What's So Special About God's Name?

          Over the past few weeks our students have been working through the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses over 3,500 years ago.  There has been interesting discussion as we have wrestled with why the commandments are in the order they are, what they really mean, and how they apply to our lives today.

            

          This past week focused on the third commandment which states, “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God” (Exodus 20:7).  As a child I recall my parents teaching me this commandment constantly particularly tied to moments when I lost my temper or became upset.  However, through the years I have often wondered that if this commandment is solely referencing not using God’s name is a negative way when I am angry, why is it number three on the list?  That seemed a little high to me and the fact is that I misunderstood the meaning behind this commandment. 

As I reviewed this commandment more in depth, I came to understand that it did not simply apply to times when I lost my temper but to something more.  This command actually teaches us that we are not to associate God’s name with anything that God is not associated with.   In other words we should not manipulate, abuse, or mishandle the name of God.  The clearest example that I can think of happening during my four years of undergraduate work at a small Christian college in Indiana was when I witnessed people in dating relationships play the “God Card.”

Here is what I mean by this:  The college I attended was small, to the point that everyone knew everyone else.  Which meant you knew about the dating lives of other people as well.  For four years we watched couples begin dating, fall in love, and then out of the blue break-up because “God told them to.”  I never understood this until one day when I had a conversation with a fellow student who had ended several relationships with the phrase, “God told me to break-up with you.”  During this conversation, he told me that he would date a girl until he got “bored” and then rather than try to find a reason to break-up with her, he would simply tell her that God told him to.  I struggled with this at the time for reasons that did not become apparent until a couple of years later.  I realized that this young man was misusing the name of God because he was using God as an excuse or “playing the God card.”  God had not told him to break-up with the girl, yet time after time we would see young ladies heartbroken because of this young man’s misuse of God’s name.  Years later, I now realize that God doesn’t want us to misuse, abuse, or manipulate His name but to regard it with the sacred and holy attention that it deserves.

Today, I would like to leave you with a question to consider about your relationship with God and to discuss with your students.  “On a scale of 1 to 10, how close to God would you say you are right now?”  As you wrestle with this question I challenge you to think about if you are trying to leverage God against Himself and what steps you could take more accurately align your use of the name of God with what God truly represents.  Our story with God started over 3,500 years ago when Moses had a conversation with God on the side of a mountain, in which God asked Moses one simple question, “Will you trust Me?”  We are given that same opportunity today as we remember “When you use the name of god to dodge the Will of God, you will ultimately miss out on God entirely.”  

Out of the Box Mentality

Once upon a time there was a young man who lived a good life.  He went to church on Sunday mornings, volunteered at a local soup kitchen, read his Bible occasionally, and prayed when he needed something.  He considered himself “religious” and felt like he was in good standing with God.  He would go through this routine and believed that everything would ultimately work out.  However, this young man had a secret.  Despite his “connection” to God during the weekend he would start every week the same way.  He would have a conversation with God early Monday morning that went something like this:  “God thank you for taking care of me this weekend and while I want to honor you, I know there are some things at my work that you wouldn’t be proud of.  I know that some of my friends wouldn’t appreciate or understand it if I talked about you.  So as is the case with every week I want to put you in this box and leave you on the shelf here at home while I go about my business this week.  Once Saturday morning hits again, I will get you out and we have another conversation.  Have a good week.”

While this fictitious story may seem a little far-fetched, how many of us do this with God weekly or even daily?  We tend to make God so small, and we squeeze and push Him into this little box that we may or may not pay attention to, which allows us to live how we want.  But God knows that even if this is our tendency, this is not what it looks like to have a real relationship.

God wants to be the center of every decision, the One you go to for everything. And God wants to make sure you don’t make Him just one part of your life.  God outlined this in the first two commandments that he gave to Moses over 3,500 years ago.  The first commandment states, “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3) and the second says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below”  (Exodus 20:4)  Behind these first two commandments, we don’t discover a God who is insecure or wants attention for attention’s sake, but a God who understands that our lives work better when He’s in the center, and He remains God-not compact, compartmentalized, and small.  And because He loves us, He wants what is best for us.

Today, I would like to leave you with a question to consider about your relationship with God and to discuss with your students.  “Why is it easier to want God involved in certain areas of your life over others?”  As you wrestle with this question I challenge you to think about if you are putting God in a box and what steps could you take to move God more towards the center of your life if He’s not there already.  Our story with God started over 3,500 years ago when Moses had a conversation with God on the side of a mountain, in which God asked Moses one simple question, “Will you trust Me?”  We are given that same opportunity today as we remember “the most important decision we make is what we place at the center of our lives.”

What’s More Important to God … Rules or a Relationship?

For the past several years I have heard the phrase, “God wants to have a personal relationship with you” stated throughout several churches, conferences, and even from own mouth.  There is power in this statement however, for several people the power is never fully understood.  I have known many people who have been hurt by the church or other Christians because when they noticed something was missing in their lives and decided to explore if Christianity was the path for them they were met with people saying, “Here’s a bunch of rules.  Do the best you can.  And if you do well, God will accept you.”  Needless to say, shortly after this statement is made many of them turn away, never to return to any church or God again.

But here’s the thing, God never said anything like that.  He never implied, inferred, modeled or illustrated that.  In fact, He did the exact opposite.  Relationship always precedes rules with God.  And the biggest thing to God came before the Ten Commandments, back when the Israelites were in Egypt.  It was at that point that God initiated the relationship by simply asking the question, “Will you trust Me?”

For me I began to understand this at an overnighter when I was fourteen years old.  I listened to a pastor preach his heart out talking about God desiring a relationship with me, which was something that I had never really understood even though I had spent the previous twelve years in church weekly.  You see our family went to church every week, because it was the right thing to do not because we had a personal relationship with God.  For years, I was given the rules to be a “good person” by the church and tried to live in them with the understanding that my performance would gain God’s approval.  However, as I sat on that gym floor around 2:00 am I realized the depths of God’s love wasn’t rooted in a set of rules but solely in the fact that God loves me!  On that night I realized, God gives us rules, laws, and commandments because He loves us, not as a way for us to prove something to Him.  God has given us laws, rules, and commandments because we are already in, not as a means of getting in.

Today, I would like to leave you with a question to consider about your relationship with God and to discuss with your students.  “Based on your experience what do you think are some of God’s rules?”  As you wrestle with this question I challenge you to think about where your personal relationship with God is and what steps are you taking to further yourself on the journey.  Our story with God starting over 3,500 years ago when Moses had a conversation with God on the side of a mountain, in which God asked Moses one simple question, “Will you trust Me?”  We are given that same opportunity today as “Relationship always precedes rules with God.”