joyancejames

My Walk With Abba…

  • Mysteries of the Hebrew Names in Torah

    Far too many Hebrew names lose their meaning and intention when translated into English.
    The names of the books of Torah (First five books of the Bible) in English and their Hebrew equivalents are given below.

    Genesis –  ברשית – Bereshit
    Exodus –  שמות  – Shemot
    Leviticus – ויקרא –  Vayikra
    Numbers – במדבר – Bamidbar
    Deuteronomy – דברים – Davarim

    The meanings of the Hebrew names are very different from the English ones because all the Hebrew names come from the first word of the respective book. 

    1. Genesis 1:1 is, “In the beginning…”; the Hebrew word is ‘Bereshit‘

    2. Exodus 1:1 starts with “names”, hence the word ‘Shemot‘ in Hebrew

    3. Leviticus 1:1 starts with Yahweh calling out Moses, hence , ‘Vayikra‘ which means “He called” in Hebrew. 

    4. Numbers 1:1, starts with, “in the wilderness”, hence the word ‘Bamidbar‘ in Hebrew. 

    5. Deuteronomy 1:1, starts with “words” of Moses, hence the Hebrew name ‘Davarim‘. 

    In the beginning, after creation, God chose Abraham to make His covenant and then many generations later comes Moses. 

    Shemot (Exodus) is essentially important because that’s where God first reveals His name as יהוה (YHWH), most commonly transliterated as YaHWeH. He tells Moses at the burning bush that this will be His name for all generations. 

    This is followed by the ‘call of Moses’ to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. In Vayikra (Leviticus) we see the call (purpose) of God for Israel, particularly the children of Aaron to serve as priests. Following the call is the wilderness wanderings described in Bamidbar (Numbers). Finally, at the edge of the promise land it ends with the speech, words of Moses as he reiterates the law and calls to remembrance the goodness of God, which we see in Davarim (Deuteronomy).

    To see and listen to this, check out this video.

    Although Moses was called to lead Israel into the promised land, he never enters it, but his words in Deuteronomy, become his everlasting legacy in shaping the future nation of Israel. Deuteronomy is the most quoted book of the Torah in the New Testament. Even Jesus quoted Deuteronomy multiple times, for example the three times He was tested by Satan when He fasted. 

    Moses’ legacy was not the promised land but the collective experiences starting from the revelation in the burning bush, through the call and wilderness to culminate in the repetition of the Law (Deuteronomy). 

    God bless! 

  • Hanukkah & Yeshua

    I feel compelled to write about Hanukkah, since in the light of recent events, this Jewish festival has become famous. Hanukkah is also referred to as the Feast of Dedication or Festival of Lights. Although this feast is not directly mentioned in the Old Testament (in Leviticus) where all the other feasts were described (apart from Purim, in Esther), Jesus observed this celebration, hence it is pertinent, as His followers, we understand its significance. 

    Hanukkah or Chanukah (חנוכה) are both accepted English spelling for the Hebrew word which means to dedicate or inaugurate. Feast of Dedication commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt. The events are mentioned in the apocryphal book of Maccabees, the feast was instituted B.C. 164 to commemorate the purging of the temple after its pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes (B.C. 167), and the rebuilding of the altar after the Syrian invaders had been driven out by Judas Maccabaeus. The Talmud (rabbinical writings) tell us that a 7 lamp Menorah was lit which burned miraculously for a week, hence the celebration lasts for 8 days.

    Festival of Lights & the Light of the World

    Many biblical historians place Jesus’ birth in September rather than December. Around the feast of tabernacles (Sukkot), when the people remember God’s dwelling and presence in the wilderness. In that case the “Light of the world”, Yeshua would have been conceived around the “Festival of lights” or Hanukkah. If you believe in December birth then the “Light of the world” was born during Hanukkah!  Either way, God is a God of details, but  since ‘When’ is not as important as ‘Who’, so we’ll defer the debate.

    John 10:22 NLT
    [22] It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication.
    https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.10.22.NLT
    Here we see Jesus observing the feast and in the temple grounds where He was cornered as asked point blank if He was the long-awaited Messiah. Expecting a quick fix to their nationalistic trials they missed His vision for the eternal fix. Their hunger for the Messiah led them to Him during the Hanukkah, but they didn’t recognise their Messiah. They missed out due to the mismatch between their expectations and God’s provision!

    So many times the answers we seek may not be the answers we get because our near-sightedness will never comprehend eternal significance. 

    Even as Jews celebrate the temple dedication and Christians celebrate the birth of Yeshua, let’s remember that we are the temples and His Holy Spirit resides in us.

    Happy Hanukkah!

    Happy Christmas! 

  • Rain Stopper

    The sky was overcast, yet the obstinate sun rays managed to sneak through, continuing the delusion that the downpour wasn’t imminent, although I could hear the thunder rumble at a distance. I was about to leave home to pick up my daughter, Faith from her school as I faced a dilemma whether to risk the rain and take my e-scooter or listen to my wiser wife and take the car.
    Finally, I decided to ride to the school and asked God to hold up the rains for 15 minutes till I reached back.

    The rains obeyed their Creator. (Thank you Elijah for giving us a precedent in rain-stopping prayer).

    We started from school and enjoyed the scenic ride back across a small lake and since there wasn’t any rain, we decided to indulge in some shopping too. But what I mis-calculated was my 15-minute-rain-hold time was over, by the time we stepped out of the shop it was pouring! We managed to have an adventurous ride back where I covered Faith with my huge raincoat like a Batman’s cape (picture a hen covering her chicks). Her father’s cape had kept her dry but I was soaking wet!

    Many times we tend to test the limits of divine favour. We lean on our own understanding even when we know better. Father’s favour cannot become an excuse for our foolishness. Favour doesn’t always equate to protection, it includes correction too. 

    On brighter days – without the cape

    King Solomon’s words to the wise – 

    Proverbs 3:5-12 MSG

    [5-12] Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline; don’t sulk under his loving correction. It’s the child he loves that God corrects; a father’s delight is behind all this.

    May the Father’s favour keep us dry, protected & corrected. 😊

    God bless!

  • Holding the Father’s Hands

    Currently, I’m enjoying the phase of my fatherhood where my daughter, Faith, forces me to always hold her hands when we’re outside home (Not sure if boy-dads/moms are as fortunate). I pray that God may spare me the parental phase when the child out grows the desire to hold hands, to be unhindered and free! When Faith holds my hands, she has a sense of security and I’ve a peace of mind that she is with me.
    When walking down the road, from my vantage point (~ 6 feet off the ground) I can see farther, envision any obstacles or difficulties along the way. While I deliberately reduce my stride to accomodate her distractions with the waywide flowers and child-like wonder, I know when to hold her back because a particularly appealing flower, unbeknown  to her grows on a thorn-bush. The childish ambition cries to run ahead in order to finish the walk but fatherly wisdom knows the long walk can’t afford energy expenditure on a sprint!

    Daddy-daughter walks

    The song writer Asaph recalles that even in the midst of his waywardness, he was still held by the hands that created him.
    Psalms 73:23-24 NLT
    [23] Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand. [24] You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.

    https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.73.23-24.NLT

    To continually be held by Him is to acknowledge that “His way” is better.
    When all our peers say, “I want it that way” (courtesy Backstreet Boys); can we like another modern day Asaph (Forrest Frank) say,
    “Oh Lord, I need You now more than ever
    Would You put my heart back together
    I searched the world ’til my head hurt
    Just to find out Your way’s better”

    I want it “His way”!

    Isaiah 41:10, 13 NLT
    [10] Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
    [13] For I hold you by your right hand— I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.
    When we walk side-by-side, it is usually my left hand and my daughter’s right hand or vice-versa.
    But here, a beautiful picture emerges, being held by the right hand of Yahweh, signifies His strength, righteousness and victory. In the subsequent verse Isaiah writes that He holds our right hand, implying when our strength is almost spent and we are at the end of our rope, He comes face to face and invites us to rely on His strength and might.

    May we never outgrow the desire to hold and be held by His hands!
    God bless!

  • What The Thigh Bone Taught Me!

    Femur is latin for thigh and os femoris is thigh bone. In current medical terminology the thigh bone is referred to as femur. It is the largest bone in the human body, as long as 1/4th of the standing height!

    Here I’ll attempt to take you through some unique features of femur and what it teaches us. 

    1. As the largest bone in the body, it is also the strongest. It can take upto 30x the body weight before fracturing. 

    The maximum stress it can tolerate in compression is 205MPa (mega pascals) while a tensile force (in order to stretch/bend) of 135 MPa can be tolerated by the femur. (College of Engineering; University of Wisconsin). 

    2. The thigh bone is not uniform in structure, the ends are spongy bone whereas the middle part is cortical, dense part. The ends of the femur are areas with bone marrow and involved in blood cell formation, more significantly in children. 

    3. Bone is one of the few tissues in human body that heals without scar (fibrosis). A fracture heals with bone tissue and after a few months it remodels to become normal bone again. 

    4. Although the length of femur stops growing in the teenage years but it’s micro-structure is constantly evolving. Bone is involved in metabolism, calcium and phosphorus keep getting deposited and reabsorbed from the bone; the bone mass and density changes according to multiple factors including age.

    Holding a Femur, for size comparision. Specimen courtesy: Anatomist wifey.

    The femur with its intricately marvellous structure and function is an unprecedented engineering marvel! Such strong, life giving (blood forming), self healing and constantly evolving structure can only point towards an intentional and intelligent Creator. 

    Psalms 139:14-15 TPT

    [14] I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord! [15] You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place;  carefully, skillfully you shaped me  from nothing to something.

    https://bible.com/bible/1849/psa.139.14-15.TPT

    At the foot of the cross as St. John stood and watched, he testified in John chapter 19 that the Roman soldiers when they came to Jesus they didn’t practise the ritual crurifragium (breaking of thigh/leg bone to hasten the death).  In his yesteryears St. John saw a vision of the rider on the white horse, whose title was the Word of God, quite fittingly he describes, 

    “On his robe at his thigh was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords.”

    Revelation 19:16 NLT

    https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.19.16.NLT

    There it is evident for all to see, for all eternity written on His thigh, His title as the ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’. 

    The femur which means, strength, life and resilience for mankind now brings hope to the ailing humanity in the coming of the ‘King of kings & Lord of lords’.

    God bless you!

  • Hypertrophy

    Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary defines ‘hypertrophy’ as: excessive development of an organ or part
    specifically : increase in bulk (as by thickening of muscle fibers) without multiplication of parts.

    In case of skeletal muscles this (hypertrophy) is what happens in those who undertake strength training. Multiple cycles of repetitions – muscle contractions/ relaxations daily compounded over weeks and months leads to hypertrophied muscle.
    In the initial phase there is a lot of wear and tears (micro trauma) to the muscle causing soreness to un-accustomed muscle group but eventually this persistence leads to bulking up of the particular muscle group.

    Vierck, J et al. “Satellite cell regulation following myotrauma caused by resistance exercise.” Cell biology international vol. 24,5 (2000): 263-72. doi:10.1006/cbir.2000.0499

    Y’hoshua (Joshua) 1:8 CJB
    [8] Yes, keep this book of the Torah on your lips, and meditate on it day and night, so that you will take care to act according to everything written in it. Then your undertakings will prosper, and you will succeed.
    https://bible.com/bible/1275/jos.1.8.CJB

    The Hebrew word for meditate is hagah (הגה) which literally means to mutter/ to utter or speak. This day and night meditation by means of constant utterance and repetition is commonly found in the book of Psalms.
    Psalm 1:2 AMPC
    [2]  But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts,
    the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night.
    https://bible.com/bible/8/psa.1.2.AMPC

    The human brain is not a muscle to be hypertrophied but the constant repetition day after day brings about a change from the inside out. Saturation with God’s truth kills the weeds of doubts and fear. Verbal repetition strengths the neural pathways in the brain responsible for memory, especially long-term memory.

    Just as repetition cause muscles to hypertrophy and bulk up, become more resistant to injury & stress, repetition of God’s word causes our brains to form strong neural pathways to remind us constantly of His truth.
    I believe this form of meditation is what caused David the little boy to bulk up (not physically but spiritually) to the giant Goliath. He could operate from a place of Faith when all his countrymen cowered in fear.

    May God’s word be the object of our meditations as our minds bathe in the knowledge of His truth.

    God bless!

  • Step & Stride

    Lessons (orthopedic) from the walk

    Step length while walking is the distance between the point of contact of one foot and the point of contact of the opposite foot.
    Stride length is the distance between the successive points of initial contact of same foot.
    Stride involves two steps, hence it’s twice the length of single step.
    Cadence is the number of steps per minute.

    *Aggarwal, Abhinandan & Gupta, Rohit & Agarwal, Ravinder. (2018). Design and Development of Integrated Insole System for Gait Analysis. 1-5. 10.1109/IC3.2018.8530543

    When I walk with my daughter, she has to take couple of steps in order to match my stride length. At a little above 6’1″, my normal stride length will be somewhere between 1.5 – 1.9 meters, depending on my speed, etc, while for my daughter who stands just above my hip, the stride length will be approximately a 1/3rd of that.
    So for every step I take, she’ll take two or more, that increases her cadence (number of steps per minute).

    In our walk with Abba, so many times we take few steps forward but still feel He is not moving. That’s the difference between the human and the divine step/stride.
    Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT
    [8] “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
    [9] For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
    https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.55.8-9.NLT

    The times when we feel, He’s not moving or working, we must remember that He’s always working, always moving just the divine cadence is different.

    The other aspect to it is that more often than not, I subconsciously take smaller steps while walking with my daughter in order to match her pace. When I reduce my step and stride length, she can walk comfortably & unhurriedly. In our life’s path, when we feel the pace of things is too slow, it would be wise to call to remembrance that Abba has to slow down intentionally so that we can walk comfortably & unhurriedly.

    a daddy-daughter walk

    Matthew 11:28-30 MSG
    [28-30] “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

    https://bible.com/bible/97/mat.11.28-30.MSG

    Happy walking! God bless!

  • What I Cannot Hold

    What my hands cannot hold, I give into the hands of the One who holds me.

    What I cannot hold – my regrets from yesterday
    What I cannot hold – my worries about tomorrow
    What I cannot hold – how today unfolds
    What I cannot hold – what I wasn’t meant to handle
    What I cannot hold – what others think of me
    What I cannot hold – what they will say of me
    What I cannot hold – the crushing weight of the responsibilities, dreams and aspirations.

    Just as the toys are age group specific, what if the things we strive and struggle with the most are age/season specific too.

    What is too big for my palmar grasp may be perfect for the Father’s grasp.

    He holds it all together!

    Psalms 36:5-6 MSG
    [5-6] God’s love is meteoric,
    His loyalty astronomic,
    His purpose titanic,
    His verdicts oceanic.
    Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost;
    Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks.

    https://bible.com/bible/97/psa.36.5-6.MSG

    He’s got the whole world in His hands and yet He still holds your hands.


    Isaiah 41:13 NLT
    [13] For I hold you by your right hand— I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.
    https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.41.13.NLT

    God bless 😊.

  • 8th Year!

    8 years since we said, “I do”, yes, we did.

    8 years since we promised, “for better or for worse”, we’ve seen better, we’ve seen worse.

    8 years since I saw you dressed, “beautiful in white”, we’ve come farther, together, stronger & better.

    8 years since the 1st “Inter-dependence day”, we’ve learnt that a ‘cord of 3 strands is not broken easily’.

    8 years of learning that Yahweh is a covenant keeping God and marriage is a covenant to be honoured.

    8 years of realising that my spouse cannot complete me and vice versa, we can find our completion only in the One who made us.

    8 years being continually made into the likeness of God, pruning is painful but essential for fruition.

    8 years of understanding what it means to be His hands and feet, His co-workers in the field.

    Philippians 1:6 NLT
    [6] And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

    https://bible.com/bible/116/php.1.6.NLT

    Onwards to a better tomorrow, cause He is already there!

  • The Fear of Offence

    One famous quote attributed to Napoleon says, “The world suffers a lot. Not because the violence of bad people. But because of the silence of the good people.”

    The silence of good people in our generation can partially be attributed to the widespread epidemic of cancel culture. The flip side of this has been the raging  intolerance towards difference of opinion. While the woke culture constantly erodes the biblical foundations, every truthful opposition is hushed with an anaphylactic counter response! In the post-truth culture, truth has become relative and inclusive. If an all-affirming view is not endorsed then we are labelled radicals and bigots.

    The fear of offending someone is so crippling that it prevents so many of us from speaking or doing what is right. The Bible is unequivocally pro-life, pro-Israel & pro-family, still most of our gatherings and conversations actively bypass these issues!

    Is it humanly possible to please everyone, all the time? Even Jesus couldn’t care less about public opinion, as His followers can we speak up enough to become outspoken? Will we be remembered as the generation which cared more about pleasing men rather than God?

    John 1:4-5 NLT
    [4] The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. [5] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
    The candle need not worry about offending the darkness, it must do what it was created for. Wether your light is a candle, a flashlight or a flood light we must do what we were meant to do.

    Keep shining your light 🕯️.

    God bless you!