Honoring God

     "Now to the King eternal, incorruptible, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." (I Timothy 1:17), and "saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength to our God forever and ever. Amen." (Revelation 7:12). Honor, fear and glory certainly belongs to our God, along with many other attributes, beyond what was listed in the verses above. This God Almighty has a name, "Jehovah" (most accepted English translation), though His name is seldom spoken from the pulpit or represented in books about God. "Jehovah" (or "Yahweh"), as a personal name for God Almighty is not a common understanding within our current Christian community, so I'm encouraged to walk through the first four Commandments of God, which Hw spoke and wrote, that pertain to our relationship with our one and only God, "I am Jehovah your God, who has brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. You shall not have any other gods beside Me." (Exodus 20 2,3). All verses are taken from the "Masoretic and Textus Receptus Texts (the same Hebrew and Greek text used in translating the King James Version Bible), presented here from the J. P. Green Interlinear Bible's "Literal Translation". God's first commandment reveals that God used His personal name, which doesn't appear in the today's current Bibles. Jehovah rescued the Israelite from their bondage in Egypt by powerful and extreme works to display to Egypt and the other nations His powers and authority. This verse also states a request from our God, that we should honor Himself as the one and only God; that there should be no other gods for our honor, or to consider to honor. This one God understanding is presented throughout the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. "Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah." (Deuteronomy 6:4) and "And when the living creatures shall give glory and honor and thanks to the One sitting on the throne, to the One living forever and ever." (Revelation 4:9). Only One God occupies the throne, however, His only-begotten Son is included as the only other divine member of the Godhead, "And they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation to our God sitting on the throne, and to the Lamb." (Revelation 7:10). There are at least a hundred other verses stating that God is One, and there can only be one Almighty God who is our supreme ruler with sovereign authority over Heaven and earth, who possesses a personal name, as Deuteronomy 6:4 (above) clearly states and also expresses that there is only one with the name "Jehovah" and God.

     God's second Commandment, "You shall not make a graven image for yourself, of any likeness which is in the heavens above, or which is in the earth beneath, or which is in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow to them, you shall not serve them; for I am Jehovah your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of fathers on children on the third and forth generation, to those who hate Me; and doing kindness to thousands, to those loving Me, and to those keeping My commandments." (Exodus 20:4-6). This speaks of the idols that were present and common in those days during the first four thousand years. At our current time, we have a new variety of idols that came about from the same source as the engraved idols, from our imagination and they serve the same purpose, they focus of our worship, our affection, our time and our money. Included at the end of this second commandment, it points out that we are to keep all of God's Commandments, to those loving "Jehovah", if we desire to be treated with kindness by our God. Again, God expressed His personal name, as He wrote this onto stone with His personal finger. Whom ever or what ever we put above Jehovah, the God of the Bible would be considered an idol, in the eyes of our God and Father.

     God's third Commandment, "You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain; for Jehovah will not leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain." (Exodus 20:7). Here, the name of Jehovah is a most important factor in this command, since the common Bibles do not render a personal name, most will need to look at this command with fresh eyes. "Vain" is: something of no or little value, idle, worthless, according to Webster's dictionary. Taking God's personal name out and replacing it with a common title would certainly be greatly diminishing the value of His personal name. As a result to this injury, most Christians do not know God's personal name, even though it is recorded four times in the KJV Bible, it is seldom if ever used in a sermon or written in books about the Bible. The act of taking it out would be a supreme sin, but also, leaving it out and knowing it has been replaced would be almost equal to taking it out. God's name "Jehovah" is represented eight times in the Hebrew text of the Ten Commandments and has been replaced with "Lord" or "God" but, this disrespect to our God and Father by replacing His personal name is not just restricted to His Ten Commandments, but is widely spread throughout the common Bibles, replacing "Jehovah" with "Lord" or "God" a total of 6742 times in the Old Testament. Can we be honoring God in this matter? The third Commandment also includes a warning of punishment, excluding this from being just a suggestion.

     Jehovah's fourth Commandment, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy; six days you shall labor and do all your work; and the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God; you shall not do any work, you and your son, and your daughter, your male slave and your slave-girl, and your livestock, and your stranger who is in your gates. For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all which is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; on account of this Jehovah blessed the sabbath day and sanctified it." (Exodus 20:8-11). This fourth Commandment is packed with information: first and foremost, without question, it designates the seventh day of the week as a holy day (a special day), and setting it apart as a day of rest, after six days of work, just as Jehovah did at creation, which He addresses at the end of this forth command. The seventh day, according to our government and most every other country's observance, honors Saturday, or it's equivalent as the final day of a seven-day week. This Commandment also declares Jehovah as the Creator, and this would then make Him the owner. This is a solemn command of God, not a suggestion and as the second command states, we need to keep all of Jehovah's commandments.

      How can we be honoring our One and only God, Jehovah, and at the same time obviously disregarding any of these four Commandments that are directed to our relationship with God Almighty? The Israelites lost their way in serving God; they even killed the Son of our God who came to save them, even after Christ was predicted by most all of God's Old Testament prophets, and they also killed a number of God's prophets. The original Christian church had lost its way, and many new churches were born from the reformation period. Has the churches born out of the mother church also lose their way, or did they carry with some of the mother churches errors? Has their traditions contaminated the Christian community of today, just as the traditions ruined much of Israel and Judah's connection with God Jehovah, and during Christ's first advent? Your answer to this question may lead you to a better understanding of God's way.

     Christ, Jesus is the Son of God and was the Son of God before He became the "Son of man" for our sake, in order to establish His Father's salvation for us. God Jehovah, having supreme authority of all His creation, gave authority to His only-begotten Son to prepare us and lead us to God's kingdom, and this continues to be His task through His spirit, until He returns a second time when He will take with Him those that have set in their heart to cleanse themselves, discarding their cherished sins by learning of God's character and realizing the necessity of His supreme way, bringing them to their Father's kingdom. It is our choice and our efforts, but its Christ's strength that changes our heart, if we are willing to allow Him access to our will. First we need to know what needs changing in each one of us, and this can only happen by first reading, then knowing and understanding God's word and his way, which Jehovah gave to His Son to give to us in the Book Christ inspired to all His chosen writers. I must mention, sermons are not a dependable short cut to pure understanding of God's word, it comes from your efforts in consuming the truth, directly from God's word and to cherish the understanding Christ reveals to you through His spirit, from our efforts in seeking Jehovah's truth. Our commitment to seeking God's truth and making it our utmost desire honors God Jehovah and His only-begotten Son, "Jehovah is near to all who call on Him, to all those who call on Him in truth." (Psalm 145:18), "The meek shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek Jehovah shall praise Him; your heart shall live forever." (Psalm 22:26) and "And after these thing, I heard a great voice of a numerous crowd in Heaven, saying, Hallelujah! The salvation and the glory and the honor and the power of the Lord our God." (Revelation 19:1), who is "Jehovah", even though His name or a Greek translation does not appear in the Bible's New Testament, but I believe it did in the original New Testament text.