"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!".
Those beasts that would make grown men run away screaming like little girls, constantly sing of how holy God is and yet we just consider God to be this casual "hobby" we have. Some people call it "the God thing." They say, "I'm just not into the God thing. It's great you found it, but it's just not for me."
In the Old Testament, he says they had such reverence for the name of God that they would say the word ha shem instead. This is one of those things that I couldn't help but question the authenticity of. I got out some books and read some on the internet and was surprised at some of the new things I found out.
The name that God gives to Moses is "I AM WHO I AM" which is transliterated (changed into English letters)from Hebrew as YHWH. It is very apparent that Jews intensely revered this name for God. They call the "ineffable name of God" which means it should not be expressed in words. The Masoretes, a group of scribes and Bible scholars working from the 7th-11th c., added the word Adonai into the Hebrew text so that a reader would pronounce Adonai instead of YHWH. According to JewishEncyclopedia.com (which is who should take credit for most of this) the two words were written in such a way that caused Christian translators to combine the words into Jehovah. Most Jews, completely disregard that name.
Another example of Jewish reverence was shown by the scribes. When they would write down certain names of God, they first would prepare themselves mentally to write it. Once they began, they must finish writing and not be disturbed, even to greet a king. If they made a mistake in writing it, they were to circle it, remove the page, and rewrite the page. I've also read that they were to wash their bodies anytime they wrote the "ineffable name of God."
I did find one reference to the word ha shem being substituted for YHWH, but all of the other information really made Francis's point even more real to me. The reverence that early Jews had for just the name of God really humbles you and makes you feel really dumb for ever being so lukewarm to "the God thing."
So many people respond to God casually. We really do see God as a sort of noble hobby. Following God has become like being a boy scout or something. Its something that you do for the sake of being better moral people and building character. Some people are able to attend every meeting and get every badge. Some of us don't even know when the meetings are but, either way it's just a hobby. If we quit looking at God as some wholesome self-help program and more as Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, we would probably quit with casual Christianity and live a life that shows other people that we serve an all-powerful God and not a Scout Master.
