Christ makes the difference…

Today’s reading says we need to know who we really are in order to know how we ought to live. In Christ, we are God’s children, His heirs, and His friends. But there are more ID markers.

He also calls us His sheep. I’ve had sheep. They are easily frightened, follow each other and need a shepherd to keep them in green pastures! Yes, I often behave as a sheep, but am glad that He enables me to hear His voice and follow Him, my Good Shepherd.

Jesus also says of me that I will be hated by all for His name’s sake and must endure to the end.(Matthew 10:22) This means behaving with endurance, not giving up when life includes persecution.
Lest I complain or fear that possibility, Jesus suggests in a parable that He is to be “allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me.” (Matthew 20:15) I am His child and His friend, but I am also His possession. I belong to Him. Not only that, when I feel weak, useless, unable to do as He desires, He says:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Being His child, heir, and friend sounds like good news, yet Jesus is not ‘my buddy’ for He is my Lord and Teacher, and also His disciple who must live obediently to what He teaches me:

So Jesus said to those who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, (John 8:31)

What does that look like? Abiding in Him shows up in the way I live and treat others...

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love…. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:9-10; 14-15)

These things are possible because Jesus lives in me. “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20) He changes my life because of the Holy Spirit who enables me to witness to the love and power of God…

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

And He enables the way I ought to live. While knowing who I really am is helpful, it is His life in me that enables the actions that I ought to have…

I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. (Romans 15:14)

None of the “ought to” behaviors are up to me alone, but are the wonder of Christ using me to do His will, like a hand in a glove.

PRAY: Jesus, while the Bible does not use this metaphor, You are the hand in this glove and living as You desire me to live is all about You and Your amazing grace and power. I am so thankful that striving for excellence comes to even lazy and helpless people like me. You make the difference.

Name above all Names

As I consider the titles, attributes and actions that define God, the next word on my list is overwhelming. It is His NAME or should I say NAMES!

While the OT word often refers to a given name, in the context of the ancient Near East it conveys much more. Names represented people in much the same way that idols were thought to represent the false gods. A name was a point of access, and naming or having knowledge of a name was thought to give one person power over another.

Besides that, Hebrew names were sometimes considered reflective of character and/or destiny. God even changed names (Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel) to reflect either a transformation in their relationship with Him or a prophetic heads-up of His plans for them. This renaming indicates His lordship and dominion over them.

Having a good name meant a person had integrity and would be remembered for a good reputation. Names for offspring were considered with care. We were delighted when our grandson and his wife named their first child Elias, a Hebrew word meaning “Jehovah is God.”

The OT proclaims many names for God. Some describe His divine attributes such as His healing power, His all-seeing ability, and His presence with us as “Immanuel”. At the burning bush, He told Moses that His name is YHWH or Yahweh, emphasizing His self-existence.

Other names refer to His power, that He is a refuge for His people, He is to be called upon, exalted, trusted and praised. To speak in the name of the Lord is to speak with his authority.

In the NT, one’s name is wrapped up with one’s person as well. In one For example, the sons of Sceva name the name of Jesus to try and cast out demons. In Acts 19:15 their efforts were answered when the evil spirit said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”

The NT recognizes the power of Jesus’ name. Ephesians 1:20–21 declare that when the Father “worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” Jesus was “above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”

Jesus is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Joshua. This name means “Jehovah saves”. This echoes the idea that the name represents the essence of a person. Jesus had this in mind when He changed Simon’s name to Peter (“hearing” to “rock”) and the sons of Zebedee to “Sons of Thunder”. Revelation 2:17 says those who overcome will be given new names indicating the power of Christ to not only change names but character.

In John 17:6, Jesus gave a reason for coming: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.” Revealing His name was to reveal what God is like. Believers are baptized into the name of Jesus meaning we identify with Him in his death and resurrection. The NT also says healing and teaching were done in His name, and Christians are persecuted because of His name.

Matthew 10:22. and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. The name of Jesus is lovely to me and I realize its power. I’ve seen God work just because that name was used in prayer requests, to acknowledge He is Lord, and to declare that salvation is in His name only. In His precious name is my hope of eternal life and my experience of abundant life. If I say “God” then listeners have connotations that suit their idea of who God is, but that is rarely done when I use the name of Jesus. Blessed is His name, His powerful name!

Philippians 2:9–11. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”