These lovely butterflies are on the front of the equally lovely card that was given to me today - very fitting since we spent most of our time in the garden! I have been so blessed over these past months to have been able to gather each week with you girls. I believe with all my heart that our study of the names of God has already, and will continue to, bear much fruit in our lives as the depth of the truth and beauty of each Name unfolds even more to us, with each passing day.
Elohim
El Elyon
El Roi
El Shaddai
Adonai
Jehovah
Jehovah-jireh
Jehovah-rapha
Jehovah-nissi
Jehovah-mekoddishkem
Jehovah-shalom
Jehovah-sabaoth
Jehovah-raah
Jehovah-tsidkenu
Jehovah-shammah
A heart full of gratitude, one that gives thanks in all things, is a worshipping heart. A heart that worships God has taken its eyes off the things of this earth and has put them on the things above. It is a heart that worships by giving thanks to the Giver Himself. Worshipping through thanksgiving takes our affections and places them upon heaven, where we are going to one day dwell forever with Jehovah-shammah.
Our God Who is always there.
As we gathered together this morning, there seemed to be an unfolding of our own hearts before God, and also with one another, as we began looking in the book of Ezekiel at the glory of the LORD departing the temple. The visual of this departure of the glory of the LORD, slowly rising and making its way towards the mountains and then finally fading completely from view, was heart wrenching. Yet, it was the iniquity of the people themselves that had caused this.
Their hearts had left God long before His presence had ever departed from them.
It was they who had left Him.
But then, in Ezekiel 48:35, we saw a promise being given.
A promise that was tenderly held within a Name.
His Name.
Jehovah-shammah.
The LORD is there.
God desires fellowship with man, and within man himself there will always be a void, a void that can only be filled and find satisfaction in God alone.
In Luke 2:25-38 we see the beauty of the glory of the LORD returning to the temple.
Jesus.
"And the Word became flesh,
and dwelt among us,
and we saw His glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father,
full of grace and truth."
John 1:14
The Glory had come back!
Salvation!
Jehovah Shammah!
The LORD was there!
"He came to His own,
and those who were His own
did not receive Him."
John 1:11
He had longed to "gather them together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but they were unwilling." Matthew 23:37
Unwilling!
And now their house would be left to them "desolate". Matthew 23:38
He had come back to them, but they had refused Him.
They had nailed the Glory of God to a cross.
Jehovah Shammah.
But...
He
had made them
a promise.
He had made them the promise that when He left,
He would be going to prepare a place for them.
That He would come yet again, and receive them unto Himself.
"That where I am, there you may be also." John 14:2-3
We shared a lot in our morning together.
We spoke of what takes our eyes off of God and places them on the things of this world.
We spoke of dreams and hopes.
Of the reality, that for those of us that know Him, He is here.
He is with us.
He is within us.
That we are now the temple of God and He dwells within us.
Of how the promise of Zechariah 14:11 is just as surely for us today.
That we, now, today, can dwell securely, because He Himself is with us.
Intimacy with God is for our enjoyment and our good.
Intimacy with God is also for His glory.
LORD, I Want to Know You.
This is the heart cry of those that belong to Him.
with much love and joy in serving,
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