Shiva H. Vishnu

I am not a holy roller by any means. Even though I have a Masters of Divinity and was pastor of several churches I never was one who would ever be mistaken for a monk cloistered away in a monastery praying and chanting and making fruit cake or some other tasty treat. I've been told that I am "real" though I don't know what that means or if it is a compliment. I am not one to force feed my faith and love of God and His salvation offered through the redemptive death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ upon others. And while I believe that, as Christ Himself has said, that no one can come to Father except through the Son, I don't cut off relationships with people who believe otherwise. I have many non-believing friends but I don't base my friendship on a common faith. Maybe that makes me a poor witness for the cause of Christ, but make no mistake: I do pray for them to allow Christ into their lives.

With all that said (and it sure doesn't make me a saint in anyway) there are things that bug me to no end and the biggest one is the taking of the Lord's name in vain. I hear that all the time in most places that I go. I hear it on TV, and read it in books and magazines. I read it in emails and such. And the thing that gets me is that Christ's name is abused over and over and over again by people who have no idea just how powerful that name is.

I started a counter movement after some of my requests to people I know were ignored as to how I am offended when Jesus' name is used as a curse instead of a blessing. To show how ridiculous it is to use His name in that manner I started feigning anger from time to time and shouting, "Shiva H. Vishnu!" or "Mohammed H. Allah!" or "Zeus H. Apollo!" People looked at me like I was crazy (maybe I am) but then I pointed out how ridiculous it is to use Jesus Christ's name in the same manner. Some have stopped doing that, in front me at least, while others don't care if they are offensive.

Another thing that I don't understand is that nobody uses any other deity's name in the same manner. Why? Why don't they do that? What has Christ done to them that they need to disparage His name so much? I am not talking about the Church or some wayward minister here. I am talking about Christ Himself. What has He done to them? And then it hit me that the Bible talks about the power of Jesus name.

Philippians 2:5-11 says the following:

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. New International Version

There is power in the name of Christ and sadly many people are unaware of that as they are using His name as a curse, and indeed they are cursing themselves in that manner without even knowing it.

Nobody uses Allah, Shiva, Vishnu, or any other god's name in the way that they drag Jesus Christ's name through the mud. Partly it is due to their disdain for Christianity but partly because if they did use one of these names in that manner there would be many believers of those names taking up arms against those who profane their deity. Remember a few years back when Muslims were wanting to kill a Danish cartoonist for drawing Mohammed in a cartoon(and he is just a prophet in that religion)? I am not advocating taking the names of those deities in vain, what I am advocating is leaving Christ's name alone.

So there it is. My project to stop people from offending others by profaning Jesus Christ's name and using it as a curse.