Respect

Dear friends in Christ,

It’s so nice to be able to write another article and as always I praise God for the opportunity. Today I would like to talk to you about how we as children of the Most High seem to forget who our Father is and how we seem to just accept the way the world has lost all respect for God.

Deuteronomy 6:13 ” Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only….” Deuteronomy 6: 18 “Do what is right and good in the LORD’S sight, so that it may go well with you..”

These days it seems like the world has totally lost all respect for who God is. When I was a child, I rarely ever heard anyone use the Name of the Lord in any disrespectful way. Even people who weren’t Christians, still had respect or at the very least enough manners to not use His Name in vein. Today it seems to be cool to use the name of God in every disrespectful way possible.

I am reasonably open minded when watching television or reading something and I tend to look past many things that I don’t necessarily agree with, but one thing I cannot accept is when God’ s name is used in every second sentence someone speaks. I am repulsed by the way Hollywood has changed the Lord’s Name from a Holy word to a joke, a curse, an exclamation of surprise and just an all-around ‘cool’ word to incorporate into any sentence! I used to change the channel if the Lord’s Name was being misused in a program, but these days it seems like I am permanently channel hopping because almost every program on every channel is filled with adults, teens and even small Children who use God’s Name in vein. It’s disgusting and it makes me cringe to see how nobody seems to mind!

Our children learn this sinful behaveour at school, from friends, from television programs and magazines and computer games and they grow up thinking it is normal and acceptable! Dear friends, the Name of our God is HOLY and POWERFUL and no one has the right to treat it with anything less than the UTMOST RESPECT and while people in the world may not know any better, we as Children of the King of Kings SHOULD KNOW BETTER!!

Would you allow people to use your dad’s name in a disrespectful way, or would you allow your child to use your name to curse someone by? Yet no one seems to do anything about it when the Name of our Heavenly Father, who DIED so that we could be His children, is being used in such a way. We should drop our heads in shame every time we hear this and we don’t speak up against it or we don’t do something about it!

Think about it, dear friends, how many times have you heard people from a different faith mock their gods by misusing their names? I don’t know if I have ever heard that! Yet we, who call ourselves Christians, feel free to join in and misuse our Saviour’s Holy Name!! It is totally unacceptable and it makes it easy for the world to not have any respect for Christianity. We ourselves are showing the world how little we respect our God and then we get upset when Christianity and God are not allowed in our schools anymore!

Our God is not to be mocked or treated with disrespect. Yes, we are all so eager to tell the world that Jesus is Love and we eagerly grab on to and memorise all the verses in the Bible that tell about God’s love and His promises of blessing us, but we conveniently forget that our God is the same God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their sinful ways of living. We ignore the fact that God says we can be saved by no other name than that of Jesus ( Acts 4), and that if we are not saved that we will NOT ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, but our souls will be lost!! How then dare we even speak His Name if not on our knees in utter praise!?

Dear friends, it is time for us to read through Revelations again and remind ourselves what lies ahead for those who are not saved, and who do not fearfully love and respect the Lord of Lords above all else. We need to teach our children to respect the Lord and to honor His Name. We need to set an example for the future generations. Turn off the TV when our God is being mocked or when His Name is being misused. Throw away the games your children play, in which God’s Name is being used to curse or swear by. Stand up against people who use His Name in every second sentence and show them you will NOT accept it.

Nothing is sacred in this world anymore and no one has respect for anything or anyone. Everything that used to be wrong is accepted as cool and right these days. Primary schools ask parents to provide condoms for their children, teenagers are proud of sleeping around and being a virgin is something to be ashamed of these days! Homosexuality and bisexuality has become a fashion statement in our high schools. Rebellion and anarchy is being idolised and anyone who still respects their parents is frowned upon.

Dear friends we ourselves are to blame for the way society is these days. We ourselves allow our children to run around in malls at night and go clubbing at the most drug infested spots in town. We ourselves use God’s Name in any disrespectful way we want to. We buy the computer games, we pay for the movies our kids go to see, we allow bad influences on the lives of our children and we allow the world to take our God and make His Name cheap! Shame on us!

May we be awakened again to the holiness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May we remember what it means to fear God and to bow before Him in humbleness. May we teach our Children what we KNOW is right and guide them away from what we KNOW is wrong. If we don’t stand up for our faith and for our God, we cannot expect Him to stand up for us. If we don’t respect and honor Him, we cannot expect to receive His blessings! Our God will NOT BE MADE a fool by mere humans. Let us reflect seriously on this and get back on our knees, humbling ourselves before Him, instead of expecting all His blessings, while we mock Him with the rest of the world.

Dear Lord, I humble myself before You today. Lord You are holier than holy and Your Name has Power above all the earth. Forgive us Lord, for we do not deserve Your mercy. Thank You that Your forgiveness knows no bounds if we return to You. Help us to stand up for You like never before. Help us to teach our children to respectfully fear you and to tremble at the mention of Your Holy Name. Lord you are everything and You are all to me. Amen.

Expect the unexpected and be fearless in Christ.

Lizz