the Christian rant

So something has occurred to me lately. Thus, I am blogging.

First - I bought Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD - thanks to Missy's miraculous powers of persuasion. I've only been doing it 2 days, but it's completely kicking my butt. I'm sore from head to toe. Didn't help that I spent most of the day hiking and climbing haha

Anyways, on to other things. I feel like it's incredibly easy for us as Christians to defend ourselves against from being kept accountable by saying "You're not supposed to judge." This somewhat builds on my last post. I was so afraid of coming across as judgmental and harsh, but I really think it's sad that it comes down to that. I said what I said with complete love and respect. Should that not just be accountability?

We all know the ten commandments, but I think it's way too easy to take them at face value. We know not to murder or covet, commit adultery or steal. We understand that murder includes hatred and adultery includes lust after anyone who isn't your spouse. We know God's standards are so incredibly high, so why do we stop there with those commandments? If two have such high standards, wouldn't it be easy to say the others probably have higher standards than just face value?

Here's the one that I've really been thinking about lately: We're commanded not to take God's name in vain. Here are the first three commandments via Exodus 20:2-7 NIV.

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. (1) You shall have no other gods before me. (2) 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. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments. (3) You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. "

So the first three commandments have to do with preserving the holiness and glory of God. He is first. He is the only. And He is not to be taken lightly. He lays that all out on the table before moving on to everything else. Why? Personally, I think it's to make sure you listen to the rest. If you know he is the one and only most important thing/person/deity (no idea what noun should go here) in life and you know He expects you to take that seriously, you get a little healthy respect and take His words with all the salt you can find. You know that whatever comes after that.. He means business.

I actually think these first three commandments are the ones we break the most. It's not uncommon to hear a church sermon or bible study message on putting things before God and virtually making idols out of those things, but how often do we talk about what it means and the severity of misusing the name of God? If he put in in the top ten back in the day, it's clearly a big deal.

I'm crazy guilty of this in the obvious sense of saying "OMG" when shocked or surprised by something. And it's something I will continue to work on. However, I think the biggest misuse of the name of the Lord is actually in the word "Christian."

Again, countless sermons have reminded us that "Christian" means "little Christ." To call ourselves little Christ.. that is a HUGE thing. That means things! It isn't to be taken lightly at all! If we're going to label ourselves with the name of our Savior, we'd better be prepared to make that mean something. We have to be held accountable to what Christ did and called us to do. Otherwise, in my personal opinion and strongly held belief, we are absolutely misusing the name of Christ, which I'm thinking falls in with commandment number 3 due to the whole trinity thing.

When we form tightly held cliques in our churches, the places that are supposed to offer hope and warmth and love to anyone who walks through the door, and we let the world associate our cliques with being "Christians", we're misusing His name. When we value Pharasitic (not a word, but work with me here) rules more than relationships and label ourselves "Christians" for following those rules, we're misusing His name. When we refuse to get angry over injustices and give in to timidity or conformity, we are misusing His name! I do it so much more than I even realize. And I realize that to so many people I know and so many people I grew up with, this is blatantly offensive. But if we call ourselves Christians, we MUST be held accountable to what that means or we trivialize what being "little Christs" to the world is really about.

That overlooked commandment is really such a big deal. It's why we've lost so many people to the belief that we're snobby or hypocrites or want nothing more than to bring them down or that we're indifferent to their problems or needs or indifferent to human suffering general. And it's something I think we all do and all will keep doing much like hate and lust. I think those things kind of creep up on us because we're human. But I also believe that the only way to change behavior is to acknowledge the full extent of the problem. Maybe we just don't think about it enough. Maybe if we think about it more, things can start to change.

This is such a rant. I don't mean to sound angry, but the truth is I kind of am. I don't like seeing the name of our Savior become meaningless or worse. I don't like being someone who is contributing to that. So anyways, it's just something I've come to realize to its full extent lately, and it's something I desperately want to work on.

End Rant.