ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY -PART 55

ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY 
- PART 55

(Mark Cahill's Book)


Third Commandment

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. (Exodus 20:7) 

What does "in vain"  mean ?   It means
"Uselessly,"   or  "to no avail,"   for instance we might say:  "My efforts to achieve the goal were  in vain. "

Taking the Name of God means to
speak it irrelevantly, uselessly, 
because we are not really  
addressing Him.

To do this shows that we have 
contempt for Him. Perhaps without knowing it, we we are taking 
something mighty and powerful 
and trying to diminish it, cheapen 
it by the way we use it.

In the Old Testament people were 
given the death penalty for speaking God's Name irrelevantly. Some 
Jews consider the Name of God so 
Holy they speak or write it at all, lest they inadvertently break this commandment.

How can someone fear God and use 
His Name in vain?  Some people 
speak evil of God and accuse Him of evil. Some make promises to God 
that they do not keep. Some say: "I swear to God!"  And havent a clue to what they just said.

If we complain against God, or 
denigrate His Name, and Character, 
we are taking His Name in vain.

Here is a sad example: On a flight to 
Newark recently no one was sitting 
next to me. That was kind of odd since 
I had prayed for someone to sit next to me so that I could talk to them about 
the Lord. But there was a guy next to 
me across the aisle. 

I usually don't talk across the aisle because there are people going back and forth, and that cuts the flow of conversation. 

After a while though, and after 
praying I decided to see if that guy wanted to engage in conversation. 
He did.

His name was Michael. He told me 
that his birthday was September 
11th. He told me that on his birthday,
 in 2001, his sister-in-law who worked
 in the World Trade Centre wanted him to come there to get his gift.

So he went there. She came down at 8.45am three minutes later, the first plane hit that building. He told her to run. She worked on one of the floors where everyone was killed except 
her.  He told me that he was right 
there when the 2nd plane hit. 

He said it was terryfying. He told me 
that he was standing there as a lady came hurtling down, hit a street sign and was split in two. 

Because he is a professional masseur, he stayed there to work on the firemen. As we talked he told me that he was homosexual, and wanted to know if he was going to hell because of that. 
Twice he motioned towards his bag 
and said, "if I am going there, I have 
my suntan lotion right here."

During our conversation 
he would continually mock God. It made me want to  never  ever mock God, or take His Name wrongly again. It makes me thankful for God's life-changing presence with His people. I continue to pray for the salvation of Michael. He lives in a world that has contempt for God and has no fear of using His dear Name as a curse word. 

How many times, watching a sporting event, have you read the lips of players 
and coaches as they took the Holy Name of God in vain?  Even using His Name in a flippant, or joking manner, is not right with God. JC or GD are not respectful ways to talk about the 
Creator of the universe.

Phillipians 2 : 9-11 says:
Wherefore God also  hath highly 
exalted Him, and given Him a Name 
that is above every name.  That at the Name of Jesus, every knee should 
bow, of things in heaven and things 
in earth and things under the earth. 
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
 of God the Father.

The most righteous, Holy Name in  the universe has been brought down to common use as a vile curse word. Ask yourself :" Have I broken the Third Commandment by taking the Name of God in vain?"

next post  14th November