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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Ben Cline, Jonathan Hernandez, and Gary Schick.

Gary Schick
Hey, we got a great one today. "Can you guys talk about some of the names of God?" And I'm just gonna clue you in listeners. We were like, "No, I want that one." As we're talking about this a little.

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, we were fighting over the names.

Gary Schick
So, Jonathan, first, you get all the good ones. There's a lot of good ones.

Jonathan Hernandez
Yeah, there are. So, I went ahead and chose two of them. And so the first one I chose was El Roi. So it's spelled, E-l R-o-i. And so this name came from the story of Hagar in Genesis 16. And so, Adam uh, or Abraham; sorry, I got my stories mixed up in my head.

Gary Schick
It is a little early as we're recording today.

Jonathan Hernandez
It is. So we have Abraham and Hagar, and Abraham obviously is married to Sarah, and they're not able to have children at this time. And so Abraham's nearing the age of, what, a hundred? And he's had a promise from God that he was gonna be the father of many nations, and here he is childless. And through the story, Sarah says, "Why don't you just have my servant Hagar," and so then Hagar ends up being pregnant. And then there's this rift between Sarah and Hagar and just a lot of conflict. And so Hagar runs away and in the wilderness, I guess, she encounters God. And so, she declares God, "the God who sees me in this story." So that's where we come to the word, El Roi. And I think about that. We did a women's conference, or my wife and the women did a women's conference a few years ago, and this was the story that we used during that time. And really just allowing the women to see that, you know, God truly sees you no matter where you're at in life. And so, I think that's good for our listeners to hear, that no matter where we're at. Even if it's in the deepest of our sins, you know, God still sees us and He still cares about us, and He's still coming after us in those times. And it could be in the best points of our lives, you know, where we feel like, "Hey, we're the champions of the world and everything's great. Everything's happening like intended and God still sees us in those moments and still cares for us and is still, you know, is still coming after us in those moments." And so, you know, when I read over that story, I think about those examples, cause there's so many times in life, you know, I think about my life. There's many times when I felt like, "you know, God doesn't see me. How could He see me? You know, I'm living in sin and I'm doing these things and why would God wanna see me in this?" And now looking back seeing, "man, God truly did see me in those times and He truly was still coming after me and pursuing me and trying to bring me into a relationship with Him." And so, you know, just seeing those, you know, those types of examples. I don't know where our listeners are at, but I really hope that they truly see that God truly does see them and wants to have a personal, intimate relationship with them in those times. And so, that was one of the stories that I---the names of God that I chose from scripture. And then the other one was Jehovah Jireh. And I was telling the guys here, "when I was a kid growing up, my mom had a CD in her car that I would always put in, and it was this CD called Metal Praise. And it was heavy metal worship music, and one of the songs was Jehovah Jireh. And I'm not gonna sing it for you guys, cause you guys would probably turn off the radio. It was such a great time in life, I guess, cause you know, I didn't really realize I was listening to worship music. It was just this heavy metal music, and I liked heavy metal music. And so, here I am singing this worship song, you know, "Jehovah Driver, you're my provider." And so I'm sitting there just continuously singing that and not realizing that, you know, all these years singing this song throughout middle or elementary school. I was sitting there declaring to God, "You are my provider." And then at times, like, you know, really just thinking about that. Man, all these times where God provided for us, you know, as a young kid, and then obviously now as an adult. So we look at this Jehovah Jireh, and this origin comes again from Abraham. And this is when he was going up to the hill to Mount Mariah to sacrifice his son. And obviously we know the story, and God provides the lamb and the tree or bush. And, you know, so think about all those times where God provided for you. You know, we can easily take it. I think about five years ago, the heater at the church went out and it's like, you know, the gas company tells us, "This is gonna be a $10,000 job." And we're like, "Wow, this is gonna break us as a church. You know, we got some money in the savings, but this is it. You know, this has taken it all." And through that whole process, you know, we've seen God just providing finances after finances, you know? And so, you know, that's an example of God being the provider in that. But we think of it on an even deeper level, you know, here Isaac is about to be sacrificed. Obviously his life is about to be taken, and God provides, you know, exactly what needs to be at that moment. And, you know, I think about like, in the midst of my rebellion and in my sin, I needed something to be provided and it couldn't be a sports car. It couldn't be, you know, any of these things, it had to be Jesus. And God provided that for me and my place, you know, in the exact moment in time that it needed to be. And so, you know, God has provided that for each of you guys too. That you needed that sacrificial lamb, and God provided that for each of us. And so, those are the two words or names of God that really had spoken to me over. Obviously, all of them have a place in our hearts that, you know, God has spoken to us in those, but these were two that I really enjoyed.

Ben Cline
Yeah, that's great. Thank you, Jonathan. You know, I was just thinking about this question and, you know, this is one of my favorite studies, is studying the names of God. Because each and every one speaks to, you know, a part of God's character that is so, like, intimately involved with our lives. And so it's just neat to see, through scripture the way that, you know, God has provided these things to us as believers and they meant something. And speaking of names, you know, in the Bible names were something that were very important to the people, you know, historically in the Bible. And it's so neat to look into those names; the names that people gave to their children and different things like that. The names that, you know, there were times when God renamed somebody to something else and it was for a purpose and it was because those names meant something. You know, and we can do that now. We can look at our names, and look it up and see if they mean something. You know, I know that my name, I'm not sure if my parents were, you know, thinking about this during the time when they actually named me. But, you know, my name Benjamin means, "Son of my right hand." And I've always taken that, you know, kind of in a humorous way, because I ended up being lefthanded. No, I'm just kidding. But, you know, just thinking about the names of God, they do mean something, and it's just fun to look into. A couple of names that I was looking at; one of them is Yahweh or Jehovah Rohi, and that means, "The Lord is our Shepherd." So you guys think of, you know, this came from Psalm 23, from that first verse that says, "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want." And we know the, you know, or if you don't know it, you can look up Psalm 23 and read through the rest of that short psalm. And that's really just David's heart, you know, thanking God for who he is and carrying him through the times that were really rough, and taking him to green pastures and still waters. But this is how it starts, he praises God saying, "You are my shepherd." And so he, you know, David there, he's looking at his relationship, and he understands this because he was a shepherd to his sheep, you know, in a very physical hands on way. And, you know, the Lord is our shepherd as well, we are the sheep of His pasture. You know, so we get to look at that one and understand that God guides us and leads us along. God provides protection for us. You know, the shepherds back then, that was a good part of their job; was to provide protection against the enemy animals that would come in to try to eat the sheep and to kill the sheep. You know, we know that this life can be rough. There's a lot of times when we really feel the attacks, you know, from the enemy. But God is our shepherd, He's there to protect us and to guide us and lead us to still waters and green pastures. And so that was one of the names that I got to look at. And then another one is Jehovah Shammah, and I don't know if I'm saying that right, but that's okay. And this name of God means, "The Lord is there," and I love the history behind this. It comes from Ezekiel 48:35 and it says, "the circumference of the city." And when it's talking about the city it's talking about Jerusalem, "the circumference of the city shall be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The Lord is There. You know, the history of this that I was reading about is that, this was the name that was given to Jerusalem and to the temple there. Just talking about how the once departed, you know, presence and glory of the Lord was now there. And, you know, to me this is a reminder that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. And the Lord is "there," and I'm sitting here on the radio pointing to myself. But you know, just that reminder that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's how God has designed things for us in this age. And, you know, just that reminder that God is always there. It's easy to think that He's not, but He is always there. He is always with us. So those are a couple of the names that I was thinking of.

Gary Schick
Boy, you know, this could be a series.

Ben Cline
It could be.

Gary Schick
Cause really guys, you have just, and I appreciate that you've kind of gone into a little depth on them. You've just touched on a couple of the Old Testament names of God the Father. We haven't even thought about the names for Jesus and the Holy Spirit here. And probably just to give our listeners a little background, I thought you guys pointed out so well. So, you know, it seems like with a lot of our names, we don't always know the meanings. Scriptural names and particularly names of God have meaning and are revelatory. They reveal something about Him. Furthermore, so many times those names come forth in moments of need. And so, you know, "You are the God who heals me at a time when," guess what the person was looking to God for. "You are the Lord my shepherd. As I'm seeking, as I'm needing that from---you are the God who sees me, you are the God who hears me." All these things, showing the intimacy of who our God is. I just kind of want to key in a little bit here on a couple of the big ones. You were talking about Jehovah Jirah, and that's a great song. How about the Amy Grant song, El Shaddai, right? Everybody, or a lot of us---I shouldn't say everybody---remember this song, and I think it even bridged into the secular world. I think Amy Grant was kind of one of the first to bridge out of the little Christian subculture into; this was actually an album that became popular in the secular world. And how cool that a song, I think it was written by Michael Card actually, who has a number of the names of God wrapped up in it. Listeners, you probably notice some of these names are a little hard to pronounce. That's because they're describing it in the original Hebrew language that it was spoken in. And so, you know, when we say Yahweh Nissi or Jehovah Nissi, "The Lord's my banner." That's what it is in Hebrew. So anyway, probably the key name of God in the Old Testament would be the name that God's people stopped saying. We believe it's pronounced, Yahweh. It was mistranslated back in the days of when they were doing the King James version as Jehovah, so that's kind of an English invented word. And the reason is, is because the Jews took so seriously God's command not to take His name in vain. This was the name that God gave to Moses. Essentially, it means "I am who I am." And so when Jesus stands in the garden of Gethsemane and they, you know, "who are you looking for?" And "well, we're looking for Jesus," and He says, "I am," and they all fell before Him. That's because essentially in Greek, He spoke the very name of God and was identifying Himself. So often in John, we see this close identification with Jesus and Yahweh in the Old Testament. And Yahweh is a sacred name of God that was given by God to Moses in the burning bush. Moses said, "Lord, they're in Egypt, there's all these gods. When they say, 'Well, which God shall I say, sent me to you?" It's the one who really is none of these fake gods. None of these made up gods, the One who is the origin of everything. "I am who I am." And so, how did we get to Jehovah? Well, in the Hebrew, they have kept the letters for Yahweh, but they put in the vowels for a different name of God, Adonai, which means "Lord." And so every time a Jewish person would come to the name Yahweh in scripture, they would see the consonants of Yahweh and the vowels of Lord. They would read Yahweh, but would say, "Lord," so that they did not say the name of God. And then along came the English translators, and just kinda ran that over with a truck and put them all together and came up with this new word, brand new word, Jehovah. But God knows who we're talking about when we speak of Him. And so it's not wrong to say Jehovah, and it's not wrong to use the name of the Lord. I mean, the Psalms are full of the name Yahweh, it's a beautiful name. Boy, there's a lot more names I would just like to touch on here, but let's not forget some of the names of Jesus too. In the Old Testament: Wonderful Counselor, Every lasting Father, Prince a Peace, that's who Jesus is. Let's not forget some of the names of the Holy Spirit: Comforter, Counselor. Just to start, I mean, look at Jesus' final words to the disciples in John 14-17. He lists several names and aspects, descriptions of the Holy Spirit and what he does in our lives. And probably, you guys have seen this too. Have you ever seen that poster with just the names of Jesus? I mean, that could be a series, you know? Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Savior, Prince of Peace, Lion of Judah, right? Lamb of God. So many descriptions of who He is to us. And so, great question, wish we could talk, this is one we could talk about all day. And maybe in a sense, listeners, this is your little assignment, is to kind of think about some of the names of God that you know, and how are they precious to you? And then use those names in your conversation with God as you speak to Him today.