The Healing Power of Jesus (And Magnets)

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I'd like to apologize in advance. This is more of a rant than my usual blog post. I saw this ad in the USA Weekend newspaper insert a couple of months ago and felt like I needed to say something about it. Here goes:

Using the Lord's name in vain. It's more subtle than you might think. It's more serious than a few choice exclamations that spew from our mouths or from the movie or television screen. Using the Lord's name in vain is about attaching His Name to something that He wouldn't. Why is the Lord's name so important? It's because His name describes His nature and character. When the Lord told Moses, "I AM THAT I AM," He was saying that for every hurt, for every need, for every joy, for every sorrow, He is enough.

Why would we want to cheapen His nature and character by stamping the name of Jesus on a copper and magnet bracelet. The obvious reason is for personal gain. The advertiser is using the fact that our God is Adonai Rophe (The LORD our Healer) to make some money.

Aren't there other ways we misuse the Lord's name?

How about false prophecy? "The Lord said..." or "God told me" or "God gave me this (song/needlepoint/underwater woven basket)". Do I believe God still speaks? Absolutely! He speaks in accordance with the Scripture and in accordance with His nature and character. I don't believe that God writes bad songs. The book of Psalms is proof of that. However there are some terrible songs floating around out there that God supposedly gave someone. We use this God cloak as a defense mechanism. We want to believe that invoking God's name elevates our idea, our song, our needlepoint above scrutiny. I believe that God gives us talent and creativity to use for His glory. Let's take ownership of our crafts and not try to blame God for our bad art.

"I'm a Christian plumber." I believe that identifying yourself as a Christian plumber, or carpenter, or mechanic, or lawyer is another subtle way of using the Lord's name in vain. It is meant to give your potential customer some sense of comfort knowing that a Jesus-approved professional is coming to their aid. Unfortunately, many so-called Christian professionals are careless at their jobs and have misrepresented the character of the One they supposedly represent. Just be excellent at your job, whatever it is, and use the respect you earn as an avenue to share the gospel.

There are many more subtle ways that we use the Lord's name in vain. I've only listed the ones that I'm not personally guilty of.

That, my friends, was a joke.

Over to you: In what other ways (whether blatant or subtle) do we misuse the Lord's name? Discuss amongst yourselves.

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On Loss

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We thought we were going to be holding a new baby today.

We thought we would be welcoming our third child into the world today.

Instead, we're left wondering what might have been.

Was it a boy or a girl? Garrett says boy. Vivian says girl. (Of course.)

I suppose it will be a while before we find out.

Let's Talk About Your Rest Ethic

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A lot has been said about rest. I'm sure you could walk into a bookstore or surf Amazon and find a plethora of books on the subject. The problem is that hardly anyone rests. Why is that? I would submit to you that in the age of technology where information is coming at you 24 hours a day at the speed of thought, there is pressure to try to keep up with it. There is pressure to not be "out of the loop".

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Four Reasons To Be Like a Child

Matthew 18:3 "I assure you," [Jesus] said, "unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Jesus' disciples had been arguing about who among them would be the greatest in the kingdom. It's so easy to look at them and scoff at their silliness. Don't we do the same thing, though? Don't we judge our lives and the lives of others in the church by how much we've done for the kingdom? It's especially easy for those of us in public ministry to look at our accomplishments and think that Jesus has a special place reserved for us because of all we did for him.

Jesus turns this argument on its head when he says, "Unless you're like a child, you won't even ENTER the kingdom." The magnitude of this saying of Jesus bears investigation into the qualities of children that Jesus loves and how we should pray for grace to exhibit those qualities in our own lives.

The Miracle of Thankfulness

^Luke9:16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. ¹⁷ They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

Have you ever been reading a passage of scripture that you've read a hundred times before and had a phrase jump out at you like you'd never seen it before? That happened to me a couple of months ago as I read this passage. Here is the phrase that stopped me in my tracks:


"He gave thanks..."