GOD - FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS
01st Mar 2023
I’ve always hated people blaspheming and using God’s name either casually or deliberately as a derogatory term, but I also find myself reacting when I hear believers using the term “God” in a casual way - which God? Who are we referring to? Is it the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Then call Him Father. Is it God the Holy Spirit? Then address Him as such. Is it Jesus? Then use His name with reverence, as one day every knee will bow and confess that He is Lord.
Recently reading in Exodus 3:15, I saw how God said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord the God of your father - the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.”
When our God speaks about Himself, He is the “I am”, Yahweh, the Name He wished to be known by and worshipped. The name expressing His character, dependable, faithful God. When Moses asks Pharaoh to let the Israelites go into the desert to worship, he introduces God as the Lord, the God of Israel, and Pharaoh replies that he does not know “The Lord”.
Our Lord’s character and name has been revealed in many aspects, i.e. The Lord your healer, The Lord your Saviour and so much more. In Exodus 6:2, “God also said to Moses, ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.”
I felt challenged to be more careful how I spoke about my God, my Father, my Saviour, my Friend, my Counsellor - my all in all. There is a sense of honour and worship as we speak His Name with respect and awe as well as intimacy.
In 2003, the Three Tenors gave a wonderful concert in the open air in Bath. It was a gift from the new owner of Wessex Water, who marked his acquisition by this free concert. We were there, and as Francis Yeoh, the new owner, a Malaysian businessman, who had come to faith through his contact with David Pawson, introduced the concert he spoke about Bath’s Christian roots, and also said that he had come to “faith in God”.
We later wrote to both Francis and David, who was also at the concert, thanking them for such an amazing evening. In David’s reply he said that he was not happy that Francis had failed to declare that his faith was in Jesus. The mention of God could have been any god!
Francis received the correction and some months later we received a transcript of a speech made by him at Kingston University, which he had attended and who now were honouring him and had asked him to address the academic body. He clearly spoke of his faith in “Jesus” and how much his faith meant to him, and what it had accomplished in his life.
by Joyce Sibthorpe
