Author: elizabethprata

Christian writer and Georgia reading teacher who loves Jesus, a quiet life, art, beauty, and children.
Posted in bible symbols, carrying water in a sieve, living water, wells

Are you futilely carrying water in a sieve? Read here for the answer

Posted on by elizabethprata

Israel is a dry land. It is verdant in some areas where it is close to the humid Mediterranean, and in the north rain does fall between November and March. More than 70% of the average rainfall in Israel falls between those months. June through September are usually rainless, however. For the most part it is a dry country. The Jordan rift valley is the the lowest place on earth (1300 feet below sea level) where where only one to two inches of rain fall annually.

Egypt, where major portions of the bible events take place, of course is also dry, with rainfall averaging from 8 inches per year in the north to 2-4 the further south one travels.

It is dry there. Water is an issue.

The first time a well is mentioned in the bible is in Genesis 16:14, where as so often a well is the major landmark- “Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.”

David longed for a sip of water from the well at Bethlehem. (2 Samuel 23:15)

Famously, when the Israelites were wandering in the desert, and they got thirsty, they grumbled and clamored for water. So Moses inquired of God what to do and God said to strike the rock and when Moses did a flow of water gushed out. (Exodus 17:1-7).

Think of how many times in the bible Jesus (or The Angel of the LORD) met someone by a well or a spring.

When Abraham and Sarah put out the slave girl Hagar that had begotten Ishmael, Abraham gave her a skin of water and sent her on her way with the boy. They wandered, but the water ran out. She put the boy Ishmael under a bush and sat weeping a little ways off so she would not have to watch the boy die. The Angel of the Lord (Jesus?) heard Hagar weeping, and comforted her with His words and when she opened her eyes there was a well of water. (Genesis 21:8-21).

I’ve mentioned before that the Woman at the Well is my favorite story in the bible. John 4 has the story. A woman who seems to have been marginalized came to the well at midday (hot!) to draw water by herself (unusual- wells were the original water cooler place for talk and gathering). Jesus was there, being tired and thirsty. He was sitting. He told the woman to draw water for Him, and this was also unusual because it broke a gender and race taboo- men did not speak to women alone and Jews did not speak to the hated Samarians. She exclaimed in surprise.

“Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.””

Living water? He seemed to her to be an unusual man speaking of an unusual thing. And indeed He is an unusual Person and the Living Water is the everflowing Holy Spirit. He said in John 7 in the section titled Rivers of Living Water:

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39)

Of course the enemy hates that the people have water. Wells were often targets of the enemy to plug up.

“For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. (Genesis 26:15)

“And ye shall smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.” (2 Kings 3:19).

In the bible, water is a symbol for Salvation, Holy Spirit Truth, and Everlasting Life.

  • “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” (Isaiah 12:3).
  • “Understanding is a well-spring of life unto him that hath it; …” (Proverbs 16:22a)
  • “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14)

Peter likens false teachers and false prophets to dry and empty wells, hypocrites offering a pretense of Christian life but having no water at all: “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.” (2 Peter 2:17)

Can you imagine if Hagar, for example, had wandered alone with her son in the desert, her skin empty and the sun beating down, knowing life would end for herself and her boy if she didn’t find water, spotted a well. Eagerly moving the rock so as to draw water, she lets down the bucket, only to come up with nothing but sand and earth. Her wailing would have been all the worse for this bitter disappointment, having had the glimmer of hope only to have been fooled by the pretense of life giving water.

There is nothing worse than pretense! There is nothing more disappointing to sit under a teacher only to discover they were only offering dry earth and vain hope all along! (Colossians 2:8). They were a dry well and a broken cistern!

In Jeremiah 3:10 God says that He hated the pretense Judah was putting forth in their devotion to Him. Matthew Henry Commentary explains:

“Josiah went further in destroying idolatry than the best of his predecessors had done, and for his own part he turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul; so it is said of him, 2 Ki. 23:25. The people were forced to an external compliance with him, and joined with him in keeping a very solemn passover and in renewing their covenants with God (2 Chr. 34:32, 35:17); but they were not sincere in it, nor were their hearts right with God. For this reason God at that very time said, I will remove Judah out of my sight, as I removed Israel (2 Ki. 23:27), because Judah was not removed from their sin by the sight of Israel’s removal from their land. Hypocritical and ineffectual reformations bode ill to a people. We deceive ourselves if we think to deceive God by a feigned return to him.”

“for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)

Have you heard the phrase “carrying water in a sieve?” That comes from Greek Mythology. “In Greek mythology, the Daughters of Danaus were the fifty daughters of Danaus. They were to marry the fifty sons of Danaus’s twin brother Aegyptus, a mythical king of Egypt. In the most common version of the myth, all but one of them kill their husbands on their wedding night, and are condemned to spend eternity carrying water in a sieve or perforated device. In the classical tradition, they come to represent the futility of a repetitive task that can never be completed.” (Wikipedia)

John William Waterhouse
The Danaides, 1903

You cannot earn your own salvation. If you are not complete in Christ (Colossians 2:9-10) you are no better off than the Danaides daughters, carrying water to fill an endlessly leaking well. If you’re in church and you believe that to be enough, it isn’t. Filling a leaking cistern in a church is just as leaky and incomplete as it would be in any other place.

Whenever you’re reading the bible and you see a reference to a spring or a well or a fountain, then think of these symbols of water and what they mean.

“Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” (Ephesians 5:25-26)

“Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14)

How might you get some of this living water? Christian blogger and author Joel C. Rosenberg linked to a simple Gospel web animation that explains why we need Jesus and how to be saved. It is here. Please share it widely and often. And I pray you are saved and partaking of the Living Water daily.

Posted in frankenstorm update

(UPDATED)Frankenstorm: "We’ve never seen this in the record"

Posted on by elizabethprata

UPDATE: Things are moving fast with the storm now as the details are hammered down and the landfall is projected. I put up a great list of preparation tips, here. Many of them are things I’ve never thought about, like filling the washing machine with fresh water, or draining the hot water tank if you run out of water<. The Weather Channel has a breaking news update titled "East Coast prepares for Sandy’s wrath.” Of course since this is a Christian end times prophecy site I make ironic note that secular people can claim that a mindless storm can render wrath but an Intelligent and Holy God doesn’t. (i.e. “God is love”). Anyway, here is news on Sandy, more at the link above.

“…as the Eastern Seaboard braced for a rare megastorm that experts said would cause much greater havoc.”

Though Hurricane Sandy is a Category 1 strength right now, don’t let that fool you “said Hurricane Specialist Carl Parker on The Weather Channel. “It is a very large storm, a hybrid storm, the area of strong winds is going to be absolutely enormous by the time it come into the northeast, and that’s why it is going to be a high-impact system.”

“Officials did not mince words, telling people to be prepared for several days without electricity.”

“Be forewarned,” said Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. Assume that you will be in the midst of flooding conditions, the likes of which you may not have seen at any of the major storms that have occurred over the last 30 years.”

“I’m tired. I am tired,” Douglas Jumper, who turns 58 on Saturday, said through tears. “We don’t need this again.”

Prophetic Note: We’re all tired, I understand his concern and his weariness. However, the storms will only continue coming faster and faster as the Tribulation nears. And after the Rapture the frequency will never let up until the Day and Hour Jesus returns. For now, JESUS is the shelter in the storm. This compilation was published containing the news of Hurricane Sandy/Frankenstorm contrasted with the lyrics from the old Hymn Shelter from the Storm. He is a mighty rock in a weary land!!!

And here is the hymn without the news overlay

———————-
Two weather men talking on The Weather Channel:

Guy 1: At this point it is really all but certain that we’re going to get a huge storm in the Northeast, and probably one of the worst that we’ve seen in a very long time.

Guy 2: At least for October. This is unprecedented for early October.

Guy 1: We’ve never seen a tropical system do this, come up and hook left like this. That’s never happened in the record, which is amazing.

Guy 2: They always seem to get sucked out but this one is going to get sucked back in, and all of us here at the Weather Channel are going ‘wow, this is crazy!’

Guy 1: Yeah it really is

And then they go into the details of the forecast. Stay tuned to the weather channel, friends from the Carolinas to Maine! Here is that video forecast

Posted in encouragement, peace, trials

The promise of Jesus: TRIALS

Posted on by elizabethprata

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

We Christians often say that the love of God to send His own Son to die in our place as punishment for our sin is incomprehensible. His is a perfect love, eternal love, unconditional love. We do not understand a love like that. But we are grateful for it!

If there is one failing we have, it is that we underestimate the hatred satan has for us. A hate like his is incomprehensible, we forget how dark it actually is. Satan’s original name is the light, (Isaiah 14:12) but he descended into total darkness. His mind is a cesspool of black sewage and his heart has shrunk into a dark raisin with the mass of a million dead suns. His hatred of Jesus, and by extension of us, is eternal, incendiary, flaming and all-consuming evil that has no end.

We do not like to think of an enemy like that who has such a constant hatred of us, so we don’t.

Therefore very often we are surprised when a trial comes. If we live in a Western nation, especially, we are wealthy by the world’s standards, happy, productive, going along perhaps for years with no major problems. Then suddenly one day, BLAM.

Not all trials are directly from satan. Some are because the world itself is sinful. Some of our trials are because we are sinful and we’re just experiencing the consequences of our own mess. But some are definitely because satan has attacked us.

Our first reaction is to moan and bewail the situation, disoriented because of the sudden cut-off of light. It is like when you come into the condo from the bright, sunny beach. You go “whoa” and stop walking because it takes your eyes a second to adjust. If you have woken up one day to find yourself in a moment of darkness it is all right to stop for a second and wait for the heart and mind to adjust to a new reality. But take heart, you don’t have to remain in a state of disorientation or darkness. Your eyes will adjust, and if you remain in the Word when your eyes clear they will rest on Him.

Jesus said He said we would have trials so that in Him we may have peace.

‘Peace? Peace?’ You shout. How can I have peace? I am facing foreclosure! I am being hauled to court on false charges! I was diagnosed with a fatal cancer! My child was just killed! Peace, you say? There is no peace!’

Oh, but there is. Here’s why: There is nothing that you are going through that Jesus did not go through. Nothing.

Are you grieving over a death of a loved one? Jesus wept over His dead friend and over his beloved city. (John 11:35, Luke 19:41).
Have you been arrested on false charges? Jesus was. He was hauled off in handcuffs in front of His friends and students. (John 18:12)
Have you been taken to court unjustly? Jesus experienced that. And He was convicted, too. (John 19:16).
Have you been threatened with violence? Jesus endured it. (Luke 4:29).
Have you been conspired against? Jesus was too. (Mark 3:6).
Have you been stabbed, spit on, tortured with violence? Jesus suffered it. (John 19:1-2; John 19:18, Matthew 26:67).
Have you been rejected by even your own neighbors? Jesus knew the pain of it. (John 4:24; John 4:44).
Have you been faced with penury and poverty? Jesus was homeless. (Luke 9:58).
Have you faced temptation of the pride of life or the sin of the flesh? Jesus was offered it. (Matthew 4:1-11).

Even those of us with medical issues can know that Jesus sympathizes. If your body is broken from a paralyzing accident or is rife with a dread disease, Jesus endured that. How so? Because He came from eternally holy glory to pour himself inside sinful and putrid flesh and live in it for over 30 years. He allowed His body to become a cancer, comparatively speaking. (John 1:14; Hebrews 2:14)

He told us ahead of time that we would have trials, not so we could worry about what those trials are or when they would come. There is no need to obsess about them. But when they DO come, and they will, He has gone before us to take unto Himself your sorrows, and to give you peace through your trial. His peace has another gifting aspect to it: if we dive deep into His peace within our trial, we don’t have to sin throughout it.

Doing this in the midst of our trial shows Jesus to the world: “and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat.” (1 Corinthians 4:12-13)

And the more we pray for our enemies and bless them that persecute us, (Romans 12:14) the more our faith will grow and the more peace we will have.

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:12)

So we can have the light within instead of the darkness. He made a spectacle of the darkness while He was even on the cross they are forever disqualified from having jurisdiction over you.

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)

You might be going through the fight of your life, but FAITH IS THE VICTORY

Source

Posted in end time, jesus, molotov, prophecy, sinkhole

What’s with the Molotov cocktail throwing? Tremor at LA sinkhole, and other news

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is some news for you. There really is too much these days to cover comprehensively. The nearness of the Tribulation is truly astonishing, and getting closer each second. The events lining up in the Middle East, the deepening financial depression with no solutions in sight, the earth events such as quakes, sinkhole, storms etc, the X-flares from the sun, hatred of Israel and the Jews worldwide, the sinful behavior of people with all their violence, the false teachers and tickled ears that refuse to hear the Gospel, … I am shaking my head in amazement.

You know that the United States is rapidly becoming a Third World country, don’t you? Our debt, lack of manufacturing, loss of influence and stature in the world, shrinking military…all have combined to bring the wolves to the door. A Russian sub patrolled our shores in the Gulf of Mexico for almost a month and we didn’t notice. Or if we did, we didn’t say anything.

Now we have a UN election monitor team coming to the US to monitor OUR elections. Foreign officials coming in unprecedented numbers to monitor US elections. Texas of course, said don’t mess with us, and threatened to have anyone who even looked like a monitor prosecuted.

All I can say is, the election won’t solve our problems. And besides, even if Romney wins, it is a long time until the inauguration. Anything could happen.

In addition to foreign former superpowers nosing around our shores undetected, and global monitoring teams watching our elections, we have had a spate of Molotov cocktail throwing incidents. “The Molotov cocktail is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons. Due to the relative ease of production, they are frequently used by amateur protesters and non-professionally equipped fighters in urban guerrilla warfares. They are primarily intended to set targets ablaze rather than instantly destroy them.” (Wikipedia)

A Molotov cocktail was thrown in a Virginia Mall this week. “Leon Alphans Traille, Jr., 29, has been charged with committing arson for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail into the food court area of the Ballston Common Mall in Arlington, Virginia.” He threw it from the second floor balcony into the food court. It did not explode but it did ignite. The flames were extinguished. There is no more innocuous place in America than a mall food court. Can you imagine sitting there, munching on an Orange Julius or a Au Bon Pain croissant and suddenly the floor next to you is aflame and you’re running screaming down the hall?

This news piece is graphic. A Molotov cocktail was thrown onto a guy and it did light up, burning the man.
“Police in the United States have released shocking video of a 54-year-old man being set on fire as he was sitting outside a market in the state of California. “The victim was waiting for his father to get food, minding his own business, when the suspect came from an alley and threw an object at him, a bottle,” Sergeant Aaron Eaton of the Long Beach Police Department told local media. The graphic surveillance video, released on Sunday, shows the suspect tossing a Molotov cocktail at the victim, who was sitting on the ground outside a Long Beach, California market on Friday evening. The victim, engulfed in flames, runs into the nearby parking lot, where witnesses helped put out the fire. He is in serious condition with burns to the lower part of his body, his hands and his face, and his name is being withheld.”

This one is out of Hurst TX. “Federal agents are trying to identify who threw small explosive devices at a lawyer’s office and an oil company in Hurst. Firefighters discovered Molotov cocktails when they responded to a report of a fire in the 1200-block of Southridge Court on Sunday morning, said Andrew Young, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.”

Montreal has had three Molotov attacks in 24 hours. A Molotov cocktail launched at sushi restaurant and two bars.

Throwing an incendiary device on an innocent bystander is horrible! Unconscionable!! As this writer said,

“Increase of Wickedness” – There is a pattern of lawlessness dominating our society today that throughout history was found in civilizations in the process of decline. It is a pattern evident in nations that rejected God’s Word as ultimate authority in their lives and is a pattern prevailing in many Americans today. Scripture tells us that… Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. [Matthew 24:12]. I believe America’s rejection of Christ’s lordship is the reason behind all the bloodshed, violence, racial hatred, moral decay, drug abuse and outbreak of deadly sexual diseases in our society. Lawmakers, educators and the media have made God an unspeakable subject…

So now there’s this Frankenstorm looming. I wrote about it on Tuesday when the computer models were first showing something that would be worse that 1991’as Perfect Storm. Then I updated it early this morning. Since then, the computer models have lined up and there seems to be something of a 90% chance that this storm will be as bad as they feared. Forecasters warn East Coast about ‘Frankenstorm‘:

“It’s looking like a very serious storm that could be historic,” said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the forecasting service Weather Underground. “Mother Nature is not saying ‘trick-or-treat.’ It’s just going to give tricks.” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecaster Jim Cisco, who coined the nickname Frankenstorm, said: “We don’t have many modern precedents for what the models are suggesting. … It’s almost a weeklong, five-day, six-day event,” he said from a NOAA forecast center in College Park, Md. “It’s going to be a widespread, serious storm. … Some have compared the tempest to the so-called Perfect Storm that struck off the coast of New England in 1991, but that one didn’t hit as populated an area. Nor is this one like last year’s Halloween storm, which was merely an early snowfall. “The Perfect Storm only did $200 million of damage and I’m thinking a billion,” Masters said. “Yeah, it will be worse.”

Regarding the Louisiana sinkhole I’ve been reporting about, the people near it have been evacuated, but the sinkhole keeps growing and the return-home date is not in sight. Officials: Math doesn’t work; end to evacuation is unclear
“The math isn’t adding up in Assumption Parish, and some parish officials are worried about what might be happening underground near a Bayou Corne area sinkhole. … With this uncertainty as well as other factors — such as the natural gas still trapped underground — officials said the end date of the evacuation of the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou communities remains unclear. “Until we figure out what is going on below the surface, it would be very negligent on our part to ask these people to come back into their homes,” Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack said. The evacuation has been in place since the evening of Aug. 3, hours after the sinkhole was found south of La. 70 South on Texas Brine’s leased property. The evacuation affects about 150 homes.” …

But then today, Tremors were reported at the giant Louisiana sinkhole

“A sharp tremor was recorded by USGS monitors just after 9 p.m. Wednesday at the site of the giant Louisiana sinkhole in Assumption Parish.”

Gazans fire 80 rockets at Israel in last 24 hours
“Eighty rockets and mortar shells hit the western Negev on Wednesday, in the second day of one of the most severe rocket barrages on southern Israel in recent years.”

The world hates Israel.

“Heading toward an irreparable rift between U.S. Jews and Protestants
“As relations between Jews and mainline Protestants in the U.S. hit a 45-year low after 15 Protestant leaders sent a letter to Congress urging that aid to Israel be reconsidered.”

UN expert: Boycott companies in Israel settlements
“UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. special investigator on human rights in the Palestinian territories called Wednesday for a boycott of all companies that have dealings with Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem…”

Sudan angry, defiant after attack that it blames on Israel
“Sudan remained defiant and angry Thursday after a fatal late-night bombing of a weapons factory in that east African country – a sophisticated attack a Sudanese official continued to blame on Israel.”

The sun is pretty active. Spaceweather.com reports magnetic froth. Sounds pretty! But it packs a punch.
“MAGNETIC FROTH: Sunspot AR1598 has quieted down since unleashing an X1-class solar flare on Oct. 23rd. It might be the calm before the storm. The sunspot is still large and apparently potent, as shown in this image captured by amateur astronomer Sergio Castillo of Inglewood, California:”…

This is a very good essay by Randy Alcorn on the upcoming election. he deals with all our objections, lol. Personally I am hoping for the rapture prior to election. Obama can HAVE the world, then.

Election 2012 Part 5: Is it Wrong to Vote for the Lesser of Evils? Shouldn’t We Instead Vote for a Third Party Candidate?

We are citizens of a better country.

“But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.’ (Hebrews 11:16)

Posted in all joy, spurgeon, trials

Count it all joy

Posted on by elizabethprata

Testing of Your Faith

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

Sermon on that verse by Charles Spurgeon:

“Beginning with this word “brethren,” James shows a true brotherly sympathy with believers in their trials, and this is a main part of Christian fellowship. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” If we are not tempted ourselves at this moment, others are: let us remember them in our prayers; for in due time our turn will come, and we shall be put into the crucible. As we would desire to receive sympathy and help in our hour of need, let us render it freely to those who are now enduring trial. Let us remember those that are in bonds, as bound with them, and those that suffer affliction as being ourselves in the body. Remembering the trials of his brethren, James tries to cheer them, and therefore he says, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers trials.” It is a part of our high calling to rise ourselves into confidence; and it is also our duty to see that none of our brethren despond, much less despair. The whole tendency of our holy faith is to elevate and to encourage.”

Please remember our brethren in love. Carry their burdens, for would you not want someone to come alongside you in your time of trouble and carry yours?

Trials bring patience. As Spurgeon says,

“the kind of patience is when experience enables a man to bear ill-treatment, slander, and injury without resentment. He feels it keenly, but he bears it meekly. Like his Master, he opens not his mouth to reply, and refuses to return railing for railing. Contrariwise he gives blessing in return for cursing; like the sandal-wood tree which perfumes the axe which cuts it. Blessed is that holy charity which hopeth all things, endureth all things, and is not easily provoked. Ah, friend, if the grace of God by trial shall work in you the quiet patience which never grows angry, and never ceases to love, you may have lost a trifle of comfort, but you have gained a solid weight of character.”

“They have built a new lighthouse upon the Eddystone: how do we know that it will stand? We judge by certain laws and principles, and feel tolerably safe about the structure; but, after all, we shall know best if after-years when a thousand tempests have beaten upon the lighthouse in vain. We need trials as a test as much as we need divine truth as our food.” 

Joseph Mallord Wm Turner, The Eddystone Lighthouse

In these dark days, it is our love and our light which is from Jesus that makes the difference. Be Christ-loving by loving those who persecute you, and pray for them.

“and you, dear brother, if ever you are to be a leader and a helper, as you would wish to be, in the church of God, it must be by such means as this that you must be prepared for it. Do you not wish to have every virtue developed? Do you not wish to become a perfect man in Christ Jesus? If so, welcome with all joy divers trials and temptations; fly to God with them; bless Him for having sent them: ask Him to help you to bear them with patience, and then let that patience have its perfect work, and so by the Spirit of God you shall become “perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.” May the Comforter bless this word to your hearts, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.”

Posted in church, distinguishing of spirits, jesus, spiritual gifts

What is the gift of distinguishing of spirits?

Posted on by elizabethprata

More on spiritual gifts: I asked the question in prior blog entries on whether the spiritual gifts that were given as a sign are ceased now. (tongues, interpretation of tongues, miracles, healing). I came to the conclusion that scripture seems to say they are concluded.

There are many other permanent, edifying spiritual gifts that remain to this day.  The spiritual gifts are endowments given by the Holy Spirit.  As Theology professor Wayne Grudem says, “these are the supernatural graces which individual Christians need to fulfill the mission of the church.” I won’t take time to do a series on all of them, better scholars than me have weighed in on explaining them. However today I do want to look at one particular gift, though: distinguishing of spirits.

Here is the verse from 1 Corinthians 12:10 in several different translations:

“to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” (ESV)

“To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:” (KJV)

“He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.” (NLT)

The word for distinguishing in Greek is diakrisis, and it means an act of judgment. Not the kind of judgment in court, but “properly, a thorough judgment, i.e. a discernment (conclusion) which distinguishes “look-alikes,” i.e. things that appear to be the same” goes the definition from Strong’s. (source)

Pastor Charles Spurgeon once said that “discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost right.”

In the bible one example of the gift of distinguishing of spirits was when Peter was able to tell instantly when both Ananias and Sapphira were lying to him and thus to the Holy Spirit.

“But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” 5When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. (Acts 5:1-5)

How did Peter know? Ananias had made a claim, and there doesn’t seem to have been enough time to pass for Peter to have heard any different from other sources…except from the Holy Spirit. And the exact same thing happened when Ananias’s wife Sapphira came in three hours later and laid some money down. She also claimed it was the full amount. Peter pronounced her death and immediately she fell down and breathed her last. (Acts 5:7-10).

Paul had the same thing happen, and the gift of discerning of spirits manifested itself in a way that showed him though the girl was saying something truthful, was at root an evil from a demon.

“As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. (Acts 16:16-18)

The Holy Spirit had given Paul and Peter the ability to discern if what the person was saying was a lie or the truth, or was a half-truth, or was truth but was from an evil spirit.

We all have a certain amount of discernment. We should practice it, pray for it, and be diligent about it. As we grow in our faith, we employ the discernment knowledge we have gained as we strive with the Spirit. But there are other people who have been given a gift of discerning the spirits. These people seem to be able to tell earlier that something is false. They are ahead of the curve so to speak.

The men at GotQuestions tell us:

“There are certain individuals, however, who have the God-given ability to distinguish between the truth of the Scriptures and erroneous and deceptive doctrines propagated by demons. Although we are all exhorted to be spiritually discerning (Acts 17:11; 1 John 4:1), some in the body of Christ have been given the unique ability to “spot” the forgeries in doctrine that have plagued the church since the first century. But this does not involve a mystical, extra-biblical revelation or a voice from God. Rather, the spiritually discerning among us are so familiar with the Word of God that they instantly recognize what is contrary to it. They do not receive special messages from God; they use the Word of God to “test the spirits” to see which line up with God and which are in opposition to Him. The spiritually discerning are those who “rightly divide” (2 Timothy 2:15) the Word of God in a thoughtful and diligent manner.”

John MacArthur on 1 Cor 12:10, on how the discerning spirits verse manifests itself today says,

“This kind of gifted Christian can intuitively identify truth from error, hypocrisy from genuineness, and false prophets are everywhere today and I believe there are some people who are gifted by God to unmask false prophets. I think some of them write books. I think some of the people who have done good work in the cults and in the occult may be exercising the gift of discernment, the capacity to see through something to the core of its hypocrisy.”

The gift of discernment of spirits is a gift the Spirit has given to me. So, how does a person with this gift use it? How is the church edified by proper use of a gift of discerning the spirits?

MacArthur again:

“The gift can be exercised in many ways. Let me just share what possibly could be the use of it today. It could be used to reveal demonism in any form, any form. It could be used to reveal false prophets and spiritual phony’s. This person can spot a spiritual phony without missing, usually. Sometimes someone say to me, “You better not put that person in such a such position. You’d better not have that person come to your church and do, because something’s not right, protecting the church. I think the gift can even be used to see the intrusion of carnal elements into worship. The gift can discern one in whom the Holy Spirit is genuinely working. The same person will often say to me, “You know there’s a person really energized by the Spirit of God. I can see it.” They are the watchmen of the church.

Tim Challies wrote a book on discernment. He said, “This is not merely a gift, but a responsibility.”

You shouldn’t accumulate knowledge just for the sake of knowledge. Once you know something is true or false, you have a responsibility to do something about it. You have a responsibility to praise the Savior if you find a true teaching, but if you find a false teaching you have to say something about it, as well.

I tell my fellows at church that I am a carbon monoxide alarm. Carbon monoxide gas is poisonous and odorless. It kills, but people only detect its presence when they start to feel sleepy and even then it may be too late. False doctrine is like that, odorless, undetectable except for some symptoms that appear in people who are under its influence. If you detect a false teaching, or an evil spirit at work or a carnality creeping in, or whatever it may be as MacArthur outlined, DO something. What I do is speak to my pastor or the teacher of the class. I make a report. I tell the men, right away. I let them know what I found, how I found it, where I found it, and the methods I used to find it. This is so they can check for themselves. I also offer the scriptural foundation that in my opinion shows the teaching or carnal thing is false so they can compare it to the Word. If they deem it false, my prayer next becomes that they do something about it and therefore it will not be tolerated.

Remember the condemnation of the church at Thyatira. The people were tolerating a false prophetess. Jesus was unhappy about that. (Revelation 2:20). If you discern something is off somewhere, you have a responsibility to speak up about it.

It isn’t an easy ministry. I don’t go looking for falsity. The blogs that have a badge on their top menu bar “member of heresy hunters” or some such…I disagree with that. I don’t spend my time hunting evil. I spend my time hunting good. There is too much evil to keep up with and it always finds me anyway. Instead, I try to stay on the center line of the narrow road of His goodness by listening to sermons, praising Jesus, learning the word, exhorting about Him everywhere I go.

Sometimes in other places or in other churches when I did make a report on this or that, my report was rejected summarily without prayer or consultation to the scriptures. Sometimes I was identified as a bad influence rather than the false doctrine being bad. Shooting the messenger does happen. Poor Jeremiah, thrown into a nearly bottomless cistern… That is why having the gift of discernment of spirits is a responsibility and not an intellectual game and not a personal playground. It comes with consequences, sometimes.

Challies said,

“Satan and his spirits can be discerned in appearance. Satan invades the Christian community with teachers and leaders who counterfeit the truth. These people will always introduce teaching that is foreign to Scripture. … Though her [the slave girl’s] words were true, the spirit behind them was false and sought to lure people with a little bit of truth so that the opportunity could be used to heap reproach upon the gospel.”

And there is the nut of it. Whether you don’t have the specific gift but are maturing in your faith and gaining discernment, or you do have the spiritual gift of distinguishing spirits, not bringing reproach on the Gospel is the goal. Jesus is to be uplifted, always. It is HIS Gospel, it is HIS church, it is HIS doctrine. So even though the responsibility is heavy, the joy is wonderful when the body works together to maintain a level of purity in a local church. It is joy when we see the melding of the separate gifts result in something pleasing to the One who delivered us from the evil that we are now reporting and protecting the fellow sheep from.

In some cases, the sheep never even knew that a creeping poison almost touched them. They are happily ministering and functioning in their spiritual gifts unknowingly protected from yet another foray by satan. Praise the Lord for mature churches where all gifts of the body work together to edify His congregation and exalt Jesus, the ultimate goal of any church!

Posted in perfect storm, super storm, weather

(UPDATE) Meteorologists watching potential for catastrophic storm- NY/NE

Posted on by elizabethprata

UPDATE October 25 (Thurs).

As we get closer to landfall and the models become more precise, I’ll provide updates here. This news article is from two hours ago.

Huge combo storm may pummel East Coast next week
“Much of the U.S. East Coast has a good chance of getting blasted by gale-force winds, flooding, heavy rain and maybe even snow early next week by an unusual hybrid of hurricane and winter storm, federal and private forecasters say. Though still projecting several days ahead of Halloween week, the computer models are spooking meteorologists. Government scientists said Wednesday the storm has a 70 percent chance of smacking the Northeast and mid-Atlantic.”

“Hurricane Sandy in the Caribbean, an early winter storm in the West, and a blast of arctic air from the North are predicted to collide, sloshing and parking over the country’s most populous coastal corridor starting Sunday. The worst of it should peak early Tuesday, but it will stretch into midweek, forecasters say.”

“It’ll be a rough couple days from Hatteras up to Cape Cod,” said forecaster Jim Cisco of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration prediction center in College Park, Md. “We don’t have many modern precedents for what the models are suggesting.”

“Some have compared it to the so-called Perfect Storm that struck off the coast of New England in 1991, but Cisco said that one didn’t hit as populated an area and is not comparable to what the East Coast may be facing. Nor is it like last year’s Halloween storm, which was merely an early snowstorm in the Northeast.”

“This has much more mess potential because it is a combination of different storm types that could produce a real whopper of weather problems, meteorologists say.”

“The Perfect Storm only did $200 million of damage and I’m thinking a billion,” said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the private service Weather Underground. “Yeah, it will be worse.””

———–
A combination of “very unusual” and intense weather systems and effects are converging to create the potential for another superstorm, akin to the “Perfect Storm” of 1991. In that storm, “also known as the Halloween Nor’easter of 1991, was a nor’easter that absorbed Hurricane Grace and ultimately evolved into a small hurricane late in its life cycle.” (Wiki). In this week’s storm, it also may absorb tropical storm Sandy (predicted to become a hurricane) and combined with a “very unusual” dip in the Jet Stream, and an intense low pressure in Canada sweeping down, possibly creating conditions forecasters are saying would be “quite concerning”, a combination of a “extreme nor’easter and a hurricane,” potentially “devastating” a “threat,” and an “extraordinarily unusual and extreme storm.”

The Wall Street Weather Journal guy cites other forecasters, stating, “the local National Weather Service with responsibility for New York City has called the situation “ominious,” and the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, who has responsibility to forecast large impact weather events nationwide said on Sunday that the “potential impact is impressive.” What could happen is quite complicated, and may have precedence only a handful of times across the more than 200 years of detailed historical local weather recordkeeping (Big storms in 1804, 1841, 1991, and 2007 come immediately to mind).”

Time will tell as to whether this complicated series of factors will converge to produce the seriously ominous storm the forecasters are tracking, so keep an eye out for all weather developments as the week progresses. If this thing combines to make the storm they hope will not form, evacuations would be called. Make sure you have batteries, fresh water, an evacuation route planned, gas for the car, warm clothing, and a few day’s food you can prepare without electricity.

If it does not form, then we can all breathe a sigh of relief and say trick or treat! Until the next time…

Posted in edmund fitzgerald, eternity, tribulation, wrath

Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Posted on by elizabethprata

“Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”

What an evocative lyric. It is from Gordon Lightfoot’s song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” It is a haunting ballad of a ship that went down in a November storm on Lake Superior in 1975. The last thing that they heard from the ship was a radio communication from the captain, who said, “We are holding our own.” Minutes later she sank suddenly. Twenty-nine men lost their lives on that fateful day. A record cargo worth 24 million was lost too. The nightly newscaster Harry Reasoner reported, “All that’s been found is an oil slick and some debris.”

Though over 240 ships have been lost on the rough sailing lake, it is the Edmund Fitzgerald that most captures the imagination.

Why would that be? Of all the wrecks of all time, other than the Titanic, so many have gone unremembered. The SS Central America’s loss off the coast of the Carolinas in 1857 was greater in loss of cargo worth and greater in lives lost. More than 550 passengers and crew died and 30,000 pounds of gold sank with them, contributing to the Panic of 1857.

The SS General Slocum caught fire and sank in New York’s East River on 15 June 1904. More than 1,000 people died in the accident, making it New York City’s worst loss-of-life incident until the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Perhaps we are so touched by the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald because of the Lightfoot song. It is vivid to be sure. Perhaps because of the lack of consensus on how the great ship sank. To this day there are competing theories, but after good video was taken from a submersible in 1994, the only thing that became more evident is that the ship broke up on the surface and the trip to the bottom tortured it. The twisted metal between the two halves spoke of the power of the seas when it chooses to claim a ship. A body was discovered laying beside the bow, still in his life jacket. The power of the seas claims lives too, and the torture of such a loss is just as great and greater. Perhaps because it is impossible to truly understand how time telescopes when you are in such an environment. The minutes do turn to hours.

If you are a mariner you know when you’re in a storm your two hour watch seems like days, and you look at your watch and only one minute has passed. It is disorienting to be in the dark, with waves crashing over you. You never know where the next wave will come from, always on the lookout for the rogue. Where is the lighthouse? Bleary eyes keep searching for that saving light, but all you see is more waves, and more dark, and fear. You feel helpless, powerless, in the dark, crying out to God for desperate help.

The Fitzgerald, or any other ship in distress, is a microcosm. It will be like that in the Tribulation, for example. Helpless, fearful, in the dark, navigating blindly, rogue waves washing over you, piteously crying out to God, wondering, where is the love of God in all this? Will this ever end? And just as suddenly as it began, it is over. Your tortured trip to the deeps is the last journey of your mortal body, while your soul flies to hell, where it will stay forever. Until the judgment that is, when your resurrected body will be reunited with your soul and the agony will really begin.

Suddenly when the trumpet call of the rapture sounds and Christians fly away, your storm will begin. The world’s storm will begin, there will be no safe harbor. There is no Whitefish Bay to aim for, no place that will offer you a good anchorage.

The storms will be relentless; earthquakes, tornadoes, diseases, violence, war. One after the other will crash over you relentlessly and yet you will never know where the next will come from. you will look for relief but will not be able to find it. And that is before the demons arrive. Their bite will be agony and you will want to die, try to die, but death will flee from you. (Revelation 9:6).
 
The agony of pain and tribulation will be unceasing. The trapped feeling, that this will never end, that there is no way out will pervade your mind and make you mad with despair. The knowledge that death is going to come but the agony of not knowing when will pierce your demented soul.

But God is love, you say. Isn’t this just too depressing? Yes it is depressing. I cry when I think of the  countless millions who will be lost. Maybe you are one of those. The Tribulation will be a time of wrath. God is love, but He will pour out His wrath on men.

Carm.org defines His wrath:

“Biblically, wrath is the divine judgment upon sin and sinners. It does not merely mean that it is a casual response by God to ungodliness, but carries the meaning of hatred, revulsion, and indignation. God is by nature love (1 John 4:16), however, in His justice He must punish sin. The punishment is called the wrath of God. It will occur on the final Day of Judgment when those who are unsaved will incur the wrath of God. It is, though, presently being released upon the ungodly (Rom. 1:18-32) in the hardening of their hearts. Wrath is described as God’s anger (Num. 32:10-13), as stored up (Rom. 2:5-8), and as great (Zech. 7:12). The believer’s deliverance from God’s wrath is through the atonement (Rom. 5:8-10). “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Thess. 5:9).”

The Tribulation is a near-future seven-year period of time when God is prophesied to finish His discipline of Israel and to finish His judgment of the unbelieving world. So yes, He is love but He is wrath too. “Love is an attribute of God. Love is a core aspect of God’s character, His Person. God’s love is in no sense in conflict with His holiness, righteousness, justice, or even His wrath. All of God’s attributes are in perfect harmony. Everything God does is loving, just as everything He does is just and right. God is the perfect example of true love.” (source)

He sent His son to take the wrath we deserve. If you believe on the name of the resurrected Jesus, you will escape the wrath and live an eternity of love with God. But if you refuse His love gift of Jesus it means you accept the wrath. Believe on Jesus today. Repent of your sins and believe that Jesus is Lord, having lived a perfect life and taken the punishment for your sins unto Himself. God was pleased to substitute His son for your penalty and resurrected Him as proof of that acceptance. If you repent and believe you will not have to endure the Tribulation’s wrath. It will be a time when the waves of trouble turn the minutes to hours. You will beg to die, but if you die apart from Jesus, those waves of agony turning minutes to hours will never end.

You will have a chance to believe in Jesus after the rapture, the bible shows us that there are martyrs who are killed for their faith, a faith they came to after we were taken out of the time of Jacob’s Trouble. But you may die before then. You may die during the first moment of the Tribulation. You may come under the delusion and believe the antichrist. It is too risky. This is the Age of Grace. Now is the time.

“All that’s been found is an oil slick and some debris.” That will be YOU.

You will be a smudge on the great timeline of history. You think you are holding your own, but destruction is moments away from you. You, debris, blotted out from the Lamb’s book of life and entered in the book of death. A name, a person forgotten and dispersed as an oil slick eventually dissipating to something of no consequence, like a vapor. An enemy of God howling in agony in hell while the rest of blessed eternity continues joyfully apace.

JESUS IS THE LIGHT. Come home to safe harbor.

Posted in bible, jesus, king of kings and lord of lords, new name, prophecy

What’s in a name? We get a new name, and Jesus does too

Posted on by elizabethprata

Most of us love to look up the background to our names. Personally I used to enjoy looking up the meaning of my name, Elizabeth, though I was always bemused about it. The name means “oath of God.” I was not saved so I thought that the name was a big miss, because I was far from God. Until I turned 43, that is, and then I was saved.

In the bible when babies were named it was a big deal. The Hebrew parents tried to give a name they thought would capture the essence of the baby’s character or capture what they hoped their baby would become. The bible verse usually took some time to let us know what that name meant.

Last names are fun to look up too. Surnames place us, identify us with a tribe, or sometimes, a profession. In modern times we’ve forgotten that the last name Smith used to be short for blacksmith, or Cooper mean maker of barrels. In the bible there was Alexander the Coppersmith, (2 Timothy 4:14), and Simon the Tanner, (Acts 9:43, Acts 10:32).

Alternately some in the bible times were known by their father’s name, such as James the son of Zebedee (Matthew 4:21) or Levi son of Alphaeus, who was also known by his profession, hated as it was: Levi the Tax Collector. When the assembled at the synagogue in Jesus’s hometown listened to Jesus they were astonished, and said “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?” (Mark 6:3). This was offensive, a way of saying ‘isn’t he the bastard?’ Because they did not say ‘Isn’t this the son of Joseph?’ Instead they said the son of Mary, naming the mother. This was not done. You were always the son of the father. This is the place where Jesus said a prophet is without honor in his own hometown.

Mary Magdalene was known as the Mary of the town of Magdalene and of course our own Jesus was known as Jesus of Nazareth.

There were nicknames in the bible, also. James and John were nicknamed Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder. We would translate that as “hot heads.” Simon was called Peter for rock.

Adam was tasked with naming all the animals (Genesis 1:19) and Adam also named Eve (Genesis 2:20).

Hannah humbly and fervently asked of God that he would grant her a son. He did, and she named him Samuel, which means ‘asked of God’. “She called his name Samuel, “since she had asked the Lord for him” (1 Samuel 1:20).

In Genesis 35:18 we have a case of a name change done by the father- “And it came to pass, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-oni: Son of my sorrow: but his father Jacob called him Benjamin, “Son of my right hand.”

Methuselah meant ‘he has sent his death’. And you thought YOUR name was depressing! Literally it meant that God would not send death until Methuselah died. Methuselah was the longest living person in history, 969 years. God’s patience is great! When Methuselah died, the flood came within the year. (Exodus 5:21-32).

Sometimes when someone is given a new name in the bible, it means that they have a new identity. It can work to the negative or to the positive. For example, when Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar, he captured many of the youth to bring back to Babylon with him, including “Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.” (Daniel 1:6). One way to demoralize and assimilate prisoners was to give them a new name. This was in effect giving them a new identity, and cutting them off in every way from their old identity.

As for Daniel and the three friends…. “And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.” Each Hebrew name had been carefully chosen by the parents, and to try and separate them from that identity, they were given names of false gods.

Jamison-Fausset-Brown Dictionary:

“He gave names–designed to mark their new relation, that so they might forget their former religion and country ( Genesis 41:45 ). But as in Joseph’s case (whom Pharaoh called Zaphnath-paaneah), so it was in Daniel’s. His name means God my Judge, the theme of his prophecies being God’s judgment on the heathen world powers, was given the name indicative of his relation to a heathen court (“Belteshazzar,” that is, “Bel’s prince”). To Hananiah–that is, “whom Jehovah hath favored.” was given the name Shadrach–from Rak, in Babylonian, “the King,” that is, “the Sun”; the same root as in Abrech, inspired or illumined by the Sun-god.”

Mishael–that is, “who is what God is?” Who is comparable to God? was given Meshach–The Babylonians retained the first syllable of Mishael, the Hebrew name; but for El, that is, GOD, substituted Shak, the Babylonian goddess, called Sheshach (Jeremiah 25:26, 51:41), answering to the Earth, or else Venus, the goddess of love and mirth; it was during her feast that Cyrus took Babylon.

Azariah–that is, “whom Jehovah helps” was given the name Abed-nego–that is, “servant of the shining fire.”

Thus, instead of to Jehovah, these His servants were dedicated by the heathen to their four leading gods; Bel, the Chief-god, the Sun-god, Earth-god, and Fire-god. The names thus at the outset are significant of the seeming triumph, but sure downfall, of the heathen powers before Jehovah and His people. (source)

Esther is the Persian name (star) of the Hebrew youth named Hadassah (means myrtle), taken to live at Xerxes’s court. (Esther 2:7)

Unlike Joseph, Daniel, and the three friends who were given new pagan names by evil kings to help them forget their identity as one of God’s chosen ones and to force a new identity in the pagan courts, sometimes God Himself gives a new name to mark the beginning of a new identity.

There are several examples of examples of people in the Bible who were given new names by God:
Abram to Abraham (Gen 17:5)
Sarai to Sarah (Gen 17:15)
Jacob to Israel (Gen 32:23)
Oshea (or Hoshea) to Joshua (Num 13:16)
Simon to Peter (Mt 16:17-18)
Saul to Paul (Acts 13:9)

There are several verses in the Bible that speak of us receiving a new name in Heaven: Rev 2:17, Isa 62:2, Rev 3:12.

Revelation 2:17- “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’”

Isaiah 62:2- The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.”

Revelation 3:12- “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”

When we enter the kingdom above, three names are again written upon us; the name of God, the name of the heavenly city, and Christ’s heavenly name.

But get this–

JESUS gets a new name too!?!? Is it the name written on His thigh, “King of kings, and Lord of lords,” (Revelation 19:16)? Is it a completely new name? “His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.” (Revelation 19:12). What is this new name? We don’t know. MacArthur explains the verse:

“Christ’s own new name. What does that mean? Well the name of God or the name of Christ means all that He is. We know Christ, we know Christ but we only know what we have read, we haven’t seen Him. The moment we see Him His persona will take on utterly new dimensions. And whatever we may have called Him and understood by the name will pale in the reality of what we see. And there will be a new name to describe Him. And He’ll give us that new name and we’ll be privileged to call Him by it.”

Robin Schumacher wrote, “At present and incommunicable and known only to God, to be hereafter revealed and made the believer’s own union with God in Christ. Christ’s name written on Him denotes he shall be wholly Christ’s.” (source)

O, the joys keep coming! We will receive a new name from Christ and He will privilege us to hear His new name we may call Him by! It gets better and better, doesn’t it? The best is yet to come. We have that glorious moment to look forward to, and whatever His new name will be, I know that it is only by His blood that my sinful lips may utter it. He cleanses and purifies, and though I long for that Day, for now I am all joy to call Him JESUS.