"And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore.  And the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.  Behold, it is coming and it will be brought about, declares the Lord God.  That is the day of which I have spoken."  Ezekiel 39:7-8 (ESV)

When one sets out to read some of the prophetic books of the Old Testament, one finds that you have to wade through an enormous amount of historical background questions as well as rightly discern whether you are reading prophetic literature or apocalyptic literature (or a combination of the two).  And distilling all that, you'll find a great deal that has already happened, a great deal that points to Christ, to His church, and to the end times. 

The compelling thing about the historical things in the Bible is that when you think about it, you find that the stories that happened in the Bible stil happen today.  The people of scripture are regular people like us.  They do the same things that we do.  Moreover, we (followers of Christ) are like the people of Israel, insofar as we have been freely chosen by God with no merit of our own to be called His people and to be a blessing to the world for the glory of His name (see Genesis 12:1-3, Galatians 3:16-29). 

So, to me, the passage noted above serves as an important reminder for us who follow Jesus.  The name of the Lord must be known among us.  The name of the Lord must not be profaned among us.  Our relationship to each other in Christ must be paramount as we interact with each other, process disagreements, and grow in service to our Lord AND to each other.  'And the nations will know that I am the Lord."  God is certainly going to accomplish that.  But it seems that we have an opportunity to be along for that awesome thing by the way the name of the Lord is known in our midst.  Jesus Himself said the same thing when He told his disciples that the way mankind would know they were His followers was by the way they loved each other.  (John 13:34-35).  May God grant this for His name sake, that His name will be known among the nations.  Amen.