What's in a Name

My name is mentioned in the Bible only twice, in Jeremiah 17 and 48 and it is referenced as a curse. However, it is one of only a few plants with the ability to produce fruit, or to bloom a flower in desert conditions...so it's actually a pretty cool meaning and I'm proud of it and grateful that God sees me that way.

Charis' name means God's Grace and she is full of it. (grace that is)

Karston's name comes from the root Christos which means anointed and was a name given to Christ, it then came to be translated Christian and finally Karston.

Josiah was the youngest and most righteous King in Israel.

Alyssa's name comes from the French form of the Germanic name Adelheidis which is composed of the elements "noble" and "kind". It then progressed to Adelaide, then Alice then Alicia before becoming Alyssa.

I think meanings of names have great significance.

In my Men's Fraternity meeting this morning (highly recommended men's study that can be found here) we discussed Adam's shortcomings in the Fall in the Garden. In Genesis 3:16 Adam names his wife "Eve" Prior to this she was referred to as "woman" While Eve means mother of all the living, it is often synonomous with seductress, or temptress. She really gets the bad rap here. The reality is....in this account of the temptation by the serpent, there isn't much mention of Adam until it says that Eve gave the fruit to Adam "who was with her". Adam wasn't off "at work while she sat at home watching soap operas and twiddling her thumbs with idle time" He WAS RIGHT THERE THE WHOLE STINKIN' TIME!!The problem here is that Adam abdicated his responsibility to REJECT PASSIVITY, TAKE RESPONSIBILTIY, LEAD COURAGEOUSLY, AND EXPECT A HIGHER REWARD. He became the epitome of passivity and apparently stood by and watched his wife be seduced into something he knew was forbidden. You can almost here inside his thoughts...."Let's see what happens here...if she dies...I bet God will make me another one. If she doesn't, then I can taste it too" Sickening.



Now Eve becomes the "bad guy" thru the ages when it was actually Adam's fault for not stepping between them like a man and shielding his wife from this danger. So...while Adam did name Eve, meaning mother of all the living, he also allowed her reputation to be tarnished, therefore he gave her the name of temptress and seductress thru his passivity.



Dad's and husbands. What are you naming your children and spouses? Are you naming them insecure? Are you naming them inadequate? Are you naming them lazy or undeserving? Or are you naming them Graceful, Anointed, Righteous, Noble and Kind allowing them to be able to flourish in any environment, even a dry desert?

Selah

The evidence of God's favor

We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I heard Bonhoeffer quoted on the radio today and have not been able to verify the quote, but it was to the effect of We must learn to rightly relate to suffering....suffering is not a curse, it is the evidence of God's loving favor upon a life.

Doesn't make sense. Or does it....it is, as mentioned in my previous vampire post, that it is promised for those that follow Christ. I understand sacrifice...I understand that Christ sacrificed for us and that we are called to sacrifice all for him. I mean, heck, we even had an entire Youth Summer Camp dedicated to the theme SACRIFICE '90! But...it turns out that to obey is better than sacrifice. What gives?

Romans 1:5 says that obedience comes thru faith. Interesting that Paul discusses bringing people to OBEDIENCE. OBEDIENCE seems to always require SACRIFICE. Either of time, will, desires, posessions, etc. OBEDIENCE to the gospel is OBEDIENCE to lay it all down, to SACRIFICE your way for his way, your life for his. It requires the SACRIFICE of your life...you are to share in the suffering and death of Christ. Seems like Paul should be calling people to SACRIFICE. Didn't the rich young ruler have to SACRIFICE his stuff?

But Paul specifies OBEDIENCE. Didn't the Old Testament (I Sam 15:22) teach us that to OBEY is better than SACRIFICE?

The OBEDIENCE part is difficult. SACRIFICE feels easy because we can measure it. We are able to accomplish it, it is immediately apparent and we can often pat ourselves on the back for "suffering for Jesus".

True OBEDIENCE tells you what, when, where how and how much to share in Christ's SACRIFICE and that kind of OBEDIENCE takes a serious amount of FAITH.

SACRIFICE is never a substitute for OBEDIENCE, but when done by FAITH, thru OBEDIENCE it can become a very spirtual act of worship.