I AM who I AM: What is God's name?

So a child walks up to you after church and asks you: "What is God's name?" What do you say? "God" was the answer I most typically got. And that worked for me. It probably works for you, too. However, God does have a name, we just don't get to use it too often. Page through the Old Testament, and you will see the Lord and the LORD. Lord is a title that goes back through the centuries. LORD, however, is a coding for the name of God. The name of the Lord is inscribed in the Old Testament as YHWH. However, Jews never pronounce this name, instead saying "Adonai" (meaning lord or Lord, hence the translation of LORD in most English Bibles) or "Hashem" (meaning "The Name," as in "call upon The Name of the Lord"). In Jewish tradition, even around the time of Jesus, to pronounce the actual name of God (except in some circumstances) was equivalent to blasphemy. The Bible itself is a little more ambivalent on using the divine name. The biggest warning we get is to not use the name of the Lord in vain, which is one of the 10 commandments. What's the point? It is awesome that God lets us know God's name. In the ancient world, it was only the high priests and powerful who knew the "secret" names of the gods, and we don't know them today because the priests have all died out. But God does not save His own name for only a few- God desires the name-by-name connection with all. Thinking about this changes the way I think about prayer, and I hope it helps you as well.

"I AM who I AM" - God as present.

http://pubtheologian.wordpress.com/2010/09/30/the-divine-present/ We are people of the past. We never experience the right now, only the past. Sitting in Kenya, we watched the stars every night. Those stars were millions of years old, and we were only seeing them now. We watch "live TV," knowing that there is a delay of a few minutes between the event and the moment we see them. God is not stuck seconds or years in the past. God is present. Check out the link above to read a commentary from JTS posted by a friend of mine- Bryan Berghoef (pastor at Watershed in TC). Comment below.

A New Direction for "A Moment With Andy"

Let's be honest. On Sunday morning, I speak for 20-30 minutes on a Scriptural passage and barely can scratch the surface. Many times, people come to me with things they've heard while reading that I couldn't touch on. So... to keep the learning going, "A Moment With Andy" will now focus on other aspects (or "going deeper") on things I couldn't touch on in the morning service because of other constraints (sometimes, something is really powerful but must wait because it isn't part of the thrust of the message). As we experience on a regular basis, Scripture is deep and the aspects of God and humanity that are contained in Scripture are multiplied. Hopefully, this blog will offer an opportunity to readers and church members alike additional insight into our passages on Sunday morning. We are going to try it out, starting next week with Moses and the burning bush - "The God who is."

John 6:25-29

The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent." - John 6:29 As I write this, I am listening to the song "Expectations" by Caedmon's Call. It describes someone going to a church worship gathering for the first time, expecting to find Jesus and to be made whole. What they find, according to the song, is "An expensive ad for something cheap." Jesus isn't cheap. Grace isn't cheap. The Kingdom isn't cheap. The Kingdom of God is abundant and whole, filling and challenging, a hospital for the sick and sacred. So why would someone walk away with the idea that a church is an expensive ad for something cheap? Here's a couple theories. And they come from believing in the One God sent. 1) Human beings have a struggle trusting in God, believing in the words of Jesus. While we want to believe that the Kingdom God's salvation effort received by faith, we kinda want a backup plan. We want signs, just like the people in John 6 wanted more bread- you know, just to make sure Jesus wasn't using smoke and mirrors the first time. We also have a backup plan of works. There is a line in "Expectations" that talks about a man dressing up on Sunday to blend in so that he won't be "found out." Do we trust that God will accept us as we are? And if we do truly trust in that, what is the fear in vulnerability? Trust is a difficult thing. 2) We equate belief with our brains, when belief in Jesus exercises itself in obedience. In the Kingdom (ushered in by Jesus), we see a new way of living. Jesus commands us to live that way, not to gain access to the Kingdom, but as a result of drawing near to the Kingdom. The problem is, living a Jesus way of life doesn't make sense. Loving your enemies and praying for the people who persecute you is not logical. Another song just came onto my iPod- "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. The chorus asks "Does that make me crazy?" Loving your enemies makes you crazy. There's the trust. Do you trust that this alternate way of living might actually be a better way of living? Tough questions, I know. But here's the good news- you don't need to worry about being obedient yesterday, or tomorrow, only today.