a new name

Today in the One Year Bible we read from Revelation 3:7-22. Now I have read the entire Bible about 12 times all the way through, cover to cover. I use the One Year Bible, and for many years that's how I started my day every day. Before I even got out of bed, I would pick up the One Year Bible and turn to that day's date and read the OT, the NT, and the Psalm and Proverb for the day. I didn't do this because I was some kind of holy saint. I did it because it helped me to feel better. It helped me overcome the depression I've dealt with most of my life. It helped me to hold on when life was hard.

And in all those readings, I don't remember reading what we see in tonight's selection. I have learned something new the last three nights! Now, I could have told you that at the end of time God is going to give us a white rock with our name on it, and it will be a name that we've never heard before, and no one else will know it. That I knew.

But tonight we read that Jesus is going to write HIS new name on us. If you had asked me "Is Jesus going to write His new name on you at the end of time?" I would have said, "I've never heard of that. I don't think that's in the Bible." But it is. Revelation 3:12 says that He will do just that.

And we also know that if we hold on to our faith and persevere to the end, even through the trials and persecution that will come, He will write our names in the Book of Life. And if our names are written there, we will go to heaven.

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.