I just wanted to share with y'all what I have had the awesome privilege of doing. My friend invited me to take a Hebrew bible study class being offered at her church and I jumped at the chance to do it. I don't mind telling y'all that I have struggled with it, but it has been a good struggle. I will never be proficient in it, but learning what I have, has made me more aware of the awesome Yahweh that we serve and can call Father.
Now, like I said, I will never be proficient in Hebrew. But, I feel quite empowered with what little I do know. One of the things that I learned is that all 22 letters of the Aleph-Bet are description words describing the very essence, nature and character of Elohim. For those of you that know way more then me, please be kind with your thoughts. Everyone has to start at the starting place, the beginning. ggg That's where I am. We have been taught how to write and spell our names in Hebrew. And I must say that when I finally did write my name, I was as giddy as a kid in a candy store!!! And then looking at all the characters that made up my name and seeing all the nature and characteristics of God in my name really made me think about who I am. Scripture tells us that we are created in the image of Elohim. No two of us are exactly alike, yet we are all a part of God's creation and made in His image. When you write your name, it's easy then to see that there is a purpose and plan for your life!!!!! With that in mind, we can know for sure that God does not make any junk!!!!
Many modern day names have biblical reference, but for those of us whose name does not date back that far, we have to just hope we get it right. I wrote mine out on the white board and then took a picture of it. I am so proud of the fact that I even got it done, much less that it looked good enough to take a picture of. One thing that my brain has a hard time with is that Hebrew is read right to left. That is tricky on the old brain. hehehe The ladies that are presenting this class are two very lovely ladies and they have been doing this for quite a while and they love doing it. I would suggest to anyone that if you ever have an opportunity to take a beginners Hebrew class, jump on it, you will be happy you did.
I googled my name the next day to see if I had spelled it correctly. (What did we do before google? hahahaha) There are at least 2 ways to spell Patricia. One way, I had spelled it right. The other way, I had added one too many letters. But either way was correct. One of the places actually said some spelled it one way and some the other way, so I am gonna say it's spelled correctly. Again, for those of you that know more than I do, please be kind. I'm just so happy to have done this and it be right according to some. I said earlier, I did take a picture of it and I wanted to share it with y'all.
Culture is based on language. Every language is made up of letters. Not every language has letters that mean anything till the letters are put together. In the english language, what does "a" mean? What does "b" mean? They mean nothing till they are put with other letters to spell out something. It's different with Hebrew. Every letter has its own meaning alone, all by itself. Not only that, but every letter has "several" different meanings. And every letter has a different pictograph. And, every letter also has a numerical value, from 1 to 400. Every one of those meanings are directly related to the very character, essence and nature of God and His culture. Hebrew is read from RIGHT to LEFT, so it has been hard trying to find gray matter that will easily conform to this notion. hehehe But, with God's help, I will get it!!! I will get it!!! I will get it!!!! hahaha
Ok, so look at the picture. You will see on the far right hand side something that looks kinda like a backwards, upside down G. That is "pey", the 17th letter of the aleph-bet. The next letter is "tav" the 22nd letter. The next letter or middle letter is "resh", the 20th letter. The next letter is "shin", the 21st letter. The final letter at the far left is "aleph", the first letter of the Aleph-Bet.
Hebrew is pronounced phonetically. So for my given name "Patricia" you have "pey-tav-resh-shin-aleph". To pronounce my name or any name, you use just the first part of each letter. "p-(t-re-sh)-a". In the picture, notice the 3 middle letters are joined by an upside down arc; ( I don't think the upside down arc is in real Hebrew writing, that is just to show beginners how you would put the letters together and say them, I think) that signifies saying those 3 letters together. Thus saying my Patricia.
pey means pictograph is "open mouth" blow scatter edge enter command open =080
tav means pictograph is "crossed sticks" mark sign seal own covenant =400
resh means pictograph is "man's head" first beginning think person sum top =200
shin means pictograph is "teeth" sharp press eat two destroy again =300
aleph means pictograph is "ox head" strong power leader yoke thousand =001
There is also a numerical value for each letter also. The numerical value of my name is 981. Now, I will be the first person to say that I do not understand it all. But, I will have to admit, when I seen all the defining words that make my up name, I got pretty thrilled that these are words describing the very nature of God and also making up my name, thus describing my nature!!!! Just to toss in a bit of humor, because I do believe Yahweh has a sense of humor. Notice "pey", the first letter in my name, the pictograph is described as an "open mouth"! I cracked up at that, because I am always talking!!!! Who knew, right? Well, I guess God knew. Woohoo!!!!
Do you think for one minute that the enemy wants me to see myself as God sees me? Not hardly!!!! That's why I have always had a very bad self image. The enemy knew if I ever found out how God actually feels about me, it would be life transforming. That's why Scripture tells us to not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Renewing my mind means to literally change the way I have always thought about myself for over 50 years. That's not easy and God HAS to be a part of the process. And I had started that process of changing how I thought about myself several years ago, and now, this is just another step in changing my thought process about me.
As I said earlier, this is so far above my head, and I don't understand it. But I have and will continue to pray for God to remove any and all obstacles in my mind that are hindering me from fully grasping this. I have enough of a taste of it that I am hungry for more!!!! So I do pray for God to give me greater understanding of His culture and to hopefully understand it enough, so that at some point in time I can share with others that also have a desire to know more.
One thing that this study has shown me is that our culture today is about as from Yahweh's culture as we can possibly get!!!! Everyone always says that we live in a different culture than the days in which Yahweh was using people just like you and I to record His written word. 100% agreed!!!! But you know what, I don't care how much the culture in which you and I live changes, Father God's culture NEVER changes!!!!! His culture is a culture of holiness. There are several times in the Scriptures when Yahweh uses the word "forever". The word forever means forever! Where is holiness in our culture today? It makes no difference what we say to excuse the culture we live in, Yahweh still expects holiness and lives that represent Him.
It has been an interesting study, looking at Father God's culture, the culture that He has always desired for us even from the beginning versus the culture of the day.. We live in a sinful culture, we can see how sin has infiltrated every aspect of our lives and we don't even realize it. But just as Yahweh spent much time with His people early on trying to get the paganism out of their worship, He is spending as much time today trying to get the "man made law" and paganism out of our worship! Worship is something we really know very little about. For some reason, we have the idea that worship is about what Father God is giving us, but in reality worship is about what we bring to Him. Do we bring to Him the very best of what we have to offer or what is left over after we have poured out to everyone else.
Many years ago, I was a fan of my local high school basketball team. I would yell and scream to the point of losing my voice and just squeak from one home game to the next. (That's one reason my voice sounds kinda like fingernails of chalk boards!) After I graduated from high school, I then started going to church and in the fall when school started back again, I went to the very first home game. I was like any great fan, screaming to the point of losing my voice again. All of the sudden, Holy Spirit, Ruach impressed upon my heart, are you ever going to lose your voice telling others about Yeshua, Jesus Christ? I turned on my heel in that instant and left and never went back to a basketball game or any other sporting event for that matter. I will lose my voice over Christ, but not ever on a sporting event again! (So, if you are ever near me in a church service, I will give my Savior a hearty "woohoo" from time to time.) I would love to see stadiums filled with people, yelling and cheering on Christ like we see people cheering on sports figures. What have these sports people ever done for anyone? Very little to nothing. What has Christ done for everyone? Oh, He has provided us the means to be in right relationship with Elohim Yahweh!!! But, again, the choice is each individual persons. We choose!!!! Who do you choose? Oh, I'm not saying it's wrong to support your fav team, but what about Christ? Do the people you are with at the ball game know you are a Christ follower? They should.
There you have it. My name in Hebrew. I want to try to write it better at some point in time and make a piece of art out of my name and have the meanings of my name on it. I can't wait to do this in the near future and when I do get it made, you can just know that I will share it with y'all!!! Woohoo!!! I am just believing right now that it will have some purple and glitter on it somewhere, right! hahaha Well, we'll have to wait and see, but I just think it will. hehehe
I sure hope you seen or read something here today that was worthy of your time and if so, share it with your friends. Tell someone today, before you lay your head on your pillow tonight, that Father Gods loves them and has provided the way for them to be in right relationship with Him. Enjoy the rest of this awesome day. Remember to keep the folks on the eastern coast of the US in your thoughts and prayers and also the ones that have already been devastated by the hurricane. Prayers of safety for all. I do look forward to reading your comments too. So, till next, just know that God loves you and so do I!!! hugs and love, Patty
