OMG

I suppose people have been saying, "Oh, my God!" for ever, but I have noticed that it is becoming so common that just the letters "OMG" are recognizable to everyone. There are other letter-combinations on our e-mails, facebook, and probably twitter, what ever that is, but "OMG" seems to be extremely popular. It is too bad that the majority of those using it do not recognize the "God part" as being the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus. While it is true that there is only one God, to the majority of people using the term, it is just a generic word used to describe a deity. It could be the god of any religion; it really is not relevant because it is being used to express surprise, shock, amazement, etc. In fact, I would venture a guess that the majority of those saying it could care less about God. His Word, His Church, His will, His worship, His witness, etc. are not a priority in their lives. And the fact that the middle letter stands for "my" is almost laughable because most of those using the abbreviation would admit, if being totally honest, that God plays little or no part in their lives. I wouldn't doubt it if atheists had the habit of saying, "OMG."

The phrase appears in the Bible twenty-one times, all of them being in the Old Testament. And, all of them are occasions where someone is speaking to God. The context varies, but there are many requesting God to "remember me" (Neh. 13:14), "save me" (Ps. 3:7), "hear me" (Dan. 9:19), "deliver me" (Ps. 59:1), etc. Other times, it is used as part of the praise and worship of God as in Psalm 71:22 which says, "I will also praise Thee with the psaltery, even Thy truth, O my God: unto Thee will I sing with the harp, O Thou Holy One of Israel."

"Blasphemy" is probably too strong of a word to define those using "OMG," but I am not altogether sure that it isn't bordering on using the name of the Lord God in vain. Since the word "God" is more of a title than it is a name, one might question its use as blasphemy, but if that were the case, why is saying, "God damn" considered taking the name of the Lord in vain? You can't have it both ways; if it is blasphemy for one use, it is blasphemy for the other. Add to that the claim that the God you are mentioning is your God, when you have never acknowledged His authority over your life, seems a little blasphemous to me. Or worse, having declared Him to be the authority for your life, you live it in such a way that no one can tell He is your Lord.

Blasphemy of the name of God is forgivable, according to Jesus, so if you are guilty, all you need to do is confess it as sin, and ask Him to help you not to do it again (Matt. 12:31-32; 1 Jn. 1:9). However, Jesus went on to say that positive things about the Lord come from a heart that is pure, while blasphemies come from an evil heart (my paraphrase of Matt. 12:33-37). In other words, if Jesus is your Lord and Savior, speak the things that glorify God; if He is not your Lord and Savior, you can tell by what comes out of your mouth (and so can everyone else)!