Need a Name Change?

God wants to make "all things new" (Revelation 21:5). Becoming a Christian means becoming part of these name-changing energies making "a new creation" (Galatians 6: 15), "a new heaven and a new earth" (2 Peter 3: 13), "a new human" (Colossians 3:10), and "a new Jerusalem" (Revelation 21:2). 

This week our country will matter-of-factly go about the task of enacting a political miracle. As we have 51 times before, we will swear in a democratically elected President of the United States. The miracle, of course, is that the government of the United States goes through this house-cleaning act every four years without bloodshed, violence, social upheaval or force. Since we are writing long before the election, we have no way of knowing who this President will be. Yet regardless of who is sworn in, there will be changes. Both parties have campaigned on a platform of change and new directions, with one candidate even accusing the other of stealing his "reinventing America" lines. A Democratic president would certainly bring about changes after 12 years of a Republican White House. But it is also true that a second-term "lame duck" President often quacks differently now that history is the only judge. The juried bar of history is often what causes the "dumb luck" of the "lame...