Watch Your Language

Since joining Facebook I have been pierced in the heart with grief from the language posted by some who claim the name of Christ. I know there are a number of different opinions to all the meanings of the third commandment: "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain". (Exodus 20:7) There are in fact many different ways to take the name of the Lord in vain. I want to talk about one way I have noticed since the first day of joining Facebook. It is bad for anyone to do this, and it will not go unpunished. But if you are one who claims to be a Christian and are using God's name in any meaningless way, you are doing more harm to His holy Name than the average pagan. Thomas Watson said that, "Pretended holiness is merely double wickedness". How do you use the name of God or Jesus, or anything that is related to His attributes, such as His holiness? When you begin to understand the utter holiness of Jehovah, you will shutter at the thought of using His name lightly. He is GOD! He is holy, holy, holy. We are told to revere His holy Name. The prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray starts off with, "Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name". (Matthew 6:9) If you are a true believer, when you are praying you are in the throne room of Jehovah God. Pure holiness. God is all holy and we are to reverence Him as no less! He demands and deserves nothing less than complete respect and reverence for His holy Name! So when you use terms and names of God lightly, you are guilty of complete disrespect for the holiness that belongs only to Him. If the words, "Oh my God" are to ever be uttered from you lips, it should only be in the context of total worship. It should be when your heart is humble before your Lord and you are in complete awe of His goodness and holiness, His grace and mercy. It should be at a time when you are on your face, or on your knees, or with your hands lifted high in praise and prayer and adoration to your King. It should be exalting His name, not expressing your emotions. If you use the letters "OMG" on Facebook, then you are talking about Him in a meaningless way. It trivializes true worship of the Lord of glory. If you change any of the names of Yahweh, do you think that it in any way changes the fact that you are implying His perfect, holy names to your flippant language? Everyone knows what you mean and so do you. Why change it? You are just as guilty before the Lord as if you didn't change it and just spelled it properly. I wasn't using God's name in any way but I was using a word up until a little over three years ago that hurt the Name of Christ. At my job, as a professing Christian, I never want to do anything that causes others to turn away from Jesus instead of turning towards Him. The very first thing that God changed about my behavior after salvation was my language. From what I have heard over the years, that is the case with most born again believers. God will deal with your language quickly. He sure changed mine and He changed even my desire to want bad words to come from my mouth. Luke 6:45 talks about from out of the heart, the mouth speaks. It grieved me that words would come out that were dishonoring to my God because it hurt His name and crippled my witness. So the bad language went very quickly. But when I would get really mad, which was the case often at work, I would say the word "frickin". Over three years ago, it took a man at work who is not a Christian to straighten me out. This man said to me, "Dana, why don't you just go ahead and say the other word? It's exactly what you mean and everyone knows it, so why not just go ahead and say it?" Wow, that blew me away. I was so grieved over my selfish, wicked sin. The Spirit of God convicted me on the spot! I'm sure He had been convicting me all along because such language from an angry heart, coming from a child of His would grieve and quench Him terribly. I just hadn't paid attention to His promptings up until that point. It took a child of Satan to show me what I should have seen all along. I repented of my wicked sin and have never once said that word again since that day. It dishonored God because I was claiming His name from one side of my mouth and hurting His name from the other. It's no different than you if you claim the name of Jesus but use any language that cheapens His glory. Those words are empty! They are meaningless! He is sacred and holy but those words take away from the seriousness of honoring all that He is. It's the same with using catchy phrases like "goodness gracious" or "Lord have mercy" when it comes to expressing our shock or disapproval. HE IS GRACIOUS! He is goodness and He is mercy!! He has been showing me lately that these phrases cheapen His holy Name and the wonderful things He does in keeping with His perfect attributes. I've long since stopped using cuss words and I never say "Oh my God" or "Good Lord" "Lawdy" or use "OMG" but I have said "goodness gracious" when something bothers me and I'm at a loss for words. Well, the Holy Spirit has shown me that the only time I need to be referring to goodness, graciousness, holiness, or to mercy is when I am in prayer or when I am in complete communion with my Lord and I am praising Him for those things. The other time is when I am witnessing to others and telling them of all the wonderful attributes of my God. If I am overwhelmed with His goodness, graciousness and mercy towards me then I will be on my face in tears thanking Him with a heart full of gratitude and praise. Those words won't come out when I am disgusted about something and I walk away and can think of nothing else but, "goodness gracious". Instead maybe I will plead for His mercy to flow through me in being merciful in that situation and if the case may be, in continuing to pray for someones salvation. Instead of saying that phrase, I will just ask God for peace in my heart and joy in the Lord. When I say things that cheapen His grace,God takes it serious. It isn't Satan who wants my language to be nothing but that which honors the King of kings and Lords of lords! It is surely not from the wickedness of my own heart left to it's own understanding and desires. It is the Holy Spirit living inside me who is bringing me more and more into the likeness of my Master Jesus Christ. It's the Holy Spirit inside me who is grieved when I forget and use the term, "Lord have mercy" when baffled or upset by something. And nothing has come natural to me so far in the way of replacement catch phrases. "My oh my" is the one that my pastor uses and I like that but it doesn't flow from me naturally yet. But because God has confirmed in my spirit that this is from Him, then I will not be satisfied until a replacement phrase is what comes from me during times of verbally expressing my feelings. And if you claim the name of Christ, I beg you to not use, in your casual conversations or times of expressing your emotions, language that includes any of His names or attributes. You may wonder why you should care what I think or feel and realize that my opinion of your language doesn't matter. But when you stand before the Judge of the earth, what will matter in the end is how you sinned against Him and how your language drove others away from Christ instead of towards Him. If they view your language as hypocritical and want nothing to do with that kind of "religion" then Jesus will judge you for that along with profaning His holy name. That kind of language will never honor or reverence Him or show worship towards His Name.....His holy, holy, holy Name!