{"id":5066,"date":"2024-10-26T16:21:49","date_gmt":"2024-10-26T16:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/?p=5066"},"modified":"2024-10-26T20:54:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T20:54:05","slug":"a-name-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/october\/a-name-change\/","title":{"rendered":"A name change."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Called to follow him.<\/h2>\n

Following God is a decision that one conscientiously makes. No one should have to force people to seek and follow God, and that is not to say that a good nudge to follow him is not needed. Because people today have hardened their hearts, we need to press them to come to the kingdom, it was what Jesus taught with the parable about the banquet (Lk14:23-24). The Psalmist invites us to come and taste the goodness of God (Ps34:8). And when God calls because he is who he says he is, we answer. Twenty-four times Jesus calls us to follow him in the bible. The Greek word for to follow is akoloutheo. Jesus said that if anyone is going to follow after him he has to deny himself and take up his cross and follow him (Lk9:23). Mark speaks about this young rich man who was faced with the decision between his riches and his eternity. Jesus told him that if he wanted to follow him he needed to sell everything he had and give it to the poor (Mk10:21). <\/p>\n

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Luke 5:27-32<\/p>\n

27 <\/sup>And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. <\/span>28 <\/sup>And he left all, rose up, and followed him. <\/span>29 <\/sup>And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and others that sat down with them. <\/span>30 <\/sup>But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? <\/span>31 <\/sup>And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but are sick. 32 <\/sup>I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.<\/span><\/p>\n

After being invited to follow Jesus, Levi left all he had and followed. Now, Levi was no regular tax collector; he came from a line of descendants of priests. Scholars believe Jesus changed Levi’s name to Matthew, as with Peter. Mark and Luke refer to Matthew as Levi and he in his writing refers to himself as Matthew. Name changes in the Bible carry important significance. There were four important persons in the bible named Levi, and one was Jacob’s fourth son. And he along with his brother Simeon became enraged with anger and slaughtered an entire tribe after the leader’s son raped their sister Dinah. Because of this anger Levi, his father before passing away cursed him (Ge49:5-7). Levi’s tribe the Levites were scattered throughout the land. His manifestation of anger was translated to jealousy for the Lord. God made a covenant with Levi to change him from having anger to peace in Malachi (2:4-6) and it became a reality when Jesus called him. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Verses<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Luke 14:23-24<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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23 <\/sup>And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. <\/span>24 <\/sup>For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Psalms 34:8<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

8 <\/sup>O taste and see that the Lord<\/span> is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Luke 9:23<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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23 <\/sup>And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Mark 10:21<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

21 <\/sup>Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.<\/p>\n

Genesis 49:5-7<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

5 <\/sup>Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. <\/span>6 <\/sup>O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. <\/span>7 <\/sup>Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Malachi 2:4-6<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

4 <\/sup>And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord<\/span> of hosts. <\/span>5 <\/sup>My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. <\/span>6 <\/sup>The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Spanish<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Called to follow him. Following God is a decision that one conscientiously makes. No one should have to force people to seek and follow God, and that is not to say that a good nudge to follow him is not needed. Because people today have hardened their hearts, we need to press them to come<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-october"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5066"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5070,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5066\/revisions\/5070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.log.ambassadorsofchrist.info\/aoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}