What’s your name

If I asked the name of the basketball player who has scored more points in all the history of the NBA, I suppose everyone could answer such an easy question: LEW ALCINDOR.

Hey! Wait a minute - you are wrong! It is KAREEM ABDUL JABBAR...

OK, we are both right, because Lew and Kareem are the same person: Lew changed his name after several years playing in the NBA.

One of his records was playing 787 consecutive matches in which he scored more than ten points.

Many celebrities have changed their names: some of them simply disliked their original names, other thought another sounded better. Some do it to break any link with their past: they don't like to be who they are.

They all forget something very important: God knows our real name.

In Revelation, chapter 3, we read what God said to the members of one church: You have a reputation of being alive, but you're dead. Unfortunately, many people are 'Christians' only by name: any similarity between their lives and the life of their Teacher is just coincidence.

It would be better to change our names before disappointing our God with what he sees in our lives.

Haven't we realised that we are his ambassadors?

Aren't we ashamed? We call ourselves Christians, we say that we're children of God, but we act in a despicable way.

It is not that we have to be perfect, nor that we must do everything correctly... but the difference between our way of acting and what God expects from us is like the contrast between night and day.

And then we wonder why people do not want to know anything about God! Watching us, who would want to live like that?

We do not do what we say, our words do not match up with our lives, sometimes it would be better to simply change our names.

Who is it who is ruling our lives? The Spirit of God, or the spirit of the world?

We should be annoyed with ourselves! God has given us everything, making us the happiest people in the world, while we look for rubbish that is not useful at all.

We get mixed up in arguments and angry exchanges, we look for our own glory and entertain evil thoughts.

We are just like a prince who goes around begging for poverty.