January 15, 2006

• Who are we?

  I just read LynnGail’s post about What is a Blessing?  She wrote about Jacob asking God for a blessing, which God gave after Jacob admitted who he really was.  Thoughts came to mind while reading her post.

  
  

  Right after Jacob admitted who he was, God CHANGED HIS NAME.  Gave him a new identity.  The name Jacob means “supplanter”.  This word means “take the rights of another, especially through underhanded tactics” — (from Dictionary.com).  God changed his name to Israel — which means “to prevail, to overcome, victor”, because he had prevailed with God. (got this from Eliya.com, which has a concordance and a lexicon in it).  In that early pre-dawn confrontation, God asked his name, then told Jacob that from now on he would be Israel, because he had prevailed with God.  And his life was never the same again. Through him a whole nation came into being, and a whole geographical area eventually was blessed. And ultimately, his descendant David was the “seed” from which our elder Brother Jesus was born, which is the ultimate, ultimate blessing for ALL.

  
  

  In essence, when we accepted Jesus into our hearts, or when we were baptized, God CHANGED OUR NAME.  We were the children of the father of lies, Satan, and at baptism/conversion, we became children of God.  We were of the world, and then became “of the Kingdom”.  When you are born to, or adopted by a set of parents, you take on their family (last) name.  We, in essence, have “God” as our “last name” now.

  
  

  Like I said in my other posts, Jesus is our Big Brother and we are to grow up to be just like Him.  And in doing that we become like the Father.  A piece of Him is in us through the Holy Spirit, just as pieces (heredity) of our parents is inside us physically.

  
  

  Our ultimate blessing is our inheritance from our Heavenly Father: salvation. Heaven. Eternal Life.  We didn’t have to fight to get it like Jacob did his, ours is a gift.  But we DO have to fight to keep it.

  
  

  These are the thoughts reading LynnGail’s post brought to mind, from sermons I’ve heard, Bible college, etc. Love to all, Gerrie

  
  

   

  
  

   

  • 8:46 pm
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