July 13--Name Tags

1 Chronicles 15:1-16:36 Romans 1:18-32 Psalm 10:1-15 Proverbs 19:6-7

Name tags. I saw a comedy skit on television recently about the absurdity of having everyone in New York City wear name tags. It seemed like a fun idea to me! I love getting to know people's names. As we have seen in our study of the ten commandments at Hillcrest Church, God wants us to honor His name. Today, we can see how God honors OUR names.

In today's reading from 1 Chronicles there are many names. My wife, Anita, and I like to listen to the One Year Bible as read by Tom Dooley (www.mastermedia.org). Sometimes, I admit, the Ipad with the OYB application has taken the place on our breakfast table of the OYB book. At times recently the lists of names read by Tom in the daily readings have been rather long. It's like NYC streets with too many name tags for people we don't know. But in today's passage, I am struck by how God cares about His people and knows them by name! As a popular worship song goes, "He knows my name!"

Here are three quick points on names:

1. God knows our names, loves us and links our names to what He has given us to do.

God in His wisdom reveals throughout the Bible that He knows each of us intimately, knows our names, and knows what He wants us to do. Remember Abraham: "I will make your name great and you will be a blessing" Genesis 12:2? Today we read about dozens of people including leaders like Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab; musicians like Heman, Asaph and Ethan; Berekiah and Elkanah the doorkeepers. Cymbal players, trumpet players, harp and lyre players, singers, ark-carrrying Levites--all are individually named and identified in the Scriptures today for their service to the Lord.

2. To be more like God, we should know one another by name, love each other and value what each of us does to serve God.

As we see God's character revealed in Scripture, it gives us a blueprint for our own character. Since God so clearly cares about names, we should too! May we learn and use the names of those around us. May we value the unique gifts and talents, roles and jobs that each of us have. Notice verse 15:22 from Chronicles today, "Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it."

I challenge each of us to learn the names of those around us. One way I like to learn names is to pray for people. As I pray for them, I have their faces and their names before me. Over a period of days and weeks, I can usually "learn" the names of many of the people I am praying for. Likewise, getting to know what it is that people do to serve the Lord, in church and out of church, is a good way to have them on your heart and mind. God associated people's names with what they did for Him. We should too!

3. Ultimately, we want our names, and those of all we can lead to Jesus, to be found in the book of life!

We want more than temporary name tags! The Bible talks about having our names remembered or blotted out for all eternity. It is our decision whether to make Jesus our Savior and Lord and thereby whether to get our names in His book. By His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be victorious in this life. Those who, in faith and by grace, live victoriously have the promise of Revelation 3:5 "He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my father and his angels."

Joyfully, we can be thankful to God for loving us so much that He knows our names and values us for who we are and what we do. We can be like God by knowing the names of those around us and valuing them for who they are and what they do for Him. Most importantly, we can follow Jesus and share His gospel with others so that, together, our names will not just be on name tags on earth but will have the eternal value of being in the Book of Life!

Blessings,
Pastor Paul