Names Of God: Jesus Series

Names of God: Jesus. Mat 1:18-21 WBC 11/12/05pm

Written by Danny Dutton, age 8, from Chula Vista, CA, for his third grade

homework assignment to "Explain God."

"One of God’s main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the

ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of things on

earth. He doesn’t make grown-ups, just babies. I think that’s because they are

smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn’t have to take up his

valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to

mothers and fathers.

God’s second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of

this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times

besides bedtime. God doesn’t have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because He hears everything there must be a terrible lot of noise in His ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off.

God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps

Him pretty busy. So you shouldn’t go wasting His time by going over your

mom and dad’s head asking for something they said you couldn’t have.

Atheists are people who don’t believe in God. I don’t think there are any

in Chula Vista. At least there aren’t any who come to our church.

Jesus is God’s Son. He used to do all the hard work like walking on water

and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn’t want to

learn about God. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them and they

crucified Him. But He was good and kind like His Father and He told His Father that they didn’t know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said OK.

His Dad (God) appreciated everything that He had done and all His hard

work on earth so He told Him He didn’t have to go out on the road anymore

- He could stay in heaven. So He did.

And now He helps His Dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones He can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important. You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to hear you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.

You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and

if there’s anybody you want to make happy, it’s God. Don’t skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong! And, besides, the sun doesn’t come out at the beach until noon anyway.

If you don’t believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very

lonely, because your parents can’t go everywhere with you, like to camp,

but God can. It is good to know He’s around you when you’re scared in the dark or when you can’t swim very good and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.

But you shouldn’t just always think of what God can do for you. I figure

God put me here and He can take me back anytime He pleases.

And that’s why I believe in God."

In Alpha this week we were talking about someone’s friend. I asked whether they were a Christian. To which they reply came: "well, they would SAY that they are… but I went with them to a wedding, recently, and they were all out of sorts with the wedding and when asked why said ’they kept going on about Jesus all the time at it!’"

There’s more to learn there, eh?

Because Jesus IS the name of God. Here and now. Understanding this is absolutely central to knowing God & experiencing Him

- if you want to know the name of God- it’s Jesus

- If you want to know more what God is like- look at Jesus

- If you want to know more of God, personally- you need to experience Jesus

o And, actually, we as Christians need to be able to explain why Jesus is the name above all names. From the Bible

NAME

If you want to know the name of God- it’s Jesus

Here’s the story so far. God has progressively revealed Himself over the millennia. It started with a man called Abram to whom he revealed Himself as El (God) Elyon (most high)… then El Shaddai (God Almighty)… Jehovah Jireh (provider)

And then He revealed Himself to Moses more fully by helping Him understand the nature behind His name Yahweh. The "I AM"

God made Himself increasingly known. By His names.