All Are Not Necessarily Precious in His Sight

The more I read the Old Testament (I'm in Deuteronomy right now), the more I am convinced that God cares more about the quality of His people than the quantity.

From a Biblical perspective - if you're not for Him, or especially if you can/will corrupt His people (what was Israel, but now are all Christians) then you're basically worthless and God would rather you be destroyed than have you cause His children to sin and/or turn away from Him.

From Deuteronomy 20:

¹⁶ However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you. ¹⁸ Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.

This goes completely counter to our culture though, which generally believes that each person's life is precious, special, and just as valuable as the next one. But I don't think this is really God's perspective.

Now, a few caveats here. Please understand that this is not a reflection of my personal opinion toward non-Christians. I love and appreciate all of my friends, just as I periodically pray for all of them. Also, I know that God can and has used non-Christians/Israelites to accomplish His purposes. And I also know that some people become "His" (i.e. Christians) later in life than others, some even on their death bed.

I'm just saying that as a whole, God doesn't seem to have as high a sanctity of life as we humans tend to. What really counts for God is not how long you live, but whose side you're on while you're alive, and consequently where you go after you die.

WTFWJD?

My non-Christian co-worker recently told me about the acronym WTFWJD. It took me a minute, but upon realizing what it meant I laughed and immediately began looking for a t-shirt with that phrase on it (I found some, but haven't bought one yet).

After mentioning this phrase on Facebook though, I understandably got mixed reactions. Part of the negative reaction was from the fact that I am one of the leaders in our church's youth group, and many of those youth are Facebook friends of mine. Oops! Yes, upon realization and reflection I think it is inappropriate to encourage this phrase for younger kids. Sorry parents.

Another negative reaction stems potentially from misinterpreting unintended emotions. Since it's written (as opposed to spoken), it's hard to tell if it's being stated with anger. The "F" word is a pretty strong curse word, so is the writer (in this case me) shaking his fists and yelling with a furrowed brow? From my minimal experience, most Christians only speak the "F" word under extreme conditions, such as hitting your finger with a hammer, just after getting in a car accident, or even worse - when their sports team loses a game. But most of the cases that I've seen the phrase "WTF" used isn't out of anger, but more commonly confusion. Such as a crazy picture with the caption WTF under it. Or someone stating something ridiculous or outlandish in a forum and another person commenting with "WTF?".

Another concern with WTFWJD is the question of using God's name (Jesus' - same thing) in vain. By cursing in the same sentence/phrase as Jesus' name, am I possibly taking His previous and holy name in vain? Well, since I'm not cursing at God or using his name to curse something else, I personally don't think that is the case.

Now that I've covered the reasons why people might not like this phrase, I'd like to explain why I do like it. 1) It gets people's attention. WWJD is an old and overused phrase, and this puts another spin on it in a fresh and funny (although vulgar) way. 2) It's relevant to today's culture. WTF is one of the widely used phrases for texting and chatting, along with OMG, LOL, and many others that have become common with the current technologies used for communication. 3) It can be used to promote my faith. I'm (perhaps optimistically) hoping that because this statement is controversial, the attention that it draws could potentially be used to actually start a conversation about my faith with someone who could benefit from it.

Now the real question is this though - if I were to wear a t-shirt with this printed on the front of it - what Bible verse would best be suited to be printed on the back of it? Any help is appreciated.