Hebrew Name Origins: $5/Name

Came across this in my research for a Hebrew word study paper I am writing:

The name of God is Yahweh. This name is abbreviated to Yah about fifty times in the Old Testament. Many proper names are prefixed with Yah. One of them happens to be my middle name! Jehonathan which is abbreviated to Jonathan comes from 'Yah' attached to 'nathan' which in Hebrew means "he gave." Therefore, Jonathan means, "Yahweh has given." This is way better than being named just 'nathan.'

I've decided to start a business: Hebrew Name Origins. $5/name. I can print them on mugs, t-shirts, frame them, bumper stickers, etc. (Cost of novelty items extra)

Special Needs Ministry

I just returned from an evening spent with the mentally disabled. Grace Community Church has a ministry solely devoted to this group of people, primarily composed of those with Downs' Syndrome, autism, and cerebral palsy. The Tuesday night ministry is called Grace Club and welcomes on average 100 people each week in addition to the caregivers who bring them. They gather first in the gym for a time of exercise and games. As I walked in to the gym I was immediately and warmly greeted by a young man who could not speak, but in no way did that stop him from being the most outgoing of the group. The evening continued and so did the greetings. Hugs and handshakes. Questions about whether or not I was a police officer. If you ever feel lonely, go to this group and you will feel like a celebrity.

From the gym, they move into a large basement classroom for a time of worship and short teaching time. Plastic chairs facing the front screen with song lyrics projected by a (old fashioned) magnifying projector. The group enthusiastically engaged in the singing, often with free style hand motions and seemingly genuine praise to God, our Creator. It brought me great joy to see many of this group praising God to the capacity He has given them. Some of them in this life seem to be completely locked within themselves unable to communicate. It made me wonder at God's ways. Not in a million years would I think to design someone who is fully grown yet mentally still a child. Yet God is still sovereignly their Creator and receives their praise. He knows every detail of their lives and reigns supreme over it. It leads me to think of the Apostle Paul's response to beholding the ways of God that transcend human wisdom:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:33-36

Demanding Greek

I want to be a Greek expert. Not a Greek scholar. Not a Greek know-it-all. But I do want to know Greek well. I want to know it well so that I can know God well and know what He has said well and be able to help others know God and know what He said well so we can together live well.

This semester has been a Greek semester. I was frustrated at first with the amount of work the class demanded, but now I see more clearly the goal. For some reason I get to have the privilege of learning Greek - the language of the New Testament. As my understanding and knowledge of the language increases, I hope that with greater precision I will comprehend those things that are important to God as recorded in His Word. Not everyone gets to learn Greek, nor does everybody need to learn it. But I hope that for some who love God and love His Word, I will be able to help them understand with greater clarity and conviction what the Almighty has said.

I was reminded of this in Greek class today as my professor exhorted us not to waste our Greek education. It got me excited again to be a student of Greek. To not take my studies lightly. I hope the Lord will give me opportunity to grow in my understanding of Him and to help others do the same through the careful use of the Greek language.

Puzzle Pieces

I just came across an analogy in Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology that puts to words something I have been thinking about for the last few years. Upon a first reading, the Bible can appear so mysterious and opaque to understanding. Kings and kingdoms and sacrifices and law and churches and revelations and songs and proverbs and judgment and anger and joy and brutality and grace and...how does this all fit together? How am I supposed to understand it all?
Well, Grudem compares studying the Bible and theology to putting together a jigsaw puzzle: "The more pieces one has in place correctly to begin with, the easier it is to fit new pieces in, and the less apt one is to make mistakes." This so clearly illustrates some of my frustrations and conclusions in studying the Bible in the past. At times it has been as though I have studied a single piece of a puzzle, knowing all its colors and shapes, but I have no idea where it goes. I have to put it to the side and keep working on the rest of the puzzle keeping in mind I have one piece on the side with certain colors and shapes. Eventually the puzzle fills in enough that I know where that piece should go. But at the start I had no idea. It took time and further work to figure it out.
So too it goes with Bible study. As I learn more of the Old Testament, ideas in the New become clearer. As I study one passage the light goes on in another. There is no way I could understand certain passages the first time I read them. But as I work through the Bible again and again, I pick up new things each time and begin to see how it all fits together. I view this as God's amazing wisdom in putting together a book that fits together so well and so precisely.
I look forward to working on this puzzle the rest of my life.

A Verse from a Red Hymnal

I married a girl who received a red Trinity Hymnal as an Eighth Grade Graduation present. And I couldn't be happier.
My fondness for the hymnal grows as my fondness for hymns grows. (Don't worry, my fondness for my wife whose hymnal I am fond of grows too!)
There is a verse from a hymn in that red hymnal that has captured my imagination. The verse is not one that can be sung and then buried into the pages of a closed hymnal with no lingering impact. No, it reverberates in my mind each time. After the song ends and the hymnal is tucked away on the shelf again, the image remains emblazened on my mind for it so captures the significance of what happened to me when I was rescued from my sin by Jesus Christ. It draws all the power it can from words put to music and creates a picture of the epic moment that was my salvation. These words make me rejoice! They make me rejoice for what has happened to me and they make me long that conversion would come to others.
Salvation is not described here as a salvation that saves from seemingly petty and inconsequential sins. Rather it speaks of the salvation from unescapable darkness to indescribable light. It describes a prisoner bound, chained, and trapped in a dark and rotting dungeon who has not seen a glimpse of light for ages. The cramped stone walls wrap around cold, stagnant air, sealing in the fear and guilt and shunning the light. The shackles of sin press the prisoner against the wall. Even the hope of being freed from these bonds has been ripped from the prisoner. But salvation comes suddenly and it comes powerfully and it comes invincibly. The once dark dungeon overflows with light. The shackles are loosed and slide off. The victorious one who freed the prisoner leaves the dungeon leading the freed man onward.

This verse come from Hymn #455 of that red hymnal. It was written by Charles Wesley in 1738. It is called, "And Can It Be."
Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray; I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell of, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed thee.