Do I Call You, Mr. GOD?

What do you call God when you pray to him? I mean, what is he to ya?

Do you just call him God? Father? Heavenly Father? Big Guy?


I'm not a scholar by any means, let alone a Hebrew scholar.

I do know when I read LORD in the Old Testament it is similar to hearing the word 'love' in our language.

I love my wife. I love my G5. I love Pei Wei. Obviously, I don't relate the same to my three examples. If I'm not careful, I lose the impact of what I'm talking about. I need more words. At least better words.

It is the same with LORD.

Over and over I read about the LORD doing this or saying that or being referenced to and I just wonder, what are you talking about? Do you love your wife or do you love Pei Wei?

Fortunately I'm getting a little help with all of this.



Check out Ann Spangler's, Praying the Names of GOD..



She goes through the different names for GOD in the bible.

Now I know Elohim is the word for God that appears in the first sentence of the Bible.

Elohim - GOD, Mighty Creator.

You've probably heard the name Yahweh.

The name Yahweh occurs more than 6,800 times in the Old Testament...As the sacred, personal name of Israel's God, it was eventually spoken aloud only by priests worshiping in the Jerusalem temple. After the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, the name was not pronounced.

Can you imagine?

Yes, they revered his name. It was holy and they were not. I see their point, but it makes it tough to have a close relationship when you won't even speak God's name.

Now, compare that with how Jesus taught his disciples to pray.

Jesus tells them to pray to their Father. Their Father.

The same father who knows what you need before you ask him. The one who knows all the hairs on your head. Who you were before you were. He, God, our Father is intimate with us. It is okay to be intimate with him. It's more than okay. He would love for us to.

I wonder how big it made God smile when Bono wrote Yahweh? Sing along with it, feel the words and I bet it will make the LORD (Elohim, El Roi, El Shadday, Yahweh, Adonay, Hashem, Abba, Patter) smile again.

Every time.