pramsay posted on May 11, 2010 17:16 1777 views

Bible Bites

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Is Your Name Unique?

Don’t be offended if your name is not on the short list of twelve. Girls first: Emma, Isabella, Emily, Madison, Ava, Olivia, Sophia, Abigail, Elizabeth, Chloe, Samantha and Addison. Boys: Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Joshua, Daniel, Alexander, Anthony, William, Christopher, Matthew, Jayden and Andrew. There you have it. The top twelve most popular names for girls and boys in 2010 – at least in the United States of America.

According to psychologists one of the indicators of our increasingly narcissistic culture is the uniqueness of baby names. 2008 had the most unique selection of baby names in the history of America. You can check the link below to see how your own name has fared in popularity over the years. Check out the graph.

Here’s another list: Shammua, Shaphat, Caleb, Igal, Joshua, Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi and Geuel. Mostly guys I’d say. Only two of those names, out of the twelve, escaped the watchful eye of the spell-check service provided by Microsoft. For a different reason, God’s spell check or His filter system singled out the same two names in Numbers 13.

Twelve men were commissioned by Moses to travel to Canaan to assess the strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats, facing God’s people as they moved forward into new territory. Ten of the men came back quite frightened. The threats outweighed the opportunities. They felt like grasshoppers when they saw the really tall guys over there. More than tall. Giants, they were, just waiting to gobble up God’s people. “Don’t even think about going there. We don’t stand a chance!”

Caleb and Joshua went against the flow. They filed a minority report. While their ten colleagues snarled and frowned at them – probably ridiculing and mocking their simple trust in the Almighty God, Caleb and Joshua did not back off or cave in to the pressure. Fitting in with the other ten was not their priority. And when more than the ten turned against them, they did not back down. Yes, the entire camp of 1 million+ threatened to stone them but the pressure didn’t change Caleb and Joshua.

Here’s what they said and they were not willing to budge an inch to blend in with the popular line of thinking:

“The land, which we passed through to spy it out,

is an exceedingly good land.

If the LORD delights in us,

He will bring us into this land and give it to us,

a land that flows with milk and honey.

Only do not rebel against the LORD.

And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us.

Their protection is removed from them,

and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.”

(Numbers 14:7-9)

If your name was on a list, along with eleven of your friends, would your name stand out for any particular reason? Or would it just fit in with all the others? The point here is not whether your name is cool and popular and leads the pack for uniqueness. The point is – would anyone single you out as being different from your friends because of your close relationship with the Lord?

Caleb and Joshua saw things differently than their friends because their spiritual life was different than the rest. In that list of names, Joshua and Caleb will always be remembered as the two who walked closely with the Lord and had personal convictions as to what the Lord could do – and no amount of peer pressure would cause them to cave in and go with the flow.

Out of a list of twelve names – will your name trigger positive memories of a Christian who lived a faithful life for the Lord?

Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today.

Warmly in Christ

Peter Ramsay

peter@heaven4sure.com

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