mystik mys·tic Audio Help (mĭs'tĭk) Pronunciation Key adj. 1. Of or relating to religious mysteries or occult rites and practices. 2. Of or relating to mysticism or mystics. 3. Inspiring a sense of mystery and wonder. 1. Mysterious; strange. 2. Enigmatic; obscure. 4. Mystical. n. One who practices or believes in myticism or a given form of mysticism

Life’s Most Important Questions

Tue, 5 May 2009 17:44:16 -0400

It is so important to pause and think through some basic issues while you are young, before the pressures of job and family become distracting. There are several eternal questions everyone must deal with eventually. You will benefit, I think, from doing that work now. Whether you are an atheist, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew, an agnostic, or a Christian, the questions confronting the human family are the same. Only the answers will differ.
They are:

Who am I as a person?
How did I get here?
Is there a right or wrong way to believe and act?
Is there a God, and if so, What does He expect of me?
Is there life after death?
How do I achieve eternal life, if it exists?
Will I someday be held accountable for the way I have lived on earth?
What is the meaning of life and death?

--Excerpted from "Life on the Edge", by James Dobson

The Names of God

Sun, 8 Mar 2009 16:53:33 -0400

Why are the names of God important?
In scripture, the primary root for ‘god’ is the same for false or pagan gods as is for the one true God of Israel.
So, that ‘root’ of ‘El’ is importantly and almost always qualified by additional attributional meanings that distinguish HIM from all of the false gods.
Isn’t it truth that whatever we exalt becomes as a god or God in our lives?
This ‘El’ root for God presents us with a gracious choice. He allows us choice to exalt the God or god(s) of our choosing. God does not lie or toy with us...He presents Himself, saying “I AM”. Will we in turn consider the depth of “I AM” displayed throughout the scriptures through who HE says HE is?
Talk is cheap!
When we examine the different attributes it’s likened to how the scripture charges us to examine the fruits to know if a thing is of Him or of the adversary. Knowing that talk is cheap, we find that the one true God of Israel presents Himself this way as well. The word spoken and promised...the action following the title. The adversary can lie and claim many things but El Elyon proclaims it and displays it.
The Names of God
God
El. The name for God meaning "strength, might, or power."
The One God
El Echad.  The One God. (Mal. 2:10)
The Faithful God
El Hanne'eman.  The Faithful God. (Deut. 7:9)
The God of Truth
El Emet.  The God of Truth. (Ps. 31:5)
The Righteous God
El Tsaddik.  The Righteous God. (Isa. 45:21)
The All-Sufficient God
El Shaddai.  The All Sufficient God. (Gen. 17:1; 28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3; 49:25; Exod. 6:3; Num. 24:6; Ruth 1:20; Job (various references); Psa. 22:10; 68:15; 91:1; Ezek. 1:24; 10:5; 23:21 etc.)
The Most High God
El Elyon.  The Most High God. (Gen. 14:20; Ps. 9:2, ‘Elyon’, ref. in Num. 24:16)
The Everlasting God
El Olam.  God Everlasting; The Everlasting God; (Gen. 21:33, Ps. 90:1-3, 93:2; Isa. 26:4)
The God who sees me
El Roi.  God Who Sees me, ref. Hagar's name for God when He saw her affliction (Gen. 16:13)
The God of Jeshurun
El Yeshurun.  The God of Jeshurun --Yeshurun means "the righteous (yashar) people" (Deut. 32:15; 33:5,26; Isa. 44:2)
The Mighty God El Gibbor.  The Mighty God. (Isa. 9:6)
The God of knowledge El De'ot.  The God of Knowledge (1 Sam. 2:3)
The Great God El Haggadol.  The Great God (Deut. 10:17)
The God of Glory
El Hakkavod.  The God of Glory (Ps. 29:3)
The Holy God
El Hakkadosh.  The Holy God (Isa. 5:16)
The God of the Heavens
El Hashamayim.  The God of the Heavens (Ps. 136:26)
The God of my life
El Chaiyai.  The God of my life (Ps. 42:8)
The Gracious God
El-Channun.  The Gracious God (Jonah 4:2)
The God of Israel
El Yisrael.  The God of Israel (Ps. 68:36)
The God of my strength
El Sali.  God of my Strength; God my Rock (Ps. 42:9)
The God of Patience and Consolation
El Erekh Apayim avi ha-tanchumim  The God of all patience and consolation (Romans 15:5)
The God of Compassion
El Rachum.  The God of Compassion; Compassionate God (Deut. 4:31)
All Merciful God
El malei Rachamim God full of mercy; All merciful God
The God of my salvation
El Yeshuati.  The God of my Salvation (Isa. 12:2)
The God of our salvation
El Yeshuatenu.  The God of our Salvation (Psalm 68:19)
The Jealous God
El-Kanno. The Jealous God (Exod. 20:5; 34:14; Num. 5:14, 30; Deut. 4:24; 5:9; 6:15; Jos. 24:19; 1 Ki. 19:10, 14; Ezek. 39:25; Joel 2:18; Nah. 1:2; Zech. 1:14; 8:2)
God with us Immanuel.  God is with us (Isa. 7:14)
The Awesome God El Hannora.  The Awesome God (Neh. 9:32)

Ezekiel’s Wheel 2003

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:52:54 -0500

A statement about Ezekiel’s Wheel (2003) - a prophetic artwork piece...
as you walk into a glimpse,
of the wheel of Ezekiel, with eyes all around…
I hope you experience the Sh’kinah..
     the Glory and Presence of God,
for the true cherubim as seen in ezekiel’s vision surround His Glory,
and may you be surrounded this night with the Holy Otherness of God.
Perishing: without a vision a vision people perish
without a visionary, a mystic, a seer,.. we are left to crawl as worms digging holes in the earth, seeking food with an insatiable appetite, thinking that this is all there is.. ever endeavoring to fill our bellies, when what we really need is to fill our soul.
Just beyond the veil of this fragile life is another world. You cannot tell a seer that it does not exist.. because to one who sees, he or she is already living in this other world. It is not an altered state, nor is it another reality. It is reality. to the seer, the deed is done, the searching is over. one is outside the matrix, while still existing in it..
The quest is to exhibit the sight to those who cannot see.
To believe oneself, (the worm) is god, is to wake up one day viewing a body eaten by the worm, while the eternal soul screams in the darkness, ever wishing and now never being able to come into the Light which beckoned, which called, which knocked ever so gently, persistently while the worm crawled, but without the door opened from the inside, the soul is forever locked within itself.
comfort zone? visionary, mystic, seer, each might make us feel uncomfortable. try being one, it’s much more uncomfortable seeing.. with the knowledge that you might be responsible for what you see, then communicating it to a person for the sake of their soul. besides, what’s wrong with being uncomfortable? we are, in fact, walking momentarily on a fiery sphere spinning on a tilted axis in space, we are kept from being burned alive by the mere crust, only 6 to 25 miles thick, of the ball that separates us from the flaming center, the invisible elasticity of gravity and the thin layer of atmosphere which provide an oxygen tent.
the eyes are the windows to the light of God’s Glory which pierce the darkness of our secret hiding places in our hearts to bring true Light into the soul, illuminating the questions with the answers, replacing chaos with peace, swallowing death into life, enveloping our despair into Divine Serenity.. with the Lord who finds us, holds us, dies for us, lives with us, and never let us go.
now the vision of Ezekiel was a wheel within a wheel
      there were angels, and eyes all around.
and jeremiah filled with Zeal, tears and trembling,
    spoke of the captivity to come.
and Elijah rode to heaven of the chariots of fire.
while the sea of humanity, lost in their calamity,
     looking for a way to fill their soul.
                when the hands of the Trinity,
                        stretch out in His Divinity
   they go running scared into a rabbit hole.
wisdom cries in the streets.. listen to the prophet speak.