{"id":31117,"date":"2023-04-17T16:29:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T16:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldchallenge.kinsta.cloud\/devotion\/getting-rid-your-label\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T18:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T18:10:17","slug":"getting-rid-your-label","status":"publish","type":"devotion","link":"https:\/\/worldchallenge.kinsta.cloud\/cs\/devotion\/getting-rid-your-label\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Rid of Your Label"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New Testament is the story of stories, and it starts off all wrong. Most adventure stories begin with the wondrous \u201cOnce upon a time\u201d, but Matthew starts his book with a genealogy. Why in the world would he do that? The greatest story ever told starts like a phone book with a long list of unpronounceable names. This is important, though. What makes this list amazing is that some names belong to people who had sketchy pasts.<\/p>\n<p>One of these names is Rahab from the Old Testament book of Joshua whose act of saving Hebrew spies got her inducted into the hall of faith. \u201cBy faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies\u201d<i> (Hebrews 11:31, ESV). <\/i>Not only was she saved, but she married a Jewish man.<\/p>\n<p>Now don\u2019t miss this. Almost every time Rahab\u2019s name is mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments, it says, \u201cRahab the prostitute.\u201d How would you like that, if every time someone said your name, they included with it the worst season of your life? Can you imagine that act or the time you regretted most was the tag line connected to your name?<\/p>\n<p>What if it looked like this? I\u2019ll use my name so I don\u2019t indict anyone. Tim the thief. Tim the embezzler. Tim the adulterer. Tim the baby aborter. Tim the wife beater. Tim the divorcee. Tim the porn addict. Tim the alcoholic. Tim the unemployed. Think about the label that would be after your name. For Rahab, the label \u2018prostitute\u2019 connected her to her past.<\/p>\n<p>If time healed wounds or shame, we wouldn\u2019t need God. Time is not that strong, but God is. There is only one place in the entire Bible where \u2018harlot\u2019 or \u2018prostitute\u2019 is removed from Rahab\u2019s name. It\u2019s when her name is connected to Jesus in Matthew\u2019s genealogy: \u201c\u2026Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king\u201d <i>(Matthew 1:5-6). <\/i>The only way that the past lets go of us is when it\u2019s confronted with a future in Jesus.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px; margin-bottom: 20px; border-radius: 6px; overflow: hidden;\">\n<iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px;\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/episode\/37555087-87a5-4f3e-9c94-d73c24c0e0c1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><sub>After pastoring an inner-city congregation in Detroit for thirty years, Pastor Tim served at Brooklyn Tabernacle in NYC for five years and pastored in Lafayette, Louisiana, for five years. He became Senior Pastor of Times Square Church in May of 2020.<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Testament is the story of stories, and it starts off all wrong. Most adventure stories begin with the wondrous \u201cOnce upon a time\u201d, but Matthew starts his book with a genealogy. Why in the world would he do that? The greatest story ever told starts like a phone book with a long list\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31116,"template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-31117","devotion","type-devotion","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"image":null,"author":"Tim Dilena","captivate_embed":"","date":"2023-05-06"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.7 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Getting Rid of Your Label - World Challenge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldchallenge.kinsta.cloud\/cs\/devotion\/getting-rid-your-label\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"cs_CZ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting Rid of Your Label\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New Testament is the story of stories, and it starts off all wrong. 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