See ministry article below fyi, not good to treat God's Name lightly:
On Thu, 9 Jun 2005 19:19:28 -0600 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
myth [the biblical Word created and sustains the world--'the earth..and they that dwell therein' belong to Him, as always, therefore, (our) 'relationship' (with him) is both positive and negative, e.g., as when a non-Chrisitian mutters 'Jesus Christ' and as when someone who loves him like JD says in his own words, 'Jesus Christ'--consider this Word as a subtlety foriegn to the egocentrism and sinlessness of the dualistic mind set in its absolutism and 'correct'-ness--a Humility]MINISTRY ARTICLE: THE THIRD COMMANDMENT By Kiri Christina Hyatt (c)
"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” (Exodus 20:7)
It amazes me how many church going Christians throw God’s name around without thought or respect. They use it so casually. They would never use a friend’s name so casually. Our name is precious to us. It is
our identity. Why do we abuse God’s name when we would be insulted if our name was treated that way?
I have a hunch that many people are using the Lord’s name in vain without even realizing it. People who would never say “Jesus” as a cuss word do not think twice in saying “God” in a similar way. Most Christians would not say “God d___ you”, but a few do. Such profanity should not even cross our minds, let alone come out of our mouths.
Many believers do say, “God!” in a less then holy way. Something bad (or even good) happens and out of our mouth comes, “Oh my God!” To throw the name of our Holy God around like that is very disrespectful. That phrase is nothing more then using God’s name in a vain way.
Someone sneezes and we respond with “God bless you”. The origin of that custom comes from the dark ages. People believed that when a person sneezed there was a possibility his spirit might escape out his
nose allowing a demon to sneak up the nose. The way to prevent that from happening was to say “God bless you”. Now I am not suggesting we should stop saying “God bless you” when people sneeze, but we often say it with no thought or meaning. It is so automatic. We say it in an irrelevant irreverent way. We need to learn to say it with meaning.
It may be helpful to look at the definition of the word ‘vain’. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word vain comes from the Latin word ‘empty’. It means having no real value, idle, worthless, and useless. It also means to use God’s name in an irreverent or blasphemous manner.Take a moment and think about how you often use God’s name. Do you use it in an irreverent way? Do you use it as if it has no value. Do you use it without thinking? If so, you are guilty of using the Lord’s name
in vain.
The sad truth is we Christians simply do not honor and worship God’s name as we should. Attend a Synagogue or Messianic church and you will notice they will not even spell God’s name. Instead they spell it
without the vowels (G_d). The reason for this is they do not want to be guilty of taking God’s name in vain. They do not even want to risk it.
In the ancient Hebrew Scriptures the name of God we translate as Yahweh or Jehovah, is the tetragrammaton (YHWH). Fear of violating this commandment and angering God, the scribes abbreviated His name to YHWH.
Today no one really knows how God’s name is actually supposed to be pronounced. We do not know what the missing vowels are. The scribes did not want to be guilty of using God’s name in vain, so they left out the vowels. His name would only be uttered once a year, and then only in the Holy of Holies. The priests simply viewed God’s name to be to holy to be uttered.
Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, I repent of every instance of my life that I have used Your name in an unholy way. Please forgive me. If I am guilty of using Your name in any manner that is not holy during the past year,
please reveal my sin to me so that I can change. Help me to become so conscience of any bad habits in how I use Your name or say Your name, that I will catch myself before it comes out of my mouth. I thank You in advance for revealing Your truth to me in this area of my life. I ask all this in the name of Jesus, my Lord and Savior, AMEN.
On Thu, 9 Jun 2005 17:02:20 -0400 Judy Taylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:..there is no relationship with the Truth outside of His Word..
