YAHWEH

God revealed Himself to Moses and to Israel as Yahweh which He did not do with Abraham. Now it was not a revelation about the covenant keeping God because he already did that with Abraham. The awesomeness about the name Yahweh was that He was uniting Himself with His people like never before. He was going to redeem them with great judgments. There was a price that He was going to pay for. The redemption for Israel through the Passover meant that He had foreordained His Son. God Himself was to bear the judgment. Judging the Egyptians was not the only point of the Passover. He was judging Israel too. And a new era was to begin. God was looking ahead at the Passover Lamb. He was binding Himself to Israel through His own death. A new relationship had begun. A stripping away of Himself. A stooping down for our sakes. A suffering for our redemption.
No wonder the walls of new Jerusalem, the bride of the Lamb has twelve gates denoting the twelve tribes of Israel and twelve foundation stones on the walls for the twelve apostles of the Lamb. God in the midst of His people. It is a blood relationship, Praise be to His Holy Name.

Test or Tempt

It is clear from the book of James that God does not tempt anyone. The interesting part is that in the Greek, it is the same word for 'tempt' and 'test'. Yes, God doesn't tempt us but He tests us and our faith. Now it is left to us to decide whether the test becomes a temptation or not. Every test can used as a stepping stone to take us higher. Or we can see in it a reason to complain and so it becomes a temptation which finally drags us under. The test can become a training for us or the test can become a temptation for us. Our attitude determines which one it is going to be.

A dirge

I cried out to the Lord saying, Stop!
Do not let your waves wash us away.
And heaven was strangely silent
As death and fear ravaged the land
Then I heard an angel speak
"The waves rose but left
The hand of the Lord was stayed
if perhaps the rest might repent
and turn from their rebellious ways.
A time is coming when destruction
would fall beyond measure
and the wrath of God  unleashed.
There would be no holding back
because there would be no one to repent"
I cried out No, no, no!
And the angel wept along with me,
 "Tell your people
the time is near
God is not like you
But terrible in His holiness.
He has waited long enough
His wrath has to be satisfied
So that He can start anew".

The gospel of repentance

Repentance is an ongoing process that begins with conversion but continues on throughout life. It is evidenced by fruits of repentance. God's call to repentance in the Old Testament is not diluted in the New. The only difference is that the Holy Spirit is actively at work helping people to repent and turn to God. We as preachers of the gospel should look for signs of repentance in a person's life and should not classify someone as born again just because they say they believe in Jesus. When Jesus told Paul that he was chosen to go to the Gentiles so that God could open their eyes, Paul responded by declaring to all that they should repent and perform deeds appropriate to repentance. (Acts 26:16-20). The line that was drawn between believers and non-believers is getting blurred. Let's look for signs of repentance and change.

Lessons in sonship

In my walk with God, I have noticed something interesting. There is a difference between a blessing that God wants to give to us in His goodness and a blessing that we try to obtain out of Him. Many times we have desired many things and have tried to make it happen in our lives knowing that God is a good God who longs to bless His children. However, we notice that God giving us a blessing is one thing. We trying to wrest it out of Him is another. We finally get blessed anyway. But God gives us enough hints (sometimes subtle) to see that we have the rose but we have also scratched ourselves somewhat in the process. He wants us to see that it is more wise for Him to decide how to bless us rather than we ourselves deciding how the blessing should be.

Wisdom from God

It is important to distinguish between wisdom from God and

guidance from Him. Think of it for a moment. When we face certain

situations in life, it is not just guidance we need. Why do God give

such emphasis on wisdom? Why are we called to cry out for it and

search for it? Sometimes we act as if all that we need is guidance.

We love to hear someone say - Holy Spirit told me to go this way, to

do this thing or that thing. Now one of the key difference is this - guidance is a sign of closeness with God whereas wisdom is a sign of growth in God.