I HAVE A NAME

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(This is part 4 - click here for part 1, part 2, part 3) 

How do you feel when you are called by your name?  Does it matter who calls it?  Your mother?  Your boss?  The doctor?  Your partner?  When you hear other names, do you think of specific people?

I have two kids and my wife and I thought long and hard about their names… we wanted a biblical name and a family name because we wanted their identities to be routed in GOD and routed in their family.  Although your name is not your whole identity, it is a part of it, and GOD knows it!

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are mine."

Isaiah 43:1 (NKJV)

Imagine being alone, nobody around; you’re walking on a deserted salt-pan.  The ground is cracked and you can see the large honeycomb-type patterns in the hard earth beneath your feet.  It’s the kind of place where the guys from Myth Busters blow things up – but they’re not here right now.  There is no wind.  Not a single sound except for the rushing of blood in your ears, that’s the ringing sound that you can hear.

Then, out of nowhere, you hear your name being called from the heavens.  A booming yet gentle voice, so gentle it gives you chills right to your marrow.  GOD has called your name.  Yours, not someone else’s, yours.  You feel comforted, yet convicted; peaceful, yet uncomfortable with the way things are.  And all that GOD has done is say YOUR NAME.

All of a sudden, you are important, you are no longer an insignificant nomad in a desert wasteland.  Finding your purpose in GOD is intrinsically linked to Him calling you by name.  When we worship, we call GOD by the names that we know Him by, when we pray, we do so in the name of Jesus – that’s because there’s power and purpose in the Name.

There is power and purpose in your name too, power and purpose that can only be recognised and activated by the presence of GOD; the presence of the Holy Spirit, in your life.

Be encouraged that GOD has called out across the universe and He has called your name.  When He called, a life began and creation was different.  When we worship our GOD, it's not as a face in the crowd - it's face to face with the One!

I AM REDEEMED

  “Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are mine."

Isaiah 43:1 (NKJV)

(This is part 3 - click here for part 1, part 2)

Redemption is a very special word that is used quite specifically in the bible…  it has to do with slavery.  If someone is redeemed, it means that they used to be a slave – but are no longer.  Redemption is a ‘buyback’, or a swapping of an equivalent or better slave for another and setting that one free.  Does it sound like anything else in the Bible?  The cross!  But here we are reading it in Deutero-Isaiah – nearly 650 years before Christ even came, let alone died on the cross.  That means that all along, GOD’s design has been for us to have an identity and purpose that is linked to redemption.  An identity that says “I was a slave. I am now released.  I am not bound.”

In order to know what we were slaves to, we need to remember that until Jesus died on the cross and rose again, as our Lord and Saviour, we were bound and living in bondage to Sin.  Christ’s death on the cross had nothing to do with forgiveness, it had to do with salvation – with GRACE; with redemption.  GOD always offered forgiveness to His people, so that was nothing new.  The issue was the old covenant, it was a law that we could never fulfill in its entirety, only Christ could fulfill it.  That’s what happened in His finished work on the cross - GRACE.  In order for the law to be fulfilled, a life had to be given - GRACE.  The human race was stuck in the condition of Sin – that’s what we needed saving from; and GOD’s alternative - GRACE.

Often we think that salvation is an event that happens, and WHAMMO – we’re saved.  I like to think of it like this:  Living in Sin is like drowning in the ocean; we can swim, but the distance to shore is just too great for us to swim it alone.  We need a lifeguard to save us, one who knows the currents, swells, squalls and waves.  One who is a seasoned swimmer.  Now, the lifeguard swims out to us, but we still have to swim to shore, with Him.  Just because the lifeguard has reached out, doesn’t mean that the journey of being saved is over.  It’s the same with our walk with salvation in Christ – it’s a journey.

Until Jesus Christ cut loose those bonds, we were slaves to Sin.  We lived differently.  We spoke differently.  We looked different.  Change is noticed by differences, growth and newness and this happens a little more everyday.  Some changes may be radical, but others will be hard and we will have to work through them everyday.  All of this begins with us embracing our identity as REDEEMED!  Before – people would look at us and see us alone.  Now, when they see us, they should see our lifeguard too – what a challenge!

People need to see the change in our lives, they need to see that we are no longer bound if we are going to live with purpose.  Worship is proclaiming the majesty of GOD – not just in words, but also by our choices. ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.  The old is gone, the new has come.’ 2 Cor 5:17.

I believe that we need to be encouraged to know that we do not need to act like slaves – for we are redeemed, we are released – we are not bound to Sin!