Dear Mrs. Falcone,

I have some sad news. Mike received six strikes tonight and due to youth group law I have to inform you so that you can take proper disciplinary measures. But this is not because Mike did anything wrong! Far from it! You see, during youth group some of our favorite youth groupers were speaking when Mike was teaching, which automatically results in a strike according to youth group law (as displayed on the junior high room wall).

The group behaved great after this, but unfortunately no matter how well they behaved, they couldn’t get rid of that first strike. We read Ecclesiastes 7:20 which says, “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.” So no matter how hard any of them tried, they were not going to go back to zero strikes. They had all struck out and fallen short.

Unfortunately, the youth group law only made us aware of our strikes. It did not provide a way of escape. But we soon learned after this in Galatians 3:24 that the the law was our teacher until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. In other words, the law taught us our need for someone to pay the penalty of our strikes for us. And we receive this free gift through faith as we read in Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” It’s a gift of God’s grace that the youth groupers could be forgiven for their strikes, not from any merit of their own.

But they had to become justified in order to become strike free. And the only way they could become strike free is by receiving Mike’s strike free status and Mike bearing the consequences of their six strikes. This is when Jonathan, in his great love for the youth group, took the group’s strikes and placed the consequences of them on Mike. He then took Mike’s “strike free” status and gave it to each of the youth group kids, each receiving the free gift of justification.

So Mrs. Falcone, please give mike the full consequences of those six strikes. Just as Christ had to suffer the consequences of our sin before the Lord, so too Mike must suffer the consequences of our youth group’s law when it is broken. Perhaps you should take away his video games for a week, make him pay Jonathan $50, or ground him from going to class. We’ll leave this up to you.

Thank you. And make sure he comes back next week.

In the love of Christ, Jonathan M. Romig

Ever wondered where the word Hallelujah comes from? Why do we sing it in songs to worship God? Well here’s the meaning behind the word straight from Holman’s Treasury of Key Bible Words!

Greek expression: hallēlouia

Pronunciation: hahl lay loo ee AH

Key Verses Revelation 19:1, 3–4, 6

Around Christmas time every year, people will hear bits and pieces of Handel’s “Messiah”—especially the lines from the Hallelujah chorus:

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!

Most people know that Hallelujah is an exuberant word, but very few people know what the word actually means. Hallelujah is a transliteration from the Greek expression hallēlouia, which comes from two Hebrew words, which mean “praise Jah.” “Praise Jah” is short for “praise Yahweh.” Yahweh is God’s personal, self-revealed name. Unlike the general Old Testament word for God (elohim), this essential name conveys a dynamic personality. In Exodus 3:14, God tells Moses, “I am who I am.” These words denote one whose absolute uniqueness requires His defining Himself by Himself. The expression conveys the sense of a vitally real being, as if God had said to Moses, “I really am!” The Jews were explicitly commanded not to take the name Yahweh in vain (Exod. 20:2, 7; Lev. 24:16). Consequently, when reading the Old Testament, the Jews substituted Adonai, meaning “Lord,” for Yahweh. The closest they came to uttering His name was when they said, “Praise Jah,” which is translated as “Hallelujah” in English translations.

In the Septuagint version of Psalms 113–118, each psalm is headed with Allelujah. Through the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerome at the end of the fourth century, this form of the word “Hallelujah” came into use among believers. “Hallelujah” does not appear anywhere in the New Testament, except in Revelation 19:1–6. There it is used in an acclamation of praise from the believers in heaven for God’s destruction of Babylon. Like another famous Hebrew praise term “Amen,” the word “Hallelujah” passed from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and thence to the Christian church. Believers in the early church used the word Hallelujah in their songs and hymns at an early date. It became the characteristic expression of joy, and was therefore sung at Christmas and Easter time. At Christmas time, we sing the Hallelujah chorus. At Easter, we often sing:

Christ the Lord is ris’n today, Alleluia!

Sons of men and angels say: Alleluia!

(“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today,” Charles Wesley)

We should remember that every time we sing “Hallelujah,” or “Alleluia,” we are praising the Lord Most High, Yahweh, with absolute respect and love—and if we casually use “Hallelujah,” or “Alleluia,” we are essentially taking the name of our Lord in vain.^[1]