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Do you have a street named after you, a highway perhaps? Do you have a city or a town that bears your family name and to which you can trace your ancestry?
When I'm driving through North Georgia, I notice so many roads bearing family names and I wonder what those people are like and what they did to warrant the road be named in their honor.
My last name, Kuhlhorst, is a rather strange last name in that there aren't many Kuhlhorsts in the United States and therefore I don't believe there is a street, road or town named Kuhlhorst. Since the Kuhlhorst family hails from Germany I looked on a map of Germany and low and behold I found Kuhlhorst! Bravo, Kuhlhorst family, bravo!
The name of any place has meaning. In the Bible, the stories of faith are connected to the name of the place in which the story occurs. Take for example Exodus 17:1-7. Moses had led children of Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness as part of their liberation, freedom from Pharaoh's oppression.
Sounds good on paper but think about it with me. The wilderness doesn't have infrastructure; no plumbing or running water. It reminds me of traveling in the Nevada desert and seeing signs that say you'd better get gas here because there's nothing for over 100 miles. What were God and Moses thinking by bringing thousands of people out into nowhere without a well or an outhouse?!! Egad! You know what happens at the end of the day when folks are hangry (hungry, angry and tired); they quarrel and complain and that's what happens at the end of the day in this story. So, Moses named the place Massah, testing place, and Meribah, quarreling.
So, I wonder since the place is called Massah and Meribah do testing and quarreling have a place within our faith? Come listen to the sermon this Sunday and we will explore this question together.
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