March 6, 2011

I forget which week we are on-5 or 6. It is a "IG Week" this week. We have been doing one week on IG and one week 'off' to focus on our electives that have gotten behind schedule. We have really been hitting the FLL hard the past weeks. I can't seem to get myself to skip any lessons; so we are still on Level 2 and will be for a while. I have been able to get 2 days of FLL into one day; which seems to work well for us.

We are still doing lots of co-op activities for the rest of this month. We have been here in Indy for over 5 years now; and finally got accepted into some christian hs co-ops (2). After all these years of about 2 activities a MONTH; we now do that, or more, each WEEK! What a huge shift for us. I have to say; it is so nice to see dd have friends. It is truly a blessing for her. This week she has a Gym & Swim class today; a co-op on Thurs. morning, and a Gym class on Fri. This makes me especially glad we are going at 50% on our IG currently.

She is doing great on her reading. She is ahead in her Readers, and is reading a bunch of other books that are all over the place. I have taken the past 2-3 weeks off Charles Dickens (Great Expectations). Christie recommended Beth Moore and I am enjoying that.

I have a question; speaking of reading. In Incans Aztecs Mayans, our book keeps referring to God as "Yahweh". I am totally ignorant of why? Could someone explain this to me? As we have been searching for a new church; one place we went also called God "Yahweh". I understand it is the Hebrew way to say "God"; but it isn't as common to me as saying "God". Anyone know? Anyone else notice that?

C said: I don't have much time to chat but I wanted to reply quickly to your question about Yahweh. Dr. Elmer Towns states, "LORD (all four letters capitalized) is pronounced "Yahweh" or "Jehovah." There are no pronunciation marks in the original Hebrew, so we do not know how to accurately say it. Out of reverence, many Jews would not write or pronounce the name." This comes from a Bible study My Father's Names and you can access the study guide online by clicking the title. I just wanted to comment on that question because it was something I also wondered about.

This is another book that A read to AJ, so I never got to see the reason given in this book. I am certainly not offended by the question, I also had the same question and never REALLY felt like I understood this fully. What I do understand is that different names for God given in the Bible describe the attributes of God, for example, Jehoviah Jireh means the Lord provides. Yahweh, means I AM. This points to the eternal existence of God, that He is, was, and always will be - has no beginning or end. I like this website which talks about the names of God. It is so beautiful to think that God knows we will have a difficult time understanding exactly who and what He is, so He goes to great lengths to describe himself with names that show His attributes so we can understand. This website also has a good description. In other words, one would normally use Yahweh, or Adonai, or another descriptive word for God other than just the name "God" to subtly point out the attributes of God. I am also careful when I hear other names for God used and do not like to take that lightly. It is always best to research it, in my opinion, than to just take it at face value and someone tell you - oh, it's just another name for God... 

M said: Yahweh is the English pronunciation for the Hebrew YHWH which is an abbreviation of what God replied when Moses asked for a name and God responded, "I am who am." Jews (and ancient Hebrews) never utter the name of God (2nd commandment), and often wouldn't even say God, instead using "Lord." Why different Christian traditions prefer "Yahweh" to God or Lord, I don't know.