There was a moment when Moses had the nerve to ask God what his name is. God was gracious enough to answer, and the name he gave is recorded in the original Hebrew as YHWH.
Over time we’ve arbitrarily added an “a” and an “e” in there to get YaHWeH, presumably because we have a preference for vowels.
But scholars and Rabbis have noted that the letters YHWH represent breathing sounds or aspirated consonants. When pronounced without intervening vowels, it actually sounds like breathing.
YH (inhale): WH (exhale).
So with a baby’s first cry, his first breath, speaks the name of God.
A deep sigh calls His name – or a groan or gasp that is too heavy for mere words.
Even an atheist would speak His name, unaware that their very breath is giving constant acknowledgment to God.
Likewise, a person leaves this earth with their last breath, when God’s name is no longer filling their lungs.
So when I can’t utter anything else, is my cry calling out His name?
Being alive means I speak His name constantly.
So, is it heard the loudest when I’m the quietest?
In sadness, we breathe heavy sighs.
In joy, our lungs feel almost like they will burst.
In fear, we hold our breath and have to be told to breathe slowly to help us calm down.
When we’re about to do something hard, we take a deep breath to find our courage.
When I think about it, breathing is giving him praise. Even in the hardest moments!
This is so beautiful and fills me with emotion every time I grasp the thought. God chose to give himself a name that we can’t help but speak, every moment we’re alive.
All of us, always, everywhere.
Waking, sleeping, breathing, with the name of God on our lips.
– Unknown Author
This showed up in my feed on Facebook and I had to share it.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it. John 8:44 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jhn.8.44.KJV
Whether you believe he is real or not doesn’t matter. What does matter is how you react to the temptation that you will be subjected to. Life is a journey through temptation. From eating candy as a child to buying things that you don’t need as an adult. Everything around us is trying to tempt us to do something or buy something, especially today. Our entire culture and our society are based around all of us being consumers of something. Whether it is food or clothing or books or electronics, we are supposed to consume.
God never intended for us to be consumers. We, as humans made in His image, are supposed to be the stewards of Earth and its resources. We’ve dropped the ball on that I believe. God loves each of us but He doesn’t like the sinful things that we do. We need to get back to Him and back to being the people that He intended but that is going to take a revival on a huge scale and it may not happen until Jesus comes to rule the Earth for one thousand years. Seek Him while there is time to do so. Don’t put it off because none of us are guaranteed even tomorrow.
You can go to church and be baptized and read God’s Word but if you don’t believe in Jesus for your salvation and repent of your old way of living…none of that will do you any good when it comes to getting into Heaven. You may be a member of a church for many years and you might know some Scripture by heart but if you don’t know Him and, more importantly, you are not sure that He knows you then your eternity will be very different from what you think it will be.
It isn’t a hard choice when you know you need Him as your Savior but some people seem to think that they can or need to help Him to save their souls. There is nothing that you or I can do that Jesus hasn’t already done to pay the price for our salvation. He did it all. We only need to accept it when it is offered to us.
Going to church, reading God’s Word, prayer…all of these are good things to do but they won’t bring you salvation. That is only found in Jesus Christ and your sincere belief in Him for your salvation. Then…you need to read the Bible and become a true follower of Him for the rest of your life. Even the Bible says “do not forsake the assembling of yourselves“, the reason for this is you can be encouraged by other believers and you can pray together about things that are happening in your life and theirs. It doesn’t matter who said what to you years ago. You are an adopted child of God when you give your life to Jesus, don’t worry about old pains and slights that happened long ago.
Allow God to take care of those problems, you server Him from this point on.
This is the question that I asked myself for many years before giving my heart to Jesus. What does He require from me to be a Christian? The answer is two-fold: one, He wants us to obey Him, and in regard to the second question, He doesn’t require anything more than your belief in Jesus as your Savior. There is nothing that you can do that will help you be a Christian.
Jesus did all of the work that needed doing, all you need to do is believe in Him for your salvation. That is it. There are no rules to follow or prescribed actions that need to be done because you and I can’t help Jesus save our souls. It is your faith in Him and your belief in His atonement for you that saves your soul from hell, with nothing required from you other than submitting your life and your heart to Him.
In my opinion, that is what keeps many people from believing in Him for their salvation. It’s too simple! Just believe in Him and be saved. That is what the gospel teaches. As Jesus told Nicodemus, “As the people believed and looked on the serpent on the pole to be cured, so they will only need to believe on the Son of Man”. Today, we want to have a part in our salvation but the only part that we have in it is to respond to the Holy Spirit when we are convicted of our need for salvation. Many people seem to push it away and decide that they aren’t ready yet. They think they will have plenty of time to do this later which is a lie from Satan.
Not one of us knows if we will even wake up in the morning so the thought that you have “plenty of time for that” is very deceptive. Although, people listen to that idea all of the time. When the day comes, and I believe it won’t be long in coming, the church and the believers who have died in Christ will be taken up to meet the Lord in the air. After that happens, there are going to be many who will regret waiting. Don’t put your salvation on hold, listen to that voice that is telling you that you need Jesus in your life.
