Showing posts with label simple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label simple. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Love Blog Series # 6.2.3: Loving You

Do You Know God's Name?
I found this site by Pastor Ahyh (www.yhwh.com) and I asked permission to use some of his explanations about God's name.

Now before we begin... How will this be connected in loving your neighbor, your enemy, your friend, your loved-one, your boyfriend, girlfriend, family, mother, father, etc...?

You'll soon find out. Now let's have a special verse that will connect your question to God's name:

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." - Matthew 25:40

Let's start off from where I ended last topic. We have discussed before that we need to love God not because God needs our love but because it is more of a response to His love. It is also for us to learn how to really love. And in loving someone, one thing we must know is that person's name. So what is God's name?

From the bible, we can find the answer from Exodus 3:13-14. This is when Moses actually asked God His Name.

13Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?"

14God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" - Exodus 3:13-14

God's Name is not God. It's not Lord. It's even not Jesus. Yes, His name is Jesus when He was on earth. But before being called Jesus, He said His real Name also:

"Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.'" - John 8:58

So God's Name is I AM. Now, this is the translation (or meaning in English words) from the Hebrew texts originally written many years ago. The transliteration (or using the same letters of the English alphabet) of "I AM" is YHWH or YaHWeh. So in Hebrew language, God's Name is Yahweh.

Now in using the Hebrew language, YHWH becomes
is Y meaning Yod, rhymes with "rode"
is H meaning He, rhymes with "say"
is W or V meaning Vav, like "lava"
and another H.

Now, the Hebrews wrote it from right to left making it

But God didn't wrote it left to right or right to left. He wrote it from top to bottom. And He didn't use a pen and paper to write it. He used something else (YES!! He's the Most Creative Writer I've ever known...)

He wrote His Name like this:



You!! He wrote His Name in our very existence and in every existing human being. His Name is you, your neighbor, your enemy, your friend, your loved-one, boyfriend, girlfriend, mother, father, etc... Just look: The Yod is our head, the 1st He is our arms, the Vav is our torso and the last He is our legs. This supports the reason that what we do to the least of our brothers, we do it unto Him. Because His Name is us!! He created us not only in His image and likeness, we are His very Name!! Isn't that amazing?

That's the reason why we need to love others... That's the reason why we need to also love ourselves. We are His very Name. And because we love Him also, we also ought to love others as we love ourselves. It's also a response to His love. Thus, making the only true, logical and basic reason why we love others is because we love our Lord, YHWH (See Love Blog Series #3: True Love Has One Reason Alone).

So, this ends the "knowing" part of this topic series. Now will get into the "internalization" part. Tune in next time for our next topic.

PS1. Sorry for the delay. It's been 2 weeks, I know. I have to ask permission from Pastor Ahyh (Thanks for permitting me to spread the word!!) I also have to "connect the dots" so to speak to make a point :D

PS2. Next topic in our subseries: I Will Love Today

PS3. Watch out for our next set of topics: Being Complete

Monday, July 16, 2007

Love Blog Series #6.1: Two Simple Instructions (Subseries special #1)

Did you ever tried NOT to follow the instructions in your test papers?
Deliberately or accidentally?
I did many times and all I got is a zero if not a minus five in my exam or quiz.
Just because I did not follow simple instructions in my test papers.

My topic for this entry is about two simple instructions. Just two.
And yet these two are the most disobeyed instructions since ancient times.
Do you know what are these two?

1. Love God
2. Love others

Simple isn't it? And most of the time, for at least 2000 years... and even before Christ was born, these two instructions were the most disobeyed, often taken-for-granted, and misinterpreted instructions in the world.

I have a hunch that most, if not all, of the unnecessary problems and worries today and even before are due to lack of love. It is due to not following these two simple instructions.

Crime, murder, war, failing the math exam, heartbreaks, divorce, occultism, ouija, rape, population booming, economical crisis, corruption, sin, adultery, bitterness, horror, accidents, blame...

The Greek word used for sin in the New Testament books is called "hamartia" which means "to miss a mark". Thus, by missing the mark or not hitting or obeying these 2 simple instructions actually makes you sin. And sin causes all kinds of unnecessary and useless problems and worries to man.

The whole point now is how do we avoid "missing the mark"? How do we do these instructions? Ultimately, how do we love?

To answer these clearly, We will have to know the problems why we can't easily follow these 2 instructions. There are three reasons why we fail to follow these instructions...
1. We do not know
2. We do not internalize
3. We do not do it

1st, we do not know what love is and why do we need to love. The problem with us today is that we ourselves twisted the very meaning and form of love and corrupted it just to fit into our own selfish needs. Knowing what true love is and the real reasons why we need to love God and others will help us have concrete reasons for us to love them. I believe that in loving you need to know why you love (see Love Blog Series #3: True Love has One Reason Alone). We will discuss it later in our next set of topics what love is and why we need to love.

2nd, it is not enough to know it by mind. We need to know it by heart. Everyday we must internalize and condition ourselves to do the 2 greatest commandments. Again, a full discussion for this part will be done later.

and lastly, after knowing love and conditioning yourself to love, the last important thing is to actually do it. Every preparation will be in vain if not done in action. So here, some of the answers in how to love will be given here.

This topic will be subdivided into parts to answer how can we love God and love others more effectively and then actually "avoid missing the mark". So watch out for our next issues :D

(Next topic in our subseries: What's Love Got to Do with This?)
(Watch out for our next set of topics: Being Complete)