Behold the Lamb Tour Coming to Wausau!

Behind the Scenes of "Behold the Lamb"

VA!N ?!

I've been thinking a lot recently about what it means in Exodus 20:7 when it reads ""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."

Often I find the Amplified Bible of great help, since it expounds on some of the original Hebrew text's meanings. It reads...

"You shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, lightly or frivolously, in false affirmations or profanely]; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain." [AMP] (emphases mine)

You'll notice in many translations that "the LORD" is in all caps. Why?

If you check out the intrduction and/or translators notes you'll see that this LORD stands for the precious self-revealed Name of the Living and True God; the Name He declared to Moses at Mt. Horeb [Exodus 3:14] - YHWH. Scholars pronounce it either "Yah-weh" or "Je-ho-vah", it's proper rendering having been lost to time and the desire of Jewish scribes that no one ever misuse 'The Name' (they dropped the vowels out for this purpose, hence the disagreement over its pronunciation).

It means 'I AM THAT I AM'. It is His proper Name.

Clearly the EX 20 passage reads that no one should misuse or take the proper name of the Judeo-Christian God - "YHWH" - in vain.

'You shall not take the name of the YHWH (who is) your God in vain..."

Why does this matter?

I've been reading the Old Testament with fresh eyes, mentally reading "Yahweh" when I encounter "LORD". It has really been helpful, for every time a prophet or judge or king or God Himself uses it , it is a reminder that He is no ambiguous god. He was and is not to be confused with pagan 'gods' like Molech, Ashtoreth, Dagon or Baal. Rather, He is the specific god of Israel, the delivering god, the all-knowing, all-present, all-mighty god - the one and only, Triune, capital "G", God - the Ancient of Days. Try this reading approach for a week in the Old Testament and see what it does for you.

I've been wondering recently, is the phrase "Oh, my god" which is so prevalent in our culture a violation of the command of God? If a commited pagan or wiccan or Buddhist uses this phrase, they are clearly not referring to YHWH, since He is not their 'god'. Does an atheist or agnostic break the command of God by using this phrase?

Clearly it is not a helpful phrase in any context as it diminishes the importance and reverence of deity in general.

And since the Christian professes to know and walk with God, it would not be a wise use of breath.
[READ: no Christian should utter this phrase]

But do we label the OMG phrase vanity and a breaking of YHWH's command, yet allow worse infractions to pass with a smile and/or a simple shake of the head or roll of the eyes?

God has also revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. God in the flesh. Jesus Himself was accused of blasphemy by applying The Name to Himself (John 8:48-59). Certainly the misuse of His Name - Jesus - as a curse (which by the way occurs without rival worldwide... no one uses 'Allah' or 'Mohammed' or 'Buddah' as an exclamation of disgust)... certainly Jesus' name in the context of a curse is a violation of Exodus 20.

But have we Christians considered our Messiah so informaly that we break the command and label it 'evangelism'?

I pulled into our church's parking lot today and saw the following bumper sticker beneath and Icthus fish symbol...
"Jesus is coming back - look busy"

Are you kidding me???

I was disgusted. Not only do I think it a violation of EX 20:7 (especially in light of the AMP translation), but a complete distortion of the Gospel. Do we really mean to convey that busyness equals faith? or that He is unaware of our activity until He comes back??

Or how about this clever saying imprinted on a cheap plastic children's bank I saw years ago while working at a local Christian bookstore...
"Jesus Saves"

(>_<)

I think it was modern day prophet and songwriter Keith Green who rightly labeled this as 'Jesus Junk'... items that used our dear Christ's name to sell merchandise, which unintentionally shows the world that we'll buy junk just because somehow it is made "Christian" by printing 'Jesus' on it.

Is calling this stuff 'junk' more offensive than the its ability to sell based on 5 letters emblazoned on it.

It shows them He is under our control; that He is not a God worthy of our drop-jawed awe and revernce. He has become a commodity; his Name bandied about to make a buck.

(As a related aside: what's this with companies now making suckers and chocolates in the shape of a cross to sell at Easter rather than the 'secular' bunnies? Do we consume other devices of torture and execution? Can the place of our redemption at the bloody, brutal death of our savior now be eaten in such a cavalier manner?)

Maybe the Church should stop gasping at an unbeliever using the phrase "oh, my (ambiguous) god" and renew our reverence for the Name at which every knee will one day bow - Jesus, the second person in the Godhead of YHWH

the fool ?

We saw him at the gate and I mused, “I bet he’s an Orthodox Jew.”

His dark suit, wide brimmed hat, and full beard seemed a dead give away, but I thought, well, maybe not.

I overheard parts of his Hebrew conversation on his cell phone as he was walking down the center aisle of the airplane. Meshiach… one word I knew from the little Hebrew I had acquired.

Messiah.

My thoughts began to turn in my head, “Perhaps he’s a Messianic Christian? Maybe he’s discussing a hoped for coming Messiah?” There was no way to be certain.

He took his seat.. next to me on my left, still in the middle of his phone coversation.

I wondered if God had seated this man next to me so I could share something with him.

I turned to my wife. “Just another hour or so and we’ll be with the kids again.”

“Good. I miss them.”

“Uh… Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain… it’s looks like the bad weather in Chicago is going to keep us on the ground for a while. Control is telling us we need to wait for 45 minutes before we can leave. It may be longer.”

Ugh. Here we were, so close to home and yet we would have to wait. I grabbed the airline SkyMall magazine in front of me and started flipping through the pages of overpriced, uber high-tech gadgets honestly wondering if anyone needed a water cooling, self-circulating dog water dish. (or stairs for their dog to get up on the couch for that matter!)

My neighbor was discussing the history of the traditions of the Feast of Booths on his cell phone.

I must have gotten lost in the intricacies of the video goggles for sale (with the ability to connect to your DVD player/iPod/PSP/ETC and project an image which fools your brain into thinking you’re watching a 52” screen in front of you – you can see why I got lost) when I noticed motion out of the corner of my eye.

My neighbor was standing.
And slightly swaying and bowing with a small book in his hands.

It was then that I also noticed the tassels of his prayer shawl.

I assume he was facing Jerusalem.

It was at that moment that God reminded me of a few things:

- the man beside me was not making a show of his prayer life. Though it was obvious what he was doing, there was no hint that he was doing this to be noticed. He was simply trying to honor God through his devotion. He did not loudly pray so that all heads would turn in his direction. He did not call attention to himself in his prayer; his words were barley a whisper

- when our first and foremost devotion is to Christ, we are going to look foolish to the world, but if He is Who we believe Him to be (more so Who He claims Himself to be) who should we fear? Because He is Who He is, the Saving, Living, Redeeming God, my allegiance is to Him over any human thought of my foolishness. Indeed the Scriptures tell us that, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong…” I Cor. 1:25-27 (ESV)

I am so thankful he was there. Whether or not He knows that Jesus (Yeshua) is the promised Messiah (Meshiach), the Lord used him, nonetheless, to speak to me.