Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord's Prayer | Chapter Excerpts
From "Our Father"
If Moses had hoped to pin God down and put Him in a glass case with a neat label underneath, his hopes were shattered. "I AM THAT I AM." Such a name takes God outside of this world’s limitations, outside of our whole sphere of reference. Only the Creator, the Voice from the garden, could possess such a name.
The name given to Moses is often translated as "Yahweh" or "Jehovah." Throughout the Old Testament, it is indicated by spelling "LORD" in capital letters. He is the awe-inspiring Adoshem, "Lord of the Name." Because they do not wish to take the name of the Lord in vain, Orthodox Jews often refer to God simply as Hashem--"The Name."
* * *
A cluster of men sat around their leader, a man with rough hands and an unsophisticated northern accent. "Lord," they asked, "teach us to pray."
And He said, "After this manner pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven..."
Jesus of Nazareth had a way of using unexpected words to turn a discussion of the ordinary on its head. For example: "Father."
He called Hashem "Father."
Our Father.
With one word, the carpenter placed us into a new relationship with God. Not the relationship of subject to king, of prisoner to judge, or even of dust to Creator. He put us into the relationship of child to father.
This changes everything.
Read More Chapter Excerpts:
Father In Heaven | Hallowed Be Thy Name | Thy Kingdom Come | Thy Will Be Done | Give Us This Day | As We Forgive, Forgive Us | Deliver Us From Evil | Thine Is
Available now from Little Dozen Press
