Our Daily Bread -- Our New Name

June 10, 2016

Read: Revelation 2:12-17
Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 34-36; John 19:1-22

I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it. —Revelation 2:17

She called herself a worrier, but when her child was hurt in an accident, she learned how to escape that restricting label. As her child was recovering, she met each week with friends to talk and pray, asking God for help and healing. Through the months as she turned her fears and concerns into prayer, she realized that she was changing from being a worrier to a prayer warrior. She sensed that the Lord was giving her a new name. Her identity in Christ was deepening through the struggle of unwanted heartache.

In Jesus’s letter to the church at Pergamum, the Lord promises to give to the faithful a white stone with a new name on it (Rev. 2:17). Biblical commentators have debated over the meaning, but most agree that this white stone points to our freedom in Christ. In biblical times, juries in a court of law used a white stone for a not-guilty verdict and a black stone for guilty. A white stone also gained the bearer entrance into such events as banquets; likewise, those who receive God’s white stone are welcomed to the heavenly feast. Jesus’s death brings us freedom and new life—and a new name.

What new name do you think God might give to you? —Amy Boucher Pye

May I live out my new identity, sharing Your love and joy. Show me how You have made me into a new creation.
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Followers of Christ have a brand-new identity.

INSIGHT: In the book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus is referred to as having a “sharp, double-edged sword” (1:16; 2:12). In chapter one, John described this sword as coming out of Jesus’s mouth (v. 16). In today’s passage, Jesus is seen using this sword to fight against and slay His enemies (2:16). In a later vision, John saw Jesus as the “Faithful and True” rider of a white horse (19:11), whose name is “the Word of God,” using the “sharp sword” to conquer the nations (vv. 13-15). Christ, the Word of God (John 1:1-4), will come again to judge this world and will rule it “with an iron scepter” (Rev. 19:11-15). Sim Kay Tee

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