“Am I a God who is only close at hand?” says the LORD.
“No, I am far away at the same time.
Can anyone hide from me in a secret place?
Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?”
says the LORD.
“For the time is coming,”
says the LORD,
“when I will raise up a righteous descendant
from King David’s line.
He will be a King who rules with wisdom.
He will do what is just and right throughout the land.
And this will be his name:
‘The LORD is Our Righteousness.’
In that day Judah will be saved,
and Israel will live in safety.
God saved you by his grace when you believed.
And you can’t take credit for this;
it is a gift from God.
Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done,
so none of us can boast about it.
For we are God’s masterpiece.
He has created us anew in Christ Jesus,
so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
But blessed are those who trust in the LORD
and have made the LORD their hope and confidence.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green
and they never stop producing fruit.
Blessings of being confident in the LORD
Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer
who plants the good seed.
The field is the world,
and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom.
The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one.
But God made the earth by his power,
and he preserves it by his wisdom.
With his own understanding
he stretched out the heavens.
when he speaks in the thunder,
the heavens roar with rain.
He causes the clouds to rise over the earth.
He sends the lightning with the rain
and releases the wind from his storehouses.
Blessings of embracing cause and effect
…I, the LORD, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline
as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross.
The waves may toss and roar,
but they can never pass the boundaries I set.
My hands have made both heaven and earth;
they and everything in them are mine.
I, the LORD, have spoken!
I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts,
who tremble at my word.
I’ve never liked my birth name. As a kid I always wished my parents had chosen their other consideration: Jan Elizabeth instead of Jan Lanell. My dislike increased exponentially during a first grade awards assembly when all the other kids heard the principal announce “Jan Lanell Mooney”. Raymond Beall, my sweet friend whose untimely death I mourned, and funeral I attended a few years ago, immediately and loudly repeated it; but instead of pronouncing it “La Nell” he said “Lannel”. I was truly mortified. Introverted first-grade silly? Yes! But I still don’t like it.
I’ve had other names attached to me throughout my life: child, grandchild, niece, cousin, sibling, best friend, girlfriend, wife, in-law, aunt, preacher’s wife, mom, step-child, step-sibling, counselor, widow, grandparent, step-parent. Most I’ve loved, some I’ve struggled with, and one I hated.
God thinks of everything though and he has designed me a new name. He’s so positive that it’s perfect for me that He’s already engraved it on a white stone. He hasn’t told me what it is yet though because it’s a secret between us and he probably knows I’d want to start using it immediately. It’s a very special name—so special, in fact, that I’m the only one who will understand it and its meaning. He can do that because He’s the only One who knew me before he created the world and only He can give me such a perfect name. Whatever it is, I know I’m going to love it.
Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit
and understand what he is saying…
To everyone who is victorious
I will give some of the manna
that has been hidden away in heaven.
And I will give to each one a white stone,
and on the stone will be engraved a new name
that no one understands except the one who receives it.
Revelation 2:17
