4th March 2025

4th March 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 20v7)


Message (Scott Woodburn)


It's interesting that those who have no regard for the Lord find His name constantly upon their lips. What do I mean? I hear people using the Lord's name as a swear word on an almost daily basis. Ballynahinch is full of men and women who quickly and easily throw God's name in the gutter as if it is worthy of our contempt. It is the same on the television and movie screen, I've heard sportsmen use the Lord's name to show their disagreement with a referee's decision and I've even heard primary school children toss the name of Jesus around like it is a joke. Society doesn't believe in the Lord but society treats His name like dirt.


The third commandment says that we are not to take the name of the Lord our God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. What is God's name? Moses once asked this very question with the Lord telling him "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3v14). At first glance the Lord's response seems quite cryptic but as the Lord spoke to Moses calling Himself the great "I AM", He was revealing something of His transcendent glory.


"I AM" points us to God's self existence. He has His being in and of Himself, and has no dependence upon any other. I am here because of my parents and they owed so much to their parents and back the story goes. But the Lord had none before Him, He was dependant upon no one and He is the only one who could ever say "I AM WHO I AM". Indeed if He is self-existent, He cannot help but be self-sufficient. The Lord needs nothing and no one - we do not complete Him and nothing in the universe adds to Him. He is great and His name is "I AM".


Furthermore, His name speaks to us that God is eternal, unchangeable and always the same, yesterday, today, and forever. He will be what he will be and He will be what he is. He will never disappoint, He will never fall short and He will never need to improve. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the God who is and who was and who is to come (Revelation 1v8). Equally, the Lord's name teaches us that no one will be His master. His name is wonderful (Judges 13v18) and beyond any human's full knowledge (Proverbs 30v4). To contemplate the magnitude of His name for just a moment is to understand that the Lord's name is above all names and worthy of the deepest respect, honour and praise.


I can't do anything about the abuse of God's name in Ballynahinch but I can strive to follow Him with gratitude. If it were not for the Lord then I would still be in my sin, I would be without hope and I may as well eat and drink for tomorrow I die. Yet thanks be to God! The great "I AM" stepped into human history and continues to work out His saving purposes and plan of redemption. 


Here is my prayer and here is my song "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8v1).


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q22 How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man? Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.
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