The Power of the Name

I had made some plans for this morning. About 3 times a year, the kind folks at Love Field allow me to go up into the old control tower to enjoy an hour or so of photography angles that are special. But as I got ready this morning, I heard on the radio of a massive traffic tie-up on I-30 stretching from Jim Miller Rd. to the LBJ freeway. Since this is the only effective route to Love Field and since my schedule couldn't handle any delays, I postponed the photo op.

It wasn't long after that when I heard about the mother throwing her 6 and 8 year-old sons from the Jim Miller bridge onto the freeway below and then jumping herself.

To me, one of the most fascinating aspects of New Testament times is the amount of demon possession experienced by those folks. And when Christ or an apostle encountered a possessed person, there was high drama being played out as ultimate evil ran head-on into ultimate good. We don't talk much about demon possession now other than to perhaps casually mention that some acquaintance or relative had to "deal with their demons" at some point in their past.

But instances like today's tragedy convince me that there's a whole lot of possessin' goin' on. Of the three family members who fell two stories into the traffic this morning, there were three last names. The lady already had a long rap sheet. Neighbors say she had mental problems. Obviously, the devil had a tight grasp on her life. Occasionally in my teaching career, I encountered students and parents whose behavior was so markedly abnormal, so "out there", so dark, that I could almost hear the chilling hiss of Satan as I dealt with them.

Another fascinating aspect of Scripture to me is the emphasis on the name of God or Jesus. It is overwhelmingly apparent that the name "Jehovah God" or "Jesus Christ" has incredible significance - trillion times more power than "Ricky" or "Tom" or "Mary". It's that those all-powerful names are entities unto themselves rather than being just identifying labels. And when Christ encountered demon-possessed people, he would call out his own name to force the demon out of the individual.

This sounds crazy, but I'm dead serious. Had I been casually walking across that bridge this morning and seen the drama unfolding, I believe I would have run up to the lady screaming, "In the name of Jesus, STOP!!" From what I can gather from all the New Testament stories, Satan cannot withstand the POWER OF THE NAME! And I'm just crazy enough to think it might have worked. What do you think?