Sheep in pasture

Sheep in pasture
Feed My Sheep, Feed My Lambs, Feed My Sheep

Monday, January 20, 2014

“Hello My Name is …El, Elohim, and Eloah”

January 19, 2014
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Sermon Series on “The Names of God”
Sermon 3 of series-
“The Sacred Names of God: El, Elohim, Eloah”
Genesis 1:2-2:3
 (All Scripture is from The Names of God Bible)


Have you ever created something that you were just so proud of that you just sat back and thought to yourself “Wow…I can’t believe that I could ever create anything like that? It is so awesome and beautiful…that you God for helping me make this piece of art…!” I love to do beading and I sit there at times…not knowing what I am going to make, I just have to create. So I sit there and try to reason out what I am going to do. Well usually when I do that, it fails to meet what I had in my mind and so I end up taking it apart and starting again. But those days when I just sit there and let God take over what I am doing…let Him create through me…well I just sit back when I am done and am amazed at what the finished product looks like. I know it was not me but God creating within me that got me to this end result. I love to see God create through me and His creating through others just inspires me. God is the ultimate creator even when using others to create a thing of beauty and delicacy. This morning reading from Genesis is all about beauty and splendor…about how God is the Master Creator of all that we see.

Let us pray:
Loving and compassionate God…creator of all we survey...we thank you for the beauty around us and the beauty you create through us. We pray this morning of the beauty of Your wisdom to fall down upon us and that we would glimpse and understand the Word you have for us this day. May we leave this place this day illuminated and ready to share the beauty of Your Son with those who are in need of beauty in their lives. May we be renewed and refreshed by Your Word. Amen.

Today we are continuing on our journey to the heart of God as we learn “The Sacred Names of God” and call upon those names in pray and within our hearts. Last week we learned about Yeshua the Mashiach…Jesus the Messiah as we also celebrated His baptism in the Jordon Rive as well as remembering our own baptism. Today…we begin with water…we begin with chaos…we begin in nothingness…only to come away with beauty and exquisiteness that only God alone can create and recreate. It is all about El…Elohim…Eloah…God! God is a God of the extraordinary…God is a God like none other…God is a God who takes broken and chattered chaos and turns it into a thing of beauty…How awesome is our God.

When we pray to Elohim, we pray and we remember that it was He who crated everything…it was He who began it all. The name El is the One True God or a pagan god named El. But there is no mistaking…when we speak of…pray to…Elohim we are emphasizing on the majesty of the One True God! As a matter of fact the use of Yahew and Elohim translates to “The Lord God”.

You see…everything exists because God wanted it to…you and I exist because God wanted us to exist in this time and space. This is the God, who called forth from nothing and created something. Elohim fearfully and wonderfully made…From Genesis 1:1 we see that God…Elohim… can make a majestic thing….an important thing…a sacred thing out of nothing…out of chaos…out of the chaos and brokenness of our lives…

As you have heard me say many times, everything is of sacred worth. God called everything…let me say that again…everything...good…He even said so after making it. But here’s the kicker…here is the “everyone is of sacred worth thing”…after Elohim created humankind…He exclaimed it was VERY GOOD…as a matter of fact, Elohim created humankind in His own image…you and I bare the image of God. Just think about that for a moment…the image of God…of Elohim…within us. We are the image of Elohim in the world that he created. How does that make you feel? What do you think life would be like if all of humanity took on that ancient sacred call of being the image of God in and to the world that Elohim created through His Ruach…His breathe…and with His spoken word?

We sometimes…OK often…miss life’s beauty because we are too focused on its faults…but then again don’t we do that to ourselves and others…concentrate on the wrong and not look at the goodness…the God given goodness…that is far more present…we would rather complain about cutting the grass than with just enjoying the feel as we walk barefoot through it. I mean even as we look at ourselves…do we see a child of God or someone with many wrongs? (God created and said it was good…very good).

Elohim desires to use His creative power not only to sustain the world but to create a blessed life for you and for me…full of physical and spiritual blessings. Deuteronomy 28:2-6 tells us (and I’m paraphrasing here)
You have blessings abundant if you stay close to Yaweh you Elohim (the Lord Your God). You will be blessed no matter where you are. Your very life will be blessed.
Children
Crops
Animals
And all these will flourish too. Out of the harvest of grain your bread will be blessed. You will always be blessed. Even your barns will be blessed not to mention everything that you do.

We live in a world that is ever changing. We never know from one moment to the next about our world. We even change ourselves as we learn and grow we change for the good…and the bad at times. But…but...Elohim …who created the heavens and the earth…never changes. He was and always will be…He loves you and me and will never stop. Elohim will never stop being who He is…unlike human beings…His attitude doesn’t change with His mood…

We have been promised a life of abundance…an abundance of love…an abundance of joy…an abundance of peace…an abundance of forgiveness…and abundance of blessings. Unlike humanity…Elohim keeps His promises. We as humankind make many promises in our life…children say that they will eat their veggies if we let them have a candy bar first…lovers promise to stay together for better or worse and when the worse comes many bail…salespeople promise us the moon but we all know where that can lead…we are flawed…but He is not.
Beloved children of the most awesome creator Elohim, we have a mighty God who can forge rivers in a dry land…who can take nothing and create a thing of beauty…who can take a broken chaotic life and turn it into something that sings His praise. He is El Elohim the Most High creative God who is just waiting to create new life within His children. He is waiting for His creation to lay down their life on the Potter’s wheel so that it can be molded into a vessel that will hold His Spirit. He wants to bless his children with an abundance of love, forgiveness, peace and joy.

Are you needing to be remolded into who God would have you be? Is there brokenness in your life that needs to be fixed? Are there parts of your life that seem shattered into pieces? Are you needing the Ruach Elohim to breathe through your life again awakening it to the beauty that it truly is? Is the chaos of your life needing Elohim to create a fertile ground for you to stand? Come to the Potter’s Wheel and be remolded into a vessel that will hold the Spirit of the God…that can be poured out onto a hurting world. Bring your hurts…your scars…your brokenness and put them on the altar of renewal and grace. Let the Master Artisan create  the life of beauty that it was meant to be.

Elohim is calling out to you and to me on the winds of love to be renewed with a newness of life. He is calling to you and to me to be that image of God that this “godless”, chaotic world needs to be healed and recreated. He is calling to us… “come my child and be restored to you former self…to the self I always wanted you to be…to that self that you were born with.”

Let us pray…
Elohim, Mighty One, you made everything out of nothing, imposed order out of chaos, gave birth to beauty, and called it good. Help us to know you as the One True God who created everything and everyone, the one who placed us on the earth for a purpose-to magnify Your Name. Come…heal us…recreate us…breath your breath of life onto the chaos of our lives…Elohim, our God and creator.

Amen.

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