This is one of our extra weekend shows for the Dog Days of Podcasting, or DDP.
The weekend shows will be a mix. I’ve been asking you to send questions in that you’d like me to answer. Questions about the Bible, Christian doctrine or whatever you might be curious about.Send your questions to st***@*************ia.com and when I use your question on the show, I’ll send you a copy of my book, Webb’s Easy Bible Names Pronunciation Guide. That’s a $20 value.
Today I’m going to do an episode of one of the Lifespring! Media classic shows. The first episode of this show aired in November of 2005, I believe, and the last time I produced a new episode was in August of 2008, which makes sense since that’s when life really stepped in and I had to rearrange my priorities. At the time I was producing about 5 different Lifespring! Media shows a week, not counting the show that my wife, the lovely Lady LeeAnn was hosting. So I’m really happy to be doing this brand new episode of InTouch With God’s character.
God is called by many different names in Scripture, and each name reveals a different aspect of who He is. There is El Elyon, which means “Most High”, Jehovah-rohi, which means “The Lord our Shepherd”, Abba which means “Daddy” , Palet which means “Deliverer”, Jehovah-Jireh which means “The Lord will Provide” and many others.
Today I want to look briefly at the name Jehovah-shammah, with means “The Lord is There”
This name for God appears in Ezekiel 48:35.
I have a very special fondness for this name of God, this aspect of his character, because in my nearly 61 years of life, I have gone through some very difficult times. You’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “No one gets out of this life alive.” Well, no one gets out of this life without some really painful times, either.
Probably my first really painful time was when I was 16 years old. I had a girlfriend who died of cancer. That was the first time in my life that anyone I was close to died, and I just couldn’t understand why God took her. I was a brand new Christian at the time, and I have to admit that my faith was seriously shaken. However, as I look back from the perspective of an old man, Jehovah-shammah…The Lord is there.
I’m not going to go through a litany of all my life’s trials, but as I grew older and God proved His faithfulness and love for me time and time again, even when I didn’t deserve it, my faith in Him grew stronger and stronger because in the hard times, even when I didn’t feel His presence, He was Jehovah-shammah.
One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 139. In it David says, “I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re threre too…If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there!”
Knowing that God *is* love, as it says in 1 John 4:8, and knowing that He came to bring each of us a full and abundant life, knowing Jehovah-shammah “The Lord is there” brings a tremendous amount of peace, even when the circumstances around me would try to shake me.
I rejoice with the Apostle Paul when he says, “What then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Are you going through the valley right now? Does it look like there is no way out? Are you wondering where God is, or even if there is a God? Jehovah-shammah. The Lord *is* there.