I was riding my mountain bike up a bike path as I returned from a recent leader’s meeting at our church. Changing gears on the long uphill stretch, I drifted from the side to the center of the path. Suddenly, a rider coming swiftly up the hill behind me swerved to avoid colliding with me. He cursed in the name of Jesus as he passed me.
“Jesus Christ is the Lord!” I responded as he continued up the hill.
The guy was bigger and stronger than me. I wasn’t looking for a fight. I had been careless. If we had crashed, I would have apologized for drifting into his path. However, when someone near me curses, I often feel compelled to respond.
The third commandment says, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.”
The Lord will not hold those who curse in His name guiltless, because it is not an accident, it as an act of defiance. They may say they doubt God’s existence, but they also assume He owes them a better life. They don’t want to acknowledge their sin which has separated them from God. They act as if the Lord is obligated to bless them no matter how they behave.
People don’t curse in the name of Buddha or other dead spiritual leaders. They curse because they are angry at the living God, unaware of His presence, and ignorant of His power. They are trying to challenge Him in their spite rather than humbling themselves and asking for His mercy and help.
Salvation comes to us in the name of Jesus Christ. Healing can come through the name of Jesus. There is power in the name of the Lord and rich blessings for those who call on him. “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.” (Romans 10:12)
Solomon built a magnificent temple to honor the name of the Lord. The temple was built with huge stones and inlaid with gold. It contained the ark of the covenant, the ten commandments, and Aaron’s budded rod. Solomon wanted the world to know the goodness of God and the value of His name. God’s name can reveal his nature and bring life, health, and wisdom to everyone who calls on Him.
When Israel honored God’s name and kept His commandments, the nation prospered. When they compromised and followed false gods, drought, plagues and war decimated the nation. We are experiencing the effects of drought, a plague and cyber war. Let’s not wait for our trials to escalate. We need to respond by humbling ourselves before God, confessing our sin and seeking His mercy.
Kristina and I occasionally watch movies when we share an evening at home. One night we watched a movie I had enjoyed years before on a plane flight. However, when we watched it on our cable channel, it was filled with cursing which the airline version had edited out. The cursing added nothing but filth to the film. Cursing is now more widespread on TV and in the movies than ever. Cursing is also becoming more common throughout our society.
I was walking toward my golf ball near the end of an early morning round recently. I watched as a guy stepped out of his golf cart on an adjacent fairway to hit his ball. He shanked the shot ten yards to his right. He and his partner drove over to his ball. He picked it up, turned the cart around and replaced it in the original spot. I stopped because I didn’t want to be too near when he hit the ball again.
He swung and immediately cursed, asking God to damn it as his ball rolled under the nearby trees.
I wanted to say, “Hey, we need God’s blessing out here!” However, I stayed silent. There were two of them and I didn’t want their anger directed at me. As I continued walking down the fairway towards my ball, I felt convicted. The fear of man had gotten the best of me.
I approached my ball, pulled an iron out of my golf bag, and hit my shot. I then continued pushing my hand cart towards the green. Suddenly, pain shot through my lower back as my muscle spasmed. I got to the green and gingerly bent down to pick up my ball. I decided to end my round before I damaged my back further.
I have studied back pain because I have had a lot of it over the years. There are correlations between how we manage anger and how our backs feel. Suppressing anger and stress can cause us to break down at our weakest point. For many of us, our weakest point is in our back.
My back is still tender as I write this Reflections. I haven’t figured out how to always process my emotions in a healthy way. The pain tells me to stay humble and forgiving in all my relationships. When my body breaks down I realize that everyone who can function well in this fallen world is experiencing grace from God, whether they realize it or not.
I hope my heart will be discerning, courageous and thankful continually. I have a responsibility as a believer to let people know that the curse of sin has been broken by Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to bring us forgiveness, remove the curse and bring God’s blessings to our lives.
God requires us to pick up our cross as we follow Jesus. The cross is not a symbol to just hang around our necks or put on walls. Our cross is the sacrifices we must make as we obey Jesus Christ. If we want God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we have a mission to fulfill as the salt and light in this world.
If we fear speaking up when others are boldly sinning, we have lost our salt. There is no perfect way to speak up or intervene when someone is rebelling against the Lord, but the Holy Spirit will provide words to say and wisdom if we are willing to let the Lord use us.
Let’s walk with the Lord humbly and pick up our crosses faithfully. Let’s pray for abundant rain to fall on our land, for the plague of the coronavirus to end, and the Kingdom of God to expand in our land.