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Erin Tabor

No Other Name

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“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved”
Acts 4:12 NIV 

What is in a name? In Exodus, Moses asked God what His name is, and God replied “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14 NIV). These words, translated from ehyeh aser ehyeh are boundless. In other words, God was here before, He is now, and He will be. God is self-existent.

When Jesus was born, his name was not uncommon among Jewish babies born in Israel. In fact, historians mention many other people living at that time with the name Jesus, and even the New Testament lists others with the same name. The actual word of course was not Jesus then, but Yeshua or Joshua. Yeshua is the literal Hebrew word for salvation, so it makes sense that people would name their babies after the awaited promise.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he said to her “you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:31-32a NIV). All of the boys named Jesus up until then were salvation in name only, but this Jesus would grow up to embody the word himself. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 NIV). And this Jesus was not only Salvation, but God himself. We see this in the book of John, when the Pharisees were taunting Jesus and asked him how he could have seen Abraham. “‘Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I AM!’” (John 8:58 NIV). Can you guess what word “I am” was translated from? Ehyeh. The same word God used for His own name.

It is difficult to think of a name as anything more than an identifier, but the Bible teaches us a deeper meaning. In John 14:14 NIV, Jesus said “you may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” and Phil. 2:10-11 NIV states that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

We often hear someone end a prayer with “we ask these things in Jesus name.” Maybe we hear it so often we don’t ponder the kind of power we are calling down. Next time you use these words, believe the promise that as children of God who have been redeemed, whatever we ask in the name of Jesus will be answered.

Your sister in Christ,

Erin Tabor

Sincere until the day of Christ

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“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ”
Philippians 1:9-10 ASV

The word ‘sincere’ in the verse above has a very interesting history, and was only used twice in the New Testament (the other is in 2 Peter 1:3). The original Greek word used was eilikrines, which could be a combination of the two words heile which means sun ray, and krino which means judged; in other words ‘judged by sunlight.’

Why would the word sincere mean ‘judged by sunlight’? Well, when devious ancient potters used to find a crack, they would fill it with wax and paint over it so that the customers would not be able to tell the difference between a good pot and a bad one. However, if someone held a pot up to the sun, if there was a crack, the wax would be revealed and the inferior pot would be discovered. Good pottery would be marked with the words sine cera, which meant ‘without wax.’ In other words, sincere meant that the flawless pots could be judged by the sun and passed the test. Another possible use of the word eilikrines involved honey, because it could be held up to the sun for examination, and could be judged clear and pure (without wax). About half of modern English Bibles (NKJV, NASB) translated the word eilikrines to sincere and the other half (NIV, ESV) chose the word pure. Both words effectively give us the definition of being tested for faults and found clear, or judged and approved.

A person who is sincere is someone you know you can trust. The person isn’t hiding anything or trying to be deceitful, so you know that he or she is presenting you with real authenticity. If we break down Phil. 1:9-10, we can see that according to Paul, the way to be sincere and pure is to focus on gaining knowledge and discernment. None of us is capable of being pure (without wax) on our own strength because we are all sinners, but the more we put our effort into striving to be more like God, through studying His Word, discerning what is right and wrong, and loving others, then the more we will be sanctified by the Holy Spirit as we live our lives. In turn, these things will help us serve effectively until Jesus returns. And let us all remember that Jesus already paid for our sins, so if we are saved, then when we are judged by the Son, we are already found to be clear.

Your sister in Christ,

Erin Tabor

 

 

Photo Credit: My own photo

When I am weak, then I am strong

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“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV

One of the ways that I know the Bible is God’s Word is through the patterns of God’s character woven throughout the Old and New Testaments. These patterns reveal that God’s plan is perfect and better than any human plan. One of these patterns is God’s continuous use of the weak in his design so that his glory shines through instead of the person’s pride.

In Judges chapter 7, Gideon led an army to fight Midian and the Lord told him that the Israelites would boast of their own strength when they won, so the men were narrowed down to only 300. This way, when the Midianites were defeated, it would be seen that the victory could only have been achieved by the power of God.

When Samuel was choosing one of Jesse’s sons to be anointed king, Samuel assumed that the eldest son would be chosen, but the Lord said “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV). After Samuel saw the other sons, Jesse told him that his youngest son David was in the fields tending the sheep. This is who the Lord told Samuel to anoint as king. Later, as we all know, the young David used a sling and stone to kill Goliath when the Israelite army was too afraid to approach the giant (I Samuel chapter 17). The smallest person was used to defeat the strongest enemy so that everyone present would witness the glory of God.

In the New Testament, when God chose to send his son to earth to redeem us, he did not send a golden warrior king, but a baby born to a virgin in a stable. Even though Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophesies and followed the pattern that God had been weaving through the Old Testament of using the weak, some still did not believe he was the Messiah. Paul had been one of these persecutors of the followers of Jesus before he was literally blinded on the way to Damascus and shown the true light. After his conversion he suffered the rest of his life in service to Christ. Paul had previously been a prideful Pharisee who was revered, but after being shackled, beaten, and shipwrecked, he boasted not of his old life and accomplishments, but in his present weakness because he knew the glory of God was showing through. This is why he said “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV).

Often we feel that we are not capable of carrying out what God has called us to do, but  the Bible reveals a pattern of God using the weak. Who are we to argue with the perfect plan of truth that was recounted onto paper then and still lives today?

Your sister in Christ,

Erin Tabor

 

 

 

Photo Credit: My own photo