The Lord Is - - March 2023

 

YHVH MANAH KOWC

(pronounced yeh-ho-vaw' maw-naw' koce)

THE LORD IS MY CHOSEN PORTION AND MY CUP

Psalm 16:5

The LORD is My Chosen Portion and My Cup: You have made my lot secure.

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 4490 & 3563

Chosen Portion: part, weighed out, divided to (inheritance), ration

My Cup: container, to hold together, (my) lot

Psalm 73:26

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the Strength of My Heart and My Portion forever.

Psalm 116:13

I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.

Psalm 119:57

The LORD is My Portion; I have promised to keep Your words.

Psalm 142:5

I cry to You, O LORD: "You are my refuge, My Portion in the land of the living."

Jeremiah 10:16

The Portion of Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance--the LORD of Hosts is His name. 

YHVH SHALOM

(pronounced yeh-ho-vaw' shaw-lome')

THE LORD IS PEACE

Judges 6:24

So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 7985

Peace: completeness, soundness, welfare

    Though this word Peace has several more meanings/definitions, the implication in this verse is so much more. Here Gideon has built an altar in recognition of the covenant relationship between him and God. And has given this altar a name: THE LORD IS PEACE: In Him I Am Complete.

    Gideon had an encounter with the Lord. The Lord chose Gideon from the smallest clan in the tribe of Manasseh. He called the youngest to be a "mighty man of valor". But Gideon wasn't sure he was able to be what God called him to be, so he prepared a meal for the angel of the Lord to prove it was indeed Him with whom he was speaking (Judges 6:11-24).

    God always chooses that which appears to be weak and small to serve Him best. For "little is much when God is in it". He runs everything we give Him through His multiplying hands, making known to all just Who our God is. The Word tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:27-28 "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world that He might shame the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world that He might shame the strong; He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast in His presence."

    May the Lord use us for His glory, also. Let us enter His presence with humble hearts, seeking His face and listening for His voice. Let us fall on our knees before our God as an offering to Him. Let us, too, covenant with our God and live to serve Him only. Let us embrace Christ Our Peace (Colossians 3:15) and hold fast that which He gives us (Hebrews 3:14; Revelation 3:11). 

YHVH AREK

(pronounced yeh-ho-vaw' aw-rake')

THE LORD IS LONGSUFFERING

Numbers 14:18

'The LORD is longsuffering in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgressions; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.'

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 750 

LONGSUFFERING: patient of spirit, slow to anger

2 Peter 3:15

And esteem the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom having been given to him.

Psalm 86:15

But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.

    Why does the Lord wait so long to punish the guilty? He's waiting for the spiritual ark to have the last person saved enter into it. The Lord does not move on our timetable; He moves on His. 

AMPELOS

(pronounced am'-pel-os)

THE VINE

John 15:5

I am The Vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 288

Vine: grapevine

    In the Scriptures we read that there are two grapevines. One is the Christless church, they which proclaim to be Christ followers but which have no power.The other is Christ Himself as He states here. 

The Christless church is not gainfully fruitful; that which feeds on it bears rotten fruit: tasteless and undesirable. 

The Christ-filled church, His faithful followers, is very fruitful. And we want to be fruitful. Having a Christ-centered, Holy Spirit filled church will cause those seeking a right relationship with God to feed on His Word: for His Word is tasty and highly desirable.

>God's Word is Bread: John 6:35, 41, 48

>God's Word is Living Water: John 4:14

>God's Word is Sweeter Than Honey: Psalm 19:10; 119:103

>God's Word is Marrow and Fatness (Life and Sustenance): Psalm 63:5

So, in the True Vine, the hungry will be satisfied; the thirsty will slake their thirst. In the True Vine is sweetness, life and abundance. 

The Lord Is - - December 2022

 

SHEMESH TSEDAQAH

(pronounced sheh-mesh) 

SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Malachi 4:1, 2

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

"But for you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy, like calves let out to pasture."

Psalm 84:11

For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.

Luke 1:78

Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us.

SHILOH

(pronounced shee-lo')

HE WHOSE IT IS

Genesis 49:10

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between His feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is His.

This is a Messianic title, for everything belongs to Him. 

Psalm 60:7

Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim is My helmet, Judah is My scepter.

Psalm 72:8

He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

Isaiah 2:2

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

John 1:3

Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.

PHOSPHOROS

(pronounced foce-for'-os)

MORNING STAR

2 Peter 1:19

We also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your hearts.

Psalm 119:105

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

John 9:5

As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.

John 1:4

In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men.

2 Corinthians 4:6

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

YAAQOB KOKAB

(pronounced  yah-ak-obe' ko-kawb')

STAR OF JACOB

Numbers 24:17

I shall see Him, but not now: I shall behold Him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.

Matthew 2:2

asking, "Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."

The Conversation

 Genesis 3:1-5

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ ”

The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”

"You will not surely die,” the serpent told her, “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 

     Eve was not surprised when the serpent spoke to her. There is no shock, just a simple conversation. It is what the serpent said, and how he said it, that changed everything. This conversation changed the nature of conversing between animals and people, between people with each other, between people and God. Before this conversation took place, the first two people were in daily personal contact with God and He with them. Adam worked with God in the garden: he cultivated and tended it; God created animals and let Adam name them. What they were called is what they are now. But The Conversation ruined everything.

     First, the serpent questioned God's Word (Did God really say that?). Second, Eve replied to the serpent with second-hand knowledge of what God spoke to Adam. 

     God said to Adam, "“You may eat freely from every tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

     Eve said to the serpent, "But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” She added to God's Word when she replied to the serpent, "or touch it". 

     Thirdly, the serpent lied to Eve by telling her she would not die. For death, separation from God, was instantaneous when she bit into the fruit which grew on the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Her first mistake was to listen to the serpent (verse 2), her second was to respond (verse 2-3), and her third was to take action after contemplating what the serpent spoke to her (verse 6). 

     This conversation between Eve and the serpent is repeated a multitude of times on a daily basis with all people. We need to learn from Eve's mistakes and avoid any form of conversation with the enemy of God. This is not something we can do on our own: we need the power of God, the power of His Holy Spirit, to teach us to recognize temptation when it rears its ugly head and to avoid it by rebuking it when we see it and hear it. 

     We must seek out God's Wisdom by studying God's Word and spending time in prayer with God Himself. We need to hang out with God's people, building each other up in love, faithfulness and compassion. We need to gather with God's people and worship God the way He wants to be worshiped: whole-heartedly.  

  

     This is the only recorded conversation between mankind and animal in the Garden of Eden. There is another instance of an animal speaking to a human, but that wasn't in the garden (Numbers 22:28-30). 

     I'd like to believe that the animals still talk in the Garden of Eden. It is hidden but still viable (verse 24). 

The LORD Is: month of April

 

ANASTASIS AND ZOE

RESURRECTION AND LIFE

Jesus said unto her, "I Am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 

John 11:25

JEHOVAH TSABA

The LORD of HOSTS

Isaiah 47:4

Our Redeemer, the LORD of Hosts Is His Name, The Holy One of Israel.

Amos 4:13

"For behold, He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind and reveals His thoughts to man, who turns the dawn to darkness and strides on the heights of the earth—the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name.”

THE LION OF JUDAH

Revelation 5:5

Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Micah 5:2

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel--One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.

JEHOVAH AREK

The LORD Is Longsuffering

Numbers 14:18

The LORD is longsuffering (patient, slow to anger), and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

Psalm 78:38

And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.

Psalm 145:8

The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.

Yonder

 

Do you know where Yonder is? Did you know such a location exists in the Bible, too? In the KJV of the Bible Yonder is mentioned at least six times. It basically means a place where a person or thing currently is not. A distance within view.

Genesis 22:5 "And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." Here in Genesis 'yonder' means to move ahead and up, because Abraham and Isaac went ahead into the land of Moriah and up a mountain God chose (verse 2). 

Numbers 16:37 "Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire yonder; for they are hallowed." Yonder, away from the camp. A man named Korah, along with several of his cohorts and 250 mighty men rose up against Moses' authority and refused to follow him; nor did they want to listen to the words God was giving him to speak. 

After Moses directed folks to stand away from the tents where Korah, Dathan and Abiram lived with their families, God caused the earth under them to open up and swallow all of the these three men and their dwelling places and their wives and families. But the 250 warriors who offered the incense to God were consumed by fire from God. But the firepans, the censers, were not destroyed by God's fire because these pans had been offered to God. The fire in them had to be scattered outside the encampment because it was unholy, but the pans themselves were holy. (Read Numbers 16).

Numbers 32:19 "For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, or forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side Jordan eastward." Two tribes chose not to cross the river Jordan and settle; they chose to settle on the eastern side of Jordan. They would go and fight with the other tribes for the land which God had given them and then return to the land which they had chosen for themselves. Here 'yonder' is to cross over and move forward. (Read Numbers 32). 

2 Kings 4:26 "So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite:" Here in 2 Kings 4:26 'yonder' is some distance away: close enough to recognize a person but far enough away that one cannot have a conversation with up close and personal. (Read 2 Kings 4)

Matthew 17:20 "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

Matthew 26:36 "Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder." 

Therefore, we can conclude that Yonder is a place we are not but will be. Yonder is a destination. Yes, I know where Yonder is. I'm headed there now.