Wednesday: Proclaiming God’s Name
“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,
Image © Ain Vares from GoodSalt.com
before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls” (Joel 2:31-32, NKJV).
The darkening of the sun and the changing of the moon to blood should not be understood as natural disasters, but as supernatural signs of the approaching day of the Lord. In Bible times, many pagan nations worshiped heavenly bodies as their gods, something that Moses said the Israelites should never do (Deut. 4:19). In this sense, Joel’s prophecy is predicting that the idols of the nations will begin to fade away when the Lord comes in judgment. Joel 3:15 adds that even the starry host will lose its power and will no longer give its light, because the presence of the Lord’s glory will outshine everything.
While Christ’s appearance will terrify the unrepentant, how will the righteous welcome their Lord? What is the crucial difference? See Isa. 25:9, Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, Rom. 10:13.
In the Scriptures, the expression to “call on the name of the Lord” does not only mean to call oneself a follower of the Lord and to claim His promises. It also can mean to proclaim God’s name; that is, to be a witness to others about the Lord and what He has done for the world. Abraham built altars and proclaimed God’s name in the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:8). To Moses on Mount Sinai, God proclaimed His goodness and grace (Exod. 33:19, 34:5). The psalmist calls on the faithful to give thanks to God and call on His name by making known to the nations what He has done (Ps. 105:1). The same words are found in a song of salvation composed by the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 12:4).
Thus, to proclaim the Lord’s name means both to be messengers of the glad tidings that God still rules the world, and also to call on the people of the world to view everything in the context of God’s deeds and character. It also means to tell everyone about God’s generous gift of salvation that is offered to every human being.
What does it mean to you to “call upon the name of the Lord”? How do you do it, and what happens when you do?
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Grateful for this lesson. I thought to call upon the name of Lord is just my intimate doing; never thought of it as a proclamation of the Lord's name. It makes sense and only that can keep us in faith until the Day. In the last crisis which is coming, the remnant will call Lord 's name by proclaiming it in the 7day sabbath and not in Sun day. The final test is an oportunity for the proclamation of His Name.
I had always been taught/thought that calling on the name of the Lord meant naming Him in conjunction with a specific request or thanks.
This, in Wednesdays lesson, is the first I had heard of it being this way.
Is there anywhere I can find more information on this?
This is awesome. All that is required of us is to call on the name of the Lord, tell others of His goodness and we shall be saved. Once we allow God to direct of our lives; we will do His will naturally without resistance.
I always thought the moon had already turn into blood on May 19, 1780, so it's already fulfilled. God allows us to call upon on His name because there's no other name that can save us, but the real question is does He recognize our voice?
[Moderator note: Please comment with your first and last name. Thank you. ]
To call on the name of The Lord means to acknowledge His power and surrender your all to Him .
It seems to me that we have two words of focus here. "Call" and "Proclaim". "Calling on the Lord", to me is to call unto Him in need at any point. Could be in the form of prayer or speaking to Him in other ways. Proclaiming God is to me, witnessing and sharing God with others. God wants us to call upon Him so that we may commune with Him and become like Him, so that we may Proclaim Christ to others because we have become like Christ. Will others see Jesus in me? Will they see Jesus in you?
My daughter attended a state university here in Australia because she wanted to become an optometrist. We were a bit apprehensive at first because this was the first time our SDA daughter would be living away from home in a big city after having been brought up in a quiet Adventist home and attending Adventist Schools for all her life. We were quite unprepared for our daughter's response to the situation. The optometry first year class formed a tight social clique and often had parties and other outings together. Our daughter made it very clear that she was a Seventh-day Adventist and there were two things that were very important to her - her chastity and her sobriety. All through her university career she wore her Christianity very high on her sleeve. She was highly respected - particularly when she could be relied on to be the designated driver to get the drunk party goers home. She used to help those who were so drunk that they were vomiting, to sober up and get them back to their lodgings. She would make a point of always ensuring that there would be vegetarian food at their class social get-togethers, something that was appreciated by some of the less vocal Asian and Muslim classmates who also had dietary concerns.
Now my daughter has a personality that must be experienced to be believed (she could organise a party in a monastery), but she did show to me how it is entirely possible to stand up for your faith in a secular environment and proclaim the name of Jesus both in word and by living example. Even today some 10-15 years later my daughter is still good friends with some of the people in her class and is still sharing Christ with them.
We can take a lesson from my daughter. It is quite possible to proclaim Christ among the unchurched of today and be respected for it and even make a difference in their lives. Telling one another that we should be proclaiming Christ and wringing our hands over it is not going to help.
Praise God for your daughters faithfulness and witness for the Lord. Only eternity will reveal how many people were affected by her witness .
I think this lesson is not about mission or giving a testimony but much larger or deeper. It is about Elijah when he "called" the Name in direct confrontation with Baal whose name was also then called. Elijah proclaimed the Name by calling Him in battle for his life, in front of Israel on a hill. And God responded but Baal did not. Name was proclaimed by calling just and only because He answered.
Isn't Elijah witnessing? Elijah admittendly had a very public confrontation, and not all of us are called to stand in the halls of power to proclaim Christ. But the little people like you and me have been charged with spreading the Gospel and proclaiming Christ in a conversation over the back fence with the neighbour is just as important in our lives as standing before kings.
We can only procliam the Lord's name when we are right with Him. What can we proclaim if our actions are contrary to His will. How can we witness for Him when we have not any encounter with Him. This can only be possible when we whole heartedly seek Him
From the lesson point of view, we have seen how God has been tirelessly calling Isreal and Judah to turn from thier evil ways and follow Him. We also saw from Tuesday's lesson how God is going to pour out His Spirit to those who are wholly consecreted to Him. First, the disciples had to, by faith call on, forsake sin be in one accord, then did the Spirit of Power came upon them and began to do all those works we read from the book of Acts.
Simillary, when we forsake sin and make it a chief business to do His will, the Spitit of Power and Truth will enable us to proclaim His name in truth. Let us aslo bear in mind that, what happened at Pentecost was partial, and we are given an assurance that Isreal of toady will wrote greater works than that of Pentecotal days.
Time is no longer that we offer lip-service or just be Chritains in name only. Our life-stlye should be living testimonies to the world. God is waiting for you and me to His medium to proclaim His last saving message to the perishing world. Let us all respond by doing 'thus says the Lord'
Spirit of God was poured on church in Galatia and in Corinth. Paul writes "it is by hearing a gospel not by works". If we have to be sinless and wholy consecreted than we will never recieve latter rain. Apostolic church was not sinless. NT is clear about that. Our testimony is a testimony of "repented siners". We ackowledge our sin and put hope in Jesus coming.
For the Lord came to seek and to save those who are lost. when we come to the realization that we need a savior and accept him through faith,Then we become sons and daughters of God. Now are we sons of God and making him apart of our daily life, not just in bless times but also in trouble times, he promises that when we call upon his name he is faithful to keep us, and deliver us, and in the end saves us when he shall come in his glory and the glory of the Father. That's why we have to run with patience the race that is set before us forgetting those things which are behind and press towards the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus, who for the race that was set before him endure the cross, despised the shame and has now become our forerunner. So when we call upon his name we shall be saved.