Hello there. :) How are you? How is your week going? I wish this were like a real letter, where I would actually get a reply. If you would like to talk to someone, I am all ears. :) Send me an email or something. But anyway, that is totally a rabbit trail.
This is what I was actually going to write about. Remember how I said I was writing a really long post about God?
Well, it's not finished! Surprise surprise. ;)
Hehe. Anyway, I am going to break it up into parts so that it will be easier to write for me, and to read for you.
So here is the first part.
Since God is the be-all and end-all of everything, I figured it would be smartest to look at what He says about Himself, who He calls Himself, first.
"I, the Lord, am the first; And with the last I am He." (from Isaiah 41:4)
"I am the God of your father-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." (from Exodus 3:6)
"I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and Death." (from Revelation 1:17)
Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth." (Exodus 34:6)
"Before me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no savior besides Me." (from Isaiah 43:10-11)
"I AM WHO I AM." (from Exodus 3:14)
Exodus 3:14 was really the inspiration for this post, because it does not describe God, and yet it describes Him fully. If you look at all of the different names of God, each one describes Him, but none can capture every part of Him. He is too great to be described in a name, and that is why He has so many, and why He is called I AM WHO I AM, because it simply says, "I cannot be described."
That thought led me to think about His name. Names we call Him, and names that He is called in the bible.
God puts a lot of emphasis on how great His name is.
And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?” (Judges 13:18)
Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day That I am He who speaks: ‘Behold, it is I.’ ” (Isaiah 52:6)
He also attributes the meaning of a name to the person who owns it.
"No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations." (Genesis 17:5)
So, if a name is the describer of the owner of it, should we, without further ado, look at some of the many names of God in the bible?
God, the Lord (ruler - master), Most High, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees, Jealous, Judge of all the Earth, Everlasting God, God Almighty, Fear of Isaac, The Angel, Mighty God, the Shepherd, Stone of Israel, the Almighty, I AM, God of gods, Lord of Lords, the Rock, Father, Jehovah, Yahweh, Prince of Peace, Jesus, Wonderful Counsellor, El-Shadai, Abba, Adonai, Alpha and Omega, Yeshua, the Word, King of the Jews, Christ, Messiah, the Deliverer, Son of Man, the Lamb, the Beginning and the End, Jehovah Jireh (Provider), the Excellent Glory, Holy Spirit, Savior, First and Last, the Amen, Lord God Omnipotent, Son of God, the Branch, the Vinedresser, Ancient of Days, Prince of the Host, Faithful and True, Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Root of David, Holy One, the Mediator, the Majesty, High Priest, Apostle, Anointed One, Bright and Morning Star, Father of Lights, Mighty One.
That is 62 names, and that isn't even all.
I was going to look through the bible and use as many names for Him as I could, but I soon found that there were just TOO many. Partly because some of the names were very repetitive, ex: God, the Lord, the Lord God, the Lord God of Israel, God of Israel, the Lord God Almighty, God Almighty, God the Lord... The list goes on, and on.
So, I tried to avoid doing any that were repetitive, and any that contained the word 'of.'
God is God of everything. We don't need to list every single thing He is God of. I did do a few repetitive ones, and a few 'ofs,' simply because they were really cool, and I couldn't pass them up.
I found a website, as I was trying to find more biblical names for God, called 900 Names of God. Each one was from the bible. Talk about a lot of names!
This part of who God is, His many names, led me to yet another train of thought. Each name describes Him, yet some names mean more to some people than to others. For me, a few of my favorites are "You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees," (Hagar's name for God in Genesis) "Father of Lights," and, of course, "Jesus."
These mean a lot to me because of things about the character of the Almighty that He has taught to me.
You could spend a long time looking at these names for God, and learn A LOT about who He is, but one thing I really noticed as I put this post together was that He is SO personal. Each person has their own experience of who God has shown Himself to be in their life, and so we each have different names that stand out to us, that are special to us.
Let me clarify, I do not mean to say that God is different for everyone. He is always the same, always consistent, and our ideas do not change who He is. What I mean is that for one person, when they think of God, the strongest thing about Him to them is His strength, His power. To another, it might be His love, His compassion. To another, His consistency, His dependability. All are a part of Him, but He makes His relationship with us so personal that we each know Him in a different way than everyone else.
There are many things that He is, that have not been shown to me strongly. So, I had the privilege of interviewing a few people about it, but I will talk about that in the next post.
I hope you liked it! Have a great day!
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