Well, it's time to bring it on with the e-mail questions

that you all have sent in.

And Pat, this first one comes from Lynne, who says,

I was watching your program at 3:00 AM

because I have not been able to sleep due to my PTSD.

I listened to Pat's explanation about God's name being Lord.

I remember reading that God told Moses that His name was I Am.

I really don't think God is too worried about what we call Him,

as long as we turn to Him in grace.

Your thoughts?

I think it is very important.

You know, the problem-- I keep getting questions about this.

I can tell you that my Hebrew professor has

gone to be with the Lord, so he can't

say that I'm telling you something that isn't true.

But I did study Hebrew, and not a lot of it.

I wasn't all that great a scholar.

But nevertheless, I studied it and learned a few things.

There are words in Hebrew, and there

are words in Greek that get translated into English.

And many times the translation into English

isn't accurate in terms of the Greek or the Hebrew.

For example, if you see "Lord," L-O-R-D in the New Testament,

like you are my Lord, the word in Greek is [GREEK] which is

like my master, my governor.

If you see it in Hebrew, "Lord"-- the Lord,

high priest is [HEBREW].

So you can see that.

Now when you come to the name of God,

He doesn't want to be tied down like these others,

because His name is "I Am."

It is the verb "to be."

And then when you find it "Yahweh,"

it is the-- they've got various tenses in Hebrew,

and when you find what is called the hiphil tense--

and that's what it is-- it is causation.

And it means he who causes everything to be.

That's His name.

So yes, he's hung up on it.

He doesn't want to be called Allah,

because Allah isn't his name.

He doesn't want to be called some other name.

He didn't want to be called Baal or any of these things.

His name is the one who caused everything to be.

Now we've got a scripture, for example.

They just gave it to me, and this

is their verse for the day.

The Lord bless you.

That's Yahweh.

Yahweh-- He who causes everything to be,

bless you and keep you.

The Lord make you-- make His face shine upon you

and be gracious unto you.

All those things all the way through are Yahweh.

And they took the vowel pointings

of another word, "Adonai," which means the nourisher,

the full-breasted one.

And out of that comes Jehovah.

It's very important that we understand who God says He is,

and it's very important that you stop asking me about what

little bit of Hebrew I know.

I think what people are wanting to know

is when they pray, how do they address him?

How do you address God when you pray?

Well, Father.

That's what Jesus did.

He said, Heavenly Father.

Father.

But I don't call Him Yahweh, because it just

doesn't feel good.

But the Bible says, oh Lord, my Lord,

how gracious are-- whenever you find

that in caps, that's Yahweh.

But I'm beginning to understand, though,

about how majestic God is.

His name is a name of majesty.

And it says, I made it all.

I made-- Jesus was praying to him, Father,

restore unto me the glory I had with you

before the foundation of the world.

Now when you look at the Hubble telescope and the majesty

of some of these constellations in the galaxies,

it is enormous, this God we serve.

OK, now you've got another question?

This is Lilia who says, my seven-year-old

asked me how God came into existence.

Well, I tell you what.

That's why we don't take questions from anybody

under ten years old.

[LAUGHTER]

No, I'm kidding.

But He, from everlasting unto everlasting, that was God.

There was never any time that-- before there

was anything that could begin, God was already there.

And you don't have time, you don't have space,

you don't have motion, you don't have any of these things

until you have the creation of matter.

And the creation of matter apparently

came about when the Lord said, let there be a bang.

We call it the Big Bang that started all of creation.

But God was already there.

Where did He come from?

We don't know.

He just says, from everlasting unto everlasting,

I am God, period.

Whew.

It's OK to not know.

That's faith.

What, sweetheart?

It's OK to not know.

We're not so-- we're finite.

Well, we don't know because He didn't give it.

He gave us everything that we need to know to find Him

and to please Him.

Amen.