Matthew 25:31-40:

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. “All the nations will be gathered before Him; … Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

It was a privilege to participate as a church in the Barnabas Aid Flood Relief Program in Pakistan.

Barnabas Fund writes this:

As international news media later highlighted, Christians and other non-Muslims were being left out of much of the aid distribution through other agencies. So we are very thankful for the quick and generous response of Barnabas Fund supporters that enabled us to help our Christian brothers and sisters as soon as the crisis hit.

… one partner (of the five on the ground partners in Pakistan) has told how he fed 142 Christian families from the village of Rangpur, Punjab. … From 9-17 August our partner gave them three meals a day and after that provided each family with flour, rice, sugar, pulses, clean water, tea, salt, cooking oil, dried milk, dried chillis and soap.

Thank you to all from the church who gave so generously to the ‘least of these.’

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After last Sunday’s sermon on not misusing/taking the Lord’s name in vain (3rd Commandment), more than one person asked me, “What about substitute words?”….what we might call fudge words or weasel words.  For instance, saying Gosh, instead of God.  Many phrases also work in these fudgy replacements for God’s name:  O-M-Gosh, etc.  The question is, are fudge words & fudge phrases fine?

Adding complexity to the question, many popular expressions are (even if known by few), directly derived from God’s name.  ”Golly” is a “euphemism for God”  (Online Etymology Dictionary), and Steve Irwin’s most famous word of all is a “euphemism for Christ” (per Merriam Webster’s dictionary), an “expletive” from “using ‘Christ’ as an exclamation” (Urban Dictionary).

What of Christians – should we use fudge words for God’s name?  And since most people are ignorant of word derivations originally tied in with God’s name, what does it matter?  I think of the old story of a king who was hiring a driver  for his family’s horse-and-carriage.  He asked the 3 drivers who applied, “How close can you drive to the edge of a cliff?”. Thinking it a test of skill, the first applicant said “I can drive the carriage within a foot of the edge”; the second, “I can drive the carriage within 6 inches of the cliff?”  But the third answered, “With all due respect, Sir, I stay as far away from the edges of cliffs as I possibly can!” He got the job, as this was not a test of skill but of wisdom – safeguarding his family was the king’s ultimate concern.

So it is with God’s name. He wants to safeguard it from vain use (frivolous, trite use, as well as down right expletive use).  Shall we desire to come as close as we can the edge of misusing His name?  Shall we model doing such to our children, colleagues, neighbours?  Or, rather than parrotting the buzzwords and fudge words so common today, why not use well-judged words…a bit of creative energy to speak differently, holy.  Honestly, how difficult is it to say “Amazing!” or “Tragic” instead of the ubiquitous and crass “O-M-_”?  Better yet, come up with some new and more noble expressions.

This is the honour our King deserves.  Blessed be His name.

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