What's in a name??? part 2

You know it's coming.....What about the Bible and names? There are a few name changes in there that God makes. He takes a name seriously and changes it in order to change a person inwardly. We will start in Genesis....Abram, probably the most famous renaming. Genesis 17:5 tells us that God changed his name to Abraham--Father of a Multitude or The Father is Exalted. A name to live up to. I am sure that Abraham was a little confused over the years as children did not come. But it was an outward sign of an inward promise. Then, in Genesis 17:15, Sarai gets a name change too. Sarai becomes Sarah, or princess. A name to show the blessings of God that would come to and through her. Then later, in Genesis 32:28, we see Jacob, the deceiver, get a new name after his all night wrestling match. He becomes Israel, for he struggles with God. All of these name changes were showing how God saw these people.

Two name changes in the New Testament have always fascinated me. One is in Acts 13. After the dramatic conversion of Saul on the Damascus Road, he is totally changed. In Acts 13, the local church in Antioch is fasting and praying and the Holy Spirit tells them to "set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called them to." They fasted, prayed and layed hands on them, and sent them off. In the first trip they go on, they encounter a sorcerer. The Holy Spirit fills Saul and rebukes the sorcerer. That is the last time he is called Saul. From then on, he is Paul. Please read this for yourself and see what all this name change is about.

Simon, a friend to Jesus, is given a name change from the moment Jesus meets him. In John 1:41, Jesus calls him Cephas, an Aramaic name corresponding to the Greek Petros, which means "a mass of rock detached from the living rock." We call him Peter. Although Jesus never calls him Peter. I could go on and on with the story of Peter. He was a rash, unreliable, and arrogant man. But Jesus had given him a new name. Peter goes through many thing, and denies Jesus. But Jesus had given him a new name. Peter has an encounter with the resurrected Jesus in John 21:15-19, that changes him inwardly. Could there be something to this new name? Then we see Peter on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Please read this sermon. This is Peter living up to the new name. Boldly preaching the gospel and becoming the rock that Jesus told him he would be.

So, what about your name? Is it the one that you know, that your parents gave you? Do you see part of God's plan in how you were named? Or, is it the name that you don't know yet....the one Jesus has given you in Revelation 2:17....that no one else know...that one that you will live up to.

Trying, through Christ, to live up to my name,

Consecrated to God