In my search for the fear of the LORD this year I am certainly in need of both wisdom and understanding. See how key knowledge of the Holy One is. I need to know God, not just know about God. The Hebrew for knowledge, yada, is experiential knowledge, not merely head knowledge.
Names in biblical times were important. “I AM WHO I AM” proclaims the “eternity and self-existence of God”*. Plain and simple, that is who He is. The name by which He is to be known forever is ‘The LORD’, translated Yahweh. The Israelites considered Yahweh too holy to speak or write out in full.** At least they started out with reverence and awe.
The Old Testament patriarchs and prophets were no strangers to godly fear. Take Isaiah’s cry for example: “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5).
Really—Fear? Who in the world would choose “fear” as their word for the year? But that is the word that dawned on me as my girlfriends and I began a journey through Kathy Howard’s Before His Throne* Bible study in January.
Flower children, hippies, and the unmistakable aroma of incense filled the streets and shops along “The Drag,” the street beside the university where I studied during the early 70’s.
Tears possess a language of their own. They express joy, fear, sadness, pain, anger, tenderness, and various shades of other emotions. Sometimes they communicate even more effectively than words.
Our award-winning Short Leaf Pine tree recently died. It ranked fourth in size in the great state of Texas. The trunk measured thirteen feet in circumference. I often wondered why it lived so long and grew so big. Who planted it? Was it the product of a seed carried by the wind? Did a squirrel shredding a pine cone release the seed that began its life?
The freedom to take breaks whenever I choose ranks as a treasured retirement perk. Strategically placed rocking chairs testify to that priority.
Downsizing required leasing rental units for what I expected might be several weeks. However, weeks turned to months, and months turned to a year. At the end of that year, I gasped in disbelief when checking one of the units. Mold, dust, and spider webs covered the furniture that roaches now called home.
Why do our furniture purchases occur when we’re on vacation?
My husband had a valid point. It did seem we’d done our share of hauling tables in our SUV. Our current kitchen table had caught our eye while on our first Christmas vacation. We loaded it in the back of our car, drove for two days, and waited for my parents to bring the chairs a few months later.
Have you ever woken up during the stillness of the night for no reason?
Maybe God wants to have a late night worship session with you?
Have you ever felt deserted, betrayed, forgotten? Twice in this short book, Paul spoke of being abandoned. In 2 Timothy 1:15, he said, everyone deserted me. In 2 Timothy 4:16, he wrote, no one came to my support.
For the past two fall seasons, I’ve experienced severely dry eyes. Raw, irritated and red. Most of the time I just want to close them.
Red, round, juicy home-grown tomatoes are my obsession every summer! They are far superior to their tasteless counterparts that are picked green and ripened by gassing, occupying the shelves in most grocery stores.
However, death is not the end of Jesus’ story. If not for the resurrection of Jesus, our faith would be in vain. Paul stated this best, “…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17).
Through the centuries, many have rejected Jesus as King, but He is and always will be King.
The night of Jesus’ betrayal had arrived. The moments with His disciples before His crucifixion were limited. Therefore, Jesus was purposeful in His actions.
What was worship to one was waste to another. He, the disciples’ treasurer, was focused on money, not Jesus. Was Mary’s extravagant worship the final act that turned Judas from Jesus?
She listened to Jesus’ words, believed them, and embraced them. It was Mary who later acted in belief of Jesus’ words that He would be killed in Jerusalem and raised to life.
Gossip and slander are often associated with high school girls—jealousy, insecurity, boys. Girls who gossip are mean. However, as we grow into women, we refine our vernacular so that when we speak to friends, it’s tempting to justify our idle talk.
