His Names......

There was a fire last night. Elijah had to go. He did not get back home until 2 am, and I didnt hear him come in. As I layed in bed while he was away, I was praying for him. The Lord brought to my mind a "shield." I pictured in my mind how a shield works and that is what Elijah needed at that time. A shield to protect him from the flames, a shield to protect him from smoke inhalation, a shield to be between him and the fire. Seems like it was around 3 am, that I got up, since I had not heard him come in to see if he was back. I looked outside and saw the truck and then I walked back to his room and he was tucked in sleeping soundly. Thank you Lord for being his shield!! While I was praying for Elijah, I thought of how many names in the scriptures that shows us, explains to us, proves to us of who God is. I know we could certainly rest upon the name of God, if it were the only name written in the Bible, but I think the Lord knows our humanness and knows how little our faith can become so He gives us all these different Names and they can become vivid pictures for us to hang on to. Just like He can and will be a very Shield to us. he is our help and our shield. Ps. 33:20. He becomes and has names for our needs. Sure, I have read many of the Names throughout scripture and have a knowledge of them, yet I think we all fall into knowledge more than "knowing or experiencing" the Names first hand. I can read about the Swiss Alps and gain knowledge but unless I have been there, I do not "know." I read a scripture this morning and it seems to speak this thought as well, Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? John 14:9 Before Joel's sickness, I sought, read, prayed and by his grace sought to live for Him and I had knowledge of His Names, but now after everything, I feel like I have come to "know" some of His Names because of experience, because I needed these particular Names to meet me in my most desperate places. Some may say, "I do not want to know those "names" because of what I might have to experience to "know" them. All I can say is, I would not have entered into knowing a little more of the Person that holds these Names if it had not been for the experiences. So here are some specific ones that I feel like I come to "know." He became what I needed through these Names. Creator, I had a need to "know" that He was Joel's Creator, that He fashioned him and put together every cell in his body, His name is Creator!! Comforter, I needed Someone to give something to my heart that no human could give me. Defender, oh how I still need this Name, Someone to "defend" the thoughts of the enemy that can lead me to think despairingly. Eternal, I have come to love this Name more and more, It means to me now that there truly is a place where things, people will last forever and we will never have to say good-by....heaven! Friend, I do have many of these but not many or hardly any "know" what its like, so to "know" Someone who feels exactly what I am feeling is a Friend! Hope, to know that Jesus is our Hope is how I can get up and go everyday, if there was only hope for this life, a most miserable state! I am, this would be one of the top Names that I would fall upon if I had only a few to embrace, these two words, you see are in the present tense, so before all this happened with Joel, he was the I am, and after it has all come to pass, he is still in the present tense, I am!! Life, this would be another one I would pick because when death has come and stolen, I need to know that Joel has Life. Peace, I would take this Name above others if I had only one to have (thankfully we don't) When someone is gone, we want something to be left, Peace I leave with you. John 14:27. If you can have Peace, then you can endure come what may. Redeemer, this Name I hold onto, one day it will all be redeemed!! Refuge, so many times I feel like I have run into every place, corner, hole, I can not run anymore, I must stop running and take Refuge. Resurrection, this very Name means that Joel is living right now!! Rock, sometimes I have pictured this trial, like your falling, falling, sinking but when you think your at the lowest low, there is the Rock that is underneath and forever immovable! Father, this Name means I can crawl upon, lean upon HIS breast and cry and cry and He does more so what any father would do, embrace, comfort and lets us pour it all out!! And then lastly, the Name Faithful and True, I could not fling myself on ANY Name listed above if He were not True to the Persons He is through these Names!! He becomes and is what we need through His very Names......amen!!!!

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable
to his death

I know him in in new ways now......

Well, tonight, its going to be an "adventure!!" The cooking class with Dave!! We are to arrive at 5 pm, the guys will prepare for an hour and then we all will eat this exquisite meal!!

Super hot here, supposed to be 107* !!