The Name of God vs. The Word of God

"...for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name."

"...faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God"

"In the beginning was the Word ... and the Word was God"

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us..."

"The words of the LORD ... O LORD, thou shalt preserve them ... for ever."

God's word will not change. It cannot change, because it is Him. You can hear it and believe in Him. This post started out as a quick jotting-down on a square inch of paper as an idea about it not being all that important what you call God but I'm not sure that's where it would end up if I were preaching on the topic.

God has many names, and not all of them are listed in the Bible or even anywhere in the historical record. At least one name of God, we don't even know how it is pronounced because it was so holy to the Scribes who transcribed our Bible refused to write it out the way it sounds. Besides which, the Bible was written in different languages from the one you speak. Therefore:

It is 100% certain you are mispronouncing the NAME of God. This is not the same as taking the name of the Lord in vain. It is the difference between day-vihd in English and dah-veed in Spanish. Heck these days I sometimes even answer to "Dave" and "Meester dehv" - and I am not as wise as God. My wife calls Him her "tati." Don't sweat this.

God knows your thoughts. He knows when you are thinking about, talking about, or praying to Him. He also knows if you are intending to be sacrilegious or disrespectful, honoring or worshipful. And He knows that you do not know hot to pronounce His name. But He also knows that you have in your King James Bible the entirety of His word, preserved for you to use. Sweat that. You are not held responsible for what you don't know, but for what you do know.

The Word of God is the important part. The Name of God is less important than the Word of God. "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves"

Sweat the big stuff.

Docking Your Own Pay

~or, Missing Out on God's Best~

I stayed up late Saturday and woke up an hour late on Sunday. If I'd really hustled the Zoo we could have got to church on time for the sunday school lessons, but I didn't. On the way to the subsequent church service (an hour late for an hourlong class) I realized I had hurt myself.

If I wake up an hour late during the week, I call in and tell them I'll be late. No problem, they'll just dock my pay. But then, if you miss a church service, you are also losing out. The loss is spiritual. I am pretty sure between the children and the adults, SOMEbody missed out on a really good Sunday School Lesson that day.

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Do you value your money? Get up!

Do you value your spiritual progress as a Christian? Get up!

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There's a sermon in there, I'm pretty sure.