A New Name

   Have you watch the movie Gladiator? This is one of my favorite epic film for it somehow had similarities with Brave Heart. It is set in the second century in the year A.D. 180, the hero is a warrior from spain called Maximus (Russel Crowe). He is the commander of the Roman armies, a general loved by his men and by the aging emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). The emperor's foul son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) learns of his father's plan to make Maximus emperor in his place, so before the Emperor pronounce his successor, Commodus killed his father. He then sentences Maximus to immediate execution and his wife and son to crucifixion and burning. Maximus escapes, but he is too late to save his family. Captured by slave traders, he is sold as gladiator. Ultimately he is taken to Rome to perform in the Coliseum before the emperor Commodus (who believes that Maximus is long dead). After a remarkably display of courage, the emperor comes down into the arena to meet the valiant gladiator, whose identity remains hidden in his helmet.

COMMODUS: Your fame is well deserved, Spaniard. I don't believe there's ever been a gladiator that matched you... Why doesn't the hero reveal himself and tell us all your real name? (Maximus is silent.) You do have a name?

MAXIMUS: My name is Gladiator. (He turns and walks away.)

COMMODUS: How dare you show your back to me?! Slave! You will remove your helmet and tell me your name.

MAXIMUS: (Slowly he lifts his helmet and turn to face his enemy) My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius; Commander of the Armies of the North; General of the Felix Regions; loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius; father to a murdered son; husband to a murdered wife; and I will have my vengeance, in this life or in the next.

    Where does a man go to learn an answer like that-to learn his true name, a name that can never be taken away from him? That deep heart knowledge comes only through a process of initiation. You have to know where you've come from; you have to faced a series of trials; and you have to face your enemy.
   "Who can give  a man this, his own name?" George MacDonald asks. "God alone. For no one but God sees what the man is." He reflects on the white stone that Revelation includes among the rewards God will give to those who "overcome". On that white stone there is a new name. It is "new" only in the sense that it is not the name the world gave to us, certainly not the one delivered with the wound. No one will find on that stone "Mama's Boy" or the usual tagalog make fun names "Panget", "Bobo", "Payat", "Taba", "Pilay", "Duwag", and the list will go on and on. The new name is really not new at all when you understand that it is your true name after all. The one that belongs to you, "that being whom He had in His thought when He bagan to make the child, and whom He kept in his thought throughout the long process of creation." Psalms 139 says that we were personaly, uniquely planned and created, knit together in our mother's womb by God himself. He had someone in mind and that someone has a name.
   The giving of the white stone makes it clear-that it is what He is up to. He created us for a unique place in history and He is commited to bringing us back back to the original design. So God calls Abram out from Ur to a land he has naver seen, and along the way Abram gets a new name. He becomes Abraham. God takes Jacob off into Mesopotamia somewhere, to learn things he has and cannot learn at his mother's side. When he rides back into town, he has a limp and a new name as well. Saul was a guy who thought he understood the story and very much liked the part he had written for himself. After that little matter on Damascus road he becomes Paul. Simon was called Peter by Jesus. David the Sheperd Boy was called The Man after God's Own Heart.

   There was a time in my life when I've fall deeply, in desperation and in sin. In those cruel time I'm mocking myself (or so to say the enemy makes me, whispering lies). I told myself that I'm a looser, I'm a sinner, I'm bad, I'm weak, and I am not for God. Sad to say-I'm already a christian way back that dark time. When suddenly, a different voice whispered "You are a Mighty Warrior". I thought I was making it up. But He started by saying "These are things you love; you love to pray for a friend; you even wept when somebody is spiritually down; you love to play music, worship that sets people free, you're even the leader of the worship team. You are part of the youth leaders and church leaders." I was totaly speechless and there was a long pause untill he finish by saying "You are a warrior and Mark is your name." I wept realizing that I have accepted the lies of the enemy, but it is not over. The next day a friend gave a gift. This is one of the greatest gift I received. It is one of those things you will see on Vine and the Branches, with a name and a life verse. So as I read it, it says:

MARK
MIGHTY WARRIOR
Life Verse
"Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength."
Psalms 29:1

   And to those who have read the "White Warrior" I know that you're familiar with this.
   The real you is on the side of God against the false self. Knowing this makes all the difference in the world. The man who wants to live valiantly will lose heart quickly if he believes that his heart is nothing but sin. No your flesh is your false self-the poser, manifest in cowardice, and self-preservation.

   Let me end this blog on another film I love. Narnia the Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe. To those who've seen this film, we know that Edmund was enticed by the witch with Turkish Delight and soon was captured. When the other three Pevensies brought the news to Aslan, he ordered to rescue Edmund. The next day when Edmund was rescued the three Pevensies found him talking to Aslan (The Initiation) Later on the story Edmund was called the traitor by the white witch. And to make the story short Edmund was rescued a second time; Aslan switched place for Him; he was redeemed by Aslan. And on the end of the story Edmund was given a new name. "EDMUND THE JUST". His true name, his very own name.