What’s in a Name?
Israel Houghton says his name testifies to the goodness of God…

Looking back at Israel Houghton’s life story, it is plain to see that without God’s intervention, he might never have been born.  Here is Israel’s testimony in his own words. 

I come from a cross-cultural background… my father was black and my mother is white. My mother became pregnant at the age of 17 in Waterloo, Iowa. Obviously, it was a bad situation during the early 70’s in a small midwestern town.  Her parents gave her two choices: either have a back-alley abortion or be disowned by her family.  Thank God she chose life. Ultimately, she was disowned and abandoned by my biological father. 

She ended up moving to San Diego, California.  There she was - eight months pregnant, alone and thousands of miles from home. 

One day, while walking down the street, this lady pulled up to her in a Volkswagen Bug. The woman got out of her car and respectfully, yet boldly began to share the Gospel with my mom.  Words of life and hope began to overtake the words of rejection and abandonment she had grown accustomed to. There on the street corner, she ended up on her knees where she cried out to God and committed her life to Jesus Christ.  The lady gave my mother a Bible and she began reading at page one. My mother saw the name Israel all through it. That’s how I got my name!

My mother eventually met and married my stepfather, who is really my dad, when I was one year old.  We grew up in church because he went into full-time ministry as a pastor.  You see, God had a plan from the very beginning!

I’m often asked by skeptics why I’m as passionate about worshiping God as I am. The answer is simple for me. In this age of disposable relationships, I could easily have become a statistic and, at best, a distant memory of a youthful mistake. Instead, a Sovereign God rescued my mother and me and gave us hope, a future and a testimony of the providence of God. The very least I can do is enter into His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with a passionate praise and eventually bow before His throne in intimate worship.

I tend to lead worship from an internal platform founded in Psalm 124:2, “If it had not been for the Lord, who was on my side…” where in the world would I be?