Where Does Jesus Draw the Line?

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com

I realize that taking the Lord's name in vain is a sin. But where is the line drawn with that?

Countless turns of phrase have been concocted to narrowly ellude that: Jeez, Jeepers, Jeepers Creepers, Cheese 'n' Rice, Gee Wiz, Sheesh, etc. So do those count? If not can you creep even closer, without sinning? What if you put the emphasis on the second syllable of "Jesus" instead of pronouncing it "g-Zis" you pronounce it "GEE-zis"or pronounce his last name as "crisst" instead of "CRY-st". Can you say "g-Zis Crisst" and be ok?

And how is taking his name in vain really bad? I don't get that. If he's already omnipresent and omniscient, is it really that much a distraction of you spill milk and blurt out, "Jesus!"? Is that like pranking 911? Does he come running over because he thinks he's called into an emergency only to find you and spilled milk and think, "Oh man a false alarm. I wish he'd stop using my name in vain like that! I could've just missed a real emergency." He's already omnipresent and omniscient, so he must've already known about that.

Sadly, I was turned on to the absurdity of this concept by a 1st grader. When I was younger and was babysitting my neighbors I accidentally blurted out, "Jesus Christ!" and the kids looked shocked and scolded me. The yougnest of the three then asked me, "How would you like it if you were in heaven and people down here made a mistake and kept saying, 'T.R.!', or 'Oh, T.R. Slyder!' ". I told him that he had made a good point.

Only he made a good point regarding the absurdity of the concept of taking the name in vain.