Monday, October 7, 2019

The Name of the Blog

If you had asked me a few years ago if I believed I would ever start a blog, I would have said, "No way!", "Not in a gazillion years!", "Absolutely not!", or some other expression to convey the message that, while it defies logic, the probability of such an endeavor could be measured in negative numbers.  I am, at heart, an introvert. While I love learning, I prefer sitting at the back of a class immersed in my own thoughts as opposed to sitting on the front row with an answer ready for every question.  I have never really enjoyed sharing my most profound thoughts. They have always been "mine".

Recently, that has changed.

More and more, I have been acquiring new insights about the scriptures that I read. It is difficult, no impossible, to express how precious these insights are to me, but the Lord has told me that I needed to make some of these things public and that the way to do this was to start a blog.

Coming up with a name for the blog wasn’t easy for me. It had to “fit”-the teachings, my feelings, my intent. I had some ideas, but every idea that I had just wasn’t “the one”. In every case, I felt there was always a way in which someone might interpret the blog’s title as proof that I am somehow setting myself up as a spokesperson for the Lord. That isn’t my intent. At. All. My intent is to share concepts and principles that have helped me on my journey to know the Lord better. I am sure that these are flawed in some way, especially in my weak attempts to convey them in writing. Be that as it may, I have been asked to share them and it is my prayer that they will touch the heart of the reader in a way that will stoke their desire to know the Lord better themselves.

After many attempts to think of a name for the blog, I finally went to the Lord in prayer and told Him that, if He really wanted me to start a blog, He would need to give me a name by which it was to be called because I didn’t feel comfortable with any of the names that I had thought of. Immediately, “The Word of the Lord Unto Me” came to my mind. It was crystal clear and it instantly appeased me of my concerns. The things that I post on this blog are the things that the Lord has given TO ME.  If they can be applied to others in such a way that they draw others closer to Him, that is between them and the Lord, and it doesn’t change the fact that I have received these things for myself and know them to be good in that they brought me from a point at which I was to the point I am now in my relationship with the Lord. 

To the reader: Please don’t be offended by anything that I have written here.  I don’t want this blog to come across as proud or condescending. When the scriptures talk about the “depths of humility”, they aren’t kidding. An understanding of those depths comes from God, himself. A realization of who He is, what He is like, and our standing in relationship to Him takes us to those depths. I consider myself to be less than the dust and I spend a fair amount of time marveling at the Lord’s love for me and His love for everyone.

That being said, I implore the reader to not take these things lightly, either. Our salvation, in large measure, hinges on what we accept and on what we reject. It is important to not only not take new concepts so seriously that we become incensed and offended, but to also not consider them so unimportant as to reject them without some ponderous thought and deliberation.