Tag: Bible

Knowing God Through His Name

“I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.” John 17:6

Knowing a person’s name is the first step in human relationships.  A name is powerful because it is the expression of a person’s unique identity, the embodiment of  his very essence, attributes, and character.

In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself through His name.

We first encounter a class of names in the Bible pertaining to God: “El, Elohim, El Shaddai, El Elyon”, referring to “the strong and mighty One”.  So the first thing we need to know about God is to realize His absolute might, strength and power.  He is God Almighty, there is no limit to His power.  He is the Creator,  originator, and sustainer of everything that exists.

The name God revealed to Moses was the great name Jehovah, which in Hebrew is represented by the four letters YHWH.  It means the self-sufficient and self-existent One from eternity to eternity, the One who increasingly reveals Himself to His people.

Jehovah is the name of God in His relationship to mankind. The God of eternity and glory takes the first step to reach down to humanity, in spite of all its sins and shortcomings. Other names are appended to the name “Jehovah”,  and in these various names are incorporated God’s promises to His people.

Jehovah-Jireh: “The Lord will provide”.  In our deepest needs, when we come to God in prayer, we are to remind ourselves that the Lord has promised to provide.

Jehovah-Rapha: “The Lord who heals”.  God has the power to heal us of our diseases, and most of all the power to heal us of the ultimate disease, sin itself.

Jehovah-Nissi: “The Lord our banner”.  God enables us to obtain victory over foes in this life.

Jehovah-Shalom: “The Lord our Peace”.  When we are in the midst of turmoil in our lives, we can go to God because He has promised to give us peace.

Jehovah-Ro’eh: “The Lord is my Shepherd”.  Because He is our Shepherd, we shall not want.

Jehovah-Tsidkenu: “The Lord our Righteousness”.  God is the source of our righteousness, and not we ourselves.

Jehovah-Shammah: “The Lord is always present”.  God is always with us, throughout all our experiences in life, especially during times of trouble.

These then are the attributes of God. But yet in spite of the revelations of His name, mankind still could not really know God. This is because there is no true knowledge of God except in and through Jesus Christ.  He is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6)

Through Christ we come to realize that God’s name is ultimately Love, as He has loved us with an everlasting love. And by knowing God as love, we can appropriate for ourselves the gracious and precious promises  embodied in His name, among them are His provision, healing, victory,  peace, and His loving and abiding presence in our lives.

*** Reference: Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Safe in the World, The Assurance of our Salvation, Crossway  Books, Illinois, 1988, pp. 44-54

*** Photography: Tree of Light by J. Philipson

The Cross that Reconciles

“For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.” Ephesians 2:14 NLT

A long time ago, a young man died a violent death, leaving His followers devastated.  That young man was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who rose triumphant from the grave, whose death on the cross is the only real hope for a lost and fallen humanity.  In a world full of division, hatred and wars, it is the cross of Christ alone that can bring about true unity and peace among men.

Pride is at the root cause of these hostilities, and it takes many forms.

People take pride in their birth and race, deeming themselves superior to others who are not like them.  There is also pride of possessing power which causes tension between the “haves” and the “have nots”, the employer and the employed, those who govern and the governed, among other things.  There is pride of intellect which causes the separation between the “Greeks and barbarians”, the wise and the unwise, the educated and the uneducated.

Peace involves love, sympathy and understanding, but the world is incapable of producing true peace because the problem is in the heart of man, not his mind. Pride is a formidable power in this world, and none of man’s own inventions can deal with this problem.

The only thing in the world that can bring peace and unity among men and women is the cross of Christ.  How is this accomplished?

First, the cross shows us the reality about ourself.  We are prideful beings, thinking we are always right and it is always the other person’s fault.  But the cross of Christ humbles us when we consider why Christ came into the world.  He came because we cannot save ourself, He came “to save that which was lost”.  The cross tells us that we are complete failures who have missed the mark, and that Christ came to die on the cross so that we can be made right with God.

Second, the cross reveals to us the truth about others.  The cross shows us that other people also have souls, and that it does not matter what the color of their skin is, their economic status or level of education, we are all alike. We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We are one in sin, in failure, in hopelessness and helplessness.

The cross unites us in every respect.  In our failure and helplessness, we receive the same forgiveness, being equally made the children of God, sharing the same divine life. We rejoice in the same Redeemer who has broken down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, who has torn down the barrier between us and our fellow human beings.

God forbid that we should boast about anything, except in the death on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

* Reference:  Martyn Lloyd-Jones,  The Best of Martyn-Lloyd Jones, 1992, Baker Books, England, pp. 85-107

* Photography by Jean Winters Olkonen

The Quest for Happiness

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. “ Psalm 1:2

Is true happiness attainable? The longer we live in this world, the more we are exposed to the harsh realities of life, leading many to a sense of utter desperation.  Still, others go beyond despair to a state of cynicism. Both perspectives ultimately hold the view that true happiness is beyond grasp in this world.

The Bible addresses these two impressions with the assertion that yes, life can be tragic, but these ways of thinking leave out the most important factor: God.  The Book of Psalms starts out with the words “Blessed (happy, fortunate, prosperous, enviable) is the man who…”.  Therefore, it is possible for a person to attain happiness.

The first psalm shows the way.  It starts by laying out the things one must avoid.  What are these things?

First, do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.  If you want to be happy, the first thing you must do is to stop listening to the outlook of the world: that which disregards and excludes God, the view that is opposed to God.  The counsel of the ungodly solicits the trust in one’s own knowledge and understanding. The word “ungodly” as translated implies a sense of restlessness; they must be restless because their knowledge is man’s knowledge, and therefore contingent and transitory.  Consider science theories decades ago that have now been discarded and replaced; consider the changing whims of fashion: what is fashionable today may be considered ludicrous in a few years.

Second, do not stand in the way of sinners.  This admonition requires little explanation.  If you want to be happy, you must avoid the way of the world, the way of the sinner, the way he only lives to satisfy the flesh.  This will never bring true happiness.

Third, do not sit in the seat of the scorners. These are people who hold everything that is holy in derision, people who laugh at God and religion and the sanctities of life, people who scoff at morality and decency.

The retrogression from walking, standing and sitting is clear in this first verse and illustrates the increasing grip of sin upon the soul.  Another aspect of this is how it causes the finest things in a person to degenerate to a state of immobility,  accomplishing  and affecting nothing, just sitting and muttering out their own conceived cleverness. Scoffers and scorners are so far removed from happiness, with no hope, paralyzed by evil and sin.

The other side of the prescription for happiness is a positive instruction.  Here is the secret of true happiness: it is that a man or woman ‘delights in the law of the Lord’, not in the wisdom of philosophers and thinkers, not in following the ungodly, but in the law of the Lord — the Bible.  Here is everything we need, God’s way to happiness.  But notice that those who are blessed delight in God’s law; they do not simply have an intellectual interest in it, or a religious compulsion to do so, but they have great pleasure in knowing it.

What makes a person delight in God’s Word?  We cannot attain this ourselves; it is a process wherein God takes the first step in showing the way to true happiness.  Amidst the tragedies of life, the desperation, the evil in this sinful world, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bear the punishment for our sins, reconciling us to God, and making us heirs to eternal bliss. Our part is to acknowledge our sins and put our faith in Jesus, believe that He has paid the price for us.  Once we believe and make Jesus the Lord of our lives, we become a new creation; we discover that we do indeed ‘delight in the law of the Lord’, we will lose our taste for the world and its temporal pleasures, we will desire to know more about God and His eternal truths.

Do you have this blessedness, this happiness?  Do you delight in God and His Word? Do you take pleasure in meditating about the joys and glories of eternity? If so, then it does not matter what you experience in this world, you will continually be blessed, and nothing can take this happiness away from you.

* Reference: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “True Happiness”, Gwasg Bryntiron Press, Wales, UK, 1967, pp.1-27

*Photograph: Panoramic Sunset over St. Finian’s Bay by Jean Winters Olkonen

The Walk of Liberty

” For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Galatians 5:14

The ability to walk is a significant milestone for any human being, expanding the vista of one’s surroundings and experiences; it is a gateway to physical freedom.

The word “walk” is found throughout the Bible.  I think of Psalm 1 describing the pathways that the righteous avoid, symbolized in terms of the various positions from walking, to standing, to sitting: a retrogression from mobility to immobility.

I think of Jesus commanding the paralytic to rise, take up his bed, and walk.  I think of the apostle Peter, instructing the man crippled from birth to arise and walk in the name of Jesus.

In Galatians 5, the apostle Paul talks about “walking in the Spirit”.  As I read this chapter, I perceive that the Christian walk involves the interdependencies of the virtues of faith, hope and love.  Paul mentions the words “standing”, “waiting” and “walking”.  It is faith that enables us to live in the Spirit, and to stand fast in the liberty given by Christ. It is also faith which builds up the “hope of righteousness.” Hope gives the grace to wait for desired ends. But it is love that makes faith work!  Think of how powerful love is: as faith and  hope enable  the first step, it is love that sustains the walk.

Love is the fulfillment of the law.  Walking in the Spirit, led by the Spirit, is walking in love.  It is living and stepping outside the boundaries of the law, into the realm of total liberty.  Walking in love demolishes the lusts and desires of the flesh and its pertinent bondages, yielding and turning into reality the very fruits of the hope of righteousness through faith.

Love never fails.

* photograph: by Hugo Romano

Philosophers, Temples and the “Unknown God”

“…the world through wisdom did not know God…” I Corinthians 1:21

Epicurean and Stoic philosophers brought Paul to Areopagus so he can expound on this “new doctrine” that he was preaching to the people of Athens. Along the way, Paul’s spirit was provoked within him when he saw the city teeming with temples, where people were worshipping idols.

From his observations of the city, Paul found a springboard from which to launch the Gospel Message:  “Men of Athens, I perceive in all things that you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD”.  Acts 17:22-23. Paul explained to the people that this Unknown God was in reality the eternal and true God.

“The Unknown God” was the God the Greeks could not quite comprehend.  There were many other gods to worship: Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Poseidon, to name a few,  yet  these gods were not sufficient for them.  There was this Other Being that needed to be worshipped, but they could not fathom or characterize this “Unknown God” the way they conceived the other gods.

Here was the paradox of it all.  Athens, the great seat of learning, where minds were directed and trained by reason and logic.  Athens, the mother of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle and a host of other magnificent minds, the birthing place of diverse philosophies where reason and logic were to reign supreme, was teeming with temples and idols.

Philosophy failed.  It only brought the Greeks to the place where they felt there was still an emptiness,  something lacking that cannot be explained by past nor prevailing philosophies:  there was this “Unknown God” that they felt they needed to worship. But who is this Being, and what is His nature?

The world through its wisdom cannot know God.

The mind of man is inadequate to know God.  As John Stott remarks, “Man is an insatiably inquisitive creature. His mind is so made that it cannot rest. It is always prying into the unknown. He pursues knowledge with restless energy. When man’s mind begins to concern itself with God, however, it is baffled. It gropes in the dark.”

This is not surprising, according to Stott, because God is infinite, while we are finite creatures. But God took the first step to reveal Himself to us.   Stott portrays the first four words of the Bible, “In the beginning God”, as a key to understanding the Bible as a whole: everything starts with God;  God  takes the first step.

God in His infinite love took the initiative of creation, of bringing forth light out of the darkness: “Let there be light” Genesis 1:3. He took the initiative of revelation, by revealing His Word through the prophets, and ultimately, through His Son, Jesus Christ, the Light of the world.  Finally He took the initiative of providing a way of salvation through Jesus Christ, to free us from our sins and to give us everlasting life.  (John Stott, Basic Christianity pp. 11-12)

What is this everlasting life?  In the words of Jesus, it is to know God:  “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. ” John 17:3

It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we can know the only true God, to enter into a loving relationship with Him, to know Him as our very own Father.

*** photo: Temple of Poseidon by Chris Kotsiopoulus