Friday, October 28, 2011

In Spirit and in truth....

"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


This is a very strong command... the Lord takes His name very seriously. In the Old Testament His name was given as a facet of his being, as a description of who He is, and what the people needed at that time. Jehovah Jirah - my Provider, Jehovah Rappha - my Healer. God's Name is not just something we should just throw around recklessly. There are very obvious examples of this, I'm sure we all hear people take the name of the Lord in vain, just in our every day life, in our day to day conversations. We've all heard and have ourselves said God's name to punctuate our disappointment. But God does not want us using His name as an exclamation point. His name is Holy, because He is Holy. Therefore we should be treating it reverently everytime we say His name. Jesus taught us to pray saying: Our Father who art in heaven- Hallowed be Thy Name. Hallowed means Holy. Holy be Your Name.

But more than just in idle conversation, God's name is in my opinion even more often taken in vain in our churches during our worship. We are idly throwing out God's name in song, not meaning anything that we say.

 John 4:24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

When I break this verse down I see that God is asking us to worship first in Spirit, this means that we are not worshiping in the flesh, the music is not as important as the heart. God is not hearing our off key rendition, He is hearing our spirit crying out to His.

Secondly He is listening for us to mean what we are saying. To worship in truth. We are not to be idly saying 'O God you are my God...' We are supposed to mean it: "God YOU are my God!" This doesn't mean He wants us shouting as loud as we can over each other. No God is not asking us to do that. He is asking us to feel, and to know that, yes, God is our God.

Matthew 12:36

36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

This does not mean that we should not sing if we don't feel it. It means that we should enter into the house of worship with intention, with preparation to worship our God. We should soften our hearts to hear from Him. And be willing to put aside all the cares of the world to truly worship God in spirit and in truth!

Until next time: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord be gracious to you, make His face shine upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

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