Ptarmigan or Chicken

Downtown Chicken Alaska

Luke 10:20  (ESV)

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Day twelve of our Alaska adventure we went to Chicken Alaska. The Town of Chicken was once the mining hub for the Forty mile district. In 1886, ten years before the Klondike Gold Rush, gold was discovered on Franklin Creek and the community of Chicken was founded.

As the story goes, the miners wanted to name the town 'Ptarmigan' after the bird which is common in the area. Unfortunately, people couldn't agree on how to spell it! Finally they settled with the easier name of Chicken. The name stuck and so has the community, despite an up-and-down history of mining in the Fortymile district. Today, there is a lot more to Chicken than appears from the roadway. Guided tours take people through the Historic Town of Chicken, which is a living museum of Gold Rush and Alaskan Frontier History.

In its glory year, Chicken boasted a population of around 400. Now, it ranges from 50 in the summer to 6 in the winter. Miners still work the nearby hills, hoping to find that elusive pay streak.

As I was thinking about the trouble they had with the name Ptarmigan it made me think that no matter how difficult  or stange your name is it is very simple to have it recorded in the Lambs Book of Life. To do so remember the ABC’s

A - Admit you have Sinned

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

B - Believe On Jesus Christ

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.- John 3:16-17.

C - Confess Christ Publicly  

…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. – Romans 10:9-10.

Today you can be saved and your name in the Lambs Book of Life. I would love to hear from you if you have any questions.

Dear Lord, we thank You that You know us my name. We thank You that You have made a way for each of us to go to heaven. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

He Knows Your Name.

Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

    before you were born I set you apart;

    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

"Hey you, come here!"

"Why should I?"

"Because I want you to."

"You don't even know my name! Why should I even care?"

The life of a teacher isn't always that easy. How is this poor person supposed to remember the names of all the students at his/her school? I know of one teacher who found the solution to this problem. He gave nicknames to all of his students. For some reason he could remember these nicknames better than the children's real names!

But can you imagine being born without a name? Everyone around you would have no choice but to call you "Hey you!" Not very personal! In such circumstances I would prefer to have a nickname.

A friend of mine told me about someone who did not have a first name for the first five years of his life.

How could that be?

My friend found out that many new babies in Kenya do not receive a given name until they are 5 years old. The reason? The infant mortality rate is so high that some parents feel it is too painful to give something as personal as a name to a child during the first five years of his or her life! "Hey you!" May be quite common in Kenya!

God, however, knows us intimately, in and out, from the very beginning of our existence. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart . . ." (Jeremiah 1:5a, NIV)

Unlike many children under five in Kenya, the man my friend heard about survived, thanks to the intervention of a Christian charitable organization. He was the first sponsored child in Kenya!

We Christians have the responsibility to bring hope to the hopeless, help to the helpless, victory to the defeated, and purpose to those who are lost. Love changes everything. Ask those nameless children who receive a name in the name of the Lord!

We love because we focus our whole attention on the source of such love: "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." (1 John 4:7, NIV)

Dear Lord, we pray today that we will let You use us to show Your love to those in this world. Help us show them they are important and that You know the by name. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

He Knows My Name

Isaiah 43:1 (New International Version)

But now, this is what the LORD says—

   he who created you, Jacob,

   he who formed you, Israel:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

   I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

They say if you want to make a good first impression on someone, you should use his name.

Folks are flattered that you remembered who they are.

If that's the case, there is a congressman who is in trouble. Let me explain why.

On December 12th, Sergeant Sean Collins, having completed two tours of duty in Iraq and serving his first in Afghanistan, was murdered by a suicide bomber.

In an appropriate show of respect, the congressman of Sean's parents sent a letter of sympathy. It was the appropriate thing to do.

The problem is this: rather than calling Sean by his name, that is: Sean, the letter referred to the sergeant as Byrn. That's right; the congressman got the sergeant's name wrong. Collins' parents said, we "were kind of taken aback by wow! This is probably just a form letter and (nobody) didn't even take the time to proofread it so it was really disappointing."

I think I would be disappointed, too.

Of course, as Christians, that's not something we have to worry about, is it?

It's true that "God loved the world ..." (John 3:16a), but He also loves each of us as individuals.

The Lord listens to prayer, but not just broad, generic prayer. The Lord listens to the petitions of each individual's heart.

The Lord forgives sins, but not just sins in general; He forgives individual sins, special sins, big sins and sins that are troublesome. He especially can forgive those sins we think of as being beyond the scope of forgiveness.

All of this means the Lord who created and formed us, who sent His only Son to redeem us, has called us by our names.

We are His.

Dear Lord we thank You for knowing our name. We know even the hairs on our head are numbered by you. Thanks for caring for each one of us. In Jesus Name, Amen.

What Name Do You Wear?

1 Peter 4:14-16 (New International Version)

14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.

When the 1960s ended, many hippies moved down the coast to Santa Cruz. They got married and had children. But they didn't name their children Melissa or Brett. People in the mountains around Santa Cruz grew accustomed to their children playing with little Time Warp or Spring Fever. And eventually Moonbeam, Earth, Love and Precious Promise all ended up in public school.

That's when the kindergarten teachers first met Fruit Stand. Every fall, parents applied name tags to their children, kissed them good-bye and sent them off to school on the bus. So it was for Fruit Stand. The teachers thought the boy's name was odd, but they tried to make the best of it.

"Would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?" They offered.

And later, "Fruit Stand, how about a snack?" He accepted hesitantly. By the end of the day, his name didn't seem much odder than Heather's or Sun Ray's.

At dismissal time, the teachers led the children out to the buses.

"Fruit Stand, do you know which one is your bus?" He didn't answer. That wasn't strange. He hadn't answered them all day. Lots of children are shy on the first day of school. It didn't matter. The teachers had instructed the parents to write the names of their children's bus stop on the reverse side of their name tags. The teacher simply turned over the tag. There, neatly printed, was the word "Anthony."

We often hear folks say, "There's nothing in a name!" But there is very much something in a name. Our name identifies who we are and where we came from (and sometimes where we're going). That's why Abram's name was changed to Abraham ("father of a multitude"), and Simon's to Peter ("the rock").

As Christians, we are proud to wear the name of the one who is our Lord, our Savior and our head.

Dear Lord we thank You that we can wear Your name because it shows where we are going. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Is Your Name More Desirable the Riches?

In his book, I Almost Missed The Sunset, Bill Gaither writes:



Gloria and I had been married a couple of years. We were teaching school in Alexandria, Indiana, where I had grown up, and we wanted a piece of land where we could build a house. I noticed the parcel south of town where cattle grazed, and I learned it belonged to a 92-year-old retired banked named Mr. Yule. He owned a lot of land in the area, and word was he would sell none of it. He gave the same speech to everyone who inquired: "I promised the farmers they could use it for their cattle."


Gloria and I visited him at the bank. Although he was retired, he spent a couple of hours each morning in his office. He looked at us over the top of his bifocals.


I introduced myself and told him we were interested in a piece of his land. "Not selling," he said pleasantly. "Promised it to a farmer for grazing."


"I know, but we teach school here and thought maybe you'd be interested in selling it to someone planning to settle in the area."


He pursed his lips and stared at me. "What'd you say your name was?"


"Gaither. Bill Gaither."


"Hmmm. Any relation to Grover Gaither?"


"Yes, sir. He was my granddad."


Mr. Yule put down his paper and removed his glasses. "Interesting. Grover Gaither was the best worker I ever had on my farm. Full day's work for a day's pay. So honest. What'd you say you wanted?"


I told him again.


"Let me do some thinking on it, then come back and see me."


I came back within the week, and Mr. Yule told me he had had the property appraised. I held my breath. "How does $3,800 sound? Would that be okay?"


If that was per acre, I would have to come up with nearly $60,000! "$3,800?" I repeated.


"Yup. Fifteen acres for $3,800."


I knew it had to be worth at least three times that. I readily accepted.


Nearly three decades later, my son and I strolled that beautiful, lush property that had once been pasture land. "Benjy" I said, "you've had this wonderful place to grow up through nothing that you've done, but because of the good name of a great-granddad you never met."




A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

- Proverbs 22:1 (New International Version)

Dear Lord we pray that we would have a name more desirable then gold. Help us live a life that would be worthy of praise. In Jesus’ name, amen.

What's in a Name?

When the 1960s ended, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district reverted to high rent, and many hippies moved down the coast to Santa Cruz. They had children and got married, too, though in no particular sequence. But they didn't name their children Melissa or Brett. People in the mountains around Santa Cruz grew accustomed to their children playing Frisbee with little Time Warp or Spring Fever. And eventually Moonbeam, Earth, Love and Precious Promise all ended up in public school.

That's when the kindergarten teachers first met Fruit Stand. Every fall, according to tradition, parents bravely apply name tags to their children, kiss them good-bye and send them off to school on the bus. So it was for Fruit Stand. The teachers thought the boy's name was odd, but they tried to make the best of it.

"Would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?" they offered. And later, "Fruit Stand, how about a snack?" He accepted hesitantly. By the end of the day, his name didn't seem much odder than Heather's or Sun Ray's.

At dismissal time, the teachers led the children out to the buses. "Fruit Stand, do you know which one is your bus?"

He didn't answer. That wasn't strange. He hadn't answered them all day. Lots of children are shy on the first day of school. It didn't matter. The teachers had instructed the parents to write the names of their children's bus stops on the reverse side of their name tags. The teacher simply turned over the tag. There, neatly printed, was the word "Anthony."

Since a names meaning can carry so much weight, it comes as no surprise that they are usually chosen with great care. Expecting parents who want to find the most suitable name for their child commonly research names meanings. With that being said Jesus’s name is above all names. Let’s always honor His name.

God exalted him [Jesus] to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

— Philippians 2:9-11 (NIV)

Dear Lord and Heavenly Father, We pray that we will always honor your name and remember to bring glory to you by never using your name in an unworthy way. In Jesus’ Name, Amen