God has given Jesus a crown of glory and honor and a good name, and having put everything under the feet of the Son, Jesus has dominion over all the works of His hands, including all animals, creatures, all birds and insects, all things which travel the pathways of the sea, in the earth, under the earth, and all the Heavens above. The name of Jesus is excellent in all the universe! i read once that the Father loves to hear us saying the name of His son… Jesus. His Name in my mouth is like tasting something delicious and sweet. i consider all of the Lord’s doctrines, values, instructions, and requirements … to be right and righteous and no one can bend them to become something other than what they are.
All things point to Jesus…resonating and vibrating down to the molecular level at the righteous speaking of the Name of the Son, Jesus, the Christ of God. Indeed the Line of Choosing is becoming more evident as the Lord gradually blows away the clouds, which have concealed, until now, the most definitive line that has ever been drawn….the Line Of Choosing…. drawn with the finger of God, etched in eternity.
Eugene Peterson says “I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings. 4 Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way?
5 Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods, bright with the dawn of Eden’s light.”
Jesus is the Lord and God, never merely A lord, or some diminished, minimized version some would call “a God”. We are never God in any capacity and Jesus is always God in ALL capacities. There is never a time He is me, and never a time when i am Him. He is always God, i am never God.
John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made.”
Jesus IS The Name, Ha’Shem, Yeshua-Moshe and everything points to Jesus, as Lord and God, and will not be diminished by the opinions of men.
Today we are each where we are, and some of us may not have much but what we do have we’ve got a lot of it.
The value of a good name, according to God and scripture, is something worth being ambitious about. A good name commends us to God… and in His eyes, a good name is highly valuable and preferable above money and good deeds. Being wealthy doesn’t get anyone a good name … sure, it may appear a wealthy person is loved and needed, and may even win favor and peace with those who oppose, but in the end, if things don’t go well and all that money goes away, what are the wealthy left with but their name. Wealth does not get us favor with God. Luke 12:15, “And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things possessed.”
As we’ve seen concerning other topics, if we speak of a good name…. in order to see the contrast, we must also, briefly, address the contrary of a good name. If we’ve lived a life and gained a name that speaks of corruption and malice, if the government is oppressive and tyrannical, if a lawyer is known to be deceitful, if church leadership is shown to be corrupt in doctrine or in life, insufficient in scholarly studies, or possibly even downright profane, then people will be afraid to even deal with them.
In 1 Kings 12 there was a guy named Jeroboam who had become king. According to 1 Kings 14: 16, it says that the Lord, “… shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.”
Jeroboam made a name for himself all right, one which no one wanted. Can you imagine that it is written down for all time, forever, that almost every time your name is mentioned, it is followed by, “… who made others to sin”? Obviously, that’s the wrong sort of name any of us want for ourselves, and neither do we want to follow after any leadership like that.
How many kings, queens, or military leaders, how many captains, or government leaders, have been left and deserted to stand alone in their time of great need because they had been too sharp and unmerciful….and even to those who don’t personally know them, their name went before them and set the precedence? That would be terrible!
For those who have gotten an evil name for themselves, it would seem when they die, no one will regret their departure, no one will be sad, and that is truly sad.
Though many in leadership have done a lot of great stuff, even if that person is successful and has many things, if they don’t have a good name, i don’t believe there comes much lasting good with their gifts. Proverbs 22:1 1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, Loving favor rather than silver and gold.
So, you and i as believers, and i think it’s safe to assume, we all truly want a good name…. it probably shouldn’t be a name that’s either mispronounced, or one people make fun of, and definitely not a name like Adolph, Jeroboam, Jezebel, or Saddam. The underlying truth is that when we talk about having a good name or losing a good name, in reality, we’re talking about the impressions that people associate with that name – which would be our reputation. i am supposing it’s true that you do want a good name, don’t you?
Proverbs 8:18, “Wealth and Glory accompany me – also substantial Honor and a Good Name.”
Not only is Jesus a good name, but it is also the Best name. In the Name of Jesus, we live and move and have our being….not in our name, not in the name of Paul, Peter, or John, not in the name of a famous person somewhere or the name of a star or constellation, and neither in the name of the wind or the universe …. but in the Name of Jesus. In His Name we have life and have it more abundantly. His Name alone accomplishes righteousness, His Name, unaccompanied by any other name, changes governments and shifts the Heavens. His Name alone heals the afflicted, the lame, and the blind, in solely His Name is our salvation….it sets things straight beyond the atomic level.
When we speak to mountains and they move, it’s not because we are so great, it is His voice in ours that does the moving, and if they don’t move it’s due to a lack of His voice in ours. Friends, the mountains only respond to the speaking of the Son.
In the Name of Jesus… in His Name…. there is repair for broken minds, cracked emotions, and barren hearts. If we break the Name of the Son of God down to the letters, and then to the letters in the letters, there are endless libraries of wisdom and understanding available to anyone who would know him. Moreover, not just the letters but the “white letter”, which is the part surrounding the letters, there is endless beauty even between the letters of His Name.
In His Name there are patterns for us to live by: patterns of prayer, hope, and the pursuit of righteous things; there are patterns of honesty, truth, action, and devotion. If people need those things in their lives, in the Name of… The One… change to possess those fruits is available. In Jesus, The Name, there is the pattern of the Tabernacle and even the candlestick pattern points to the Son of God.
The Name of Jesus alone shatters discord and confusion from the east, like the rising sun breaking the grip of night, He is purity incarnate, manifested in silence and in the rising song of the morning. The universe has no independent power to do anything other than His will…..from His Name flows clear knowledge, wisdom, and peace.
In The Name of the One, the EverLord and One King, the Lord will establish the standard on the walls of Babylon; Ha’Shem will make the guard strong and will set up the watchmen.
There is more than a passive vision in His Name, more than just casually gazing at something, more than a casual observation, more than just noticing some detail or watching from a distance. In Jesus’ Name there is clear, sharp vision for whomsoever will see, in His Name is our faculty, vision, and perception.
Acts 4:12 is the truth, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
In the Name… that is “THE” Name…Jesus, Yeshua-Moshe, there is divine grace and life, in Him is the door of light and life. John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Did you catch what He said there? He’s saying it wasn’t that He knew A way, but that He, Himself IS the way, and that He didn’t just know A truth, that He, Himself IS the truth, and He isn’t only knowing how to get A life, but that He, Himself IS the life. That means the path that we should follow is alive, there is life in the path God has laid out for us, because “THE NAME” IS the path. That means the truth we live by is alive, He is the living, breathing, thinking, action-taking truth….more than just something we know, the truth is a person. Life is more than just breathing and choosing… “the life”, not just A life, but THE LIFE is a person and our lives are vibrant and alive because He is vibrant and alive and without Him we would have no vibrancy or livingness. By His Name we move from being inanimate to becoming animated, alive in Him. We live and breathe in THE NAME of Jesus.
In the Name of Jesus, God dressed the naked…..in His mercy, THE NAME clothed Adam and Eve. In His Name is the whole house, inside and out and there will never come a time when we feel like the walls are closing in on us. Scripture begins and ends with an act of kindness because kindness is at the root of God’s heart… in His very name is spelled out Mercy and Grace beyond the vanishing point. without God’s mercy the universe would not exist. His name is like a wave rolling out into the universe, the action of beginning, and the wisdom of nourishing us till we are complete. His Name brings all things to completion and maturity.
His Name brings out the songbird in each of us, which is like a bird that is just crazy happy with melody and shines in each of us. There is joy in Heaven for everyone who returns and comes home.
In His Name we find our righteous attitude, how we lean in our heart toward God, the pitch and yaw of our being. His Name is kindness overflowing and loyalty, Ch’esed, we are redeemed in His Name. In the Name of Jesus we have our pathway and door, His Name affords us the right to choose and there is fresh, every day, the opportunity to return as a penitent who’s come home; In His Name we breathe more than air, we breath divine breath and we find our connection between the world and Heaven procured by the nails through the extremities of Jesus when He was nailed to the cross – behold the nails which act as the link between the finite and the infinite, His Name is the bridge across the asymptote. Let us catch the vision of WHY the Name above all names is a name we should be related to, and why God says a good name is above diamonds and rubies.
The Name of Jesus is our sustenance and armament, it is the armor we wear day and night which deflects the darts of hell; alone His Name is life and divine grace which satisfies all the law that we would be found alive, clothed, and in our right mind; In His Name we possess our sword and become a container for His goodness which we pour out on the world.
The Name, Jesus, is the name through which we work and worship, it is our hands, feet and effort, in His Name we have a safe place to be, Jesus is our sanctuary. Isaiah 56:5, “Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off.”
In The Name, Jesus, there is actualized potential, the tendency for us…each as individuals …. to make reality of what we potentially are ….or… by the power of His Name we are not who we were but who we will be in Christ; in His Name the courage to go forward is there with an inclination to teach others about Jesus, whois revealed to be loved, yet not revealed as a mystery to be discovered; it is a seed, it is fruitful and continues on into forever, bearing the fruit of the Spirit in all those who accept the seed of His Name, Jesus the Son, and because of The Name which is alive in us, He has poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:6-7.
In His Name and BY His Name is support from God who is our shelter, it is a pillar for the weary to rest against, shade from the heat of the sun of this life and refreshment while in the battle against evil. His Name is a shield, Ephesians 6:16 “… the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” With His Name comes our prophetic sight, insight, hindsight, and words of knowledge which are available to all believers who live in His Name.
In His Name is expression, or “a voice” so to speak….the power to vocalize God’s heart… His Name empowers us to breathe definition and explanation…. our voice is joined with His voice to even speak across continents. Colossians 3:16-17, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
His Name represents the relentless pursuit of the lost and a door to come home again for those who have wandered away….they have a choice between having strength in Him or being degraded by the world. His Name affords us the option to return….it is first….. top…..the champion which crowns the glorious pillars of the altar of redemption. By the Name of Jesus, who is the Word and the standard, in His Name alone is the divine revelation which is tied to the divine, bottom-line character of God.
John 14:7, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
His Name IS the mark and sign, the monument of all monuments, a cross on which the Son of God was crucified for our sins…..the very monument, whose character was worked in the heart of God from the foundations of the world. His Name possesses all the Aleph-Bet. And, above all and through all, The NAME is the face, embodiment, and personification of love … He IS love and in Him, by Him, and in His Name is love everlasting, which reveals the Greatness of our God and King Jesus, The Name above all names.
Psalm 29:2, “Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” Psalm 34:3, “Oh, magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together.” Psalm 66:2, “Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious.” Psalm 68:4, “…sing praises to His name; Extol Him who rides on the clouds, By His name YAH, And rejoice before Him.” Psalm 72:17, “His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun.” Colossians 1:17-20, “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”
i read somewhere that what we do or say usually burns an impression in someone’s mind of who they think we are and what they think of us and our character. It is an impression that is difficult to change or erase from their memory. The value others put on our name often dictates how we will be treated by them. It is possible your name may even affect job placement; i can even testify that my name seemed to dictate how i was treated in school…. it even navigates who will agree to marry us. Others’ opinions and thoughts, when our name is mentioned, have a lot to do with who we are, and who we will be. Your name may be very important, but above your name and all names is The Name, Jesus, Son of God, Yeshua-Moshe, YAH. No one may remember my name, but God remembers me and will never forget for my name is written on the palms of His Hands. And you? How is your character reflected in your name to others and even before the Lord?
This has been Outposts, a little cool jazz and some contemplative conversation. This evening’s topic, “The Name” may have been a little metaphoric at times, and i do realize i said the words, “The Name” a lot, but after all, it is a name i never get tired of saying…Jesus, my Jesus.
Consider His Name …. THE Name….ponder on it, roll it around in your head, say His Name out loud so your ears can hear what your mouth is saying. Not just “Him”, not “the man upstairs”, not just “God”, but Jesus. Psalm 148:13, “Let them praise the name of the LORD, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above the earth and heaven.”
Let yourself take a rest this week, find your composure, be careful what you eat lest it steals your health….sometimes we have to give ourselves what we need, not just what we want……think, “what can i do to help myself?”, and take action.