HIS NAME

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 1:21  “And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.”

I went to court and had my last name changed to “Mathes” to honor my step-father. I have since learned that “Mathetes” means “disciple” in Greek. I enjoy being named “a disciple” and I am proud of my last name and my Lord and I am learning from. Many other names have a root meaning that is descriptive of their nature or occupation. Jesus was named for both the essence and form of God.

There is so much publicity attached to names such as, “The Donald” referring to entrepreneur Donald Trump in New York or Pau the Apostle in Rome. But no name turns more heads than when you read the name Jesus in any secular writing. Caesar hates Jesus but more and more we are hearing and reading His name. I can sense that Jesus is alive and near.

Each time I read His name, whether it be in a liberal newspaper or our Holy Bible I learn something more about Him: some true and other very derogatory but I can’t escape learning something from the context I read His name in.

Repeating His name reinforces all we have read and learned about Him as well as drive off the devil and his demons. Just thinking His name cleans my thoughts and energizes my commitment and faith in Him. I often sing, “There’s just something about that Name” in my head to keep me press on in His name. I don’t ever want to shame Him in my mind nor in my actions.

So I read, learn, repeat and pray His Name. Sometimes there isn’t time for a long thoughtful prayer and sometimes I don’t know how to pray during a certain experience so I just call out “Jesus” and the Holy Spirit intercedes for me. When you put these all together, you can’t help but break out in song.

“How great Thou art” still gives me “Holy Ghost bumps” and brings tears to my eyes. And what’s wrong with crying tears of joy and doing our spiritual laundry. My knees automatically bend at His name and the closer my knees are to the ground the closer my heart is to Jesus. “Jesus” is where heaven and earth meet and that’s exactly where I want to be. How about you?