Jump Start # 3414

Psalms 5:11 “But let all who take refuge in You be glad, let them ever sing for joy; and my You shelter them, that those who love Your name may exult in You.”

The name of God is precious to those who walk with Him. Throughout the Scriptures the name of God was honored, protected and connected to the very being of God. Within the Ten Commandments was the warning about taking the name of the Lord in vain. The expression, “in the name of,” is used to emphasize the authority of God. We baptize “in the name of” the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That’s more than a catch phrase, it expresses and identifies what we are doing in baptizing is through the authority of God.

We live in a time when God’s name is trashed. People say God’s name when they don’t know what to say. When excited, they say God’s name. When angry, they say God’s name. Little thought is given to what they are actually saying. It’s just a word to many people and nothing more than a word.

But to the people of God, how special is His name. Our verse refers to those who “love Your name.” He is OUR Father. He is OUR God. And, we need to teach folks to honor that name in speech, conduct and attitude.

This brings us to a story I read recently in the Autobiography of Mark Twain. It’s a massive book of over 700 pages, with tiny print. And, it’s just volume one. There are two other volumes that go along with this.

As a young man, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was working for a printer. The time was around the late 1840s.

The great reformer Alexander Campbell came to a small village in Kentucky. Twain writes, “The farmers and their families drove or tramped into the village from miles around to get a sight of the illustrious Alexander Campbell and to have a chance to hear him preach. When he preached in a church many had to be disappointed, for there was no church that would begin to hold all the applicants; so in order to accommodate all, he preached in the open air in the public square, and that was the first time in my life that I had realized what a mighty population this planet contains when you get them all together.” (pg 457).

There was a demand to have Campbell’s sermon put in print form. Under the pressure of trying to get the sermon booklet out, the printers ran into a snag. They had left out two words in a thin-spaced page and there wasn’t another break-line for two or three pages ahead. What in the world was to be done, Twain lamented. Overrun all those pages in order to get in the two missing words? The printer, Wales, came up with a solution. The two missing words were “Jesus Christ.” Wales reduced that to “J.C.” Everything fit and the booklet was printed.

A proof copy was given to Campbell to read. Twain writes, “Presently that great Alexander Campbell appeared at the far end of that sixty-foot room, and his countenance cast a gloom over the whole place. He strode down to our end and what he said was brief but it was very stern, and it was to the point. He said, ‘So long as you live, don’t ever diminish the Savior’s name again. Put it all in.’ He repeated this admonition a couple of times to emphasize it, then he went away.” (pg 458).

Campbell understood the value of the Lord’s name. It would costs more to make that adjustment, but it was worth it.

May we, in these casual times, honor and uphold the blessed name of our Lord.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all tha tis within me, bless His holy name” (Ps 103:1).

Roger