Love Is The Basis (Replay)

Good morning and I hope all is well with you.  Today, I am sharing a writing that I did back in May of 2008.  Yes, I know it was nearly six years ago, but it is just as relevant now as it was back then.  With Valentines day fast approaching, I figured it would be just as good of time as any to share.  Without further adieu, here we go.

----------------- snip -----------------
May 13, 2008

I hope that all is well with everyone this fine Tuesday morning! You know yesterday, my wife and I celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary and needless to say I am still alive and my wife has not taken me out yet :-). No but seriously, it is truly a blessing to be married and the both of you share the same affection, open lines of communication and at the core, pure love for each other.

We didn't do anything different than a normal day at all. Money is tight so we cooked at home like normal. At first it was quite disappointing and frustrating because in your brain, you wanted to go all out on your anniversary. You want to roll the kids out to a relatives house, and go have a good time with your husband or wife. That's what is always assumed you do, but sometimes life doesn't always lend itself to what you want to do when you want to do it. So while for a bit I was frustrated yesterday, I had to remember the reason why we got married in the first placed. It was love for each other. It wasn't to pawn off kids and have a good time. It was to form a union in the presence of God according to His season.

Let's go to the 1st Book of the Bible and Old Testament. In Genesis 2:24-25, it says 

(24) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (25) And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. 

In the beginning, it was God who set the rules. A man shall marry a woman and they shall be as one. Now verse 25 is the "nugget". It said, "..they were both naked....and were not ashamed". So here Adam and Eve are and all they have is their nakedness and each other. It didn't say, they were ashamed of what they didn't have. It didn't say they wished they be without the kids one night (I know there were no kids at this point, but work with me here) or wished to head out to the best and fanciest restaurant. It didn't say, they wished to sail down the Nile River on a yacht. It said, they had each other and was not ashamed. 

In the words of my daughter, Zion, "what does that mean?" Glad you asked. Let's flip to the 1st Book of the New Testament, Matthew. In chapter 22, verses 37-40, it says:

(37) Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (40) On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

We are to first place God at the head of our marriage and household. We are to love Him with every inch of our very existence. Second we are to love thy neighbour as thyself. Before your spouse was your spouse, they were your neighbour. If you couldn't love them from that standpoint then you were getting off on the wrong track any way.

You can have all the money in the world. You can have the largest house, nicest & fastest car, and all the richest friends in the world, but take them all away and what do you have left? You have God and each other. If the very existence and core of your marriage was not right from day one, then your marriage was predicated on the wrong things. At the end of the day, it's about the love you share for one another and how no one or nothing but God takes precedence over that.

Be blessed gang and have a good Tuesday!

----------------- snip ----------------- 

Antoine E. Hall

Read More

What is the Tetragrammaton?

Modern Hebrew for YHWH

The word Tetragrammaton is a pretty big word.  If one would look at it, it looks like it would represent some geometric shape.  It also, seems as though it could be a place within the cartoon, Transformers, but it is neither of these.  Tetragrammaton is "...the Hebrew name for God revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exodus 3), consisting of the four consonants Y H V H (or Y H W H) and regarded by Jews as too sacred to be pronounced" (from TheFreeDictionaryOnline.com). The excerpt below goes into more detail on the issue.

"Keep in mind that the Hebrew alphabet did not contain vowels. Ancient Hebrew was a consonantal alphabet. This has led to some debate about the proper pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, with opinions including Jehovah, Yahweh, Yahveh, Yahuweh, and many other variants...the name Yahweh was recorded more than 160 times in the Scriptures preceding Exodus 3:14-15. The name Yahweh should be one of the most frequently occurring words in our English Bibles today. Yet, without exception, all of the most popular Bible versions have removed the memorial name of God from the Scriptures and have replaced it with a titular substitute. In most cases, Yahweh has been replaced with “God,” “Lord,” or “Lord God.” The words Lord and God are NOT names. They are nouns denoting one who is a ruler, and a deity. They are like the word “father.” I am a father, and at times my children may call me “father,” or “dad.” However, neither of these words are my name. They describe my position in the family, but my name is Joseph." (from Joseph Herrin's Parablesblog, "Yahweh's Book - Errors in the Bible").

I've learned this recently and I wanted to share with you too!  Proverbs 27:17 says, "Just as iron sharpens iron, a person sharpens the character of his friend." (CJB)

Read More

Why Worry?

http://bible.com/114/MAT6.31-34.NKJV

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Bible.com/app

Read More