Title

There is an episode of Star Trek, The Next Generation, where Captain Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, has to memorize a diplomates name and title perfectly because if it is not said properly, it is an insult. S1 Episode 11 entitled ‘The Big Goodbye’. The title of the diplomates name in the native language was important to get right.

My dad was in the US Army, US Navy, US Coast Guard reserve then finally the US Navy reserve. As an enlisted member of the United States armed services, you learn real quick who is enlisted and who is an officer because you salute an officer and call them ‘sir’. As a person in boot camp might make the mistake of saying “yes sir” to a sargent in the army. The proper comback to that might be from the Sargent “Don’t call me sir, I work for a living”. Know the proper title.

As a person raised in Los Angeles by parents with proper manners, I learned to say “yes mame” or “no sir” or “thank you miss”. These are titles to someone that are older and you may not know. The President of the United States is always addressed as “Mr. President” and the Speaker of the House of Representatives is addressed as “Mister (or madame) Speaker”. The king of England is addressed as “Your Highness”. These are only titles, informal or formal yet titles. My manager at work is much younger than I am and I still say “yes mame” or “yes boss”. An informal title based on her possition, not that she is older or better than me, just her position in the company.

So let us look at what we call the creator of the universe, God.

The word ‘God’ is a title. It specifies the one entity that we worship. In Islam, they worship the god named Allah. The Israel nation worships the god of Abraham, the father of their nation and the one that was willing to sacrifice his only son to his god, the creator mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Christians worship that gods son, Jesus Christ, and it is Jesus, the son of God that sends the Holy Spirit.

Now, in the Old Testiment, the Cannanites worshipped the god, Ba-al. That deity was, to some, the storm god and to the solar cults the god of light and yet to others, a god of fertility where worshipers would sacrifice their infants in fire at the base of the idol of Ba al, and ever others, the god also named Beelzebub. In all of these cases, people use the term ‘god’ as a title to the one they worship. Now that you know that the word ‘god’ is a title, listen to peoples speach. When they say they, to, worship god, you should ask “what god?”. Jewish people, muslims, Christians, Buddists all claim to worship a god ( although Buddah is not technically a god, they worship the idol of Buddah making that person a god that is worshipped). Start listening to peoples speach when they utter the word god. You might initially and erroniously assume they worship the same god you do.

So I want to specify the god I worship. My God is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He is known as the only son of God the Father (worshipped by the Jewish nation) and is part of the triune god…God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Johovahs Witnesses worship God the Father but claim Jesus is only a prophet and the Holy Spirit is only the working force of God thereby denying that Jesus is the son of God (God the Father).

This is why we all need to ask, what god do you worship? So I now ask of you “What, specifically, is the name of the god that you worship?”

Go to hell

How many times, out of anger, have we uttered those words? I shamefully admit that I have said that phrase, out of anger, more times than I wish to admit. If you think about it, it is the worst curse you can utter, even worse than F. U. which has when I was young, garnered me with the terrible Lava soap mouth washing from my mother. The worst place to ever be is in hell, seperated from God. And, as of late, I have had to prayerfully ask God, my God Jesus of Nazareth, to forgive me andhelp me to never wish that to anyone again. Even those people we dislike with extreme dislike, we are tasked by Jesus to pray for. Political figures, actors from Hollywood who earn our disdain, old bosses and frenemies, pray for them. Pray that the Holy Spirit opens their eyes so they may turn from evil and wickedness. I never want to be the cause for someone not going to heaven. The guilt of that is not only daunting but haunting. How can we expect Gods forgiveness when we are unwilling to forgive those that have hurt us? I heard it said this way, God is not asking you to be nice to those that hurt you, but to allow them the chance to experience God through you. It can be hard to swallow your pride, but again, I don’t want to be the cause for someone to forever be seperated from God, and again I specify God the Father, God the Son named Jesus Christ of Nazareth and God the Holy Spirit. So maybe what we should say instead is Go to Christ.