I can’t believe this series is over!  I feel like I just sat down and started it.  It has been such a wonderful blessing to me, and will be something I come back to, I’m sure.  As I wrap up today, I’m sharing the last of the words and a few concluding thoughts.

Blessings,
Mary

Z is for..

Zealous

John 2:17  “His disciples remember that it is written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.”‘

The definition of zeal is “marked by a fervent partisanship or passion for a person, cause or idea.”  The Lord is zealous about the right things.  He is passionate about His Father’s house, the lost, the poor and widowed.  Since God is zealous for His people, being zealous is certainly a good quality.  However, I am often passionate about the wrong things.  I so easily get upset or angry when I am inconvenienced, or I feel I have been wrong.  I should pray to be zealous like the Lord - to care more about the people, causes and ideas that He cares about.

That’s all folks!  With that, we end our series.

Over the course of these 26 or so posts, we have looked at a total of 123 (if I counted correctly) names and characteristics of God.  What a huge, vast and awesome God we serve that we have found so many wonderful attributes of His nature, and, certainly this list is far from complete.  As I looked back through all the posts, I paid attention not only to the names, but also to the scriptures that we have gone through each day.  During this Christmas in July series, we have read verses from 32 of the 66 books in the Bible – almost half!   For me personally, I don’t think I would have been in so many books without this.  What a blessing it has been to study verses in the Old and New Testaments, reading God’s Word and allowing Him to reveal Himself in the process.  I still know that I have SO much to learn, and could probably reread this series a thousand times and not have it all fully sink in.

If you have read along, please let me know what has spoken to you, or touched you throughout this series.  How has it impacted you and do you have plans to use something like this in the future? What name or characteristic have you held onto throughout our time?  I’d love to hear from you!

Dear God,

Thank you so much for the inspiration to write this series, and for revealing yourself in your word.  Thank you for the opportunity to learn more about you.  May you change our hearts to make us zealous for the things you are zealous about.  Make us zealous, above all, for you.  You are so good, so worthy of praise. Amen.

Ok, so I’m going to start by admitting that I’m cheating on this post.  Try as I may, I couldn’t find a single word that truly started with X.  However, I decided to allow words that started with the “X” sound (am I an elementary teacher, or what?) and am posting some “eX” words.  However, they’ve already been used for E.

X is for…

eXample (see E)

eXalted (see E) 

Y was equally a challenge.  All I could come up with was Yahweh, which isn’t in our Bible as it is written, but it is translated Lord or Jehovah throughout the Old Testament.  It is the name given to Moses after God responds that He is “I AM”.

Anything else for X or Y?  This was a tough one!

Tomorrow I’ll finish the series with a short post for Z, and a conclusion post.  We’ve been through lots of scripture and learned so many awesome characteristics of God.  Praise Him for who He is!

W is for…

Watcher

Jeremiah 31:10  “Hear the word of the Lord, you nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather them

and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’

God not only watches us, in the sense that He sees what’s going on in our lives, He also watches OVER us, the way that a shepherd watches over his flock.  I am thankful for the good shepherd that He is. 

Way

John 14:6  “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

It’s pretty amazing that Jesus is the way, and He is also a shepherd or guide, leading us.  He makes a path for us, leading to the Father, which, we could never make ourselves.  It’s really humbling when we realize that we don’t do anything to get to God on our own.  No amount of works or good deeds will get us to Him.  No matter how many rules we try to follow and how many things we try to do for Him, our attempts are futile.  Jesus is the way – the only way.

Wise

Provebs 2:6  “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

God is able to give wisdom and knowledge, because He is the source.  There are so many things in scripture that I struggle to understand.  Some time ago, that used to lead to lots of doubts.  However, I’ve slowly come to realize that where things don’t make sense and I have difficulty reconciling things in the Bible – it is not scripture or God that is wrong, but me.  My wisdom, knowledge and understanding are oh so limited.  Thankfully, God is able to give us those things, but in the areas I still don’t have them, I am working at choosing to trust God, who is infinite in wisdom.  He knows better than I do.

Wonderful (counselor)

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

This particular verse talks about God being a wonderful counselor, and He is.  We talked about the word counselor way back on the third day of the series.  I’m going to focus today on the “wonderful” part.  The root of the word, of course, is wonder.  Oh how God has caused me to wonder through the course of this series.  I wonder at how He can be all of these things perfectly, and still have any inkling of a desire to be in relationship with flawed human beings.  I wonder at creation, and the work of His hand.  I wonder at the cross, and how and why He would love us enough to sacrifice his blameless son.  Truly, God is full of wonder!

Word

John 1:1  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

This one is a little more confusing, at least for me.  How God is the Word is a little hard for me to wrap my head around.  My Bible’s commentary says it can refer to the written and spoken word, as in the Word used for creation.  It also says it can mean “reason”.  That resonates so much more.  He is the reason for all things.  

Worthy

1 Chronicles 16:25  “For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;  he is to be feared above all gods.”

If I have learned nothing else, whatsoever, from this series, it is that the Lord IS worthy of praise.  Absolutely, without a doubt.  I am still learning that He is also worthy of my whole life.  Like pretty much everything else, I know that in my head.  How could I go through all of these characteristics and NOT feel that He is worthy.  But, living it out is a different story.  That’s the one I’m working on.  

As I reach then end of the alphabet, I’m getting to the more challenging letters.  I’ve decided to combine a few of them, like U and V today.  I’m still completely stumped for X, so if you’ve got something, feel free to leave it in the comments and help me out on that upcoming post (I promise to share the credit ).

Unfailing
Exodus 15:13  “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.”
God’s love is unfailing.  In fact, in all things He is unfailing.  He will never disappoint us, make mistakes or do wrong by us.  My love often fails.  Even with those who are dearest to me, I can sometimes (often)be rude, judgemental, or, mostly just selfish.  God’s love is so unlike ours.  His is perfect. That should cause us to rest easy, knowing that He who has all things under His control and is capable of holding them together.

Vengeance (Avenging)
Nahum 1:2  ”The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies.”
This is one of those characteristics that, if I’m really honest, I would prefer to ignore.  It’s one that I don’t necessarily get excited to write about, because it may offend, and because it conjures up some fear.  However, we SHOULD have a healthy fear of God, and we should share the truth, as we discussed yesterday.  God is perfect, holy and sinless.  He absolutely, can not tolerate sin – it is contrary to the very nature of who He is.  He takes vengeance and is filled with wrath because of sin, and these things are vented at His enemies.  Each and every one of us, on our own, is an enemy of God because we have sinned against Him.  We all deserve His vengeance and wrath.  However, when we accept Christ, we become friends of God, rather than His enemy.  This verse should give us a bit of healthy fear, but it should also give us hearts that mourn for the lost.  It should inspire us to share Jesus with friends and coworkers, and long to bring in the sheep to the Great Shepherd.

Dear God,
I confess that my heart for the lost is not what is should be.  I should care more about sharing Jesus with people, regardless of what they will think of me, or say about me.  I have the truth, and I should want others to have it as well.  Please change my heart.  Give me greater love for people and help me share all of your characteristics, even the harder parts, that others may go from being enemies to being friends.
In Jesus Name, Amen.

Victorious
1 Corinthians 15:57  “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
God has been, is and will be victorious.  He gave victory to His people time and time again when the odds were against them (David and Goliath stands out, but there are many similar stories).  He conquered sin and death through the cross, and gives us the power for victory over sin and death in our own lives.  One day, He will have complete and total, ultimate victory over Satan, and will fully restore things to the way they ought to be.  God doesn’t need us on His team in order to attain the victory.  It’s really a one being (well, three in one) show.  However, out of His love, He invites us to be a part of the winning team.  We get to share in the joy of the victory, despite having done nothing to deserve it!

Vine
John 15:1  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.”
Gardener is a good one!  Go back and add that to G!  As I wrap up this series, I am amazed by all God is, and all He has revealed during this study of His Word.  I’m also amazed by how much I still don’t know – how many words and names of God are still out there.  Gardener, for example, paints a beautiful picture in my head of God tending to us, the way a gardener carefully attends to the needs of his/her plants – giving them water, sunlight and good soil- protecting them from animals with fences and scarecrows – making sure they have what they need to grow.  It’s an awesome image, that is furthered with Jesus as the vine.  If you take a tomato (one of my garden favorites) and pluck it from the vine before it has had the chance to grown and ripen, you don’t receive the delicious fruit.  Just as the tomato needs to remain on the vine, we need to remain connected to God, through His son.  In Him only are we able to produce fruit.

If you are just joining us, this is our Christmas in July Series where Mary Mays is taking us through the alphabet discovering all the names of our Heavenly Father and all that He is.  Oh! What an amazing blessing it has been so far!  If you want to read all the prior letter posts, just click on the Christmas In July link on our main menu.
Love and God Bless!
Cross Moms

T is for…

Teacher  see also Rabbi.

Tempted

“Hebrews 2:18 “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Like us, Jesus was tempted.  After He was baptized, He was led into the dessert for 40 days where He was tempted by Satan.  Unlike us though, He never gave in to these temptations.  It’s very rare that I recognize and appreciate the fact that Jesus was fully man.  Usually I focus on the fact that He was fully God.  Still, when I stop and think about it, I am appreciative of the fact that He took on flesh and underwent the same type of struggles that we all fact.  It’s amazing that we have a God who can relate to us, because He has truly been there.  He understands.  

Truth

John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”

In this current culture of tolerance, absolute truth has become the thing that Americans will not tolerate.  People say things like “If that makes you happy…” and “That may be true for you, but it isn’t right for me.”  Once, in sharing Jesus with someone, they said they “didn’t want to believe in a God that would send her husband to hell for being an atheist.”  I didn’t know what to say at the time, but my husband had a great response.  He said “wouldn’t you want to believe in the truth, in the God that exists.”  We are all often guilty of making God in our own image – of ascribing to Him the characteristics we believe He should have, and leaving off the ones we don’t like so much.  (We do the same, oftentimes, with his rules and commands).  Over the course of this series, my aim has been to know and learn more about who God REALLY is, rather than who I want Him to be.  I am also trying to stop feeling guilty/apologetic about there being absolute truth – there is.  Jesus is the truth – and other things are not true.  We owe it to people to be honest, even if it’s hard to go again the grain of our culture.

Trustworthy

2 Samuel 7:28  “Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant.”

God doesn’t break promises.  He doesn’t tell lies.  We can trust in the things His word says.  Sometimes, I struggle with this.  (A lot actually).  It’s weird really.  I believe my husband when he tells me something.  I believe my friends and family.  But I struggle to believe God sometimes.  I have no reason not to.  He has proved Himself faithful time and time again, both in His Word and in my own life.  I should know better by now.  He is dependable and I can count on Him!

It’s another long list!  If you’re like me, sometimes it can be overwhelming to take in so much at one time.  In that case, I pray that one or two of these will sink deep into your heart.  The last two resonated most deeply with me.

Strong

1 Corinthians 1:25 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”

God is all-powerful.  He is stronger than the power of sin and strong enough to overcome the difficulty of any circumstance we might face.  I am also reminded of the verse where Paul says that in his weakness he is made strong because of Christ’s strength.  I am so glad that we don’t have to be strong on our own, but have a God who gives us all the strength we need.

Son of God/Sacrifice

1 John 2:2 “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

John 3:16  “For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Being a mom has taught me so much about parental love, and also about sacrifice. I had read the story of Abraham and Isaac numerous times, but it never touched me as much as when I read the version from the Jesus Storybook Bible to my sweet little son, while I was on maternity leave.  I was touched so deeply by Abraham’s faith – and challenged by it – wondering if my actions would be the same as his.  Though I don’t love perfectly, as God does, I know that a parent’s love runs deep.  That God would sacrifice His only son on our behalf should never, ever become less than amazing and mind blowing.  I know for me, someone who has been a Christian since I was a little girl, it can become “normal”.  It shouldn’t. 

Salvation/Savior

Isaiah 12:2  “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.  The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

Habakkuk 3:18  “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my savior.”

In order to provide for our salvation, God sent us a savior.  Isaiah has never physically seen Christ, and though he did prophecy about Christ, he didn’t understand the full plan for His coming to earth.  Still, Isaiah knew two very important things.  1) He needed saving, and 2) God provided salvation (through a savior).  We should recognize these truths daily – they never stop being true.  We don’t just need God to save us at the time of our conversion – we need Him to save us from the messes we are each and every day.  And He will!

Sanctifying

2 Thessalonians 2:13  “But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.”

In my 2^nd “R” post, I mentioned that God was a refiner.  He purifies and refines us.  This process is also known as sanctification.  God uses the gift of the Holy Spirit to change and transform us.  He sanctifies us to make us less like us and more like Him.  Some days I don’t feel like I’m being sanctified.  I still feel like a giant mess who makes sooooo many mistakes.  However, I’m clinging to the promise that “He who began a good work will carry it to completion.”  Thank God!

Servant

Philippians 2:7  “But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”

My husband is the most wonderful servant I know.  He has such a heart for blessing others, usually by doing more “behind the scenes” things that need to be done.  He’s an inspiration to me, as I tend to prefer the jobs that get the praise and thanksgiving.  I’m thankful for my husband’s example, and especially for the example of Christ.  Since He chose to humble Himself and serve others, how much more should we do the same?

Shepherd

Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”

I love the imagery of a shepherd leading his sheep.  Though he has a rod, it isn’t used to beat the sheet for punishment to mistreat them.  The rod is used to gently guide the sheep in the direction they need to go.  God does the same with us.  He is a good shepherd who uses the rod of discipline to guide us into holiness and the life that is best for us.  I also love the second part of this verse.  A good shepherd takes care of the needs of His sheep.  They don’t go hungry or thirsty.  They aren’t left out alone in the cold.  Similarly, God takes care of us.  He provides for our needs, that we may not be in want.

Sufficient

2 Corinthians 12:9  “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, sufficient is one of the words that stuck out most to me as I wrote this post.  I don’t always (or, honestly, often) live like it, but God is enough.  He is.  Really.  Whether we have nice houses (or a house at all), fine things, or good health – God is sufficient.  He is all we need.  He is the one we were made to be in relationship with, and our hearts were made to long for Him and for heaven.  Why can’t we understand and live like this.  (That is not a rhetorical question, I really do struggle to understand why I know this in my head but don’t live like it, and welcome comments on the subject).  My prayer today is that I (and we) would live lives that reflect our belief that God is sufficient.  He is enough.

If you are just joining us, this is our Christmas in July Series where Mary Mays is taking us through the alphabet discovering all the names of our Heavenly Father and all that He is.  Oh! What an amazing blessing it has been so far!  If you want to read all the prior letter posts, just click on the Christmas In July link on our main menu.
Love and God Bless!
Cross Moms

I started writing today with the intention of continuing on with the letter S.  My first sentence said something like “Before we move on to the letter S, a few R words I missed are…” and the list was long, longer than I expected.  Some of the words jumped out and touched my heart and made me want to flip through scripture to find corresponding verses.  So, that’s exactly what I did.  I hope you won’t mind being stuck on the same letter for a couple days, and that this extra R post will be as big of a blessing to you as it was to me to write.

Resurrection/Risen

John 11:25  “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.”

Mark 16:6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.”

I think for a long time, I focused on the fact that Jesus died on the cross to save the world from sin.  That’s true, He did, and it’s vitally important to our salvation.  In order for our sins to be atoned for, and us to be restored to right relationship with God, Jesus had to die.  However, I learned anew in an Easter sermon series at my church, that Jesus also had to rise.  1 Corinthians 15:17 says, “And if Christ has not been raised from the dead, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.” and 1 Corinthians 15:20 assures us that this is not something we have to worry about, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”  Because Jesus conquered the grave, death and sin have no victory or sting for believers.  Since He, Himself was raised, we can trust that we, too, will experience resurrection.  Praise God!

Radiant

Hebrews 1:3  ”The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”

Radiant means “filled with light, bright, glowing, beaming.”  I think of something so beautiful and magnificent to behold that it not only invites you in, but beckons you to come and see.  An image that jumps into my head almost immediately is a sunrise or sunset (we’ll go with sunset, as I’m not enough of a morning person to have seen many sunrises).  Anyhow, in either event, you can’t help but stop and enjoy the view.  When a gorgeous beaming sun settles over fluffy white clouds in a glowing red or orange sky, it’s impossible not to pause to take it all in.  I think God’s radiance is the same way.  I confess, I often miss it.  I am distracted, or have something blocking my view.  Still, it doesn’t change the fact that He is beautiful and magnificent to behold.  We should seek to behold Him more.

Ransom

1 Timothy 2:6 “who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.”

Before Jesus’ death on the cross, we were held captive my sin and death.  And, really, we had no one to blame but ourselves for being in such a sorry state.  It was our sin that put us there.  But Jesus, through His death and resurrection, not only paid our ransom, he was literally our ransom.  He paid the price for our sins with His life.  I know that a mistake I often make is in thinking that I can and need to pay Him back.  He paid our ransom, not so that we would owe Him, but as a gift.  Though we should not live a life of debt, trying to repay Christ for what He’s done, we should live out of gratitude, thankfulness and joy.  

Reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:18  ”All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

I love, love, love this verse.  I love that we are reconciled to God through Christ – our differences are set aside because of what Christ has done.  The fact that He is holy and we are sinful is taken care of at the cross.  But, how wonderful that He gives us the ministry of reconciliation!  We are to be the body of Christ.  We should be his hands and feet and carry on the ministry that He has given us.  I knew a pastor who was passionate about racial reconciliation and seeing different ethnicities, multi-cultural people worshiping together.  In light of the gospel, this makes so much sense.  There is no Jew or Greek, male or female, we are all the same in Christ.  We can be reconciled to God, we should certainly be able to reconcile with others.

Refiner

Malachi 3:3  “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness”

Though the process can sometimes be unpleasant, I am thankful that God is a refiner.  He refines us; He works on us and makes us knew, and purifies us from all unrighteousness.  Sometimes, this means taking things apart and putting them back together.  I’m never much of a fan of that at the time.  It’s tough.  But I’m glad that even though God loves us as we are, He loves us too much to let us stay that way.

Rejected

1 Peter 2:4  ”As you come to him, the living Stone— rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him…”

This one makes me sad.  It makes me sad to think of Jesus being despised and rejected by those He came to save.  He speaks of longing to gather Jerusalem, and Jerusalem being unwilling.  It hurts my heart to think of how much HIS heart was hurt – Him being spit upon, insulted, flogged and bruised and all the while loving those who were doing these terrible things to Him.  I think what makes me the most upset, and, really, ashamed, is knowing that I too have rejected Him.  Maybe not in such a tangible – I haven’t physically hit him or spit, but I do those things with my actions.  I reject Him when I put other gods before Him and treasure silly idols (comfort, security, status, approval of men etc) above Him.  This shouldn’t be.  

Revealed (see also, known)  Romans 16:26

Dear God,

Thank you for your goodness that is revealed to us.  Thank you for paying our ransom in order to reconcile us to the Father.  God, I’m so sorry for the times I reject you.  Please continue to refine me so that I would love you and choose you above all other things.  You are worthy.  

Amen

S is for…

If you are just joining us, this is our Christmas in July Series where Mary Mays is taking us through the alphabet discovering all the names of our Heavenly Father and all that He is.  Oh! What an amazing blessing it has been so far!  If you want to read all the prior letter posts, just click on the Christmas In July link on our main menu.
Love and God Bless!
Cross Moms

Yesterday was a more challenging post – the letter Q.  I’d still love to hear from anyone who found other words/verses starting with Q that describe God.  Pop back to yesterday’s entry and leave us a comment.  In the meantime, here is our list for R – a much longer one!

Ruler (see King, or Enthroned)

Redeemer

Job 19:25  “For I know my redeemer lives.”

When I was in college, I took a class on the Book of Job.  I went to a secular university (UVA) where I was a religious studies major.  The classes were supposed to be academic in nature, and were taught by a combination of believers and unbelievers.  This particular class was taught by a lady who did not have a Christian faith.  We learned that this book of the Bible was “likely taken and adopted from similar ancient texts” and that “Job wasn’t talking about Jesus when this famously quoted verse was spoken.”  Now, whether Job knew that his redeemer would be Jesus – all God and all man – and he would die on a cross and be raised three days later, I don’t know.  However, Job did know that he was in desperate need of a redeemer, and that this need was already met.  Of course, many thousand years later, we know that this one who redeems us from our messy state is Jesus Christ.  

Rescuer

2 Timothy 4:18  “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever.”

The girl in me loves that God is a rescuer.  If we’re honest, I think most of us have dreamed about our knight in shining armor, or our handsome prince, coming to fight for us and winning the battle against the witch or the evil queen, and winning our hearts.  It sounds an awful lot like a Disney Princess movie, but, really that is what God does.  He fights for us; He wins the battle against the evil one, and He is worthy of our heart’s affection.  A lot of times, I look to my husband to be my rescuer.  I want him to take care of the problems I’m having and just make everything better.  While God has placed my husband by my side, to do life with me and care for me in a special way, He is not about being replaced.  May we look to God to be our rescuer, to take care of us when we need Him.

Refuge/Rock

Psalm 18:2  “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.  He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

This verse gives us a great deal of insight into God’s amazing and vast character!  I remember a worship song we sang a lot in college that came from another pslam.  It’s chorus was “Refuge, you’re my refuge.  When the world is shaken and nothing stands, I will hold on to Your hands, Refuge.”  I loved (and still love) that song.  It’s a powerful example of who God is and what He should be for us.  The definitions for the word refuge are: “protection or shelter, as from danger or hardship” and “a source of help, relief or comfort in times of trouble.”  Isn’t God all of those things to us?  We recently discussed that is our protector, and have talked about how he is a comfort and a help.  He is a refuge for us when we are in need, and He is a stable rock for us to stand on when things around us seem shaky.  (Rock also made me think of cornerstone – Ephesians 2:20 – to add to letter C).

Rabbi

John 1:38  “Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”  They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”

During Jesus’ lifetime, there were many Rabbis.  Jewish boys would receive education from a “teacher,” called a Rabbi, who would train them and instruct them in understanding the Old Testament.  During his lifetime, Jesus was probably seen as “another” rabbi.  However, He is certainly not one of many.  Jesus is THE rabbi, He is THE teacher.  And we have so, so much to learn from Him!

Righteous(ness)

2 Corinthians 5:21  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.”

God and God alone is righteous and holy.  He is the only one who has never sinned.  However, in addition to being righteous, Christ is OUR righteousness.  In Him, we are seen by the Father as spotless, blameless and perfect.  This is not of ourself and we should never boast or become prideful of any good works – God says our attempts at righteousness are filthy rags before Him.  However, we don’t have to try to achieve this on our own.  We have a righteousness that we don’t have to strive for -we only have to accept God’s gracious gift.

So this post is a little different.  I’ll admit, when I began the series, I tried to mentally go through the first several days in my head to make sure there would be words for each letter.  I came up with at least one word for the first five or six and that was enough to convince me to continue with the idea.  Little did I know that there would be so many words for God for most of the letters of the alphabet.  God’s character is so vast, beyond comprehension.  It certainly can’t be contained within the alphabet, but oh what a great start this has been.

I pondered over the harder letters: Q, V, W, X, Y, Z.  I figured, rather than stress about it, I’d cross that bridge when I got there.  Well, hard to believe, but here we are.  And I’m stuck.  I only have my little thinline Bible (I’m housesitting for my sister), so I am missing my concordance, but am questioning how much help that would be.  I’ve googled and searched for words and am still stumped.

I actually found a blog post where someone else was writing a similar series, and quiet and quick were mentioned, but God is certainly not always quiet, and (as my prayer requests sometimes remind me) He is not always quick (though, His timing is perfect, we just have to trust Him).  It has been very important to me to have scripture to support each attribute of God, so that I am only relaying what His Word says about Himself (not my own thoughts or ideas).  I couldn’t find clear verses on either quiet or quick (though, plenty of times David asked God to be quick in the Psalms).

So, todays post is a challenge, and I’d like to invite the readers to seek, find and share.  Any Q words (with verses)?  If so, please comment, I’d love to read them.

But, because I could not post any words, here is one that I did find.  It doesn’t fit neatly within the series (because there are multiple words – it’s more of a phrase).  But, God is a…

Quencher of Thirst

John 4:14 “but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

God is able to meet our needs.  Each and every one of us longs for significance, purpose and fulfillment.  We often try to sate this thirst with things of this world that don’t satisfy:  material possessions, a prestigious education or career, and even relationships with others.  However, none of these things will quench our thirst.  They might hold us off for a little while, but in time, we realize that our need has not been met.  God, on the other hand, is the one who is truly able to satisfy – he quenches our thirst in such a way that we will no longer have that need.  As we look to Him, He will always fill us.

Dear God,

Thank you for meeting our needs.  You are more than enough.  Please help us to remember that and look to you, rather than attempting to find our meaning, significance and purpose in the things of this world that will never ever satisfy.  We confess that we do struggle with this.  We look to our homes, our things, our jobs and our relationships with others to satisfy our thirsts, when we have a well that will never run dry in you.  Please forgive us and change our hearts.  Amen.

Letter R is for…