Bryce Crawford is a young missionary in Los Angeles. He says that many people move to L.A., make mistakes, regret those mistakes, and then wonder what to do next with their life. 

Because of this, he says, people are hungry for Jesus.

My sense is that this experience is not limited to Los Angeles!

I recently saw a quote from Bryce on Threads: “Satan knew my name my whole life but he called me by my sin. Jesus knew my sin but called me by my name.”*

That’s powerful—and very true. Satan deals in deception. One of the ways he tries to deceive us is to get us to think that we are defined by our sin. ‘You’re horrible. You’ll never be good enough. There’s no way that a perfect God would ever accept or forgive you.’

Bryce points out that Jesus knows everything about us. He knows our sin. He even knows the sin which we are unaware of! Even still, in his eyes we are not primarily defined by our sin. When a parent looks at a child they don’t only see all of their problems. They see belovedness. 

The Lord calls us by name. Our sin is smaller than his grace and our resulting belovedness in his eyes.

Do you let the devil’s twisted version of reality take up too much space in your thoughts? Do you let his reminders about your sin become the dominant voice in your head? Do you think that your identity is more about your failure than Christ’s victory?

In 2 Corinthians 8:9 Paul says: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

Welcome to the vault of Christ’s riches. That is where true forgiveness, wisdom, love, new life, and identity, are to be found.

Whose voice is louder in your life? Satan’s? Or Christ’s?

“Satan knew my name my whole life but he called me by my sin. Jesus knew my sin but called me by my name.”

Notes:

-As seen on Threads, June 14, 2025.
-Bible quotes are from the NIV.