The One About a Name

Nine out of ten students in my sixth grade class will probably know the answer to this question: What is a noun?

Every time I ask this question, boys and girls will start blurting out in unison: "It is a name of person, a thing, or an animal!" They know this basic concept: everything and everyone has a name.

A first grader once asked me, "Why does everything has a name?"

It just is. Everything has a name, at least everything that is known. It is a tool for communication.

How can I respond if I'm not called to?

How can I buy something if I can't tell what it is I want to buy?

How can people travel if they don't know the name of the place they are going to?

How can you get a grip of your emotion if you can't name the emotion running deep within you? Anger, fear, betrayal, rejection, desolation...

How can you find a cure for an illness if you do not know what it is called?
Fever, hepatitis, chicken pox, pneumonia, cancer, HIV...

How can you seek for help, if you can't name what you need?
Food, money, friend, hope, approval, love, salvation...


There must be a gazillion names out there, but guess what? There is a Name that is above every and all names.

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and in heaven and on earth and under earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11 (italics mine)

Imagine that! Name your greatest fear and Jesus is above that name! Isolation? Sickness? Death? The psalmist said, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you shall honor Me." (Psalm 50:15). 

Call upon the name of Jesus for at the name of Jesus, every knee in heaven, on earth, and under earth bow down and tremble! Praise His Holy Name!!

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10:13

The One About Genesis 3

God is a holy god. He will not let sin go unpunished. Just like when God cursed the serpent, Adam, and then Eve, every sin has a consequence. There is no little nor huge sin in God's eyes. A sin is a sin and both will have a lasting effect in man's life. Lying has a consequence and so does murder. 

However, God is a loving god. Despite Adam and Eve's disobedience in the Garden of Eden, despite of God's anger AT their sin, God still tended for their needs. For instance, Adam and Eve were in hiding because they were ashamed of their nakedness. But instead of leaving them naked in their shame, God himself made them clothes from animal skin. Isn't that love? How many times have we walked out of a situation because we were angry? How many times have we intentionally ignored loved ones' need because we couldn't stand being near them? In our anger, we often times forget to be loving and it is because man gets angry AT the person. Gid is not like that. God hates sin and will not tolerate it, but he loves his children despite of their sin. How God can love a person and hate their sin is incomprehensible. 

So God is a loving god even when he will not let sin go unpunished. But not only that, God is concerned about our future, too. Imagine Adam and Eve, clothe in the dress that God made for them, stumbled upon the Tree of Life and ate its fruit? God said they would then live forever! That would've been a major disaster! We are talking about forever watching your loved ones in pain. We're talking about a person forever suffering from cancer. People aging but not dying. Wasting away with no rest. No, God saw what a horrible life that would be for mankind, and so He banished Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, placing his angels to guard the Tree of Life, not because He's being mean, but because He is being merciful. Great is our God!