Sunday, November 28, 2010

In God's Hands

I go in for another round of chemo treatments this Monday (tomorrow). I'll be in the hospital for five days. For some reason, the hospital blocks off some sites, like MY BLOG!

"How RUDE! I've never been so INSULTED in all my life!"

So . . . that's why I'm writing to you all now. If I don't reply to your comments, it's because I can't. I might still be able to read them, but we'll see!

I've had a number of people share survival stories with me. It's been very encouraging. And it made me realize, I'm not terribly afraid. Sure, I go in with a bit of angst in my heart for what I'll suffer while in the flesh, but nothing terrifying. I think it's because I KNOW I'm in God's hands. I'm trusting in that. He's my Protector, my Savior and my LOVE. He died for me, so why wouldn't He be with me during this time?




God is the One Who has numbered my days on this earth. I belong to Him. He's in control, not me, and not anyone else. He'll use those around me to either prolong my life or to end it. It's HIS CHOICE.

So . . . what better Hands could I be in?

Here's a song that really speaks to me these days. I'd like to share it with all of you. Click on the image below:



What's funny is, I discovered this song just a few weeks before my diagnosis, and I played it over and over again! It's brought me such comfort. Simply because HE IS, HE WAS, AND HE ALWAYS WILL BE, and I AM HIS!!!

I love You, God!!! xxx

Friday, November 26, 2010

What a day . . .

I shaved my head. I cried while we did it, but it's good to finally have it done and over with. Clumps of hair were falling out, so it was time. I should take a picture of myself in my wig! Here it is:






Here's a funny: My ten-year-old son was begging me to see my bald head all day. When I finally got ready to show it to him, he said, "Finally." lol Such a "boy!" And his reaction: "Weird!" *shaking head* I was worried about my three-year-old, Chelsea. I was afraid it might scare her. She walked into the room when I was showing my husband (after he got home from work), and she looked at me with a quirked eyebrow and said, "Mommy," in a tone that said, "What'd you go and do?" Then, Daddy picked her up and held her up to me. She just got a new batch of stickers from my boss's Sunday school class and held them up to my face saying, "I got new stickers!" Then she proceeded to stick one on my head! LOL That was her only reaction to my bald head. For her, life is normal and just fine. I'm so glad she wasn't scared!


AND THE GOOD NEWS is my aunt hosted my book signing at Mardel's today. I couldn't go because I'm not allowed (doctor's orders) to be around a lot of people for fear I might get sick. Well, my aunt sold ALL 30 OF MY BOOKS!!! I PRAYED for this! Thank You, God! xxx 






God has great timing, don't ya think? :-) Thank you to all those who bought it, and THANK YOU AUNT DEBBIE for hosting it for me!!! xxx Debbie is the one in the dark sweater and blue-green scarf. Isn't she cute?! She's the best!!


P.S. Don't forget the post below. I need your help coming up with questions for my book discussion in January!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

I need your help!

Did you all know, my book THE MASTER'S WALL won the January 2011 ACFW Book Club pick? This means if you're a member of the ACFW Book Club, they will be discussing my book at the end of January. This is HUGE, and I'm so excited to be a part of this, and I hope to see all of you there!

Now, I need your help.

They gave me the opportunity to come up with my own questions for the group to discuss, and I need folks to help me do that. I feel completely empty of ideas, so I thought it'd be good to ask those who've read THE MASTER'S WALL to tell me what you think would make great discussion questions.

So, if you have some ideas, please leave them in the comments section. Remember, I need TEN!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Why I use YAHSHUA and not YESHUA

In THE MASTER'S WALL and in YAHSHUA'S BRIDGE, you'll notice that the Hebrew name of Jesus I use is Yahshua and not the more popular term Yeshua. Some of you may wonder why. Well, the biggest reason is because I prefer to be as accurate as possible in my writing, and as unpopular as the term "Yahshua" is, it IS THE MOST ACCURATE to the original Hebrew language.

Please allow me to quote from Dr. Lee Warren, B.A., D.D.


How Did the Name Jesus Originate?

By Dr. Lee Warren, B.A., D.D. Edited by Dr. Michelle Huff
(c) 2001 PLIM REPORT, Vol. 10 #5
Feel free to copy and circulate this article for non-commercial purposes provided the Web site and author are mentioned.

http://www.plim.org/_themes/blends2/blesepa.gif
Introduction


Over the last ten years that the Power Latent In Man SHOW has been on cable, we have done 12 shows on various aspects of the Sacred and Holy Name of our Heavenly Father and His Son. The Power Latent In Man SHOW was one of the first shows (beginning in December 1990, on Chicago Access cable) to introduce the true and sacred name Yahweh and His Son Yahshua and uses them on a regular basis. The PLIM REPORT has also published over 6 articles on the true name and they are on the public side of our website. See http://www.plim.org/truename.html.


Today many Christians and others assume that the Greek name Jesus was the original name of the Savior who was Hebrew.  If one does the research, one finds out that it is impossible for the Savior’s name to be Jesus.

 What is the intent of this article?

The intent of this article is to investigate the origin of the Greek name Jesus and its erroneous transliteration of the Hebrew name of our Savior Yahshua.  Our Saviour’s Name in Hebrew is    


(read from right to left). The English name “Jesus,” which later employed the letter “J,” is a derivation from Greek “Iesous” and the Latin “Iesus” version.


This name “Jesus” commonly used in Christianity today did not exist and would not be spelled with the letter “J” until about 500 years ago. This article will also discuss the grammatical errors involved in the transliteration of Yahshua into Greek and Latin, which radically changed the form of Yahshua’s name.





Another error that will be discussed in this article is that  “Yahshua’s name was not known to most translators at the time. Jewish Masoretic priests, around the 6th century A.D., created the name Jesus by changing the vowel point from the letter “a” to “e” in the Tetragrammaton YHWH. This resulted in changing the pronunciation from Yah to Yeh.

The priests continued the tradition, which was in effect at the time of the Messiah, of teaching the people that the name “Yahweh” was too sacred to pronounce, and to speak this name was blasphemy and punishable by death.  Most people and lower level priests were initially taught to say “Adonai” when they saw the name “Yahweh” or the tetragrammaton written.

PLIM recommends a number of excellent websites that provide extensive research on the name. (Note: This is not an endorsement of their dogma.) The Assembly of Yahweh has an excellent article that deals with the letter J called “THE MISSING J” http://www.yaim.org/missingJ.htm. There is also another website with an article entitled “Our Saviour’s Name” http://www.iahushua.com/ST-RP/name.htm and see http://www.yahweh.org.


 Does the Letter “J” exist in Hebrew, Latin or Greek?

The answer to this question is no. In fact, there was no letter ‘J’ in  any language prior to the 14th century in England. The letter did not become widely used until the 17th century.

The Encyclopedia Americana contains the following quote on the J: “The form of ‘J’ was unknown in any alphabet until the 14th century. Either symbol (J,I) used initially generally had the consonantal sound of Y as in year. Gradually, the two symbols (J,l) were differentiated, the J usually acquiring consonantal force and thus becoming regarded as a consonant, and the I becoming a vowel.

It was not until 1630 that the differentiation became general in England.” Note in the original 1611 version of the King James Version of the Bible there was no “J” letter in this Bible for because it did not exist. James was spelled Iames. Jesus was spelled Iesous.

In the Hebrew alphabet there is no J letter or sound and it is shown follow: Read form right to left.”





The Greek alphabet shows that there is no letter J or sound.

Now the Oxford English Dictionary shows the derivation of the name “Jesus” as follow: “In ancient Latin Jesus is spelled Iesus, in ancient Greek (I-ee-sous), ad. late Heb. or Aramaic yeshua, Jeshua,for the earlier y’hoshua, Jehoshua or Joshua (explained as ‘Jah (or Jahveh) is salvation’: cf. y’shuah ‘salvation, deliverance’, and Matt. 1.21”

Here we see that in the ancient Latin and Greek languages “Jesus” was spelled with the letter “I” for there was no “J” in either of these languages. In Hebrew we know there is no J letter. So Jesus was originally spelled Yeshua, and y’hoshua. Note: Here the Messiah’s name was spelled in Hebrew two different ways due to the tradition of the Masoretic priests. They did not want to pronounce the sacred part of Yahweh’s name, so they changed the ‘Yah, to ‘Yeh, which will be discussed later in this article.
Webster’s New World Dictionary confirms the Oxford World Dictionary, but it shows the derivation of “Jesus” correctly transliterated in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew using the letters “I” and “Y,” showing that there was no J used in these original languages when the scriptures were translated into them.

“In Late Latin Jesus was original spelled Iesus; In Greek it was spelled Ièsous; and in ancient Hebrew spelled  “yÈshÙa,” which is a contraction of yehÖshÙa (Joshua), help of Jehovah < yÀh, Jehovah + hÖshïa, to help.”


Did the angels speak in Hebrew?

In the so-called New Testament of the Bible there were two instances where an angel and the spirit form of the Messiah appeared to humans and spoke to them in Hebrew. First, Gabriel spoke to Mary regarding her unborn son. Since Mary was Hebrew of the tribe of Judah (Lk. 1:27), Gabriel had to communicate to her in the Hebrew tongue, her native language, not Chinese or Greek, for she would not have been able to understand him. “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with Elohim (God). And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS (Luke 1:30-31).” As shown in the Hebrew alphabet, there is no J in Hebrew (see alphabet on p. 8). So the question is what did the angel Gabriel say that the baby would be named?  It was impossible for him to say Jesus because Jesus is Greek for Yahshua.

In another instance, the Messiah appeared in spirit form and in a vision, to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-7) and spoke in Hebrew Paul described what happened. “And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks (Acts 26:14).”

Paul asked this spirit, “Who art thou, Lord (Acts 26:15)?” The Messiah replied, “I am Jesus [in the King James Bible and most English Bibles] whom thou persecutest.”

One thing is clear. The Messiah knows His name and as was stated and repeated throughout this article it is impossible for him to have said Jesus as it is translated since Yahshua spoke to Paul in the Hebrew tongue.

Pontius Pilate wrote the name of the Messiah in Greek, Hebrew and Latin above His head on the cross when the Messiah was crucified.  Luke wrote the following “… an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS (Lk 23:38-39).”

Traditionally,  most crucifixes (especially Roman Catholic)  have the Latin initials of the Messiah as follows “INRI,” which means “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex, Iudaeorum”. [Note: there is no letter J (for it did not exist at this time.)   This is translated into English and means “Jesus of  Nazareth, King of the Jews.”]

The French philosopher, historian, and religious scholar Ernest Renan stated in his book, The Life of Jesus, that the Savior was never called Jesus in His lifetime. Renan based his conclusion on his archaeological trips to the Holy Land in searching for inspiration and materials on the Savior.


  What is the derivation of the name “Jesus”?

Any good dictionary will show the derivation or the history of the translation of Jesus through the various languages. All agree that the word “Jesus is a transcription or a copy of the Greek name … which is a derivation of the Hebrew Ieshoua, a common Jewish name” according to the book The Names and Titles of Jesus by Leopold Sabourin, S.J.


 Is there an explanation of the error Yeh from Yah?

Now that it is clear that the Messiah’s name was not spelled with the letter J, there is another error that must be addressed.  Many misspell the Messiah as “yÈshÙa,” (which is a contraction for “yehÖshÙa.”).  The error is that it does not have the “Yah” part of the Father’s name in the translation.





In the King James Version of the Bible,  Psalm 68:4 clearly reveals  that the shortened  form of the Father’s name is “Jah.”  King David writes: “Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Extol Him who rides on the clouds, By His name JAH…” Since there is no j in Hebrew then “Jah” should be spelled Yah or Iah. So yehÖshÙa should be spelled yahÖshÙa.

The error of changing Yah to Yeh is due to the manmade tradition of the Jewish priests. Their reverence for the holy name caused them to believe that it was too sacred to pronounce.  So they changed the vowel points from a to e in the Tetragrammaton YHWH. This changes the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton. The letter “a” was the correct vowel to be inserted between the YH obtaining YaH. This is short form of the sacred Name is in Yahshua.

To prevent this pronunciation, the priests changed the vowel points from an “a” to the “e” obtaining YeH.  This is how the letter “e” came to be in the Savior’s name “Jesus,” resulting today in the Jews spelling his name YEHshua.

Now the same error is explained in the Biblesoft’s Strongs New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary.  It spelled Yahshua’s name with the letter e Yehowshuwa‘ (yeh-ho-shoo’-ah); or Yehowshu‘ a (yeh-ho-shoo’-ah); from OT:3068 and OT:3467 OT:3091; Jehovah-saved; Jehoshua (i.e. Joshua), the Jewish leader: -Jehoshua, Jehoshuah, Joshua. Now the ancient Greek use their alphabet to write and pronounce the “IE” as the shortened form of Yahweh’s name “Yah.”

 What is the Importance of “ous” or “us” in Jesus’ name?

Now the “ua” ending in Yahshua’s name in Hebrew when transliterated into Greek is feminine singular, which presents a problem.  Thus, it necessitates a change when transliterate into Greek (so the reader in Greek could determine the gender of this name).

What most people do not understand is the ending “us” of Jesus name was setup to denote this in the transliteration into Greek and Latin. The “ous” and the “us” ending in the Greek name “Iesous” and the Latin name “Iesus,” respectively, denote the masculine singular gender in Greek and Latin respectively.

In most languages there are endings that denote gender as well as endings that denote singular or plural. (For example, in English we just add the letter ‘s’ to make a noun plural as in boys or girls. In Spanish gender is denoted by the last vowel of the word, such as chico-boy and chica-girl.)

Only the letters “Jes” in “Jesus’ name has any relationship to the Hebrew name Yahshua for the letters “us” denote gender.

This transliteration that observes Greek and Latin grammer further adds confusion to other errors in the transliteration of the name Yahshua.  Latin and English had  already seen  the results of the Jewish Masoretic priests changing the vowel points.
Finally, it also should be noted that Greek has no “sh” sound as in Yahshua Hebrew name.  To denote this “sh” Hebrew sound in the Greek, the letter “s” is used.

Thus, this article has examined all five of the letters in “Jesus” name and showed their derivation from Hebrew, Greek Latin and English.
 ***

So, there you have it. :-) I hope this explains why I prefer to be "different" or shall I say "accurate" in my use of the term YAHSHUA over YESHUA. 

Sunday, November 21, 2010

I stand amazed: How God has blessed me through YOU

(Forgive me as I've not been able to reply to all the comments. Thank you so much for all your encouragement!)

***

Before my debut novel released, I asked God to be my publicist. You see, I was already suffering from MS and would get tired very easily. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do as much as other authors in marketing my book. I said to God I’d do all I could, but would He please do the rest.

Well, on November 1st, the very day my book released, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer (T-cell Lymphoma). It was so aggressive, they immediately admitted me into the hospital and started me on their heaviest dose of chemo treatments. I can’t even begin to describe how I felt. Sheer joy of having my first book published, and sheer terror of a life-threatening disease.

When my ACFW writing friends, family and church family heard the news, they rallied around me with prayers, prayer chains, cards, CDs to listen to while in the hospital, flowers, and promotion of my book (including filling in for me for the book signings I will miss!). My husband was so touched, he told me I was surrounded by legions of angels. And you know what? He was right. :-)

God heard my prayer. He knew what was going to happen the day my book released. And He put it on the hearts of all of you to come to my aid. I have chills as I’m writing this. If you just Google my book, THE MASTER’S WALL, you will see what God has done through all of you. My book goes on for pages and pages on the Google search engine. PAGES! Not just the first page! It’s even ranked at number 21 of highest ratings on Amazon for historical romance. My book was published through a small press, so what God has done is close to a miracle. I have tears in my eyes as I share this with all of you. And all I can say is thank you. Honestly, “thank you” isn’t enough for the gratitude I feel, for the love I feel. The first months of a book’s release are critical, and I not only had to cancel my book signings, but everything else I had planned for promotion. Had I been well, I never would have accomplished what God through YOU has accomplished for me.
 
Thank you for allowing yourselves to be used by our heavenly Father, and for giving me great pleasure during this frightening time in my life. This has helped to give me confidence that I am truly in God’s hands.

I thank God for all of you.

Lots and lots of hugs in Him,

Sandi Rog


P.S. If you’d like to share this “thank you note” with others, please feel free to do so. I can’t keep up to personally thank all those who have helped.


Thursday, November 18, 2010

Prognosis Update

I spent all day at the hospital today, and I feel I should fill you all in on my prognosis.

We saw Doctor Myint who is my oncologist. Here’s what he said:

I'm at Stage 4 Cancer with T-cell Lymphoma. It's very aggressive. I have to undergo six chemo and radiation treatments (that's five days in the hospital every three or four weeks, can't remember). I go in again on November 29th. He worked the schedule out so I could be home for Christmas (I'll go home on Christmas eve after my last treatment). He says at the end of all my chemo treatments (which will end up being approx. four and a half months), I'll be admitted into the hospital for a full month for a bone-marrow transplant (the cancer IS in my bone-marrow; he said there were two different things they were looking at in the bone-marrow. It wasn't in one part, but it WAS in another). They will "flatten" my bone-marrow during my stay in the hospital (destroy it; this will be the worst of the treatment, he said), and then reintroduce my own stem cells back into my body.

Good news: he says this will also likely put my MS in remission!!! I knew of another doctor doing this method on MS patients (one in Chicago). Turns out Myint WORKS WITH THIS GUY and they both made the discovery together!!! So, he said, while he can't "officially" say he's treating my MS, he actually WILL be. I was so wanting to do this with the doc in Chicago, but there was no guarantee I'd get in for this treatment, so I didn't sign up. I'm amazed that Myint was part of that same team of doctors! It gives me hope. I was thinking how horrible it would be to deal with cancer and then when that was done, to deal with MS.

Anyway, he said  his staff was shocked at how aggressive this cancer is and that it's a rare form of cancer. But because they've tackled it right away, they feel positive they'll be able to get rid of it. He said it responds positively to chemo and radiation treatments. So . . . He also said he WILL give us a copy of the FDA report which states that I got cancer from the MS drug I was on. He says it’s several MS drugs that can cause this, and not just the one I was on!

Anyway, it was hard news to receive, but I'm feeling positive and encouraged--especially with the MS news! Pray my body is strong enough to endure the treatments. So far, God has given me His strength to get through this. Pray that continues! My kids are counting on it. 

I'm exhausted and feeling lousy, otherwise. :-)

One last thing: they say the first few months after the release of a book are vital. Well, this all happened just as my book released, so I won't be able to market it the way I'd like. I asked God to be my publicist and take care of it all for me. I can see Him doing that already, but I don't want Him to get bored with it and move on to something else, lol. :-) Will you pray He'll continue that work for me? Thank you! xxx I have to laugh, because several of the doctors and nurses know about my book. Some have even bought it! I was passing out bookmarks from my hospital bed. I debated setting up a table for signings. :-)

Oh, and am I scared? Yes. I can't believe I'm in this fight. I'm taking things one day at a time to keep my sanity.

If you don't hear from me in reply to emails or whatever, please don't take it personally. I try to read everything, I just can't reply to everything. I might put updates on my blog on occasion. 

Hugs in Him,

Me

Sunday, November 14, 2010

AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Hey all,


This is Daniel DeGarmo with DeWard Publishing Company.

I'm sure all of you are aware of
 Sandi Rog's latest battle (with cancer - Type T-cell Lymphoma) that just began last week. As you can imagine, she's devastated, especially considering the timing of all this as her first novel, The Master's Wall just released last Monday.

Well, considering we are a small publishing company and can pretty much do whatever we want, my business partner and I have agreed to donate an additional $1 per book to a Fund that I'll be setting up this week.

Just so no one thinks we are being shady about the whole deal, this is above and beyond the royalties that Sandi (and her agent) is already incurring with every book sold. The purpose of this fund is to help out Sandi's family (husband and children) while she is laid up fighting for her life.

What I need from you is simply spread the word. For every copy of "The Master's Wall" that is sold (including Kindle and Nook) we will donate $1 to this Fund. I'll also be setting it up so that it can receive regular donations if anyone is interested in just helping out financially.

I hope to have more information to share in the next day or so but at least for now I would ask that you would do whatever you can do direct people to buy Sandi's book.

Sandi has been copied on this email.....Sandi..Please forward this message on to anyone you think would help us out in getting the word out.

The same goes for you if you've received this email.
I want to close by lifting the following prayer up on Sandi's behalf:
Father, I lift my sister before you as her body has been stricken with disease.
You know, O God, that she has used her gifts to glorify You and spread your wonderful message of grace and love.
It is my humble plea that you would bring her healing and complete recovery. I know You can do this, You are the Great Physician.
Please bring Your Spirit into her home as her husband and children continue to live life without her there. They need You.
May all that is done bring You glory as our God and Father.
In Jesus' name - AMEN!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Dan

Monday, November 1, 2010

Official release of THE MASTER'S WALL!

It's time to celebrate because TODAY is the official release of THE MASTER'S WALL, both as a print book and for Kindle!

Amazon already sold out of my book, so now they're listing is as "out of stock." sigh But you can still order it from there by clicking on "new." And DeWard is offering a two week sale of it for $9.99! That's for all your online shopping.

If you'd rather go to a brick and mortar store like B&N, you can do that too!



He fights for his freedom. She fights for her life. Together, they fight for each other.
                                                                            

WHEN THE WORLD SAYS YOU CAN'T, FAITH SAYS YOU CAN!