Spirit Led Living

Adhonay or as it may be more familiar to us, Adonai , is a word for God that is attributive. In other words, it describes one of His attributes. In this particular case it points to the sovereignty of God. Unfortunately, when it comes to translations it is very difficult to capture the original intent of the writer and so in many translations some of the names for God become interchangeable. In this case, Adhonay become possessive as in my Lord as opposed to simply Lord. God is Lord. God is Sovereign. This is an incredibly strong name for God in that it puts all the power on His side. He is completely in charge. There can be no discussion as to His rule and reign. Whatever He says goes. The New Testament parallel is Kurios. It represents both Yahweh and Adhonay and it is used upwards of 600 times. In fact, any time the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament Kurios is how those two words are translated in the Greek. It is the title of dominion. It is used not only of God the ...

Yahweh Yahweh is most often translated in the Old Testament as “Lord”. To understand Yahweh we have to understand that the Jews were very careful about saying or writing the Lord’s name lest they sin by saying it in vain. It is also important to know that this iteration of the name of God is one of the oldest ones and comes at a time when ancient Hebrew was very limited in that there were no punctuation marks or in the case of Yahweh it contained no vowels. Yahweh, a combination of the tetragrammaton (YHWH) with the vowels of 'Adhonay, transliterated as Yehowah, but read aloud by the Hebrews 'adhonay. This is where some traditions get their translation of Jehovah. Yahweh has its roots in the event of the burning bush were God reveals Himself as “I AM”. For most of the Old Testament Yahweh is more future tense in the sense of “He will be” in relation to his covenant relationship with His people. There is a sense of promise in His name that begins to be fulfilled in Christ. It pr...

I often wonder at people's names. It seems that with each passing generation people try to get more and more creative with names, spellings and pronunciations.   In a world that is becoming more and more secular, people choose names for any number of reasons, but less and less as a result of prayer. In the Bible we find that most names have significance. Often, the names chosen end up being prophetic, and in a few instances, God Himself either chooses the name or changes the name (Abram/Abraham, Saul/Paul). In my own case my mother had lost two children before I came along and it took many years before I was conceived. I was a mid-life baby for both my parents. In my father's case (unbeknown to me) I was his fourth son and came at a time when he really didn't want any more children. As for my mother, I was her only child and I came as a result of much prayer. In fact, my mother promised God that if He blessed her with a child that she would completely dedicate the child to ...

2 Corinthians 13:11   Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Bill Hybels wrote a book called “AXIOMS” in which he enumerated the axioms that he has developed over the years and which have stood the test of time. An axiom is a statement generally accepted as true, or that states a truth in a succinct, easy to grasp statement. If you’ve read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you know that each of those habits is stated as an axiom. One of my axioms which came to me during a leadership meeting is this: “Perfection is destination, excellence is a journey and the joy is in the journey”. Perfection, as we read in 1 Corinthians 13:10 is unattainable in this lifetime, but it is something to aim for. When we do that, we generally can achieve excellence. Titus 3:8   This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may b...

Rom 5:12   Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— The world view of man and the Biblical world view of man is vastly different. Most modern philosophy and most secular psychology is built on the premise that man is basically good. With this as their premise then, the answer to most problems comes from looking within and tapping into the id or that inner person who is basically good. To be fair, there is a lot that we can learn from secular psychology and some of their methodology is very useful and helpful in dealing with certain issues. In 1 Thessalonians 5:21 the Bible tells us to, “ Test everything. Hold on to the good .” With this is mind I believe that there are many techniques that we should study and utilize. On the other hand, Christian psychology is based on the premise that as a result of the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, sin entered the world and sin creates separat...

Mal 4:2-3 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. On these words the Jewish people clung for 400 years.   After coming out of captivity from Babylon the once powerful and independent Jewish nation became a minor territory that was the pawn of successive empires.   First they were dominated by Persia who largely ignored the Jews.   Then Alexander the Great acquired Palestine in 323 B.C.    He decided he was going to unite the world centered on the Greek language and culture.   At first they tolerated the Jewish practices but then began to enforce their doctrine Hellenization.   The majority of the Jewish people resisted by the aristocracy welcomed it.   When the people did not follow suit they tried to destroy the Jewish religion itself and all known copies of the Torah.   They even erected a statue of Zeus in the Temple an...

Matt 5:23-24 Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. A few days ago I had the joy of getting together with some dear friends from whom I had been alienated for some time.   I had deeply hurt them through my sin and I had felt that they had turned against and wanted nothing to do with me. The details aren’t important except to say that Satan does what he can to drive wedges between us. Real offenses are lumped in with imagined ones and soon there is a gulf between people who used to be like family. I can’t speak for them or their process; I can only speak for myself. At the time I was in denial about a lot of things and while I was the offending party, it was easier to justify my position by assigning blame to others. I felt betrayed and I felt abandoned and ostracized.   I was in...