He calls us by name.

"But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And he who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are mine." Isaiah 43:1-2

I was reminded the other day just how powerful it is to insert our own names in Bible passages. He knows your name, He knows every detail of your body and how it works, and even crazier, He knows every little corner of your mind - what makes you happy or sad, what brings you peace or unrest. But I think sometimes it's easy to forget that He has reached down and specifically called us, or that He specifically speaks to us, not only to his general creation. Sometimes by putting our own names in Bible verses, it can increase the intimacy of comforting words of the Lord, and it can also increase the conviction of corrective words of the Lord.

A couple of passages that have struck me:

"For God knew Becky in advance, and he chose her to become like his Son, so that his Son would have her as a sister. Having chosen Becky, he called her to come to him. He gave Becky right standing with himself and promised her his glory... If God is for Becky, who can ever be against her? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for Becky, won't God...also give her everything else?" Romans 8:29-32

Sometimes I forget that God chose me. He invited, yes, but He also came after me. He rescued me. And I forget that God is literally a shield standing between me and anything that might try to hurt me without His permission. And Jesus gave his life for me, so that I might in turn lose mine and trade it in for something far better.

"If Becky speaks in the tongues of men or of angels, but has not love, she is only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If Becky has the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if she has a faith that can move mountains, but does not have love, she is nothing. If she gives all she possesses to the poor and gives her body over to hardship that she may boast, but does not have love, she gains nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If you wanted to get even more convicting with that second passage, you could challenge yourself this way. In the part that reads "Love is patient, love is kind...," instead insert your name: "____is patient, ____ is kind..." etc., and then honestly read it and ask yourself which of those statements makes you cringe the most because it is just that untrue. I've done it a couple of times, and each time God shows me some aspect of love that I need to work on. For instance, this is passage, along with the book of James, is how God first showed me I needed to work on "easily angered!"

Why don't you give this a try today in your time with God? Let God show you a passage and allow him to personalize it for you. Let him speak to you by name.

"An Unlikely Route to Joy"

from Jackie Kendall's blog

July Hope Alert

Whenever I have read about deportation (person or persons expelled from their homes or country), I would never consider it to be a good thing. This morning I was reading about the deportation of two particular Jews, Aquila and Priscilla. Claudius Caesar had first ruled that the Jews were not allowed to have "meetings" and then he decided to expel them from Rome. So being deported from their home and country, Aquila and Priscilla end up in Corinth. Little did these two tentmakers know that their expulsion was "an unlikely route to joy." They not only had Paul the Apostle as a part time tentmaker with them; they were also invited to be part of the Traveling Gospel Team.

"Then Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he became acquainted with a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife, Priscilla. They had left Italy when Claudius Caesar deported all Jews from Rome. Paul lived and worked with them, for they were tentmakers just as he was."(Acts 18:1-3)

Oh that we as God's kids would have the attitude that our "deportations" from what we love: hometown, job, church, or friends, are chances for us to see God's brilliant maneuvering of our lives into a place where He will receive even more glory. Rather than resisting change or resenting the upheaval of your life, why not look forward to seeing who or what God may bring into your life walk during your expulsion from your comfort zone. When Aquila and Priscilla were packing up there life because of a "cruel expulsion," they had no idea, apart from God's faithfulness, what lay ahead during their forced relocation.

Trusting God with "deportation" from comfort and security is a chance for making the canyon of pain into a megaphone to proclaim the ultimate goodness of God."

I have been reading the Bible for 44 years and I have always admired the "tag team" of Aquila and Priscilla. Not until this morning did I realize that through an "evil deportation" God brought such good into their lives. Aquila and Priscilla deportation reminds us again to keep whatever comes into our lives in the "context" of God's ever present capacity to take what is intended for evil and bring about good (Gen.50:20).