During my time dealing with the JW, I was always a bit annoyed by the whole "use God's name" thing.
One day I asked somebody the following:
"If I murder and torture a child, and claim to do it in Jehovah's name, who did I serve. If I rescue, comfort, and help heal the same, and claim to do it in the name of Satan, who then did I serve?"
I hadn't thought a lot about that topic, until a few months back I heard a Christian witnessing to a Hindu. He was quoting the scripture, Acts 4:12:
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
I found myself getting annoyed again. I am a Christian myself, but I have come to resent those who try to reduce faith and salvation to a punch list of rituals of do's and dont's and checklists. God is not a formula, and neither is our relationship with Him.
But I thought more about what that means. What is God. What is His name, his meaning. I also thought about our secular culture, and atheists who see Christians as harsh, judgy, caricatures of John Lithgow trying to keep Kevin Bacon from dancing.
Really, I think, all you gotta know is that God is Love. (1st John 4:7-8) to the extent that what you do and say and put out to the world is about love, then you are in His service. Suppose you cannot stomach the idea that there is an all powerful mind in control of the universe, you still can be all about love. To me that atheist would be a better Christian than I have been all to often.
I also found thinking of God this way gave me a new appreciation for Him and why my relationship with Him is so important. Why I want to be a Christian. Why I want to serve Him. He is Love. Truly there is no other thing under heaven that can save us.
And you can extend that to all faith. If your behavior, that you think is grounded in your faith, is not coming from love, then you are doing it wrong.
Love you all.
CYP