The first time that God calls himself by name, he proclaims ehyeh asher ehyeh. I am that I am. Now there are a lot of very well written commentaries on what exactly this means, (here’s one example) but there’s a concept behind the BEING of God included in the name which isn’t to be missed, misunderstood, or ignored:
That God declared himself as BEING as a key characteristic of his name to Moses suggests that the definition of creation is dependent on presence of God’s being.
Think about that for a moment and let me rephrase it a bit. God’s being gives definition to the world around him.
His being gives definition to the rocks, and the sea, and the sky, and to me. His activity does not give me definition, his promises do not give me definition, and my activity certainly does not give me definition although it might help other people figure me out. The presence of God gives definition to the world and it is in His presence where I find my own definition.
Now I’m not entirely sure what that means on a practical level or even how it will really impact this journey I’m on of discovering who I am in Christ. But I do know that I can dig in and seek His face to better discover what it all means.
Remember mad libs? You’d have this page with a list of word types – noun, adjective, verb, transitive verb, prepositional phrase, past perfect non-transitive preposition…. Ok maybe not the last one. But you’d come up with this list turn the page and then insert your word choices in order in the blanks specified and then get some ridiculous story that almost always left people rolling on the floor in fits of painful laughter.
Have you ever listened to scripture? Not from an audio bible, although those are pretty good. I’m talking about reading scripture, just you , during your quiet time, aloud so you can hear yourself speak the words.
There’s something powerful about it, and it’s something I didn’t consider until I saw THE BOOK OF ELI. I saw it when it first came out, but I’ve really been thinking about the way the main character recites scripture. I know that he does it from memory, but at the same time it’s as if there’s something deeper, as if he’s reciting it from his heart.
Corny, but true. Here’s a clip.
(PS, BOOK OF ELI is rated R for brutal violence and language although neither appears in the clip)
A baby is what keeps me up at night right now, but before the kiddo came along, and once he starts sleeping through the night and I get over my depravation, it was something else entirely. It was an innocent enough question at first but the answer, as I explored it, and as I continue to explore it during my more intense moments of insomnia is rather harrowing. The question was asked by someone in my youth group.
“What happened on the seventh day?”
My gut response was to answer this question with a question. “What does scripture say?”
The kid answered “It looks like Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil.” Read more…
The first act of worship involved a kid, some Crayola crayons and God. Now follow me as I walk you through this thought process.
So I was thinking about worship today/yesterday because when a five-month-old is feeling cranky and decides that the best way to spend the hours between 11pm and 5am is to see how many times he can wake up daddy, praying and worshiping becomes very necessary. At least for me.
Anyways, most scholars will say that the first act of worship in the bible comes when Cain and Abel present their offerings to the Lord in Genesis 4:3-5. Scholars also have a field day arguing over the reason why God favored Abel’s offering and not Cain’s, but I won’t get into that because I actually disagree with the initial premise. I think the first act of worship actually occurred two chapters earlier in Genesis 2:19-20
