Category Archives: Devotion

Name above all names

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Jesus, name above all names;
Beautiful Savior, glorious Lord.
Emmanuel, God is with us;
Blessed Redeemer, Living Word.

song “Jesus, Name Above All Names”, by Nadia Hearn
© Copyright 1974 by Scripture in Song

Such a simple song, yet such a great feeling of humble devotion. How do you feel when you say the name of Jesus? Humble? Reverent? Unworthy? Thankful? Hopefully you treat the name of Jesus with more respect than the world does, with so many saying  His holy name without so much as a thought of it being more than “just a word”.

How did people treat the name of Jesus in Bible times?

  • People were healed in the name of Jesus (Acts 3:6)
  • The name of Jesus is equated with good news (Acts 8:12)
  • Sinners were baptized in the name of Jesus (Acts 10:48)
  • Evil spirits fled at the name of Jesus (Acts 16:18)

Indeed, we’re told that there will come a day when “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11) So we know there will come a time when everyone will praise the name of Jesus — even those who curse His name today!

When you speak the name of Jesus, do you do so with the understanding and the realization that you are speaking the very name of God Himself? In a very real sense that I don’t believe we can understand completely, the Son and the Father are one (John 10:30, John 17:11, John 17:22). Certainly the phrase “I AM” had a very specific meaning to the Jews — a meaning they understood without question to be God (Exodus 3:14), and which was considered to be His name. Are you aware that Jesus used this phrase on at least two occasions to refer to Himself?

  • When walking on water: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” (Matthew 14:27, Mark 6:50, John 6:20)
  • When responding to the mob: “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (John 18:4-5)

But wait a minute, you say. Jesus didn’t simply say “I am”. He said “I am he” or “It is I”. And you’re sort of correct. That’s the way these verses are often translated into the English language. Look at what He really said though. What He said in both of these situations was originally recorded in the Greek language, and in the Greek all 4 of these verses use the phrase “ego eimi” — I AM.

This was no mistake on Jesus’ part. In the case of trying to ease the disciples’ fear, He was letting them know that God was with them. (In fact, isn’t that exactly what one of His other names — Immanuel — means? Matthew 1:23)

Why He said this to the mob, I don’t know, but I do know their response, and it was nothing short of a mind-breaking, take-your-breath-away awe: “When He told them I AM, they drew back and fell to the ground.” (John 18:6 — That’s my paraphrase of the Greek. Hover over the verse for the ESV translation of it.) In effect, He’s saying, “I’m God — take me if you want”, and they responded accordingly — if only for a moment.

All right, my point in all of this is that “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow”, and every time we say His name we should bow — not necessarily physically, but mentally humbling ourselves before Him, recognizing Jesus as our Lord and our God (John 20:28), and that His name is undeniably the name above all names.

“He paid a debt He did not owe”

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A friend recently told me that sickness in his family had created a hospital bill of $3.5 million. He told me: “That is more than I can pay the rest of my life.” He has a debt that, no matter how hard he tries, he can never pay.

It made me think of what Jesus paid for us.

We sing a song entitled He Paid a Debt. The lyrics of the first stanza and chorus are:

He paid a debt he did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay.
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
And now I sing a brand new song:
“Amazing Grace.” All day long.
Christ Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay.

Jesus paid our debt when he went to the cross and died for us. We see this when we read Romans 5:8 NKJV: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

God’s great love for us is shown in Ephesians 2:4-8 NKJV:

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

We are saved by grace through faith. That is indisputable. However, God has given us certain commands we must obey in order to avail ourselves of His grace. We must:

Hear the word. Rom 10:17

Believe that Christ is the Son of God. Jn 8:24, Rom 10:10

Repent of past sins. 2 Pet 3:9, Acts 17:30, Lk 13:13

Confess Him before others. Mt 10:32, Rom 10:10

Be baptized for the remission of sins. Mk 16:15-16, Acts 2:38, Rom 6:4

Without heeding these commands we will be lost. When we are faithful and obey His commands, we then enjoy the love of God expressed by His grace. It is His grace that saves us eternally.

Jesus owed no debt, but He paid ours.

Sad Scriptures

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If I were to ask “What’s the saddest verse in the Bible?”, I’d no doubt get many different responses. For some of you, John 11:35 would come to mind (“Jesus wept.”). Others no doubt would recall “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). I’m sure some would remember the dialog between Nathan and king David, when Nathan convicts the errant king of his sin, saying “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:1-14).

My experience is that I find many verses in the Bible to be sad Scriptures, and the one that’s “the saddest” is simply the sad one that’s on my mind most recently. Such is the case with the sad Scripture for today:

“And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD.” Judges 3:12

This is sad on its face, simply realizing that after all God had done for Israel, they turned against Him. But this is magnified by the fact that this thought appears no less than 7 times in the book of Judges alone! (See also Judges 2:11, Judges 3:7, Judges 4:1, Judges 6:1, Judges 10:6, and Judges 13:1.) Add that to all the times they turned away from God during the exodus from Egypt and the conquest of Canaan, then God bailed them out when they repented and turned back to Him.

What a bunch of sniveling, spineless losers, right? Not so fast, “Romans 7-breath”.

Haven’t you ever felt the feelings Paul describes in Romans 7? (See vs. 7-25). Things are going swimmingly, I’m feeling great, I’m thinking I’ve got the devil whipped, then BAM! Back in the pig pen of sin. That’s just satan’s way of showing me he’s in control, right? Wrong! God is in control, and he’ll remain in control of my life as long as I let Him. There’s the rub — never do I consciously say “God, I know what’s better for my life than you do, so I’m going to do this anyway”, but by my actions that’s exactly the effect.

Wow.

Just like the Israelites.

“And [insert your name] again did evil in the sight of the LORD.”

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
Romans 7:24

That’s hitting bottom, and if you can approach the Lord in prayer with that attitude every day, He will deliver you and you will feel the relief that Paul followed up that thought with in the next verse:

“Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:25

We can be truly thankful that we don’t have to depend on our own righteousness or our own goodness in order to be acceptable to God. He accepts the repentant follower of Christ just as he is — a blood-bought sinner clothed with His Son (Galatians 3:26-27).