How did people know who were Christians in the early church? They were known as the people who called upon the name of the Lord.
In 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul addressed the believers as those who “call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord." When writing to Timothy he spoke his message to him and “them that call on the Lord” (2 Timothy 2:22).
Before Paul was converted, his whole passion was to bind for prison and destroy all those who called on the name of the Lord (Acts 9:14, 21). He knew which ones he wanted to throw in prison because they called on God’s name.
Is your family known as a family who call upon the name of the Lord? Would your neighbors consider you people who call upon the Lord? Do your friends think of you as a family who daily calls upon the Lord?
This is how we are meant to be known. Or perhaps we can’t be identified as people of the Lord after all. Jeremiah 10:25 always challenges me every time I read it: “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name.” This Scripture reveals that the families who do not call upon the name of the Lord may as well be heathen families.
This reminds me of a powerful quote from James Russell Miller: “Christ must be our guest if our home is to be a fit place either for our children or for ourselves. If there is no sincere prayer in it, it is not a true home at all. It is only a heathen lodging-place!” It’s just as well this quote is not mine, or you might want to stone me! But if we are honest, we must admit it is true. How can we be known as God’s people if we don’t bother to call upon His name?
The early patriarchs all made altars as a place to call upon the name of the Lord. Check out Abram (Genesis 12:7, 8; 13:4, 18; and 21:33); Isaac (Genesis 26:25); and Jacob (Genesis 35:1-7).
Seek to make a time and place every morning and evening to gather your family together to call on God’s name. There is an unprecedented stirring of anger, hatred, and rebellion in this nation. It’s time for God’s people to pray--to really cry out to God. We are not fighting flesh and blood, but principalities and powers.
Will God’s people rise to be who they are meant to be? Will families arise to be “calling upon the Lord families”?
Will you be one of those families?
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
FURTHER EXHORTATIONS AND TESTIMONIES TO CALL UPON THE LORD
Genesis 4:26; Judges 16:28; 1 Samuel 12:17,18; 2 Samuel 22:4, 7; 1 Kings 18:24; 1 Chronicles 16:8; 2 Chronicles 7:14;
Psalm 4:1; 14:1 (53:4); 17:6; 18:3, 6; 27:7, 8; 28:1, 2; 31:17; 50:15; 55:16; 79:6; 80:18; 86:3-7; 88:9; 91:15, 16; 99:6; 105:1; 116:2-4, 13, 17; 118:5; 120:1; 145:18;
Isaiah 12:4; 43:22; 55:6; 58:8; 64:7; 65:24; Jeremiah 29:12; 33:3; Lamentations 3:55; Joel 3:32; Jonah 2:2; Zephaniah 3:9; Zechariah 13:9; Acts 2:21; 22:16; and Romans 10:13.