Guess Who?
He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
~Acts 11:24, NIV
Quote
Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones.
S.L. Alders
Lets play a game: I will give you clues and you try to figure out who I am describing…
- He was from the Island of Cyprus
- He was a Hellenistic Jew
- He was a good man
- His Greek name is Ἰωσῆς
- His mother called him Joses which means ‘exalted’
- He was full of the Holy Spirit
- He loved to encourage others
- He became a Missionary and a friend of Paul
If you guessed Barnabas, you would be right but Barnabas was not his real name. Joses was so good at encouraging others that his friends changed his name. They nick named him ‘son of encouragement’ and in the Greek that is Barnabas. The name stuck and when you refer to Joses, no one knows who you are talking about.
This set me to thinking. Some one asked me about Chris the other day; I said, “Chris who?” They said, “You know, the guy that sells the lawnmowers.” I said, “Ah, you mean Willard.” He said, “I thought his name was Chris.” I said, “That’s what his mother calls him but everyone else goes by Willard.” So out of curiosity, I looked up Willard’s name. It is Germanic in origin [Willhardt] and it comes from two English words–‘will’ [desire] and ‘hard.’ It means strong will, resolute or courageous [brave]. I think Willard nick named himself but the amazing thing is how it stuck.
The important thing is to leave your children and family a legacy. You should be building memories right now. Make sure your children have plenty of funny stories to tell after you are gone. Barnabas may not have left his children any money but he left them a legacy.