Dear World, Please Stop Vomiting Up His Name
(Part 3 of 3)
Our world countries just completed the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Their camaraderie inspired me to reach out to Lift Him Up readers (representing over 100 countries) and ask them to share the eternal importance of never momentarily taking our Lord’s name in vain.
This is the last of a three part series designed to bring global attention to the constant misuse of the holy names God and Jesus. Part 1 considered the history of God’s name. Part 2 focused on correct and incorrect uses of God’s name. In Part 3 we look at why we should follow God’s third commandment.
Exodus 20:7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
This series contains excerpts from my book: Lift Him Up don’t Pull Him Down, The eternal importance of never momentarily taking our Lord’s name in vain.
Lift Him Up don’t Pull Him Down
Vulgarly speaking His name clearly communicates to everyone around us, the Great I AM has no presence in our lives. If we believe His name possesses any meaning of love toward us, we certainly would not use His name to curse.
When you use someone’s name in vain, it shows lack of respect; lack of respect is clearly an insult that makes us feel scorned. Can you remember the last time you were disrespected by: a family member, your boss, or even someone you just met—like a sales clerk? You probably did not like it. Those feelings of worthlessness cut deep inside us and they hurt.
Just like you are worthy of respect from the people you come in intact with, our loving God deserves only obedience and praise. Imagine someone maligning your reputation throughout the entire day, and you find out about it. Then they come to you at night, asking for favors and blessings, offering no apology or feeling of remorse. How would you react to their request?
Following the Leader.
It is not an easy choice to follow God’s commands in an unholy world. Everyday there are battles between what is right and what is wrong. And when it comes to personal verbal battles, it is merely one slip of our tongue and we loose the battle. Evil does not want Christians to follow this verbal truth and evil does everything in its power to tempt us into choosing the wrong words at the wrong time over the right words at the right time.
Why did God bother to give us specific commandments?
This isn’t a hard question to answer. Imagine playing any game without rules. Football would turn into a wild boxing match. Whichever team was still holding the ball after an indefinite amount of time pushing, punching and choking, wins. Checkers could turn into a psychology test. First stare at the black and red checkerboard and the round pieces. Then what? Duck Duck Goose would be a fiasco. Kids would get lost everyday, endlessly running chaotically through neighborhoods, instead of running around their circle of friends and plopping down in the open seat.
To avoid chaos and give us direction from right and wrong, God gave us His commandments.
- He wants us to follow His Word, not lies.
- He wants us to conquer death, not bow down to it.
- God desires us to be teachable, to read His Word and put it into action.
And when we put His Word into action by following His commandments, we show God we respect Him. Careless disobedience occurs when we take God’s name in vain. When we do this we reveal to God and those around us, disrespect for Him.
Disobedience and disrespect are rule breakers.
It seems to be the popular thing, to publicly proclaim the names Jesus and God, with no intention of lifting their names up. Quite the opposite, the intent is to use The Name foolishly to provoke human emotion. But God reigns above human emotion, and will never allow His name to be pulled down.
God’s name describes His being. God is the architect, author, and artist of the world. He reigns as biographer, biologist and bricklayer of mankind. We acknowledge Him as chemist, choreographer, and creator of life itself. All tasks demonstrated by only One, whose resume has no beginning and no end.
The Bible tells us God’s name represents glory and magnificence, honor and mercy.
In the name of Jesus, we are forgiven our sins. Jesus is Salvation. In the name of Jesus we are baptized. This is eternal life. These are examples of love. In every commandment God gave us, His desire is that we learn these things about Him, that we willfully obey Him, and that we share His love with others. When we need to convey the height or depth of our immediate emotions and circumstances, we must remember to choose our words wisely.
Once we understand the eternal importance of keeping His name holy, I pray we are inclined to change personal misuse, repent and ask forgiveness. Then we can begin to share the depth of following our Lord’s Third Commandment with country man and women living around us.
Imagine the global impact of initiating one simple action:Tell the world God’s name is holy.
To worship the power of God, listen to How Great Thou Art sung by musical artist Carrie Underwood, accompanied by Vince Gill on guitar.
Tell The World God’s Name Is Holy, by sharing this on Facebook.
ORDER COPIES OF LIFT HIM UP DON’T PULL HIM DOWN @ LULU.COM OR AMAZON.COM FOR YOUR NEXT SEASON’S BIBLE STUDY. LET’S COMMIT WORLDWIDE TO TELL THE WORLD GOD’S NAME IS HOLY.
Lift Him Up readership worldwide includes the following countries:
United States of America, Albania, Austria, Australia, Argentina, Bahamas, Belgium, Bermuda, Bahrain, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Caribbean Netherlands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rico, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Hong Kong SAR China, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Sint Maartin, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Lift Him Up 