-12

Micah 7:7-8

I Timothy 6:13-16

Psalm 104:1-2