Good Grief Charlie Brown

                In Isaiah 2:3-4 quoted below, Isaiah speaks to us concerning “walking in the way of the Lord.”  Our walk should always be a walk that is serious in nature.  This is not to say that we as Christians must never have fun or enjoy our secular lives.

                  However, a skit was recently sent to me on Face-Book that was supposed to be hilarious.  My wife and I started watching it and I was appalled.  It began with a young couple who were at an auto dealership to purchase a new car.  Before going in they agreed that they were “just looking.”  The salesman appeared and they asked about a particular car they were interested in, but at that time, they were “just looking.”  The salesman immediately said, “Let’s pray about it,” and began to pray using our Saviour’s name and the name of our Father in his prayer. (This was repeated several times before I turned it off.)

                                   

Exodus 20:7  Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

My response was that the skit was blasphemous and it was blatantly taking the name of our Lord in vain.  I know, “Bro John lighten up.”  To those who ask me to lighten up, I want to ask you a question, “Do you know what it means to take the name of our Lord in vain?”  To begin with, any cuss word that simulates or directly takes His name is blasphemy, and it is using His name in vain.  (In vain involves useless use.  Using God’s name or the name of His Son Jesus in persistent and serious prayer is not useless.)  The offering of prayer in Jesus’ name in this skit was not done seriously; it was done to create satire, and that is blasphemy. 

                  The person who sent the skit did apologize with some exceptions. She claimed to have grown up in a fundamental Baptist Church and the Baptist College she attended had such skits.  One person who responded in her defense opened with “Good Grief…”  (That is where I attained the title for this article.) 

                  As long as I am Pastor at our Church, this type of a blasphemous skit, or the taking of God’s name with vanity will not be tolerated.  (I know some people in this town think of us as the odd Church, and our legalistic views.  That is okay by me.  We attempt to set standards, and define a walk that will please God.)

Romans 12:1-2  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  (2)  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

              In terms of what God lays down in His Word, (our King James Bible,) we as Christians need to examine what is put in front of us.  If what we are looking at is humor or art, does God appreciate us enjoying something that is blasphemy to Him?  Our scriptures guide us, and we are told we all fall short of the glory of God.  However, that should never keep us from looking for the path to His Righteousness.  So, what is keeping us from following the Ten Commandments?  It is our falling short of His expectations!   Is that your excuse?  We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard that would be “holy, acceptable to God.”                                                                

Bro. John R. E Chastain

Isaiah 2:3-4  And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.  (4)  And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.