The Promise of a New Name

For weeks now my family and I have joined with hundreds of others to pray for the healing of a  brave little girl named Ashlyn who is battling cancer. Last night I received word from another dear friend, who is also being ravaged by that hideous disease, that he has been given only a 1% chance to live beyond a year. My degrees in Bible and theology don't make me immune to questions and confusion. I walked my dog last night and stared into a dark, starry sky asking "what exactly is going on up there?" I could't sleep. Today, I am unmotivated to get much done here at my desk. I am distracted, and I am burdened by the weight of their stories.  

In the last 24 hours my mind has returned regularly to the theme of God-given names. For those that have known me at all in the last decade, it is a message I have delivered countless times. It is a message based on my favorite passage of scripture, Revelation 2:16, where God promises the overcomer in this world a white stone with a new name written on it. To keep the promise before me daily I have a bowl in my office full of white stones that I frequently invite people to take after a particularly difficult counseling session. The bowl is there to remind me as much as it is there for anyone else.

So today, I come again to God in need of hearing this promise. I come on behalf of Darren, and I come on behalf of Ashlyn.

If you wish to listen in, a video of the sermon can be found HERE. Feel free to enjoy the opening music, or skip ahead to the 22:40 mark to jump right into the message. I will close with this quote from Dan Allender and his book To be Told:

"If you love the Author, then you must love the story he has written in and for your life." (p.6)