Holy Is Your Name

Does holiness seem to be more of a religious word in our day? About the only time you expect to hear the word holy is in a religious service or in a silly exclamation such as, “Holy Cow!” However, God is holy. We are to be holy. His name is holy. So, what does it mean to be holy?

By definition, something that is holy is set apart from or separated from common things. So, in reality, museum artifacts are holy because they are separated from common items that are in current use. They have an important connection to our past, a unique quality, or great value. These special objects are guarded from casual contact, protected from the elements, and given a place of honor in a museum. Visitors are expected to give the artifacts proper respect.

God is holy. He is deserving of honor and respect, no, reverence and awe. We show reverence, not by admiring God as an artifact in a museum, but by our worship and by our devotion to his ways. He is holy because he is, by his very nature, separate from mankind and all that is created. He is holy; man is common. He is righteous; man is unrighteous. He is eternal; man is finite. He is creator; man is created.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them that the name of God is holy (hallowed). It is not enough to accept that God himself is holy, his name is also holy. 

At some point in their history the ancient Jews stopped saying the name of God. It is said that they reasoned that if they did not say God’s name then they would not break the command:

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.” 

--Exodus 20:7

It appears that the ancient Jews put God’s name up on a shelf as if it were an artifact. Yet, that was not God’s intent.

When God revealed his name to Moses it meant something. God told Moses to tell the Israelites that the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob was about to deliver them from Egypt. He told Moses to tell Israel His name and it was packed with meaning. He is the one who Is:

“I AM Who I AM.”

God expected his name to be spoken but with reverence and honor. His name was not to be on an equal level with the names of foreign gods. His name was above them, because he is real, and he is supreme. His name is not a common name like that of any man or woman throughout history. His name is not to be used as the punch-line of a joke or the subject of humor. His name is not for meaningless exclamations of surprise. God’s name is not to be shouted as a explicative when experiencing sharp pain or anger.

God’s name has meaning and it uniquely identifies God as deity, as one who is self-sufficient, eternal in existence, and changeless. No other single descriptor is capable of encompassing his identity. His is not a name that must not be spoken but one that must be revered. The name of God can only be attributed to Him, for no other name can make such a claim as does the name of God: 

I AM.

“Our Father in heaven...HOLY IS YOUR NAME.”

Mark Stinnett

October 29, 2023

All Things to All People

In the past two centuries man has managed to reform Christianity into something quite foreign to that of the Bible.

• Religion, salvation and even Jesus have been personalized by many.
• Jesus’ parables have become stories.
• The witness of the Apostles has been traded for personal testimonies that all too often draw attention away from God and His word to human experiences.
• God’s will has been personalized to the point of turning our attention from the “kingdom of God and His righteousness” to my personal bucket list for God. In other words, people decide what they want to do for God instead of offering themselves, “What does God want of me.”

What kind of God do you want?

• Do you want a God who will give you warm snuggles at night?
• How about a God who loves story?
• How about a God who loves everyone and accepts everyone...just as I am?
• Would you like a God who promises health, and wealth and power?
• How about a genie-in-a-bottle God?
• Would you like a God who puts up with all kinds of sin, except for the really bad sins?
• How about a God who has changed His mind on His own standard of morality, saying, “That was once sinful, but no longer”?

“Living Under Water” is a book about Christian baptism. The author reported that as a part of his year-long study on the doctrine of baptism, he had baptized folks from infants to elderly; by sprinkling, pouring and immersion; in baptisteries, natural bodies of water, and a farm watering trough; as a part of formal ceremonies and informal occasions; in public and in private; and for whatever reason the one being baptized wanted to be baptized: confirmation, membership, salvation, declaration of dedication, etc. For the author, Christian baptism had become all things to all people.

Translation: Baptism lacked meaning.

The Bible tells about the Creator who is the God who declared, “I Am Who I Am,” a God who is changeless and timeless, the same yesterday, today and forever.

The God of the Bible is not like our high school yearbook buddy who wrote, “Stay the way you are.” He says, “Come as you are, but I will transform you into something better.” Indeed, God has reached down into the pit of mankind, but not to become like us and fit our definition of the kind of god we want. He came and lived among us in order to pull us up out of our pit of sin and death so that we could enjoy life!

Each person must decide whether he wants the God of the Bible or a god of his own design. If you wish to know your Creator, and not a god made in the mind of man, then you must open your mind and heart to God’s revelation of Himself, the Bible.

For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what are his thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness and treads on the high places of the earth, The Lord God of hosts is His name. 

—Amos 4:13

The God of the Bible has revealed Himself. He is not a meaningless all things to all people kind of god.

What is your God/god like? 

Does your god bow to you?

Or, do you bow before the changeless Creator of mankind, the great I AM?!

Mark Stinnett

September 3, 2023

"I AM": God's Divine Character

Do you remember signing yearbooks in high school? Do you remember the sentiment written almost as often as “Congrats” and “Good luck”?

“Stay the way your are.”

That was a friend’s way of saying that you were so cool, you just couldn’t get any better. You were fully accepted; complete; virtually perfect.

It was nice sentiment...but not long after graduation, we all discovered it to be quite unrealistic.

For one thing, kids are incomplete, imperfect. That’s why they are called kids and not adults. They don’t get out of high school or college and start at the top. There is an expectation of maturity from a state of immaturity.

Not only that, we cannot avoid change. We are human. We simply do not remain the same physically, emotionally, socially, intellectually, etc. It is a part of our human nature...change.

Did you know that God is changeless?

I can understand the word, but I cannot seem to wrap my mind around the idea. The very nature of God is different from our human nature. Don’t think of that as a fact...think about what it means. 

Stop. Think.

You may remember how Moses had been chosen by God to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. During his preparatoin he 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?”

God 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

“I Am” doesn’t seem to be much of a name. Yet that is what God instructed Moses to tell the Israelites: “I AM has sent me to you.”

How do you think that struck their minds? How was that different from the gods of Egypt? Was it just clever word play?

The name ‘I AM’ sets God apart from humanity and distinguishes Him uniquely.

‘I AM’ means the same as ‘I exist.’ That separates God from all of creation which had a beginning. ‘I exist’ separates God from the restriction and passage of time and places Him in ageless eternity.

‘I AM’ suggests that God is not strictly associated with any one aspect of creation. He is God of the sun, but he is not confined as if he is only a 'sun-God.' He is God over all with no restriction based on time or place or any other created thing.

‘I AM’ suggests changelessness. God was not one way yesterday and in some way different today. Nor is He one way today and yet may be another way tomorrow.

‘I AM’ tells us that God does not improve; He does not need to improve. He is complete in Himself. He is perfect; flawless. To say that in His divine character He ‘was’ or ‘will be’ would be to suggest that there could be a point of comparison suggesting a difference. He was not, is not, and will not ever be inferior or superior to what He is.

‘I AM’ tells us that God is the definition. He gives meaning to all that exists. All things begin with God. All things are sustained by God. All things end with God.

Moses asked to see God’s face and God passed before Moses, but He first declared himself verbally to Moses. In our English Bibles His name appears as the word ‘lord’ presented in all capital letters: LORD. Read Exodus 34. Think of ‘I AM’ as a name.

Listen as God declared Himself to Moses by name in verse six:

     The printed text reads, "The LORD God...."

Now, read His name...not a sentence...and ponder and wonder...

‘I AM’...God...