Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please go this video link to hear John Starnes singing the wonderful Gaither song Jesus, … There’s Just Something About That Name, as well as singing Jesus Is the Sweetest Name I Know, proclaiming the special Name of our Savior, Jesus, which, in the Hebrew, “Yeshua,” … means The God Who Saves.
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Highlight Passage – NKJV: Matthew 1: 21: 10 [NKJV] …
20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS , for He will save His people from their sins.”
Highlight Passage [Context] #1 – NKJV: Matthew 1: 18-25 [NKJV] … Go to this link …
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Reference Passages #1 Isaiah 7: 14 …. Go to this link … The prophesy from Isaiah of the Christ Child being born and called “Immanuel” – which means “God with us” …
14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
My Journal for Today: This morning’s Our Daily Bread points to the power of the Name of our Savior, “Yeshua,” in Hebrew, which means literally, “God Who Saves,” which I think you would agree sort of fits our Savior, doesn’t it? And seven hundred plus years before Jesus was born in that manger, the Prophet, Isaiah, prophesied the birth of the Messiah and said He would be called “Immanuel,” which means literally, “God with us,” … also a name that gives great purpose in the naming of Messiah.
In the days of Jesus, names were often given or changed to designate character traits or rolls in the world. We know that “Abram” became Abraham … “Saul” became Paul … and “Simon” was renamed by Jesus Himself to be “Peter.” As to character or roll, the name of “Yeshua,” or the designation of “the God who saves,” was also given to Joshua (which in Hebrew is also “Yeshua,”); and Joshua, like Jesus, was a man who was given the roll of a savior, becoming the leader of God’s people into the Promised Land.
Names are important; and I never recognized how important personally until I realized how my name came to designate something very personally meaningful in my life. I was given the name “William” at birth; and the name actually means “helmeted warrior.” Well, that name didn’t take on very much meaning until later in my life it was pointed out to me that my name meant something special, having been delivered out a past life of habitual sin and weakness and having become a warrior in a ministry dealing with spiritual warfare. And then I saw that I was called to found and lead a ministry called “Battle Plan Ministry,” which helps Christian men walk free from weakness to sexual sin to strength in their relationship with Jesus Christ. After founding and leading in this ministry for some time, someone pointed out that I had become what my given name designates, “a warrior, wearing the helmet of Salvation (see Ephesians 6: 17), and one who carries the sword of the Spirit into battle every day (same verse reference).
I’ll not speculate on the how God used my given name at birth to shape – or should I say RESHAPE – my life; but I do see how a name can be meaningful to shape one’s character; and there simply no name which means more, as the song link declares today – than the Name, which is the Name above all names; and that is the Name of Jesus.
My Prayer for Today … Jesus, Your Name is WONDERFUL!! … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread [TGIF], distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read the Our Daily Bread blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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