The Power of the Name of Jesus

Bob: Christmas is, of course, the celebration of the birth of Jesus—the One whose name the Bible says is above all other names. In fact, as Dr. Crawford Loritts points out, Jesus’ name is the only name given among men whereby we can be saved.

Crawford: Some of us add Jesus to our lifestyle, and we think that we can continue doing what we’re doing—but just acknowledge Jesus and that will bring deliverance. No. He says: “You’ve got to do it My way—not your expected way. You’ve got to turn to Me—neither is there salvation in any other—exclusively, turn to Me as your source of deliverance and you’ll find it.” 

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Wednesday, December 3^rd. Our host is the President of FamilyLife^®, Dennis Rainey, and I’m Bob Lepine. Have you spent time this Christmas season pondering just whose birth it is we are celebrating?  We’re going to do that today. Stay tuned.

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And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Wednesday edition. There is a reason why our focus is where it is this week; right? 

Dennis: There is. In fact, Philippians, Chapter 2, talks about God highly exalting Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name so that, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.

Bob: Well, in the name of Jesus and Christmas—that’s something that’s been on your wife’s heart for many years.

Dennis: I have never seen Barbara more excited than this Christmas, Bob. She has created, as our listeners know, a number of Adorenaments^® that proclaim the name of Christ. The first year was the Christmas names from Luke and Isaiah. Last year was His royal names—the Adorenaments were in the shape of a crown.

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This year, they’re all crosses—and they are all the Savior names of Christ—and they are magnificent. They are the most beautiful of all that she’s created. We now have 21 total—all three years that she’s created them. So, there are going to be a lot of Christmas trees that proclaim the One who made Christmas famous.

Bob: Well, and we’ll let you know more about what Barbara has been working on before we wrap up things today; but you wanted to talk about the fact that this is December, and that’s a significant time of year for us.

Dennis: It is. About 60 percent of our donations come in December. That means our listeners, who have enjoyed FamilyLife Today—who have benefitted from it—it’s time for them to step up. Unashamedly, I can challenge you to step up because none of your giving is sticking to my fingers. It all goes into keeping FamilyLife Today on the air. I’ve got a letter here that just talks about, really, the impact of FamilyLife Today.

This gentleman writes and says: “I accepted Jesus Christ through your broadcast. 

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In that week, I remember God saying to me, ‘I want you to be a beacon.’  The content of your programming fed my soul and contributed to God’s rapid and deep transformation of my life.”  Now, listen to this, Bob. He says, “I was previously enslaved by alcoholism, casual relationships, fear, and the consequences of my lifestyle.”  And his life has been transformed just by listening to FamilyLife Today and finding out about Jesus Christ.

And we have, literally, over the years—over the 22 years—we’ve had thousands—tens of thousands of people who have come to faith in Christ through this broadcast. When people give, they’re helping us proclaim practical biblical principles for your life, your marriage, and your family. We’re all about taking people to the person of Jesus Christ and the truth of His Word in an authentic way.

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Bob: Of course, right now, when you make a donation to support FamilyLife, your donation is going to be doubled, thanks to the generosity of some friends of the ministry who have agreed to match every donation we receive, during the month of December, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, up to a total of $2,000,000. And we are grateful for their generosity; but to take full advantage of that matching gift, we need to hear from you.

So, you can go to FamilyLifeToday.com. Click the link in the upper right-hand corner, that says, “I Care,”—make an online donation. Or call 1-800-FL-TODAY—make a donation over the phone. Or you can mail a donation to us at FamilyLife at PO

Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; and our zip code is 72223.

Dennis: And Bob, I just want to say, “Thanks,” to those who have already given this year. This would be another great time to give, right now, to help send us into 2015 standing strong on this station—keeping this broadcast coming to you, your marriage, your family, and hopefully, to your children as they get married in the future.

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Stand with us today because we need your help.

Bob: Well, and as we said, “Our focus today is going to be on the name of Christ—the name that ought to be preeminent for all of us during the Christmas season.”  Over the years, we have had the opportunity to talk to a number of people about the significance of the name of Christ. In fact, your wife had an opportunity to sit down with author and radio host, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and talk about why this issue is so significant to her.

Nancy: You just consider holidays a very special thing. I love that because holidays in Scripture were originally intended to be holy days.

Barbara: That’s right.

Nancy: These were annual times of celebrating—whether it was the Passover, or the in-gathering of the harvest, or different moments and days in the calendar and the rhythm of the people of God—and they would stop. Some days—they were fast days. Some days—they were feast days.

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But they would stop and recount what God had done and remember,—

Barbara: That’s right.

Nancy: —and focus, and put aside their ordinary work.

Barbara: And I love that God did that for us—that He instituted—for His people / for the nation of Israel, before Christ came—all of these feasts and all of these celebrations. It just reminds me that God knows how prone we are to wander and that we need those moments in the calendar year—year, after year, after year—where we can pull away from our daily activity. We can stop, and we can rest, and we can focus on Him, and we can be reminded of who He is and what He has done for us.

Most of us don’t celebrate the Jewish feasts and the Jewish calendar; but, in our lives, we celebrate Christmas, and Easter, and Thanksgiving.

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I think it’s a prime opportunity for moms and dads to impart spiritual truth to their kids because, as you said, these holidays are all rooted in biblical truth and biblical history.

The reason we celebrate Christmas is because of the incarnation of Christ. It’s not because of Santa Claus—it’s not because of all of these other things. And so, in my empty nest years, I’ve started creating ornaments that can go on your Christmas tree that are the names of Christ so that, hopefully, one day—my dream is that, in Christian homes, all over the country and, I pray, all around the world—people who put up Christmas trees—their trees will proclaim who Christ is and why we celebrate Christmas.

Nancy: And I love having in my home, year round, things on the walls—

Barbara: I do, too, Nancy.  

Nancy: —and in terms of décor that point my own heart and guests, who come into my home—that point them to Christ/to Scripture. I just think there is something very encouraging—there is exhortation— 

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Barbara: I agree.

Nancy: —there’s focus on Christ. We’re supposed to consider Christ—we are supposed to fix our eyes on Christ. To be able to walk into a home and see—on the walls, and on the shelves, and on the countertops—to see reminders of Scripture and who Christ is—it’s a way of keeping Christ central and God’s Word central in our hearts. Just explain, again, the significance of that name, Adorenaments.

Barbara: Well, when we think about Christmas, one of the phrases on one of the carols that we all sing every year—that’s one of our favorites—it says, “Oh, come let us adore Him.”  And the purpose of Christmas and celebrating it is that we would adore Him—that we would adore Christ, the newborn King. Yet, the way we celebrate Christmas, practically—there is very little that helps us focus on adoring Him. So, we’ve created these ornaments—and we’ve called the ornaments, “Adore-naments,” because they are ornaments that should lead us to adore Him.

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Nancy: I’m thinking about Luke, Chapter 2—early in the Christmas story, when Jesus had just been born and the shepherds had come to see him—they had come to worship Him. Then, it says—and you are familiar with this verse—but Luke 2:19, “Mary treasured up all of these things, pondering them in her heart.”  I think one of the things we don’t do a lot of in the holiday season is to treasure the things that we’ve seen and heard—the things we know about Christ—and to ponder them in our heart. And to do that, as a family—there is a busy time of the year—I mean, for a lot of families, every time of the year is busy.

Barbara: Right.

Nancy: But if there is a busiest or busier time of the year, I think it’s around the holidays. There are so many things that seem to get added into the schedule.

Barbara: That’s right.

Nancy: And I hear families—and people without families—singles/empty-nesters—kind of pulling their hair out, “How can we not have so much chaos and craziness at this season?”

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These Adorenaments, with the materials that go with them, are, I think, one way of stopping—

Barbara: That’s right.

Nancy: —and pondering the wonder of His name—and stopping and adoring Christ for who He is.

Bob: Well, we’ve been listening to a conversation that took place, not long ago, between Nancy Leigh DeMoss and your wife, Barbara Rainey, about the Christmas holiday—and why it is so special for Barbara and why she has invested so much time in creating these ornaments that many of our listeners have already seen. In fact, a lot of them have used them in years’ past on their Christmas tree.

Dennis: Yes.

Bob: I don’t know if they’ve seen the new ones for this year—the Adorenaments that are all in the shape of a cross. These are the Savior names of Jesus. Again, I’d encourage listeners to go to Barbara’s website, which is EverThineHome.com.

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They can see what Barbara has been working on in creating the new set of Adorenaments for this year, and they can order them if they’d like. Our hope is that just having ornaments like this on your Christmas tree will cause you to stop—and ponder, and wonder, and give more consideration—during the holiday season to the real meaning of Christmas.

One of the things that is amazing about this season is that we serve and love a God who has come near. He is high, and holy, and transcendent, and lifted up, and He is far above us—but at the same time—He is a God who chose to come near us, and to dwell among us, and dwell with us. In fact, it was the angel who said, “You shall call His name Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.”

Dennis, you and I had an opportunity, a while back, to sit down with our friend, Crawford Loritts, and talk about the meaning of Emmanuel—

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—the fact that our high and holy God has come near.

Bob: Crawford, it was before His birth that His parents were instructed that they should call Him, Jesus—the name meaning Savior—that He would save the people from their sins. But long before that, the Prophet Isaiah announced a name for Christ—for the coming Messiah—that He would be Emmanuel—

Crawford: Yes.

Bob: —which means “God with us”; right? 

Crawford: Absolutely. That’s Isaiah 7:14. And Matthew underscored that in Matthew, Chapter 1, verse 23, that He is, indeed, Emmanuel—God, Himself, with us. It wasn’t just a baby that did some noble things with His life—it was God in flesh—Emmanuel, “God with us.” 

You know, that prepositional phrase, “with us,” is just pregnant with meaning. You just think that—when we have Jesus Christ, then we have all that God is.

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We are never alone—we are never—not only are we not alone, but we are never without resources. We have all the resources of heaven with us when we have Jesus Christ.

Bob: You know, the Apostle John, writing about the Word—Jesus—becoming flesh in John, Chapter 1. He says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  And that phrase, in the original language, means “to pitch a tent—

Crawford: Yes.

Bob: —“to come and pitch His tent with yours.” I’ve often thought: “How would life be different for any of us if we were aware, on a conscience level, moment by moment, that the Lord’s tent is pitched right there with ours?—that, when we walk anywhere, He is walking with us—How would our lives be different? How would our circumstances be different? Would we have the fear that we experience, knowing that the Lord of the universe is right here with us?  Why would we need to be afraid?” 

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Dennis: You know, one of the things that Jesus promised, as He left the earth physically—is He promised He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. So, not only is God, the Father, near us and with us / not only is Jesus Christ praying for us and close to us, but He gave us—those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, Master, Savior, and Redeemer—He gave to those the promise of the Holy Spirit who would come and dwell—think about this—dwell in us. So, He is with us in His total person.

Crawford: Yes. That’s what drove Paul to that great crescendo in the last paragraph of Romans, Chapter 8—you know, he breaks out—it’s almost as if he is shouting when he says: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Should tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?”  And he goes on to list a number of these things. All of this based upon the realization that God, through Christ, is with us.

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There is nothing to be afraid of. There is ultimately nothing this world can do to us, but He is with us.

Bob: That, of course, is our friend, Crawford Loritts—a conversation we had with him, a while back, about the fact that Christmas is the celebration of the incarnation—God coming near—Emmanuel.

And we also had a conversation with our friend, Kay Arthur. We were talking about different names of Jesus. One of the ones that she highlighted for us is a name that isn’t typically one of the names of Jesus that comes immediately to mind; but it’s from John’s Gospel, where Jesus says of Himself that He is the Door. Here is what Kay Arthur had to say about that.

Kay: This is so exciting because, many times when we go to Israel, there is a place there, where it’s like a place which is a biblical garden. You can take the people through and you can see a sheepfold.

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So, they have a sheepfold right there. Well, there is one door that goes into the sheepfold. He talks about in John, Chapter 10—He says, “I am the Door, and nobody enters in but by Me.”  But the thief has to climb up and jump in because the thief comes to steal, and kill, and destroy.

But He says, “When He comes, He calls His sheep; and He calls His sheep by name,”—which is exciting to me because the One, who is Emmanuel/God with us, also knows us by name. And when He calls us by name, the sheep recognize His voice—and they follow Him, and they will not follow another.

So, the shepherd would come through the door into the sheepfold. You would have maybe ten shepherds’ sheep in there. He would say, for instance, “Here sheepie, sheepie, sheepie, sheepie.” [Laughter]

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All the sheep that belonged to that particular shepherd would perk up their little ears and just follow him out. The other sheep would just stand around, knowing that wasn’t their shepherd. But also, then, he would be able to say, “Hey, Curly,”—or “Wooly,” or whatever you called your sheep—and he knew them by name—but they knew his voice. And He’s the Door.

Then, you have the Lamb of God in John 1:29. It says, “This is the Lamb of God.”  John the Baptist was saying, “This is the Lamb of God that takes away”—the what?—“the sins of the world.” So, every Christmas, what we do is—the grandchildren and I get together before Christmas Eve. We write and do a play for the family. So, we always have a Christmas play. We have come up with some of the most tremendously creative plays.

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One day, they are walking in, with a pillowcase stuffed. They are saying: “Oh, this burden on my back. Oh, if I could just get rid of this burden on my back,”—which is their sins; you know?  Then, we present Jesus in John 1:29 as the Lamb of God.

Bob: You know, I wish we could get Kay to videotape the play this year and post it online. That’d be kind of fun; wouldn’t it? 

Dennis: It would be. You know, what she’s talking about though, Bob, is building traditions that celebrate the Savior here at Christmas. And there are so many things that can take us off message. It’s really why I’m glad we are featuring the names of Christ, here in this broadcast today, just to remind folks, “He has a lot of different names, and those names need to be celebrated.” 

It’s cool that Barbara has created a resource for our listeners to help them do that in a very practical biblical way.

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It’s got a book included, along with seven ornaments, to celebrate the Savior names of Christ. Each cross is a different cross from a different era. Almost all of them are from different continents. It’s really a spectacular beautiful tradition to begin to embed Christ in your Christmas holiday experience.

Bob: Yes, if our listeners have not seen what your wife has been working on, they ought to go to her website, which is EverThineHome.com. They can see there, not only the new ornaments that she’s created for this year called His Savior Names, but also past sets of Adorenaments—His Christmas names and His royal names. Again, you can see them all; and you can order, online, at EverThineHome.com.

I should also mention that our team has put together for children a set of kids ornaments called “The Twelve Names of Christmas^™.”

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If you’d like to see what these ornaments look like for children, go to our website, FamilyLifeToday.com, and click the link that says, “GO DEEPER.”  You’ll find “The Twelve Names of Christmas.”

I was just sitting here, doing the math. Four weeks from right now, we will be headed in to a brand-new year. Of course, here at FamilyLife, that makes the next four weeks very significant for us, as a ministry. What happens in the next four weeks, as we hear from our listeners—who go online, or call, or write to support us, as a ministry—that’s going to determine what 2015 looks like for us.

So, we’re asking you to consider making a yearend contribution. You can do it, online, at FamilyLifeToday.com. Just click the link at the top part of the page that says, “I Care”: or call 1-800-FL-TODAY to make a yearend contribution. Or you can mail your donation to FamilyLife Today at PO Box 7111, Little Rock, AR; and our zip code is 72223.

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Keep in mind any donation you make, right now, is being matched, dollar for dollar, up to a total of $2,000,000, thanks to a group of friends who have made that match available. And so, help us take advantage of the match by making a yearend contribution today if you can. Again, we want to say, “Thanks,” in advance, for your support of this ministry.

Now, just before we wrap up, this does not often happen, here at the end of the program, Dennis, but we have got a—we’ve got a caller on the line. We don’t typically take calls on the program—but our engineer, Keith—we ought to take this call: “So, welcome to FamilyLife Today. What’s your name?  Where are you calling from?” 

Barry: Hello, my name is Barry Wilmore. I decided to do something that’s really kind of out of character for me, but it’s kind of a unique situation and unique day. So, I just—I wanted to call and wish my wife a happy anniversary—but again, like I said—

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—it’s kind of unique in that I’m calling from the International Space Station.

Dennis: Wait! You’re Commander Butch Wilmore in outer space—265 miles above the earth—right now?! 

Barry: Yes, sir. That’s about the right location. [Laughter] 

Dennis: Would you mind looking out your window and telling us what you are seeing right now? 

Barry: If I’m not mistaken—I didn’t look at the map—but if I’m not mistaken, based on what I’ve seen in the past, I believe that’s Australia going by below me.

Bob: Wow!  [Laughter]  And how many bars do you have on your phone right now?  [Laughter] 

Barry: Hopefully, enough.

Dennis: Well, we want to set it up so you can wish your bride, Deanna, a happy anniversary. What year is this, Captain Wilmore? 

Barry: Yes, and I really appreciate this guys. You know, NASA does a really good job of allowing us to do communication. I’m able to actually call my wife every day. I can just be at my computer and phone link, and I can call her just about any time I’d like. Because of that, that’s why I decided maybe I’d do something unique—she’s an avid listener.

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She listens to your program almost daily.

So, instead of just calling her and saying, “Hey, Babe, happy anniversary,” I just thought I’d do it this way. It’s our 20^th Anniversary this year. Of course, the job has taken me elsewhere this time; and I’m not going to be able to be home with her. So, I just thought it may be a unique way to say, “I love you and happy anniversary.” 

Bob: You know, you are setting the gauntlet pretty high for the rest of us for our anniversaries. I don’t think we can match what you are doing here.

Dennis: Yes, there are a lot of men, who are going to call FamilyLife Today and say, “What’s the deal here?”  [Laughter] 

Barry: I do appreciate the opportunity. I appreciate you guys allowing me to call in, and taking my call, and letting me do this. Like I said, I hope it will be special for her. It’s special for me just doing it this way. Again, like I said, we are normally very private; but being a unique year—it’s the 20^th year—and just a unique situation, I thought I’d do something a little different this time.

Bob: Alright, we’ll pretend like we’re not listening at all. You just go ahead and say whatever you want to say to Deanna, here on your anniversary.

Barry: Hey, thank you. “Deanna, dear, I love you; and I’m grateful to our Lord and Savior who brought us together—

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—just over 20 years ago—and our marriage 20 years ago today. And life is better, and I prayed that our Lord has been glorified in our marriage and will continue to be as we go forward. And I love you.”

Dennis: Well, you know what?  I’m sure she heard, and I’ll bet there is a tear in the eye right now.

Bob: Can’t do much better than that.

Dennis: I don’t think you can, Commander Wilmore. Thanks for loving her well, and thanks for being a listener to FamilyLife Today.

Barry: Well, thank you all for your program. It’s fabulous. And like I said, my wife is able to listen every day. Right now, I’m not able to listen so much; but one day, again, I will be able to. Thank you.

Bob: FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas.

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