The Scrapbook

           I am not a famous person and there are just a few things in the world that bare my name. My Mother created a scrap book of things that took place in my life and if my name was ev3er mentioned in a newspaper article, she would cut it out and paste it into the scrap book. I have a book that is filled with little meaningless articles where my name appeared such as my singing at a wedding or being in the local chapter of the Future Farmers of America. You have to also remember that the local paper would print anything that it received word for word. Our wedding announcement has every word in it as well as my exploits with the Unitas III band as it toured South America. These days, there is little said in the news about the activities of one named Dan in Roanoke. While it is usually a good experience to see your name in the paper, there is one place your you are mentioned in the Bible and it always excites me to think about this. John 17:20 says, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;” 

          We know the scene. The Lord Jesus Christ is praying. John 17 is devoted entirely to this prayer. At this point, Jesus prays for those that will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of “their word.” We know that the spreading of the Gospel message is through people like you and me. The Word went out from the early disciples and spread from one person to another person until it seemed in the early church that the world had been turned upside down by the spreading of the Gospel message. Finally, the Gospel message came to me through men like Gene Tabor, Ken Vining, Ron Riley, Dick Raven, and finally through the preaching of Dr. Fred Brown and Dolphus Price. It was the same message that had gone down through the ages and finally came to me. I had believed through their word. That means that at this point in the scripture, in the above passage, you can put your name in place of the word “them.” The “them” is you! The scrapbook that God keeps is a bit better and more complete in its job. It is commonly called, the Lamb's Book of Life. The name of every believer is in that book. We find mention of it in several places in the Bible and one of the places it is found is at the Great White Throne judgment. What is unusual here is that none of the names of the people at the Great White Throne are in the Lamb's Book of Life. The people are therefore judged by the content of the “books” which have recorded every deed that every person has ever done or even thought about doing in their life. The final piece of evidence against them is the fact that their name if absent from the Lamb's Book of Life. Praise God today that the name of every believer is mentioned in the Scriptures since we have believed as a result of “their word.”