Poster Archive : October 2013
When people say, 'To tell you the truth' does that mean they only tell the truth when indicated? And why on earth do people say, 'For goodness sake' so often? Do we really care so much about the 'sake' of 'goodness'? Or what about, 'At the end of the day'? Why not the beginning of the day?
Most people would be shocked if they thought a little more about what they say. Strange cliches and ancient expressions come pouring out of our mouths with almost no awareness of their literal meaning. For example, in moments of shock, horror or exasperation we say, 'Oh my God!'. You can hear this regularly in a shopping mall close to you. And, if you're online or getting a text you'll see, 'OMG' followed by an exclamation mark.
But what do people think when they say, 'Oh my God'? Are they thinking of God at all? Do they actually think about the God who's there and listening? Or is it just verbal spak filler? Like, 'like' and 'ah' and 'um'?
The fact is, the privilege of saying, 'OMG' should be appreciated by all people around the world as a grand thing, a truly massive privilege won for humanity at the cross by Jesus. By dying on the cross Jesus took on himself the anger of God that should have been directed at all people. Without Jesus's death no person could ever approach God in prayer and expect Him to listen.
Because of Jesus we can whisper, 'Oh, my God' in the quietness of our hearts and know that God is listening and not angry. Because of Jesus's death we can have our own private and personal relationship with God and count Him as our closest friend.
But the price of all this was high. The Bible tells us that Jesus didn't want to die. The night before He died Jesus prayed in a Jerusalem city garden, "Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me".
He then prayed, "Yet not what I will, but what you will." The Bible records that the next day in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He then gave a loud cry and stopped breathing. God was pouring out his anger and turning his back on Jesus's 'OMG' so that we might be able to say 'Oh my God.' So, don't ever take your OMG for granted. Speak it to God with reverence.
Prayer: Oh my God, help me to appreciate the privilege of prayer to you through Jesus.
Verse: And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34)
