I love listening to Chip Ingram on the radio & recently discovered that you can hear the messages online as well. That works out great for me since I usually get to work right in the middle of his message. His messages the past 2 days have been very interesting to me. They've been about taking God's name in vain. Now, I'm not a curser at all - but I do have a habit of saying "Oh My God!" - & not really even thinking about it - more of a habit than anything. When someone does something stupid at work, I usually follow that up with "Oh, dear Lord!". It was pointed out that any time you speak God's name without thinking about the reverence it should be held in, that's taking the Lord's name in vain! WHOOO - I never thought of that before. The message was made that any time someone says His name without ever meaning anything by it - that's the point - they dont mean anything by it - & His name is so much more than having nothing meant by it.
For me, I just really took it as saying the dreaded G-D word - which I dispise more than anything. But when people say that, they dont realize - they are asking God to Damn something - do they realize that? For God to damnize someone or something is to put them apart for Him forever? How serious is that???!!! That's darn right scary to me! Someone said, when you hear someone say G-D - you need to go up to them & say, "You must be a righteous person saying your prayers out loud for everyone to hear" - could you imagine the reaction you would get?
Matthew 12:36-37 says "And I tell you this, that you must give an account on judgement day of every idle word you speak. The words you say now reflect your fate then; either you will be justified by them, or you will be condemned"
OUCH! The big key in that for me is "IDLE word" - the words you dont really even think about! The "Oh my GOD! when someone scares the living life out of you - or the 'Jesus Christ - did you see that pass that guy made" during a game....those things you say without even thinking. You will give an account for those words - the idle words! They reflect your fate....Pretty scary & thought provoking stuff! I can bet you one thing - if those idle words are that important to God - I'm going to be sure they become that important to me!
Taking the Lord's name in vain is just another one of those sins that somehow gets thrown into the "it's not that big of a deal to God" piles. It probably falls right on top of coveting, gossiping, slandering, and dare I say unforgiveness. Hey, that would make a good sermon- "The Excuseables- Sins God Doesn't Care About."
ReplyDeleteVery true and something that a lot of us don't even think about. I agree with Jennifer, this would make a great sermon!
ReplyDeleteHey Jennifer - you have connections - tell Chad about your idea! :-) That is a great sermon topic! How many people want to say that their sins are as "important" or serious as others....
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