10th Commandment

You decide to take a leisurely drive one evening. You feel adventurous and you go out to drive through a few towns that you've never really been to before. You enter into a nice neighborhood that slowly winds back further away from the heart of the town. It's not long before you start passing some very nice homes. Now these aren't your typical 3 bedroom, 2 story homes. You pass some lots that are a solid 2 acres deep with driveways anywhere from 50 to 150 yards long. The homes are just magnificent. Most of them are 7,000 plus square foot with at least 1 swimming pool and 4-5 car garages.

You can't help but to feel that little tug on your conscience. It's saying..."These are nice, I'd like to have one of these." In fact, the longer you drive down the road, the more you begin to do a self-evaluation. You begin to think about why you don't have the luck, brains, fame, or money to have something like this.

All of your inner thoughts are swirling because you are totally entranced by the enormity and beauty of these small mansions. You begin to think, "Wow, these people are really lucky, I wish that I could have something like this."

After you turn back toward home, you generally might have one of three reactions.

1) You are upset or depressed because you feel that you've been slighted
2) You feel thankful for the things that you have
3) It motivates you to work harder

For the purposes of this posting I'm going to focus on Option 1, as it correlates directly back to the 10th Commandment:

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. Exodus20:17

The word "covet" means - "to wish" or "to desire"

In a nutshell it is Envy.

The 10th commandment is arguably one of the most difficult to follow in the times we live in. Our entire world revolves around money and materialistic things. Somehow it's gotten to be the "in thing" to have nice cars, a big home, fancy clothes, or the newest tech gadget. All of these things might be nice in the eyes of men, but I'd ask how are they used to give glory to God?

I'm not saying that having any of these things is a bad thing. But, it's something that we must carefully manage so these things do not consume our lives and become our priority. There is not a single item that a person has that God doesn't allow them to possess. All of our possessions are 'on loan'. We don't own them, God does. And in the blink of an eye and by His Will, He can take them away or multiply them tenfold.

Let's try to remember to give thanks everyday for the things that God has blessed us with. I promise you there are so many people in a far worse situations.

To put things into perspective:

Approx 3-5 % of the worlds population have internet access. And only about 25% of the worlds population sleep in their own bed at night and only about 30% of the worlds population are rich enough to have a bank account.

Final Thoughts

In retrospect, the 10th Commandment is really the first stop on the "sin express". By the word "express" I mean that it will take you down quickly...and once you hop on board, don't expect to get off anytime soon. Envy will lead to greed. Greed could lead to lying, selfishness, or theft...and these could lead to far worse things.

The next time you are in a situation where you start to feel envious, stop for a moment to tell God about the top 2 or 3 things that you are most thankful for.

Let's remember to have patience and enjoy the gifts that God has given us. We never know how long He's going to allow us to keep these gifts, or when He will ultimately call us home to final judgment.

God bless you. And this is for His Glory!

Obedience

In the book of Genesis, God places what could be called the "test of all tests" upon Abraham. God tells Abraham to journey into the land of Mount Moriah. There Abraham was to build an alter and kill his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God.

"Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

Genesis22:2

Without hesitation Abraham left the next morning with his son and two other servants. After a 3 day journey he came to the place where the Lord told him to go.

Then Abraham took his son up the mountain, built an alter for the Lord, bound his son, and set him on the alter. Before Abraham was able to deliver the death blow an angel of the Lord called out to him...commanding him to stop.

"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Genesis22:12-13

Does this selfless act sound familiar?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

John3:16

Just like Abraham was willing to do, God offered up His own son to die on the cross in order to wash away our sins. Jesus paid the ultimate price in order for us to be cleansed and have an opportunity for eternal salvation. God was willing to do this out of love for us, even though man was consistently disobedient to Him.

How many times have we decided not to give our our time and efforts to God? How many times have we decided to either skip church, not pray before a meal, go to bed without saying a prayer, or be selfish when we know we shouldn't? God doesn't ask us to sacrifice a loved one in order to prove our love for Him. All He asks is that we obey Him. How do we do this? We do it by following Gospel. Some might respond to that by saying, "Well the Bible is a big book, how do I know where to start?"

Start with refreshing your mind with the 10 commandments. See Deuteronomy 5:6-21 to review the Commandments.

The following quoted excerpt was taken from gotquestions.org and explains the difference between the 10 Commandments and the new covenant that Jesus gave us.

"Many people mistakenly look at the Ten Commandments as a set of rules, that if followed, will guarantee entrance into heaven after death. In contrast, the purpose of the Ten Commandments is to force people to realize that they cannot perfectly obey the Law (Romans 7:7-11), and are therefore in need of God’s mercy and grace. Despite the claims of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16, no one can perfectly obey the Ten Commandments (Ecclesiastes 7:20). The Ten Commandments demonstrate that we have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and are therefore in need of God’s mercy and grace, available only through faith in Jesus Christ."

"Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law of Moses (Matthew 5:17) and create a new covenant between God and His people. The old covenant was written in stone, but the new covenant is written on our hearts, made possible only by faith in Christ, who shed His own blood to atone for the sins of the world. Luke 22:20 says, "After supper, [Jesus] took another cup of wine and said, 'This wine is the token of God's new covenant to save you – an agreement sealed with the blood I will pour out for you.'"

Final Thoughts:

In the days to come, let's try to free ourselves from the heavy pressures and stale promises of the world. Instead, let's revisit the 10 commandments and really think about how we can obey/apply each commandment in our daily lives. If we don't know God's laws then how can we obey them?

You've probably heard the old saying... "The only thing certain in life are taxes and death." We all know that 10 out of 10 people will die. But, will 10 out of 10 people enter into eternity? Not likely if we don't read, repent, and release ourselves to follow God's laws.

On the day of judgment how will you respond if God asks you if you wholeheartedly followed His commandments?

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Revelation 22:14

God bless you. And this is for His Glory!