Taking the Lord's Name in Vain

I have been reading and thinking a lot lately about taking the Lord's name in vain and what that means.  I was always taught by my parents, Sunday school teachers, preachers and other grown ups that it meant not saying His name vainly like a curse word.  For example, Jesus Christ is a phrase many use in anger, exasperation, etc.  People also love to curse using the word damn with the word God. 

This is actually called blaspheming the name of God.  "My Name continually every day is blasphemed" (Isaiah 52:5 KJV) or the name of Jesus "they blaspheme that worthy Name by the which ye are called" (James 2:7 KJV)

Many who read this will think I'm a simpleton, perhaps, but a light recently went off in my mind and I really understood the true meaning behind this phrase.

Back in the good ol' days, when a woman married a man, it was never even considered that she would not bear his name.  She became known as Mrs. Marry Man instead of Miss Marry Girl, and it was an honor.  I vaguely remember women who even signed their checks as Mrs. Marry Man; not just Marry Man.  All credit cards were issued in the name of Mr. Man and so the Mrs. would many times sign Mrs. Harry Man.  She bore her husband's name.

When we come to a saving knowledge of who Jesus Christ is, and we ask Him to take over our lives and live through us; thereby becoming our savior, we take on His name.  We become His bride, so to speak; and we bear the name of "Christian" or "Christ Follower" or "Believer".   As a believer in Christ, and therefore, a follower of His, we are called to speak a different language and walk a different walk than the rest of the world.

Sometimes there are people who use the name of Christ to "appear" holy.  This is an entirely different type of taking the Lord's name in vain.  If we say that we belong to Him, but fail to follow His leading, His example in  dying to self, doing only what the Father wants, and living through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are taking His name in vain.  If we ignore His Holy Word, the Bible, the prompting of His Holy Spirit and do what we think is right, we are taking His name in vain.  We are saying one thing, but living something entirely different.

 "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.' You leave the Commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men." (Mark 7:6-8 RSV)

Does that make you stop in your tracks like it did me?  The actual wording of the Third Commandment is this from Exodus 3:20:

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

God will hold us responsible for not walking the walk when we are talking the talk!  

Heavenly Father, forgive me for my ignorance.  Thank you that you keep opening my eyes to my sinfulness.  God, I need you to keep my mind constantly stayed upon you and aware that everything I do reflects upon you.  Give me your wisdom, Lord, and a heart that sincerely wants for you to be glorified in my life.  I pray in Jesus' name.   Amen

The Heavens Declare The Glory of God

Psalm 19

This is the sunrise that greated me on February 1 during my stay in the Carolinas.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

We have all seen the glory of God in some way, some where. Who then can say with Isaiah and me: (Isaiah 6:2) Woe is me, Woe is me for I am undone because I am a (wo)man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the Lord of Hosts.  When you see God's glory, it opens your eyes to how small and insignificant you are, doesn't it?

The Northern Lights

I have been, in some ways, very naive about the state of the world. I don't watch a lot of TV or movies and I don't listen to secular music very often, and quite frankly, other than going to dinner, my excursions to public places are pretty few and far between.

Recently, though, because I am staying with some friends in the Carolinas, I have joined in watching a little more than normal TV and movies, and with the death of Whitney Houston, I watched a little of the grammies and perused the online news sites.

What I found is more evidence that we are, indeed, living at the end of this age, in times where people show little restraint about anything...how they talk, how they dress, how they dance, how they...well, do anything.

Here are a couple of things that I have found very disturbing recently :

Freak dancing: I saw a friend on facebook comment on how her child and various other children were so upset with their school officials because they weren't able to dance as they wanted at their latest school dance. I decided to run through the comments, and found one parent who said: "...As long as they're not ripping each other's clothes off, let them dance and have fun." I then looked up the term freak dancing to discover that it is, according to the Urban Dictionary:

Freak dancing is a style of urban dancing, usually performed to R&B, pop, rap, hip-hop, or Latin music. It involves two or more people making extremely close physical contact, and facial expressions and physical movements that are sexually provocative and/or that imitate sexual intercourse and foreplay.

We all know what word the word freak is imitating, right?

I then made some sort of idiotic statement about agreeing with school officials that it was not appropriate for kids in any school age to be dancing like this and that my mom always said "give an inch and a mile will be taken" with anything, including freak dancing (she didn't say it about freak dancing, though), and the next thing you know, it's sex like this.  Isn't it a known fact that the more you do something or are subjected to it the easier it is to do it or something to the next level like it?

That mother then told me she had successfully raised two daughters and had a third child in school and that she thought it was more productive to talk to her teens about self-respect, birth control and various other things because if they want to have sex, they will find a way to do it.  I did not respond because I sensed the uselessness in it and because I didn't want to get into a social network battle of the words.

But here's what I'm thinking:  "Yeah, well, does that mean we stop telling them it's not God's plan, it's immoral, it cheapens the act meant to be an act of love, commitment and oneness for a married couple?"  Do we stop giving our kids boundaries?

Next, I ran into a name and a photo which stopped me cold. I've never heard of this girl, let alone  the fact that I can't figure out why in the world she would go to an awards dinner dressed like this and take the "Pope" as her date:

Nicki Minaj @ The Grammys

I subsequently found out that this girl had taken part in Madonna's superbowl "holy of holies" performance.

Then, last, but certainly not least, there's this British MAN who allegedly gave birth last week.  Can you imagine...a man giving birth?  As soon as I read the article, I lifted up a prayer for the world.  We are living in bizarre, immoral days where men and women definitely call good evil and evil good.  Even so, Lord Jesus, come!

I know this blog has gone from one extreme to the other, but it helps me to look at the goodness and majesty of God when I see how far astray mankind has gone.  It helps me to know that God's eyes are running to and fro around the world, and He knows how sick His creation has become.  It helps to know that any moment of any day could be the moment when the trumpet sounds and we'll no longer be subjected to sin and immorality and evil.

So, in closing, I will leave you with the words of Paul to the Philippians (4:8):

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.

A Work in Progress

We've all seen that bumper sticker, "Christians aren't perfect; just forgiven", haven't we? These days there seems to be quite a discussion going on about Christians who are taking advantange of grace by using just such statements as that bumper sticker to explain their continuance of sinful behavior and Christians who believe that when you accept Christ as Savior all your sinful behavior stops.

I have recently begun reflecting on this in a more serious, sober way because I was having doubts as to whether or not I could say for certain that I had given my life to Christ because there was still sin in my life. My last POST: Am I Truly Saved reflects how this subject has been uppermost in my mind lately.

This past week there was a story in the news about Kylie Bisutti. Kylie is a young woman who in 2009 won a Victoria Secret modeling contract. She had gotten married shortly before she won the modeling contract. It seems that now, some two to three years later, Kylie has been convicted by the Holy Spirit of the appropriateness of modeling lingerie and underwear which for the most part is designed to enhance and expose the wearer and excite the audience. If you would like to read the whole story about Kylie, you can go HERE.

This is one of the comments made on the news article I read:

…how refreshing it is…to see someone getting PLAYED!… TANNER where was her “faith” before she entered and won the VS modeling contest? what do VS models do…model pant suits? huh? now that she has fame and a platform to work from she NOW finds her modesty so she can play the christ card….gimmee a break. anybody else falling for this b.s.?

God has shown me during this time of reflection how He has changed me; how he's taken me a step at a time from the glory of asking Him to re-birth me, to regenerate my heart, and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness to the glory of hating my pride, to the glory of wanting to be humble, to the glory of wanting Him to be glorified in my life. It didn't all come at once. It was a process.

God is in charge. If you read the Scriptures, it is not hard to understand that it is He who brings us to a place where we recognize our sinfulness; it isn't anything that we do. The Word is very clear that He is the one that calls us, and He is the one who changes us. Can He change all of our sinful behavior at once? I believe that He can. I believe that in most of us who accept His call on our lives though that He changes many things in us initially but that there are still many, many things that are changed in our day-to-day walk with Christ.

There are so many things that through age and living our lives and not knowing God that we come to think of as "normal" and right and not harming anyone that we don't even think of changing until God turns on a red light in our minds. Just like Kylie Bisutti who always wanted to be a model, and I'm sure thought modeling to be okay because in our culture, modeling is involved in advertising everywhere (and the Victoria Secret models are considered "THE MODELS" to be). From the time you are a small child (selling you the latest clothing, toys, etc.) through the teen years (selling you the latest hot footwear) to adulthood (selling you youth, class; whatever), we are bombarded with images trying to sell us something.

The Christian faith is one of GROWTH and CHANGE over time. Few who accept Christ today become a perfect role-model tomorrow, dropping all of their vices and issues overnight! As we live, we grow and learn, and the Spirit of God convicts us of our sins and issues. This is a LIFELONG PROCESS! Any Christian who looks back and cannot see that God is changing him/her, needs to re-evaluate whether or not they have truly surrendered their life to God.

I can't begin to write here all the things I have learned (by reading God's Word, meditating on it and being convicted by the Holy Spirit) is sin that once upon a time seemed so "normal" and acceptable to the world, but I can tell you this: Our adversary has done a really good job of deceiving us down through the ages, and unless and until we begin to deligently seek God by reading His Word, praying, meditating and spending time with like-minded believers, we can't even begin to know just how deep the deception goes.

I pray that all who stop here today will be prompted by the Holy Spirit to do just that.

Heavenly Father, we are literally like the sheep you call us. We need a Shepherd who loves us to keep us on the path which will not lead to our destruction. Thank you for being that Shepherd. God, I ask that anyone who visits here and reads this will be prompted by your Spirit to honestly examine their life to see if they have truly done what you require in order to claim that they belong to you. Lord, in these days of deceit, selfishness and self-satisfaction, we need you to help us see ourselves as you see us. Thank you for continuing to work in my life, helping me to see my sin as you see it and then helping me to change. All glory to you, Lord Jesus! In your name I pray. Amen

Am I Truly Saved?

Have you ever asked yourself this question? Do you ever doubt your salvation? If you have, you are not alone. I think we have all doubted our salvation at some time, and we are admonished in the book of 2 Corinthians:

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Our salvation is the most important thing in our lives, so it is critically important for us to examine ourselves and question our motives and to ask God to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

My attention was grabbed and my heart stabbed by the wonderful message given by Pastor Paul Washer HERE.

I simply don't know how to express the importance of his message. All I can say to you is... "Please listen to this message." It's only 53 minutes long and I believe God will speak to your heart through it. There are very few men who preach like Paul Washer. I pray with all that I have within me that you who stopped by here today will listen to it; even if you have proclaimed to be a Christian for years - listen to it.

May God bless you and regenerate your heart so that you are born from above.

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

PSALM 23

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Psalm 23 has long been a psalm of comfort to the dying and those who are losing someone to death. I can remember a time when little children were given stars at Sunday School for memorizing things; like the Ten Commandments, John 3:16 and the Psalm 23...I was one of those children. The 23rd Pslam was hard for me for some reason; I never did get that star as a child in Sunday School, but 45 years later, everytime I read it, I draw great comfort from that Psalm.

Because it's always read at funerals and probably because the word "death" seems to stand out (probably it did in my childhood anyway), I've always associated it with death. However, when you sit down and take time to meditate and ponder it, this Psalm is really about right now - life in the here and now. This life we live...getting up, going to work, eating, drinking, sleeping, learning, growing, rejoicing, hurting, sinning, repenting and learning to walk in the wisdom of God is the SHADOW of death.

Today could be the day I die...or you, maybe, or someone close to us. There's about 7 billion people in the world, so that makes a lot of people dying everyday around us, too. We ALL live in the shadow of death because we are all sinners according to the Bible. It is within us all to do bad, bad things, and the Bible says that the consequences of committing sin is death.

If you are like me, you don't like shadows. Walking in the shadows when I'm alone is very scary; you never know what's hiding there, and as a kid, shadows always meant sure death when you played hide and go seek. Being out in the light is much more preferable. A lot of children (and adults when you come to think of it) need to have a night light on to go to sleep. When you think about how big the world is and beyond that, the universe; and add in to the equation just how small and helpless you are in that big world/universe, thinking about being a part of it be a really scary thing.

How comforting it is to know that you can walk everyday in the presence of the Creator of the world/universe and that his rod and staff are there to hold you up and for your protection, and even though you might be surrounded by enemies (human or otherwise), you can trust Him to take care of you. Not one thing will happen to you today that God did not say was okay to happen. Are you hungry? He will feed you. Are you in need of clothing? He will clothe you. Are you a sinner? He will cover you.

When that day comes that is appointed for you and me to take that last breath, we can take comfort in knowing that we can dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

If you have never entrusted your life to God through Jesus Christ. I urge you to take the time today to sit down and make an account of your life. Pray for forgiveness for the things you have done wrong and ask Him to lead you through the rest of the valley.

Can Your Family Be Saved?

According to Ask.com, the divorce rate is right around 50% and in Christian families,it is between 40 and 50%; 41% for first time marriages. The pressures within a family are great and the preparation and the mindset going into marriage so unreal and so romanticized by society that it's a wonder that percentage is not higher. I often wonder what God is going to do with things like divorce and remarriage when we appear before Him at the Judgment Seat of Christ. What started my wondering about this is a book I read by Joseph Herrin, the author of the Parablesblog and owner of the Heart4God.ws web site. I refer you specifically to his book entitled The Marriage Covenant if you, too, would like to wonder about this.

With that being said, I believe the Lord gave me a word to share with someone out there; a family; a family in pain. A family to whom the word conflict is not unknown. A family who gets up fighting, eats dinner fighting and goes to bed fighting. This is a Christian family, or maybe not - maybe only a portion of the family is Christian. It's a family with an older child - not a young child - perhaps a teenager or a tweenager.

The family feels hopeless and in agony. It gets to the point where none of them want to go home and face it all again but where else can they go? Home is supposed to be a haven; a place of love and acceptance, but it's gotten so out of hand that now they are trying to hurt each other on purpose. "I'll show you; you do that to me, and I'll do this to you."

The Bible says in Mark 3:5: AND IF A HOUSE BE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF, IT CANNOT STAND.

If the above description fits your family, your house is divided and is in line for imminent destruction if something doesn't change and change fast.

The word that I believe the Lord gave me for you today is this:

Ephesians 6:1 Children obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 6:2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise); 6:3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

You don't know what body aches and pains or heartaches and pains your parents might be going through. Life as an adult with all the responsibilities that go with it is not easy and the world expects success, wealth, beauty, aggression and ambition. Look at them through eyes of compassion and love. The world isn't all about you and your problems. Try thinking about what they may be dealing with: how to pay their bills, job loss or insecurity, their health, maybe one of them has an addiction to something you don't know about, maybe one of them has done something they are not proud of, maybe a special friend or family member is dying - you just don't know what they're dealing with, so give them a break. Show them some love and kindness and compassion - and obedience and respect.

And for you, parents: Ephesians 6: 4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

You don't know what your child has been through today away from you. Look at them through the eyes of love and compassion. The world is different today than it was when you were young, and you have no idea what kind of pain your child may have been assaulted with today, and if your child is in the throes of puberty, then everything is multiplied 10x. What if you knew your child had been taunted, teased and made fun of by other kids today, would you tread more gently with him or her? What if you knew your child had failed a very important test today and is failing the class and may be held back, would you take back those unkind words? What if you knew your son had been cut from the team and told to go take a ballet lesson instead, would you act differently, and what if your daughter had been called a slut or some other equally insulting name, would you show her some love and kindness instead of berating her because she didn't get her room cleaned? You just don't know and unfortunately, our children don't tell us everything.

Your family can be salvaged with determination, love and dependence on God. First, everytime you look at your parent, mate, child: pray for them; pray for God's best to be given to them. Do you know what God's best is? It's His son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. Pray it every day; pray it every hour. Ask God to help you look at them through His eyes, with love and compassion. Count to ten before answering anything that could possibly lead to a confrontation. Realize your part in the equation - children = obedience, honor and love for parents; parents = love, nurturing, teaching your child about God and His desire to know them and set them free from a life of sin and to give them a hope and a purpose. Determine to live your part in the equation without exception and in complete dependence on the Lord for strength and wisdom.

You CAN do it with His help and IF you really want to. Is this His word for you today?

Love God....Hate My Family???

1 John 2:15,16:

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

The Father's thoughts and ways are much higher than mankind's ways, and so is His speech. Jesus said that He spoke in parables so that only those who truly loved Him and followed Him would be able to understand what He was saying. Also, Psalm 78, verse 2 says: I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

Reading Romans 9:13 one day, I was stopped in my tracks:

As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

What? Why would God ever say that He hated anyone or anything? My mind could not grasp this, and I was puzzled and confused.

Thank God that in studying the Word, I recently learned that this was not a real, true "hatred" of Esau but a type of comparative speech that when you look at the blessing that God bestowed on Jacob in comparison to that of Esau it was like saying that God loved Jacob and hated Esau.

Sometimes our minds work like that; thinking just because someone has been blessed by the Creator with brains, money, possessions and what appears to the world as "anything and everything" they could ever want, that God must have loved that person more than He loved the one who was not so smart, poor and had very little in the way of worldly possessions. I remember being asked once why I thought God had blessed us in such as a way as allowing us to be born in America when so many others in the world were hurting or in need. I don't remember my exact response but I remember it being something totally stupid and incorrect and lame.

I say that it was totally stupid and incorrect now because I know what the Word says: Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.

Have the people of the United States really been blessed by God? Of course we have, in many ways, but in others maybe not so much. I read these days how thousands (and I mean like 30,000 a day) of people are coming to know the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in countries where you wouldn't think it would be happening, like the communist countries and the muslim countries (and I mean real, true, die-for-your-beliefs saving knowledge). And, here we are in the U.S. where everyday you read about someone saying or doing something to undermine being a believer and follower of Christ and people are trying to have the name of Jesus and anything to do with Him erased from American laws and culture.

There are a lot of things that I love in this world; my husband, my children, my home, my pets, my friends, my extended family. I can think of materials things that I love, but, with all thanks to God, I know in my heart I could give those things up without a huge fight if need be. My God is a jealous God, and he wants to be first in my life. He wants to be the main love of my life and if my heart is in the right place there, then He's okay with me loving my family. He just wants the love I feel for them and everything else to be like hatred in comparison to how much I love Him.

The wonderful thing is that the more time I spend with God, the more I love Him. The better I know Him; the more I love Him and want to be with Him. There's only one way to get to know God...read His word and talk to Him about it and all the things happening in your life. I can't begin to tell you the difference it has made in my life, but I wholly encourage you to try it. The change it makes in your life may be the difference between love and hate or life and death.