How to Contact General Council:
Email address to all of the General Council members:
Regular mail can be sent to:
Susie Fox, General Council Chair, 1722 Taylor Station Road, Blacklick, OH 43004.
We cannot use the name of God, our association with Him, the
name of Jesus, of Christian, of Church, of anything that invokes
His power, authority and character, for any purpose that is not
His purpose. We cannot use or twist the Word of God to get
people to do what we want. That, too, is speaking in His name
for purposes that are not His. Hijacking the name of God.
Let me phrase this in a different way:
you cannot use God
.
You cannot use His name, His power, authority and character,
in the sense we use a tool for our own purposes. God cannot
be manipulated and He cannot be used to manipulate others.
You cannot use God. Many translations pick up on this, and the
NIV for example translates:
“You shall not misuse the name of
God.”
God cannot be used.
Neither will He be forced to obey you
because you used His name, nor shall you attempt to coerce or
manipulate or convince others by using His name as leverage
or threat or guarantee of honesty.
God cannot be used… He is holy.
The Total Holiness of God
Together these first three commandments capture the total
holiness of God.
You cannot replace God…He is the only one worthy of worship.
You cannot control God… no image or idol can capture His
essence. He refuses to be put in a box.
You cannot hijack His name, His power, or His authority. You are
about Him— He is not about you. He loves you — He neither
obeys nor serves you.
God cannot be used.
Our Relationship with God
And this comes to our final question. It is the question we ask
of every commandment. How is this showing me the course of
love? What is broken in my relationship with God such that I
might attempt to use His name to manipulate either Him or
others?
And, maybe, it boils down to this:
He is the center.
He is the
center of your relationship with Him. As hard as that is for us
individualists to get: He is at the center.
I am about Him. He is not about me.
He loves me, yes. He created me. He saved me. He took risks
for me. He sacrificed for me. He LOVES me. But His being is not
wrapped around my being, such that I could invoke Him and
use Him for my benefit. Or that I could use Him and His name
to manipulate the world around me.
Even while our relationship is for my good, it benefits me,
but
it is not
for
me.
It is for Him. It is for His glory. It is wrapped
about Him: He sits at the center.
In him we live, and move, and have our being.
It is not ultimately about us — about you or about me. We are
about Him. We are used for His purposes, He is never
used
for
ours. Any word, any action, any life without God at the center
is
hollow,
it is empty, it is in vain.
May we be a people that take the Lord’s name in spirit and in
truth; that take His name as the forever center and bedrock
of our lives; that always work with His purposes because His
purposes become our purposes.
God, destroy that within me that seeks to use You and Your
name for my glory and gain. Show me again Your holiness.
Make me all about You. May I be holy, only and always, as You
are holy.
12
July/August 2015 • SR
Hijacking Heaven
Continued from previous page...
SR
Jeremiah Owen
Director of Communications
cell: (818)-468-9077
Rev. John J. Pethtel
Director of Church Development &
Pastoral Services
cell: (304) 629-9823
Rev. Nicholas J. Kersten
Director of Education & History
office: (608) 752-5055
cell: (608) 201-4850
Contact Information for Directors:
