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El Shadday – God Almighty
If you listened to Christian music in the ’80s, the name El Shadday probably brings to mind fond memories of the Amy Grant song. El shaddai, el shaddaiEl-elyon na adonaiAge to age You’re still the same By the power of the name You sang it in your head, didn’t you? It’s a great song. El Shadday translates to God Almighty or God Most Powerful. If you were raised in church, that seems like a big no-brainer. He’s the most powerful because He’s the only God. But what did the name mean to Abram? God first refers to Himself as El Shadday, אֵל שַׁדַּי, in Genesis 17. Abram is ninety-nine years old.…
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Untangle Your Emotions
Back in the ‘70s, Mr. Spock was my hero. I wanted to be a Vulcan so I didn’t have to deal with emotions. So Jennie Allen’s Untangle Your Emotions hit me where it hurts. In a good way! It’s the perfect companion to her previous book, Get Out of Your Head. With the pair, she walks you through taking your thoughts captive and managing your emotions. She does a great job of showing that emotions aren’t sinful, but what we do with them can lead us into sin. Emotions are a gift. A gift that can be mishandled. This book is an encouraging read for anyone who struggles with…
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Where are you?
Although the name El Roi is only used once in the Bible, He’s always the God Who Sees me, isn’t He? In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard Yahweh Elohim walking around in the garden. So they hid from Yahweh Elohim among the trees in the garden. Genesis 3:8, Names of God Translation Let’s think about this. God knew they’d eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He knew where they were hiding. They knew He knew. And yet they hid. Why? Fear and shame. I get it. Take a look at the picture above. I think I must have seen this or…
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It Is Finished
It Is Finished: A 40-Day Pilgrimage Back to the Cross by Charles Martin is a glorious book. He begins with our need for redemption and inability to save ourselves and brings us to the cross. This is an achingly beautiful devotional written to prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate Jesus’s redemptive work on the cross. From the author’s website: Across forty days of vivid storytelling, It Is Finished offers a unique and vital roadmap to trace the power and necessity of the cross throughout the Bible, from Genesis all the way to your present-day reality. With every devotion, designed to be the length of about a cup of coffee, Charles Martin…
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El Roi – The God Who Sees אֵ ל רֳ אִ י
The second name in our study is El Roi. We go from Elohim with more than 2,000 mentions in the Bible to El Roi with only one. It occurs when The Lord appears to Hagar in the desert when she’s fleeing from Sarah. Hagar named Yahweh, who had been speaking to her, “You Are ElRoi.” She said, “This is the place where I watched the one who watches over me.” Genesis 16:13, Names of God Translation The angel of the Lord found Hagar in the wilderness. This “angel of the Lord” is generally accepted as a theophany or Christophany, a visible manifestation of the Father or the preincarnate Christ. So to say…
