NEW NAMES

Last night I went to a gospel youth concert at a pentecostal church in Leytonstone.  I was encouraged to see young men and boys in caps, hoods and tracksuits, who did not look like traditional "church-goers".  A young preacher shared his testimony of turning from gun and gang crime to follow the narrow road with Christ.

One interesting comment he made in passing related to the tag names that young boys take on when they are part of a crew or a gang.  With names such as "Killer", he said it is as if they are prophesying over themselves and the more people call them by these names, the more they grow into their name and become everything it represents... 

I thought about all the characters in the bible to whom God gave a new name.  Like Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Paul... I pray that God would speak new names over these boys.  May boys such as Kurrupt, Trubled, Killa K, be given new names.  And as Isaiah prophesies over Zion, "you shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate" (Isaiah 62:4).