red paint.

so i've been thinking a lot lately.
thinking about what exactly i'm doing. what is the purpose for my fall semester of my junior year of college. my purpose for september of 2011. my purpose for this day. If God in His mercy has chosen to give me breath for today their is obviously divine potential for every second. I read a book one time called Chasing Daylight, by Erwin McManus, and its about capturing your divine moment, in other words its about taking advantage of every moment we have and using it to the utmost for the Kingdom. Lets be honest, at this i fail. i am the absolute worst at recognizing, or at least acknowledging God's purpose for the moments that I have been given. I often choose to ignore my convictions because i lack the courage to represent Jesus Christ, or at least i am to complacent and stagnant enough to not represent Jesus. this truth breaks my heart to write. why? why can i not be more bold for a Savior that gave it all for me? In John 17, before He is arrested and brutally murdered He prays for ME(but really all of us) for my soul and my livelihood, He prays that God have mercy on my soul and i can't even bring Him up to a class mate, why? I spoke the name of Jesus probably 100 times every day at camp with the greatest of ease and i come back here and i don't even talk about Jesus with my Christian roommates every day. that makes me want to cry.
So here is ultimately what i have been thinking about, the name of Jesus Christ. If we have been given the privilege, the honor, the task, to speak the name of Jesus every single day why don't we do it? we call ourselves followers of Jesus but we hesitate to utter His name in public. Being a true follower of Jesus should be like having wet red paint on your hands, no matter what you do you should be leaving marks on everything you touch. You should be making a stain on everything and everyone you come into contact with. i want to make some stains.
I'm memorizing Philippians 2 right now and it says:
" Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, didn't count equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven an on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father"(philippians 2:6-11)
so why don't we say THAT name? the name that is above every name. the name that has all power and authority to take every created being to their knees just at its mention. What would happen if we stopped being "Christians" and started being Followers of Jesus Christ. we say we are Christians so that we don't have to say the name of Jesus, cause Jesus is offensive, nothing about Jesus is easy. He is an uncomfortable subject. But He is the only name in heaven and on earth and under the earth that matters.
I want to be a follower of Jesus. I want to stain the world with the red paint of the name of Jesus Christ and His renown. How can we show Jesus that we love Him if we don't say His name?
lets love Jesus. lets speak His name. In His name there is power. in His name there is love. in His name there is salvation. spread it.

-abbie.