Yaweh- The Faithful One

As I was reading my Advent Devotional this morning, a particular passage spoke to me. The author says, speaking of the name Yaweh and the passage in Exodus 20 where the Lord reveals this name to Moses:

"I AM WHO I AM" What do these mysterious words mean? Was Moses as bewildered as we are by God's self-disclosure? OR did he realize that God was assuring them he would always be present to his people-Listening for their cries, answering their prayers, showing his power on their behalf, responding faithfully even when they acted faithlessly?

I stopped to ponder this for a moment and felt compelled to offer up prayer and praise for this wonderful revelation! This afternoon, I was reading The Anchoress' post on her podcast and apparently this same concept was impressed upon her as well.

The Lord is faithful. Think about that. That's a very powerful statement.

I must honestly admit that I am not very faithful to God. Oh, I try to be and I always start off doing really well and inevitably my efforts fizzle out somewhere along the way. My Christian walk has been fraught with a fair amount of backsliding and procrastinating on heavenly things that can be put off til tomorrow while I focus on the earthly worries of today-except that tomorrow provides yet more earthly worries and I find myself putting God off permanently.

No, I am not very faithful to God.

But he is always faithful to me- a mere human being. We are really very loathsome creatures, constantly choosing to put the flesh ahead of the spirit. Yet, He loves us and never leaves us.

Whenever I think of God's love for us, I think of my love for my son. In fact, the Bible tells us He is our Heavenly Father and that we are his created children- so the parent/child relationship is an appropriate analogy to a point.

But think about your own children; as much as I love my son and will always love him no matter what he becomes, will I always be faithful to him? Is there anything he may do or say that could cause me to abandon my support of him? They are very few, but there are some things that would cause me to be unfaithful to my child. If he were to fall into a life of crime, I could no longer support him. If he were to choose a sinful lifestyle, I could not support him. Some actions are extreme enough that I would probably cut off all ties to him.

I would never fail to love my child; but I may not always be there for him while I am alive depending on circumstances. And I know that when I pass on, I will no longer be there for him either.

Throughout the Bible, there is example after example of God's people being unfaithful to him. Yet he remains with them always.

Our Heavenly Father is ALWAYS here for us. He is ALWAYS with us, ALWAYS supports us, ALWAYS behind us. He loves us so much that there is absolutely nothing we can say or do that will cause him to leave us.

That's significant.

God is FAITHFUL.

Avent Begins

I'm not Catholic but I happen to love the season of Advent. It is a season of longing and preparation for the coming of our Messiah; both past and future. Even though my particular Baptist church does not recognize Advent or its customs, I personally practice as many of the traditions as possible.

I can remember very distinctly when I stopped being excited about Christmas. As soon as I found out that good ole Santa was really good ole Mama, the Christmas season lost its luster. It became less about the "magic" and more about the me (ie, the things I wanted). Inevitably, Christmas became a big disappointment to be repeated year after year.

Since becoming an adult, I've longed to recapture the spirit of Christmas but I didn't know how; that is until I began observing Advent. I've found that spending this four-week season reflecting helps me to reclaim a significant chunk of those excited feelings and intense anticipation from my childhood Christmases.

As today is the first day of Advent, I would like to share some of the things we did for anyone who would like to participate in this season of joyous anticipation.

For the little man, we kicked off Advent by reading the Annunciation account in Luke, as well as coloring some pictures of Angels. We also "lit" our first "candle" on our Advent Wreath craft, found here.

Today I spent some time online reading this Advent devotional, which specifically targets the 4 Sundays and the lighting of the candles. I also read a lovely piece of personal reflection by The Anchoress.

I will also be reading daily from this book with my son, as well as following the directed activities. And my own personal tradition is to go through the book Immanuel: Praying the Names of God Through the Christmas Season. It is a wonderful guide to Bible study and reflection upon the first and future coming of our Lord during this wonderful season.

God Bless!