What Do You Call Him?

Bill Crowder shares of how during World War II his father-in-law spent 18 months in a prisoner-of-war camp.  In the camp, loudspeakers often played music, including a song entitled “Lili Marlene.”  Somehow it gave him hope, and he fell in love with the beauty of that name.  Years later he gave that name, filled with personal significance, to his only daughter—Marlene.
 
Names are like that.  They have great importance in human relationships.  Nowhere, however, is a name more important than in our relationship with God.  He ties His name to His reputation and introduces Himself to us as “God with us.”
 
Over 700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah amazingly described the One whose names reveal His importance to us when he wrote, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
 
Jesus once asked His disciples a very important question:  “Who do you say I am?” (Mark 8:29).  This is the eternal question because it’s only by acknowledging Jesus Christ and responding to His gift of forgiveness by faith that a person can live forever.  Isaiah made it clear that when the promised Messiah would come, He would fulfill the matchless titles he had prophesied:  “Wonderful Counselor,” “Mighty God,” “Everlasting Father,” and “Prince of Peace.”  Jesus came into the world and proved beyond a doubt that He was the Messiah by fulfilling the meanings of all those names.
 
He was God in human flesh, who came to reveal deity and save humanity.  Because He fulfills all these things, He made this claim that no one else can:  “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  This claim is the heartbeat of the Christian faith.  Jesus is God and He came down into our world to rescue us when we could not go up to Him.  If you are a Christ follower, you are able to know Him by a couple of additional names…Savior and Lord.
 
Working together to win together in this Christmas season,
Tyler