Turn on the TV, or engage in conversation with friends and acquaintances,
and you'll often hear the phrase "OMG" (meaning "O My G_d") being used by
someone.
Most, if not all of us, have said these words, or something similar, such as
"O, my Lord."
Even though the third of the ten commandments forbids the misuse of God's
name, many continue to do so without a second thought. It has become a habit,
no big deal.
Sometimes, we misuse it by saying His name to express amazement or
astonishment, although some use it so often that it loses all meaning when used.
When we do this, we take God's name in vain and make it worthless or empty.
**************
However, God spoke the words of all the commandments to Moses, warning
the people not to misuse His name, for He would not hold anyone guiltless who
did so.
Jesus told us how to properly speak the name of the one and only holy God,
the Creator of everything.
Jesus said, "This is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name ..."
Matthew 6:9
The word "hallowed" means to set apart or consecrate, to make sacred.
***************
We should use God's name in prayer, not as a swear word or in vain.
We should give His name glory.
"Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name ..."
Psalm 29:2a
"Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and
faithfulness."
Psalm 115:1
In Psalm 22:1, David cried out in anguish,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Jesus repeated these words on the cross (Matthew 27:46).
David cried out in prayer again,
"O my God, I cry out by day,
but you do not answer ..."
Psalm 22:2
***************
Other examples of the proper use of God's name are found in the psalms:
"In you I trust, O my God."
Psalm 25:2
"You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay."
Psalm 40:17
***************
In summary, we should be careful not to use God's name in a way to make it
common, or as a swear word, and to make it worthless or empty.
We should use God's name only in prayer to the Holy, Sovereign LORD, who
is worthy of our praise, and use it only to His glory!
Source: Irish Calvinist blog
Monday, July 15, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
A Song to God
"May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us,
that your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us;
let all the ends of the earth fear him!"
Psalm 67
Friday, July 12, 2013
Hidden in Christ
"O be persuaded to hide yourself in Christ Jesus!
What greater assurance of safety can you desire?
He has undertaken to defend and save you, if you
will come to Him. He looks upon it as His work;
He engaged in it before the world was, and He has
given His faithful promise which he will not break;
and if you will but make your flight there, His life
shall be for yours;
He will answer for you, you shall have nothing to do
but rest quietly in Him;
you may stand still and see what the Lord will do for you.
If there be any thing to suffer, the suffering is Christ's,
you will have nothing to suffer;
if there be anything to be done, the doing of it is Christ's
you will have nothing to do but stand still and behold it."
Jonathan Edwards
************
" ... hide yourself in Christ Jesus ..."
"God is our refuge and strength,
an ever present help in trouble."
Psalm 46:1
*****
"What greater assurance of safety can you desire?"
"Fear of man will prove to be a snare,
but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe."
Proverbs 29:25
*****
"He ... defends and saves you, if you ... come to Him."
"He will defend the afflicted among the people
and save the children of the needy ..."
Psalm 72:4a
Jesus said,
"Everyone that the Father gives me will come to me,
and everyone who comes to me I will never drive
away."
John 6:37
*****
"He engaged in it (His work) before the world was ..."
" ... from the beginning God chose you to be
saved through the sanctifying work of the
Spirit and through belief in the truth."
2 Thessalonians 2:13
*****
"He has given His faithful promise ..."
" ... if you confess with your mouth,
'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your
heart that God raised Him from the
dead, you will be saved."
Romans 10:9
*****
"His life shall be yours ..."
" ... how much more, having been reconciled,
shall we be saved through His life!"
Romans 5:10b
*****
" ... rest quietly in Him ..."
Jesus said,
"All things have been committed to me
by my Father. No one knows the Son
except the Father, and no one knows the
Father except the Son and those to whom
the Son chooses to reveal Him."
Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest."
Matthew 11:27-28
*****
" ... the suffering is Christ's, you will have nothing to suffer."
"Praise be to the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion
and the God of all comfort, who comforts us
in all our troubles, so that we can comfort
those in any trouble with the comfort we
ourselves have received from God.
For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over
into our lives, so also through Christ our
comfort overflows."
2 Corinthians 1:3-5
*****
" ... you will have nothing to do but stand still
and behold it."
"Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
Psalm 46:10
" ... I looked and saw the glory of the LORD
filling the temple of the LORD, and I
fell facedown."
Ezekiel 44:4b
Thursday, July 11, 2013
God Loved Us First
"Never did creature turn his affections toward God,
if the heart of God were not first set upon Him."
John Owen
*******************
Only the ones the Father draws to the Son will come to Him.
God acts first and gives eternal life to everyone who comes
to Him in faith.
God shows His love for His people by electing them to salvation.
[Jesus said],
"No one can come to me unless the Father who
sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at
the last day."
John 6:44
God opens the hearts of those He calls, enabling them to
trust in Him.
"One of those listening was a woman named
Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city
of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God.
The Lord opened her heart to respond to
Paul's message. ... she and the members
of her household were baptized ..."
Acts 16:14, 15a
God is Sovereign and has the right to give His mercy to
whomever He wishes, and to harden whomever He wishes.
"For he [God] says to Moses,
'I will have mercy on whom I
have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I have
compassion."
It (God's unconditional election) does not,
therefore, depend on man's desire or effort,
but on God's mercy.
Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants
to have mercy, and He hardens whom He
wants to harden."
Romans 9:15-16, 18
God showed His love for His people by sending His only
Son as the Substitute for their sins. We love Him because
He loved us.
"In this is love: not that we have loved God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son to be
the propitiation for our sins.
We love because He first loved us."
1 John 4:10, 19
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
All in Christ
"Our service is all in Christ - our righteousness
is all in Christ - our merit is all in Christ - our
completeness is all in Christ - in Christ our
Covenant Head, our Surety and Mediator (a);
and no flaw in our obedience, no defect in our
love, no failure in our service, should so cast
us down as to shut our eye to our acceptance
in the Beloved (b).
Imperfections we would not overlook, sin we
would not allow, disobedience we would not
indulge, temptation we would not encourage;
nevertheless, we would ever remember, for our
encouragement that, in default of perfection in
the most perfect of our own doings, we are fully
and eternally complete (c) in Jesus."
Octavius Winslow
***************
By shedding his blood, Jesus paid the necessary price to set
free from the sins committed under the first covenant, those
who are called by God.
(a) "For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new
covenant, that those who are called may receive
the promised eternal inheritance - now that he has
died as a ransom to set them free from the sins
committed under the first covenant."
Hebrews 9:15
(b) " ... just as He chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love, having predestined us
to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made
us accepted in the Beloved."
Ephesians 1:4-6
NKJV
"The word 'which' refers to the divine grace (undeserved love
and favor) that has made it possible for sinners to be accepted
by God through the substitutionary death and imputed
righteousness provided by Jesus Christ ('the Beloved').
Because believers are accepted in Him, then they, like Him,
are beloved of God."
John MacArthur
(c) "Although He was a son, He learned obedience
through what He suffered.
And being made perfect, He became the source of
eternal salvation to all who obey Him."
Hebrews 5:8-9
"Christ did not need to suffer in order to conquer or correct
any disobedience. In His deity, He understood obedience
completely.
As the incarnate Lord, He humbled Himself to learn.
He learned obedience for the same reasons He bore
temptation: to confirm His humanity and experience
its sufferings to the fullest.
Christ's obedience was also necessary so that He could
fulfill all righteousness (Matt. 3:15) and thus prove to be
the perfect sacrifice to take the place of sinners (1 Pet 3:18).
He was the perfectly righteous One, whose righteousness
would be imputed to sinners (Rom. 3:24-26).
Because of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and His
perfect sacrifice for sin, He became the cause of salvation.
True salvation evidences itself in obedience to Christ, from
the initial obedience to the gospel command to repent and
believe to a life pattern of obedience to the word."
John MacArthur
***************
Even though we are imperfect, and still sin, we are fully
and eternally complete in Jesus, because of His work on
the cross!
Monday, July 8, 2013
An Unchangeable Friend
"You may greatly comfort yourself that you have an
unchangeable (a) friend (b) in Christ Jesus.
From the unchangeableness of your Savior, you may
be assured of your continuance in a state of grace.
As to yourself, you are so changeable, that, if left to
yourself, you would soon fall utterly away.
But Christ is the same, and therefore, when He has
begun a good work in you He will finish it (c).
As He has been the author (d), he will be the finisher
of your faith.
When you have entered on the happiness of heaven,
it shall never be taken from you (e), because Christ,
your Savior and friend, who bestows it on you,
and in whom you have it, is unchangeable.
He will be the same forever and ever, and therefore
so will be your happiness in heaven."
Jonathan Edwards
****************
Jesus never changes.
(a) "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and
today and forever."
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus laid down His life for His friends.
(b) "Greater love has no one than this,
that he lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command."
John 15:13-14
God, who is the beginning and end of your salvation,
will finish the work of your of redemption by giving
you eternal life with Him in heaven.
(c) " ... He who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the
day of Christ Jesus."
Philippians 1:6
Jesus, who brings salvation to His people (Matthew 1:21),
will save them completely.
(d) "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of
our faith ..."
Hebrews 12:2a
Those who are given to Christ, are safely held in the hand of God,
and will never be lost.
(e) [Jesus said]. "I give them (His sheep)
eternal life, and they shall never perish;
no one can snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me,
is greater than all; no one can snatch them
out of my Father's hand."
John 10:28-29
(Source: Of First Importance blog)
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