Love; December 23, 2019

Posted on December 27, 2019 by jgarrott

Matthew 22:40 “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

It is of great interest and extreme importance that Jesus said that all the commands in the Bible, whether delivered by Moses or by any other prophet, depend on something internal that cannot be seen by human eyes. We can certainly see the effects of love, but we can’t see love itself. Since He said this in Aramaic, so the Greek record that we have is a translation, we can’t place any special importance on which of the Greek words for love is used here. Like English and Japanese, Aramaic and Hebrew just have one word each for love. Seeing the usage in the Old Testament, however, there’s no question that it includes not only emotion but commitment. Since it is an intangible, we are brought back to what God said to Samuel: “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) This also fits the English proverb, “Handsome is as handsome does.” Our hearts control our actions, which is again why Jesus said, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:20) It all hinges on the reality that God, as invisible Spirit, created everything that is material, and thus visible. We tend to fixate on, or at least be distracted by, external appearances, but God says that it’s the invisible things that are more important. That’s why Paul said, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18) All of that said, the love that Jesus is talking about, that God requires of us, makes itself evident. He also said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15) You can’t get any more clear than that.

As a pastor, a marriage counselor, and someone who’s been married over 50 years, I think and talk a lot about love. Precisely because it’s so vitally important, the devil does all he can to cheapen it and distort our understanding of it. Much of what the world means by love fits the Greek word eros, rather than anything else. In Japanese they even have expressions like “love car,” referring to physical possessions! I am constantly battling world view issues, not only in others but also in myself. When we fail to see everything as the creation of God who is love, it all becomes distorted. Perhaps Cathy’s and my greatest task in Omura is demonstrating God’s love, so that people may have their eyes opened to see God who is love. I think she’s better at it than I am. We had a good friend essentially drop dead yesterday, and right now Cathy is baking shortbread cookies to take to the home. The friend was in church on the 15th, but she hadn’t been baptized, so we can only yield her to God with the hope that she had cried out to the Jesus she had heard about from her younger daughter and from us. The news she had died came in on the answering machine during our service, and after I listened to the message and reported it to the members, everyone was quite sobered. As someone commented at that point, we indeed never know about tomorrow. That’s why it’s so vital that we walk in love today.

Father, thank You for Your love. We have no hope of loving properly apart from Your love flowing through us. Help us indeed love You and love our neighbors, so that Your will may be done for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Impossible vs. God; December 22, 2019

Posted on December 26, 2019 by jgarrott

Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

This is one of the fundamental truths of Scripture, yet we forget it in practice all too often. Three times we have God saying this explicitly about Himself, to Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 32:27) to Mary, (Luke 1:37) and here. Each time, God has backed up His words. Jerusalem was indeed destroyed and then renewed, Mary indeed became pregnant by the Holy Spirit and bore Jesus, and through the years countless “impossible” people have been saved. We hear passages like these and get encouraged, and then turn around and focus on difficulties instead of on God! We miss out on countless miracles because we refuse to trust God for them. The particular issue here was the disposal of wealth, and Peter’s question (verse 27) and Jesus’ response should be a huge encouragement to all who are fully committed to Christ, but we are left with the question of whether we are willing to make that commitment. The young man who triggered this episode couldn’t bring himself to do it, at least not at that point, and that is precisely what Jesus was talking about being impossible for man. You could say that the young man was addicted to his wealth, and addictions are indeed impossible to kick by human effort alone. However, God is able to make it happen! When we look honestly at our own situation and attitudes, despair is a very natural response. However, if we submit our weaknesses and imperfections to God, He is able to supply us with everything we lack, including the commitment to follow through. What it takes on our part is choice, the exercise of our free will. Sometimes that is huge, and the results are immediate and dramatic, but sometimes it is a series of small choices, getting more in line with God step by step. The young man in this story was presented with a huge choice, and he didn’t take it. However, we are all presented with choices daily, and choosing to follow Christ in each one builds to a glorious conclusion. Conversely, the devil tries to tear us down by getting us to make a series of wrong choices, and that result can be disastrous. Even the huge choice isn’t final, but needs to be backed up with consistent small choices. If all of that seems daunting, we need to remember that it’s not difficult for, or with, God.

This is certainly a Word to me, because I am constantly presented with things and situations that are impossible from the human perspective. For starters, I minister in Japan, which has the lowest “rate of return on investment” of any mission field in the world. There is no active persecution, but genuine conversions are painfully few and far between. However, I do have a few growing disciples in the congregation, and I’m seeing distinct progress in one even right now. My schedule can seem daunting, but God has gotten me through worse before, and He will get me through this now. He has given me, and this church, the vision of Omura again being the foremost Christian city in the nation, and that is manifestly impossible by human effort, so I’ve got to hang onto what Jesus says here and trust Him to bring it to pass, even using me in the process.

Father, thank You for this Word. I am constantly telling people to focus on You rather than on themselves, and here I need to be reminded of that myself! Thank You for Your plans, for this church, this city, and this nation. May they indeed be fulfilled, on Your schedule and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Hearing and Being Heard; December 21, 2019

Posted on December 25, 2019 by jgarrott

Matthew 17:5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

This is the second time God the Father audibly affirmed Jesus as His son, the first time being when He was baptized. (Matthew 3:17) This time He includes the command, “Listen to Him!” At His baptism, Jesus hadn’t yet started teaching, and those around to hear the voice weren’t His dedicated disciples, but here the audience is Peter, James and John, the disciples closest to Him. You would think they didn’t need to be commanded to listen to Jesus! However, there’s the old saying about familiarity breeding contempt. It is a common phenomenon that a preacher can speak at a different church and be much better received than at the church he pastors. Often, the further from home, the better the reception. Likewise, a visiting speaker can come in and preach essentially the same content that the pastor has been trying to get through to the congregation for months, and they receive it as fresh revelation. Yes, Peter, James and John needed to be told to listen to Jesus! It’s interesting that after being told this, they had the spiritual sensitivity to understand that when Jesus told them Elijah had already come, He was talking about John the Baptist. (verse 13) We too need to listen to those close to us, whom we might actually be tired of listening to! Ideally, we need to have our hearts tuned to recognize God’s voice however and through whomever He chooses to speak, but we are often numbed by the physical … masking what God is saying to our spirit. That is all the more likely when God speaks through someone we hear frequently. We too need the Father to tell us, “Listen to him,” even when the “him” in question is far below Jesus in our estimation.

I have experienced this from both sides. However, it’s been a long time since I’ve sat regularly under someone else’s preaching, so my experience tends to be from the perspective of the speaker. To be honest, at times I have longed to be invited to speak elsewhere, for a conference or just for a service, because when that has happened in the past, the reception has been very gratifying. Elsewhere, I have been used many times in prophecy, but hardly ever right here where I minister all the time. Those subscribed to my blog are many times the number in my local congregation. However, God has used this to teach me faithfulness, and I am grateful. Even such little things as speaking at the interdenominational prayer breakfast can be refreshing, because those who gather for that are actively seeking God, and I generally get really positive feedback when my turn to speak comes around. I am to remember that Jesus said, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.” (John 15:20) In other words, I’ve got no gripe coming! I am to be faithful, not only to speak but also to pray for my hearers, so that they may receive whatever God says through me.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the times that You really are heard through me. The reception to the Gospel story as I gave it at the nursing school Christmas party on Friday was very encouraging. I pray that many of those students would indeed show up for our Christmas Eve service. Help me remember that it doesn’t matter if people hear me, so long as they hear You. May Your name be acknowledged as holy and Your kingdom come as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Faith and Hope; December 20, 2019

Posted on December 25, 2019 by jgarrott

Matthew 12:21 “In his name the nations will put their hope.”

It is significant that Matthew, who wrote his Gospel for Jews, probably in Aramaic, included this quote from Isaiah. Where the NIV says “nations,” the Japanese is even more specific in saying “Gentiles.” The whole question of whether a non-Jew could be saved without becoming a Jew first just about sank the early Church, prompting two major Church Councils, first after Peter had the temerity to obey God and baptize Cornelius and his household, (Acts 10-11) and then after Paul had such success in his missionary journeys. (Acts 15) Today the situation has essentially flipped, with the absurdity of Replacement Theology saying that the Church has eliminated the Jews from God’s plan. That’s just window dressing for antisemitism, and history shows that’s clearly of the devil. Matthew, whom God had focus on the Jews after his secular career as a tax collector had been one of betraying the Jews to the Romans, still could not avoid the reality that God’s love, God’s plan, is big enough to encompass all mankind. The particular phraseology God had Isaiah use is also significant. Hope and faith are deeply intertwined, but they aren’t the same thing, or Paul wouldn’t have listed them separately in 1 Corinthians 13:13. In some ways hope is a precursor to faith. We hope something is true even before we are sure that it is. Paul put it this way: “But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?” (Romans 8:24) Faith, on the other hand, is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) At this point in our existence, we certainly need both!

To me, perhaps the ultimate expression of this distinction between faith and hope is, “the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) I have settled faith that Christ is in me, giving me eternal life, but I do not yet see more than a small taste of the glory that is to come. As a pastor, I desire to impart both faith and hope. It must not be false hope, drummed up in human imagination, but rather “hope [that] does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:5) Many people have essentially given up on life, to the point that they are afraid to hope. When God gives a promise, that is a true hope! To me, pessimists make poor evangelists. You could define optimism as being hopeful, and that is how I want to be. I am to be a realist, not denying the current state of events, but my faith should always give me hope that God is going to use all the mess that’s going on for blessing, and for His glory. (Romans 8:28)

Father, thank You for this reminder. We are constantly bombarded with negative experiences of all sorts, and yesterday was no exception. However, You also did some very good things in the day, and I have hope for resolution today of some of yesterday’s negatives. May I keep my eyes on You, allowing You to fill me with faith and hope, so that those I encounter may be drawn to You as well, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Priorities; December 19, 2019

Posted on December 24, 2019 by jgarrott

Matthew 10:37-39 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

It’s all about priorities. Jesus isn’t telling us not to love our parents or our children, He’s telling us to love Him more. And He’s not telling us not to love ourselves, at least to the point of taking good care of ourselves and being content with what we’ve got. Rather, He’s telling us to love Him more than we love physical life itself. There’s a linguistic trap there, because He is eternal life, (John 14:6) so loving Him is loving life, but it isn’t our own life, it’s the life that only He can give us. Humanists say many things that sound very good and noble about loving and interacting with each other, but if we don’t love God above and beyond all of that, it falls apart and becomes meaningless. To use Jesus’ turn of phrase, we lose our lives. Some very well-meaning people have turned this teaching around and perverted it, denying that a pastor’s “first flock” is his own family. I have heard some real horror tales of missionaries essentially abandoning their own children to “serve the Lord.” I somehow don’t think God receives such “service.” Closer to home, (for most people) many pastors get so busy with church that they lose their marriage, not to mention the love and respect of their children. We forget that serving the church does not necessarily equal serving God. And of course, this isn’t limited to “clergy.” You couldn’t count how many people have lost their families through being too wrapped up in their work, or for that matter, have lost their spouse through being too wrapped up in their children. It is only when Jesus is Lord indeed, first in every decision and every circumstance, that all the rest of it falls into place.

As a pastor myself, I face this issue constantly, in myself and in those I serve. So long as I serve God through serving people, I’m OK. It’s when I serve people instead of serving God that I get into trouble. A continuing issue for me is the use of time. That is specifically applicable here, because we measure life by time. So long as I insist that time is mine, I lose the benefit of it. When I willingly give time to my Lord, I gain it, because His purposes for me are fulfilled and I receive the satisfaction and rewards that He intends for me. I deal with that every day! I tend to be a stickler for being on time, and get very irritated when I am forced to be late for something. If I really give my life, my time, to God, then such things shouldn’t bother me! The other day my bad attitude was on display when I was pointed out as the reason the City Christmas program wasn’t starting on time, when it was an unrealistic schedule that I hadn’t set. I was hanging onto my life/time and not taking up my cross! It’s easy for me to see mistaken priorities in others, but not so easy in myself. I sometimes recognize my errors in retrospect, but I want to avoid them before they happen.

Father, thank You for continuing to work on me. Thank You for this past Sunday, and for bringing me to repentance. Thank You for my wife, who makes it so easy to love her, but to love You even more. Help me indeed be a vessel of love to all around me, not in my own strength but because I love You and allow Your love to flow through me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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A Jealous God; December 18, 2019

Posted on December 24, 2019 by jgarrott

Matthew 6:21, 24 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

You could call the Sermon on the Mount a “toe stomping exercise.” Jesus covered many topics and He didn’t mince words. These two verses are justly famous, and they lay the foundation for what should be our attitude toward wealth. However, they are even deeper than that, because our “treasure” can be almost anything at all. You could rephrase the last sentence as, “You cannot serve both God and fame,” or, “You cannot serve both God and sports,” or anything else besides God. In dealing with the Israelites God described Himself, or had His servants describe Him, many times as “jealous.” That was exactly what Jesus is talking about here. The image we have of jealousy isn’t pretty at all, with people doing spiteful things to each other, all the way to murder, but that isn’t what God is like at all. Jesus’ turn of phrase is much easier for us to grasp in our context, since we don’t deal as consciously with warring religions (even though those are a very real issue). God wants undivided devotion simply because nothing else works. The moment we substitute anything for God in our affection and allegiance, we lose, and lose badly. God doesn’t desire loss for us but rather abundance, and so He tells us He’s jealous. We come back to the reality that every one of God’s rules for us is for our good, not to bind us but to liberate us. (1 John 5:3) When we get that firmly into our heart and mind, we seek out His rules like the author of Psalm 119, and that is a blessed state indeed.

I don’t know exactly when I first realized this truth, but it was a long time ago. That said, I’ve let other things edge God out more times than I like to think about. The thing is, God created everything for our blessing, but when I place the blessing ahead of Him, I lose. I am to receive His blessings with gratitude, but keep my focus and my allegiance on Him. A particular pitfall for me, and I think for a lot of people, is placing my own opinion, my judgment, ahead of God. I can look at a situation and evaluate it and decide on a course of action without ever considering God and inquiring what He has to say about it. That’s not really serving Him! As it says in Psalm 119:11, the more of His Word I get into my heart and mind the less likely I am to do that, but it can still happen, even as steeped in the Bible as I am at this point. It happened just the other day, even while I thought I was serving God! Humility is essential, and a childlike awareness that my Daddy knows best, so if I follow Him I’m OK.

Father, thank You for this powerful reminder. You’ve given me another message. Guide me in when and how I’m to deliver it, so that Your people may be built up as You intend, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Prayer; December 17, 2019

Posted on December 20, 2019 by jgarrott

Matthew 6:8 “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

The Bible says so many things that get totally ignored by well-meaning people! The only legitimate reason to repeat prayers, especially prayers written by someone else, is to let the words soak into our hearts and minds, and not to try to force God to do something, for us or for anyone else. I have been to services where prayers seemed to be fillers, killing time until the officiant was ready to do something else. That bothers me a lot! Christians have absolutely no reason to copy Buddhists, who repeat sutras that even the priests and others who have them memorized have next to no idea what they mean. In Tibetan Buddhism they have it mechanized, with the written sutras / prayers installed in cylinders, saying that spinning the cylinder is the equivalent of saying the prayer as many times as it goes around. (It has always bothered me that the song, “Just a Little Talk with Jesus,” though otherwise good, has the line, “feel a little prayer wheel turning.” That’s not Christian prayer!) Jesus did tell us to pray and not give up, (Luke 18:1-8) but that’s not the same thing as trying to twist God’s arm by the quantity or volume of our words.

It is my conviction, and experience, that there is no limit to possible growth in prayer. Prayer is still fundamentally a mystery to me. Why would the omnipotent Creator of the universe even listen to an individual human being? However, from Genesis through Revelation it is recorded that God wants to talk with us His children, and the New Testament is absolutely saturated with prayer, both examples and teaching about it. I have had times when prayer seemed like talking to an empty sky, and times when it seemed like an intimate conversation. I much prefer the latter! I don’t hesitate to talk to God at any time, but I realize that all too often I fail to expect His immediate answer, and so fail to listen for it. As I was writing just now I stopped a moment and said in my heart, “Lord?” “What do you want to know?” “I want to know the Scripture we are to use for next year.” “I will let you know.” I had almost forgotten the many times I’ve had such interactions, and that in itself is amazing. The problems are all on my side, so I need to be focused on Him, not letting my pride or preoccupation block my ears from hearing Him. I am aware of Him speaking to me every morning as I read the Bible, but I need to keep growing in listening to Him all the time throughout each day. I am to be increasingly faithful in lifting others up to Him in prayer. Often that’s easier than praying about my own issues, because it’s much easier to be objective about someone else. I need to remember that prayer is active participation in what God is doing, so that His name may be acknowledged as holy and His kingdom come as His will is done, sometimes even through the words that come from my mouth.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You again for the experience of Sunday into Monday where my pride was broken down a bit more. I ask You to remove from my heart and life everything that in any way interferes with Your total Lordship and control, so that I may be Your instrument indeed, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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God’s Standard; December 16, 2019

Posted on December 20, 2019 by jgarrott

Matthew 5:46 “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?”

The whole Sermon on the Mount lays out a standard that seems impossibly high to us, simply because it is, so long as we are relying just on ourselves. God wants to teach us to rely on Him, because only then are we transformed into the children of God that He created us to be. We have popular songs that glorify the “natural man,” (or “natural woman”) when God wants us to be supernatural! As Paul said rather sharply to the Corinthians, “Are you not acting like mere men?” (1 Corinthians 3:3) The point is, someone who is in Christ is no longer a “mere man,” but rather a representative of the Creator, expressing His love, grace, and power. To drive that point home, Jesus used the stereotype of a “bad man” in that day: a tax collector. In reading this it’s important to remember that one of His original 12 disciples, the very one that wrote this Gospel, was a tax collector when Jesus called him. That’s the sort of thing Paul was talking about when he said, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11) If you don’t like who you are and what you are, then give yourself to Jesus! Again and again the Bible talks about how God doesn’t use those who are sure they would be valuable to Him, but rather those who think they aren’t worth using, but God is powerful enough to do it anyway. Moses had to be knocked down from being a prince of Egypt by being a shepherd for 40 years before he was available to God, and even then he tried to get out of it because of a speech impediment. Paul literally had to be knocked off of his high horse! We get all puffed up because of what we can do or what we have, forgetting how utterly trivial that is compared to God. We forget that God’s standard is, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

I have just had a strong lesson in this, and at this point it doesn’t feel very good. This year’s City Christmas, which was yesterday, was organized and operated by a lay committee, when in the past I largely ran the show. Because of differing styles and personalities, I had a major miscommunication with the committee chairperson, and I did not respond well at all. A major task for this morning is apology on my part. It doesn’t matter if I felt demanded of or humiliated, because it’s not about me. I’m sure my attitude was evident to all who were watching, and that is hardly good. Now I need God’s wisdom and anointing to communicate my repentance effectively, so that at least my relationship with that individual won’t be ruptured. They are certainly not “a tax collector,” but I was perhaps acting like one. I have a lot of room to grow, and yesterday was powerful evidence of that.

Father, thank You for all You allow me to experience, however painful it might be at the moment. I ask You to use my mistakes and even my sins for blessing, as only You can, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Pleasing God; December 15, 2019

Posted on December 19, 2019 by jgarrott

Matthew 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Everything about Jesus pleased the Father. The more I think about that, the more remarkable it becomes. As human parents we have moments when we are really pleased with our children, but if pressed, even then we will concede that they have their “rough spots.” Jesus, however, though fully human, was perfectly in line with His Father, and that’s something no one else can claim. The more we grow spiritually the more we become like Jesus, which of course puts us more in harmony with Father God, but even Paul was very clear that he wasn’t perfectly there yet. (Philippians 3:12-14) At times we are tempted to give up on ourselves, but we have God’s assurance that in the end, we will indeed be like Jesus. (Romans 8:29) When we have that promise we need to extend grace and patience, not only to ourselves but to those around us. That can frankly be difficult at times, and it involves the big F word: forgiveness. One of the scariest things Jesus said deals with that. “If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15) We must never forget that we are not yet perfect, and stop demanding that others be perfect. We need to encourage each other in spiritual growth, but rejoice in progress rather than demand perfection. The better we do that, the more pleased our heavenly Father will be with us, because we will be more and more like His beloved Son.

As a physical and spiritual father I am often pleased with and proud of my children, but I am also often aware of their imperfections in various ways. I must never let that awareness get in the way of my love for them, but rather let it make me more aware of God’s grace, toward me and toward my children. I must not treat mistakes or ignorance as sins, even when they negatively impact me. I am also not to excuse sins, but rather forgive them. The difference there can seem paper thin at times, but it is vital. God didn’t excuse our sins, He forgave them through the atoning death of Jesus Christ. I do personally desire to please my Father, and nothing takes me out of that category faster than refusing to forgive.

Father, thank You for this timely reminder. Help me indeed be pleasing to You, especially in my interactions with my own children, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Names; December 14, 2019

Posted on December 19, 2019 by jgarrott

Malachi 1:1 A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.

For once, I was struck more by a footnote than I was by the actual text. The footnote in question says, “Malachi means my messenger.” We don’t think so much about names, but historically, and specifically in the Bible, names have had great importance, with God changing people’s names, as in Abram to Abraham (Genesis 17:5) and many others, as well as specifying names. Of course the greatest example of the latter is Jesus, which means, “God is Salvation.” That name was specified to both Mary and Joseph before He was born. Here we have the name of what is called a “minor prophet,” not necessarily because he was less important than others but because he wrote less to be recorded in the Bible. I don’t remember ever noticing the meaning of his name before now, but it is so extremely appropriate that I wonder if it was actually the name he was given at birth. In any case, he functioned as the Lord’s messenger faithfully, delivering messages that could not have made him very popular, particularly with the priests. His faithfulness is attested to by the fact that his messages were acknowledged as Scripture, even long before Jesus was born. Even today people who are faithful to speak what God is saying tend to get in trouble with the authorities, even in supposedly “advanced” countries, with people being arrested in Canada and elsewhere for supposedly “hate speech” by simply stating the Biblical position on gender and marriage. And of course that doesn’t touch what is going on in China as well as Islamist countries for anyone who dares to proclaim that Jesus is Lord. Being chosen as God’s messenger is the highest of honors, but it can be a fearsome one indeed. To me, the lesson from this is that parents need to be careful and prayerful about what they name their children, but what God calls us is most important, hands down.

Before I was born my parents decided on two names, since they didn’t have ultrasound to let them know my gender ahead of time. I have no idea what girl’s name they chose, but the one that was given to me was chosen by asking my paternal grandfather, Ernest Perry Jackson Garrott, which of his names he liked best, and then adding my paternal grandmother’s maiden name, Maxfield (which was also my father’s middle name, and the one he went by), making me Jackson Maxfield Garrott. When I was an infant someone said to my mother, “That’s a mighty big name for such a small baby.” She replied, “He’ll grow.” I don’t remember ever disliking my name, but I do remember choosing to be called “Jack” rather than “Jackie” from the point I entered the 1st grade. I have always considered it a great honor to carry one of my father’s names, and particularly the one he went by. (My brother received his actual first name, William.) As grateful as I am for my name, I understand that what God calls me is far more important. I would be more than honored if He called me Malachi, but I hardly think I rise to that level! I do desire to be faithful in speaking out in love all that He speaks to me and to be immediately responsive any time He calls me, whatever He calls me!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You that I have indeed inherited a good name from my ancestors, (Proverbs 22:1) with no stain of disgrace or rebellion against You that I am aware of. May I indeed carry the name of Christian and the title of Disciple in all faithfulness, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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