A Better Name - March 3, 2010

Good Wednesday morning! Yesterday morning for our prayer breakfast, we fell into talking about the end times. We like to do this as Christians, and its easy for a moment to forget the present in light of Jesus' second coming. One of the names that I used as an example in our discussion was 'the United Nations of Bob' for lack of a better term. This reminds me of why I'm better suited to write for the Lord, at least from my limited point of view. In writing, I can come up with something like that and then take a moment to come up with a better name. In speech we don't always get a second chance. A minister prepares his sermon ahead of time so that the stupid things come up in rehearsal or outlining, and not in the Sunday morning sermon.

In our lives, we will run into times when we need to give our witness right on the spot, out loud and in person. We may not get a second chance with the same person to take back any words we speak. However, we can prepare our testimony and have been encouraged to do so. We don't want to harm the name of Christian because of our love for the root and vine of that word, Christ. A prepared testimony can help us to glorify the name of our Lord.

What about your name? When we lived in sin, people came to know us by a certain name. Sometimes we might think that a name change might be in order after we give our lives to Jesus. He gave Simon the name of Peter, and Saul the name of Paul, do we rate a name change in there somewhere? Yes, but we haven't arrived at that point yet. In Revelation, we learn that not only does our Lord Jesus have a name which is above every other name, but that we too will have His name written upon our foreheads.

On this Earth, we see the name of Christ misused and abused. The name of Christian, or Christ-one, means different things to many. In the New Earth, the name of Christ that only He knows will be holy and undefiled. We need not worry about harming that name for it will be written upon each of us. Can you imagine the thrill and honor of saying the name of Christ that has never been spoken in vain? What a wonderful God we have and what a hope we have in Jesus!

Bucky