Month: March 2016

Did you ever have the experience of the Holy Spirit urging you to read a certain passage of scripture, only you didn’t want to do it? Of course, obedience leads to blessing, but there is something in our stubborn flesh that resists. One morning some years ago, I had that experience. As I sat over my cup of tea thinking of what I would LIKE to read, somewhere in the back of my mind I heard “read Genesis”. It’s not that I don’t like Genesis, in fact, the more times I read it the more precious it becomes. But at the time, I didn’t enjoy it because of the “begats”. Those names seem to go on and on, name after name that no one can pronounce and none of them sparked an interest in my mind. It reminded me of a long tunnel full of rocks! But I took a deep breath, opened my Bible to page one and dove in on a familiar trail… “In the beginning…”

At Genesis 4:31, “…then men began to call upon the name of the Lord”, I was stopped in my tracks. (Whew! Just before the begats!”) My head popped up out of that tunnel and I had a sudden need to know more. NOW men began to call on His name? Who had they called on before? And, what does it mean to “call” on His name? In the Hebrew dictionary I found the first answser, to call (qara) upon the Lord means to meet face to face. The literal meaning is to accost, but it implies a very personal, connected encounter. Did the fall break the connection with the Lord that Adam had in the garden? Had Adam failed to know God on a personal level?

Looking at Genesis chapters 1 and 2, I found that Elohim and Adonai Elohim were the only names used for God. That name implied referring to a distant, relatively impersonal being. So what changed? First, the fall and banishment from Eden, then the loss of two sons must have been devastating for Adam and Eve, knowing that Cain killed Abel and then Cain was sent away by God to wander in the earth as a nomad. I can see how it would be hard to get close to God. But then Seth was born and Adam and Eve must have realized that even in their fallen state God could bless them and restore what was lost. It seems that this event opened the door for a much more intimate relationship with their Creator. They began to use God’s personal name, Yehovah or Yehweh (that’s another ferret trail)! The picture would be like calling a distant dignitary by his title… Mr. Mayor. But once a personal relationship is established and you get to know this person intimately by spending time with him, you call him by His given name. It is a sign of close, personal connection. Just think of it, God, the Creator of the universe, so loved this fallen man that He began to reveal His heart and nature to him in such a personal way that men could call Him by name. Woop! Little ferret dance, here… 

Stop! Another ferret question… What IS in a name? I was off and running again with a need to know. Because naming was important to God, it was important to me. Right there in Genesis chapter 1, I saw it! God began to name his creation as soon as it was made. He called the light day and the darkness He called night. He called the firmament heaven and the dry land He called earth. In Psalms we see that God named all the stars and He remembers them! Right? He created and then He named. In fact, after creating His man, He called Him Adam and declared that he would have dominion and authority over all living things on the earth. He placed his man in the garden and Adam’s first job was to name everything. Why did He call man, Adam, and why was naming the first act after creation? See how this ferret thing works? One tunnel leads to another!
Now I am running through writings on the psychology of naming! To name something is to take authority and ownership over it. We name our kids and our pets (definitely not our neighbor’s pets and kids!) because we are taking authority and ownership over them. Thus, God insisted that Adam name all creatures on the earth since He gave him dominion and authority over them. (Side trail! Did you know that we call each other names in an attempt to “lord” ourselves over another or to put ourselves in a higher place of authority? No wonder we say name calling is a “put down”. Hum! )

A name embodies character, nature and reputation. It includes all that a person is, does and has. Let’s look at the name of the first man. When God named him ADAM and it wasn’t just an appellation. The Hebrew meaning of ADAM is mankind. Why is that? Well, the Hebrew name is a play on words. Aw dawm’ (Hebrew pronunciation) means red or ruddy clay. The word doma or dom, which is in the word Adam, means blood. So here is the picture… a ruddy clay vessel containing blood. That describes all of mankind! Another reason his name was “mankind” is that he had the seed of all the generations of humanity in his loins, male and female. And the last reason for naming him Adam, or Mankind, was that God was taking authority over all humanity as a Father takes authority over His children. Cool, huh?

Back into the Old Testament and now, I was looking for God’s personal names. I discovered that every time He blessed His people in some way He would reveal another part of His nature in His name. My favorites are: Yehweh Nissi – The God of our deliverance and victory, Yehweh Jireh – The God of our prosperity, Yehweh Rophe – The God of our healing, Yehweh Shalom – The God of our complete peace, everything set right with nothing missing and nothing broken. What an awesome picture of the God we serve! He IS all things to us.

I kept running until I bumped into Psalm 91:14-16 and I almost did a double back flip as I popped up out of that tunnel! Talk about a “twist and shout” celebration dance! Woohoo! Oh my… let me explain. Check this out:

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore I will
deliver him: I will set him on high because he hath KNOWN
MY NAME. He shall call on me and I will answer him in
trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life
will I satisfy him and SHOW HIM MY SALVATION.

Are you ready???? In Hebrew the word for salvation is YESHUA! In the Greek that is JESUS! Down into my lexicon I went, looking for “Yeshua”. I discovered an amazing treasure! “Ye” is a short form of God, and “shua”, the root word, means DELIVERED, DEFENDED, PROTECTED, VICTORIOUS, PROSPERED, HEALED AND SET AT ONE WITH NOTHING MISSING AND NOTHING BROKEN, COMPLETE PEACE!!! Do you see it? Every name that God had revealed to His covenant people was in the name of Jesus! He was pointing them to Messiah long before the Word was made flesh. Chair dance!!!

In the middle of my celebration, the thought came… “find the ten commandments”. What? The thought hung in my mind so I checked out Exodus 20. In verse 7, there it was …”Thou shalt not take the NAME of the Lord thy God in vain.” Hum! I went to the lexicon to find “in vain”. My basic understanding was confirmed which was not to use His name in an evil or destructive way. BUT… there was more. It also means in a useless, powerless or careless manner. OMG! The Holy Spirit showed me the thousands of prayers I had concluded with “in Jesus’ name, Amen.” I was, carelessly and uselessly using His name as a punctuation mark at the end of my prayers! I hadn’t discerned the true meaning of His name and what that name meant to the strength of my prayers. I had been missing out on the power and the increased faith that comes with the knowledge of His name! Bummer! 

[Note: God wasn’t looking for an apology here! No! He wanted to change the way I think! He wanted to take me from where I was to a higher understanding and a more powerful walk with Him. That’s true of all our missteps. ]

Now the quest was to find out how to use Jesus’ name in the right way. Jesus had a lot to say about it, actually. I found a key verse in John 14:12-14 (The Amplified Bible):

“I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly
believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I
do; and even greater things than these, because I go to the Father.
And I will do [I myself will grant] whatever you ask in My Name
[as representing all that I AM]. So that the Father may be
glorified and extolled in (through) the Son. [Yes] I will grant
[I Myself will do for you] whatever you shall ask in My Name [as
representing all that I AM].”

Sometimes the smallest words are the most powerful. The word “in” actually means “WITHIN”. So Jesus was saying everything that is within His name He will do for us if we ask Him! Whoa! He has given us power of attorney to withdraw, from within His name, all the blessings that represent who HE IS. Another important little word is “ask”. In my Lexicon, the Greek, means to make a demand of something due, to call for, require, demand as a right or privilege. So, because we are the body of Christ in the earth, we have the right to call for these blessings in our prayers. We don’t have to beg and hope for the best. Everything within His name is freely given to us. Happy Dance!!!! Woop, Woop!!!

Although references to His name are numerous in the New Testament, I want to share this one because it speaks to our confidence in prayer. I John 5:13-15 says:

“These things have I written to you that BELIEVE ON
THE NAME of the Son of God; that you may know that you
have eternal life, and that you may believe on THE NAME OF THE SON OF GOD. And this is the confidence that we have,
in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will,
He hears us; And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we
ask, we know that we have the petitions we ask of Him.”

Do you ever wonder what God’s will is in your circumstances? Well, it’s in His name!!! Whatsoever is in His name, He has provided for us. John says that knowing His name gives us the confidence to ask, believing we will receive whatever is in His name. Jesus, Himself promised to do those things for us if we ask Him. OMG! Now, that’s a treasure worth the ferret trip! God desires to have the opportunity to SHOW US HIS YESHUA! AMEN!!!! Woop, woop! Ferret dance! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God has a very rich sense of humor and He knows us better than we will ever know ourselves. I would NEVER in my entire understanding of myself EVER have chosen a ferret to personify me! Maybe an over friendly dog or a gregarious chipmunk or squirrel would have crossed my mind, but a ferret…. No way! So, how did the idea of a ferret pop up in my imagination?

Flash back to 2011 and the upcoming church picnic. I was asked to teach the adult Sunday School class that morning. The audience would be a conglomeration of folks of all ages, from all over the church who come together once a year . So, it would be like teaching a basket of speckled pups, no two are the same.  Of course, it was a great opportunity to reach people who never attended a Sunday School class before, but it was also a great opportunity for me to give those who did have a regular class a fresh perspective on studying The Word.

OMG! What a challenge!  Fortunately,  I had a couple of months to make a plan.  I wanted it to be solid but  unique, not an ordinary lesson.   My desire was for all of them to see that getting into God’s Word was really a grand adventure…following a path with cool treasures to be found along the way,  wisdom, knowledge and uncovered truths… one”AHA” after another!

Now, I am a teacher by trade so I know some cool tricks to get kids involved in learning. Over the years I discovered a lot about our magnificent brains and the gift of having an IMAGE-ination.  When when we can visualize something, it becomes real to us.  By imagining something, we have  vicarious experiences that stick in our minds as if they are real. For example, if I say “Rocking Chair”, do you visualize the typed word or do you see a rocking chair in your mind?  Exactly!  And I am sure the chair you visualized was one you are familiar with.  That bit of knowledge led me to think in terms of teaching a Bible lesson using ideas easily visualized.

Anyway, I wanted people to visualize the adventure. In my mind I could see myself walking on the beach (I love the beach!!! – ferret happy dance! oops! Sorry, back to the topic). In my mind I was walking on the beach with a metal detector looking for treasure. I liked it! I would go with that, bring a metal detector and some metal objects to find… but… there was a nagging in the back of my mind. Something wasn’t right. As I continued to chew on it, the phrase “ferret of faith” kept repeating itself in my head. A ferret? Really? What is scriptural about a ferret?  (For that matter, what is scriptural about a metal detector?)  I got it, Abba!

Oh well, so, what did I know about ferrets?  And in a blast from the past,  a long buried memory popped into my head.  When I lived in Dothan, Alabama in the early 70s, a nuclear power plant was being built and when the duct work was done, it had to be totally dust free before they sealed the system.   So they put big specialized brushes on the tails of ferrets and sent them through the ducts to clean them. Cool, huh?  God gifted these cute little creatures with the desire to explore, to run through tunnels without fear, not knowing what was  around the next bend.  And because of that gift, they did for hundreds of thousands of people what they couldn’t do for themselves.  Their exploits in those ducts insured that millions of people, for years to come, would have LIGHT!  Do you think God was showing me a parallel here?

I began to read everything I could find on ferrets from pet owner manuals to scientific articles to build an image in my mind of exactly what a ferret is like. I even visited a friend to meet her adorable little fuzz balls. As I studied I dove into article after article connecting dots and picking up pieces of understanding that eventually came together in my imagination as a picture of a ferret. Ahhhh!   Before I knew it, I was laughing out loud!  I realized that in my own way, I am, instinctively, curious, running down one trail after another to find answers. I think Abba was laughing too as I began to figure it out…. I  AM a ferret of faith! LOL…Who knew????

So, this is what I “ferreted out” about ferrets:  They are lively, gregarious animals with a strong sense of adventure. They are curious investigators, inquisitive and persistent in satisfying that need to know more. They are master problem solvers, finding creative ways to get from one place to another in order to investigate something new and interesting. (Often getting themselves into trouble in the process) They are fearless in exploring new things and seeking out the unknown. They love the freedom to explore and are in constant need of variety and adventure. (Whoa! So that’s why, for me, a daily devotional and a couple of scriptures in the morning are as exciting as a watching water boil!  No Wonder!)

They enjoy playing and when they are happy they make clucking sounds called“dooking” (I am a “whooper”… woop, woop …. Woohoo … Woopie!). When they get excited they do a little dance called a “war dance”. It is a haphazard series of little sideways hops done in an erratic fashion. They are awkward in the dance and sometimes bump into things and fall over whatever is in their way. It is a display of joy and happiness, usually because of discovering something new. My dance is more like “twist and shout” or  I groove  in my chair dancing on the inside, using my arms and shoulders, bobbing my head from side to side “doin’ my celebration dance”. All that to say, I get carried away with excitement when I find something new in the Word!

I am not saying I am totally like a ferret. I am definitely not long and lean, nor do I sport a fur coat (although I’d love to have one for winter). But I certainly have the nature and personality of one. When I open my Bible I am always excited about the adventure the Holy Spirit plans for me. I run down familiar trails and take those interesting little side trails through lexicons, Greek/Hebrew dictionaries, commentaries,  science books, math books, history books and the like. I love finding those connecting passages between the Old and New Testaments and I am always amazed and excited when I “ferret” out another beautiful truth that God has hidden in His Word for those who diligently seek Him. With every new treasure I find, my understanding broadens and I find new truths on old paths. Then the Word changes in its entirety again with every new revelation because I see it with new eyes and a new perspective! The thrill of each new find pushes me to explore for more of the depths of God, which are, of course, unfathomable!

Fast forward to the present….Question!   Why on God’s green earth  a blog? I never, ever thought of a blog! But God has sort of nagged me in a loving way for 5 years now, about writing down what I find to share with others and He kept bringing “Ferret of Faith” to my mind. At first I thought I would write a book….  Nah! Not a ferret thing… you can’t add cool new adventures to a book with an ending! So I just sat on it until about a month ago. The nagging got much stronger to the point that I was sort of squirming, and so I asked Abba to “give me a sign” about what He wanted me to do. In a week’s time, 3 different people asked me about writing a blog… can you believe it? Well, that was out of the question! I have a serious mental disorder –TBD – technology brain deficiency! So I talked it over with Abba again and I told Him if he wanted me to blog, he would have to SEND someone to help me set it up and to teach me what I needed to know. I put the thought on the back burner thinking God wouldn’t move on it any time soon.  I never dreamed that He was so adamant about this blog that He would actually do it!

OK, you have to know God never does things in a regular way… right? The very same week I was feeling petulant about politics and I posted a “rant” on Facebook. A dear friend replied “you should write a blog”…. OMG! That was the 4th person in a week! Then, to make it  even weirder,  under my friend’s reply, another good friend who I hadn’t seen in a couple of years  replied to her reply (All you Facebookers will appreciate the complication here and the depths God will go to in order to get my attention!)  HE replied to HER reply on MY post that  he would help me set up a site and get me started!  Yup!  In a week’s time, he had 4 people suggest I write a blog and then he SENT help.   Can you believe it? I shouted UNCLE! Messaged my tech “angel” and, as they say, the rest is history! Here I am dancing in my chair and excited about getting started on a new adventure…blogging, Here I come!!!!!!