I AM WHO I AM

Exodus 3:12-15 

God said, "I will surely be with you; and this shall be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." 

And Moses said to God, "Behold: when I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, "What is His name?"' What shall I say to them?" 

And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM and WHAT I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE"; and He said, "You shall say this to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you!'" God said also to Moses, "This shall you say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you!' This is My name forever, and by this name I am to be remembered to all generations."

From Daily Walk Devotional (www.walkthru.org):
I AM WHO I AM, or I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE (3:14), the name by which God revealed himself, is the name by which he would be known and worshiped. It reveals his unchanging nature, his eternal attributes, and his total faithfulness toward his people. Jesus, in his revelation from heaven to the apostle John, alludes to this holy name when he refers to himself as “the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One” (Revelation 1:8).

From Hebrew for Christians:
It's a wonder that some people are eager to know the phonetics of God's name far more than its meaning... They confuse the “signifier” with the “Signified.”

The meaning of the Name YHVH (יהוה) is Life, Being, Presence, Love, "I am that I am," ehyeh asher ehyeh - the complete conscious self-identity and awareness that is at the heart of all that exists.

When God said to Moses: אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה, "I AM who I AM," he was not being obscurantist but rather completely straightforward: His essence and identity are One.

The Talmud lists 70 names of God based on his role relative to the creation: He is Creator, King, Father, LORD of hosts, Judge, Savior, and so on. God perfectly knows who he is and therefore is entirely free to assume different roles without compromising his unique and sacred inner essence. God reveals various titles and attributes that we can (analogically) comprehend, but the inner life of God is and forever shall be an infinite sacred mystery... Knowing God's name isn't about being able to pronounce a special proper noun, after all, but is about accepting Ultimate Reality: Hayah hoveh yihyeh (היה הוה יהיה), "He was, He is, He will be" ... your loving heavenly Father.

But still, what is the "best" Hebrew Name of God? Some of the Jewish sages have said that it is revealed by reciting all 304,805 letters of the Torah in a series. That is, string together all 304,805 letters of the Torah - from the first letter of Bereshit (Bet) through the last letter of Devarim (Lamed) - and "read" this as a single "Word." Of course, we should also add the letters for the Prophets (neviim) and the Writings (ketuvim) to the Torah's 304,805 letters, not to mention the 138,020 words of the Greek New Testament. When we do so, we have the 3,000,000 letter name of God!

Taking a different approach, we learn from the teachings of Yeshua the Mashiach that the Name of God is best understood as "Father." In fact, Yeshua used the common Aramaic word for "father" (abba) to refer to His relationship with God, and He wanted his talmidim (disciples) to do likewise. It is well and good to understand the meaning of the hundreds of Names and Titles of God as revealed in the Scriptures, of course, but in the end we need to trust in Him as a small child trusts in the love of his father....

And now, some thoughts from yours truly
I am glad you stumbled upon my blog! I am Rico. I love to read, to write, and to act on the stage. I have never finished college, and have never finished studying. I mean that quite literally! Because I didn't get a degree, I took it upon myself to continue my education through my adult years. How do I do that?

Books, of course! I read a lot of books. I love fiction, of course. I started a blog for my my reading fiction, and if you want to take a look, it's at http://riceyears.blogspot.com.

Right now, I am a "student" of Patsy Rodenburg, Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg, Harold Sala, James Bryan Smith, among others, by way of the books they wrote. I am learning and learning, and I love doing so.

I then thought, why don't I start a blog about my own self-education. The beauty about this is that I don't study for grades or a degree. I study for the sheer love of learning! And I get to choose the courses I take. And pretty much, the tuition is the cost of a book at the bookstore!

So the posts in this blog will be random. Just #notestomyself as I read my teachers, and I hope you benefit from them. I also hope you journey with me by posting in the comments section.