When I first began to engage with social media by exploring the potential of Twitter for outreach purposes, I kept coming across the abbreviation OMG.
I eventually discovered, to my shock, that it meant ‘Oh my God!’ – an expression I now hear used everywhere I go, mostly by young people as a cry of shock or wonder. But I find it particularly distasteful as it is obviously blasphemous. For it amounts to taking the Lord’s name in vain, and thus breaks the Third Commandment.
We can know God
But it would be entirely another matter if it were a genuine cry for help, in which case it has scriptural precedence in the Book of Ezra where the great leader intercedes for the wayward Israelites, thus: “O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.” (Ezra 9:6 – NIV 1984)
I am in no way advocating the violent pursuit of alleged blasphemers in the way that has apparently led to the gruesome murder of a teacher in France. I realise that the younger generations are using God’s name in vain because they don’t know him. If only they understood that each of us is made in the image of God, and is known by him. The Bible says of him: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” (Ps 139:13f)
God knows all about us and longs for us to have a relationship with him, to walk with him through the ups and downs of our lives and to know his peace, his love, his comfort and his joy.
Our brokenness can be fixed by Jesus
But we can’t experience it unless we acknowledge our brokenness, often brought about through choosing our own selfish way. Take the long-running soap, Home and Away. Doesn’t it seem strange that so many conflicts should take place in such a paradise? I know it’s make-believe, but it reflects real life: families fall out – even in Australia! I know, because I have family there, and my nephew and godson is among the soap’s regular writers.
In another popular TV programme, The Repair Shop1, treasured possessions are brought back to life in the most exquisite way by master craftsmen and women.
God is longing for us to come to his Repair Shop so he can fix our shattered lives, our crushed spirits, our heartbreaks. But we must approach him, and give him permission to do so.
You are so special to Almighty God that he wants to invest his treasure in you!
We can thus be made into a brand new creature where “the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). Jesus is able to repair the ruins of our broken lives, creating treasure in jars of clay “to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us”(2 Cor 4:7).
Yes, you are so special to Almighty God that he wants to invest his treasure in you!
Our young people are worried about many things, and with reason – peer pressure, exams and an uncertain future especially amidst Covid. But you can be free from fear when God is near – and not just near, but within you: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1.27). In the Book of Revelation, Jesus refers to a door which, if opened, will let him in to share your life and dreams and give you something to really live for! (See Rev 3:20) Are you ready to open the door of your heart to Jesus?
Moses warned the people of Israel that, if they didn’t revere the “glorious and awesome” name of the Lord, he would send fearful plagues among them. (Deut 28:58f) I believe we are in a similar predicament in Britain today.
Honouring God’s name is essential, but he also knows you by name. Many names are listed in the Bible because each individual is important to God – even the hairs of your head are all numbered! (Matt 10:30)
There is power in the name of Jesus
But Jesus is “the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Phil 2:9f). Healing is also in his name. The Apostle Peter told the crippled beggar to walk “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” (Acts 3:6). Salvation too is in his name. For Peter also said, “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
True Christians are those who call on the name of Jesus, who publicly proclaim his name and who are prepared to suffer for his name. (Acts 9:14-16) But it’s dangerous to misuse his name, like the seven sons of Sceva who tried to cast out evil spirits “in Jesus’ name, whom Paul preaches”. In other words, they didn’t know Jesus, as a result of which the spirit answered: “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” And the fake ‘Christians’ took a severe beating at the hands of the man with the evil spirit. (Acts 19:13-16)
Do you know Jesus? Without him, you will never experience true fulfilment in this life, or any assurance of the life to come. There is, however, a way you can ensure that your name is written in God’s Book of Life (mentioned in Rev 13:8 & 20:12) – and that is by trusting in the blood Jesus shed on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins.
Be made new
He is our Creator, and is the greatest craftsman of them all.
You will never be good enough, no matter how much you give to charity. We are imperfect human beings with a propensity for evil. But we can be made new – restored not just to the best we can be, but so much more than that. As that lovely song to Jesus goes, “You raise me up to more than I can be”.
As a skilful potter reshapes the clay, our marred image can be transformed into something beautiful. (See Jer 18:1-4) Dr Clifford Hill, in his new book Beyond the pandemic2, writes that God “does not discard sinful people but longs for their transformation”. After all, he is our Creator, and is the greatest craftsman of them all.
Endnotes
1BBC Television
2Wilberforce Publications
