Are the Ten Commandments outdated?
Most of us know what the Ten Commandments are; you can usually find them vividly portrayed during Easter in the movie starring Charlton Heston. But in the world we live in, how often do we break them; more importantly, at what cost?
Thou shalt not commit adultery. That's a biggie and one I seemed to have forgotten a couple of years ago. Sadly, I have to admit that I believed the lies about this that permeate our culture. A REAL man does not do this... ever, and sadly, I was not a REAL man. Forget the machismo. Real men love God and keep His commandments. I chose to talk about this today (I'm going to get to more of them, trust me.) because of a Bible verse I stumbled on from the book of Job, backed up by Proverbs Chapter 7.
The NLT translation of Job 31 9-12 reads: If my heart has been seduced by a woman or if I have lusted for my neighbor's wife, then my my wife belong to another man; may other men sleep with her. For lust is a shameful sin, a crime that should be punished. it is a devastating fire that destroys to hell. It would wipe out everything I own.
Is this not what has happened to me? The good things that come from this painful and expensive lesson are that I've learned a better way to live and that God can use this lesson, shared by me, to warn others not to follow in my foolish ways. Read and heed, my friends, read and heed.
We know too, that probably the one most frequently broken is to use the Holy name of the Lord God, or His only Son, Jesus Christ in less than a reverent way. I'm just sayin' that we need to be cognizant of what comes out of our mouths.
Thou shalt not bear false witness... that's a biggie, isn't it? We lie for various reasons. The thing I don't understand is the lies deliberately told; the ones people tell when they know either you're going to find out the truth, or they already have and know you're lying to them. The truth would have been so much better and easier. I know we lie sometimes to either keep us out of, or avoid an unpleasant circumstance. I found some other guidance in the book of Ecclesiates 10:4 (again, the NLT translation): If your boss is angry with you, don't quit. A quiet spirit can overcome even great mistakes. The point is that most of, if not all, the little lies we tell aren't necessary.
What about this one: The greatest commandment of all, which is Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength? Do you?
Or, the commandment about being covetous? Or the one about stealing?
I think too, that the biggest lie is that we tell ourselves because we don't commit large crimes, we're good people, yet the fact remains that we all sin. I'd love to be without sin; I try very hard to be that way, but no matter what, because I'm human, I fall short sometimes. We all do.
There's a reason for writing this post. The first part is to serve a purpose, which is to encourage everyone to look at what God allowed to come into my life as a chastisement for my sin. Learn from me and don't let this happen to you. The second part of the reason is that I know people who pretend to have this relationship with God. They want others to think they're good people and they do good things for people, to be sure, but at the same time, they ignore what Jesus said and others in the New Testament reinforced; sometimes for self-serving motives; sometimes for vengeance for the wrongs that others have done to them. Both are dead-end propositions and I thought about this: None of us knows our future, nor the time when we're leaving this world. An accident could end our lives at any second; it's by God's grace we wake up to a new day.
Wouldn't it be awful for the people that believe one of the biggest lies of all, which in my humble estimation is this: "I'm a good person." What will it be like to come before the throne of the Almighty, only to have Jesus look at you after you account for why you're a good person, only to hear Him say "I don't know you".
Today's a good day for introspection. I just learned something I needed to while looking for a quote for this post; one that I think will help me in my walk with Jesus, and an answer to a prayer. It's gonna be difficult to fix, but nothing is impossible with God. Hopefully this lesson won't be another that is too late to know. (of course, it's private!) Anyway, I hope these words will cause you to look at your own relationship with God. It's not written to judge anyone, because I still have the plank stuck in my own eye. Slowly but surely, it's coming out. But it's coming out just the same!
Praise God and thanks to Him for letting me share with y'all. Have a blessed day!
Thou shalt not commit adultery. That's a biggie and one I seemed to have forgotten a couple of years ago. Sadly, I have to admit that I believed the lies about this that permeate our culture. A REAL man does not do this... ever, and sadly, I was not a REAL man. Forget the machismo. Real men love God and keep His commandments. I chose to talk about this today (I'm going to get to more of them, trust me.) because of a Bible verse I stumbled on from the book of Job, backed up by Proverbs Chapter 7.
The NLT translation of Job 31 9-12 reads: If my heart has been seduced by a woman or if I have lusted for my neighbor's wife, then my my wife belong to another man; may other men sleep with her. For lust is a shameful sin, a crime that should be punished. it is a devastating fire that destroys to hell. It would wipe out everything I own.
Is this not what has happened to me? The good things that come from this painful and expensive lesson are that I've learned a better way to live and that God can use this lesson, shared by me, to warn others not to follow in my foolish ways. Read and heed, my friends, read and heed.
We know too, that probably the one most frequently broken is to use the Holy name of the Lord God, or His only Son, Jesus Christ in less than a reverent way. I'm just sayin' that we need to be cognizant of what comes out of our mouths.
Thou shalt not bear false witness... that's a biggie, isn't it? We lie for various reasons. The thing I don't understand is the lies deliberately told; the ones people tell when they know either you're going to find out the truth, or they already have and know you're lying to them. The truth would have been so much better and easier. I know we lie sometimes to either keep us out of, or avoid an unpleasant circumstance. I found some other guidance in the book of Ecclesiates 10:4 (again, the NLT translation): If your boss is angry with you, don't quit. A quiet spirit can overcome even great mistakes. The point is that most of, if not all, the little lies we tell aren't necessary.
What about this one: The greatest commandment of all, which is Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength? Do you?
Or, the commandment about being covetous? Or the one about stealing?
I think too, that the biggest lie is that we tell ourselves because we don't commit large crimes, we're good people, yet the fact remains that we all sin. I'd love to be without sin; I try very hard to be that way, but no matter what, because I'm human, I fall short sometimes. We all do.
There's a reason for writing this post. The first part is to serve a purpose, which is to encourage everyone to look at what God allowed to come into my life as a chastisement for my sin. Learn from me and don't let this happen to you. The second part of the reason is that I know people who pretend to have this relationship with God. They want others to think they're good people and they do good things for people, to be sure, but at the same time, they ignore what Jesus said and others in the New Testament reinforced; sometimes for self-serving motives; sometimes for vengeance for the wrongs that others have done to them. Both are dead-end propositions and I thought about this: None of us knows our future, nor the time when we're leaving this world. An accident could end our lives at any second; it's by God's grace we wake up to a new day.
Wouldn't it be awful for the people that believe one of the biggest lies of all, which in my humble estimation is this: "I'm a good person." What will it be like to come before the throne of the Almighty, only to have Jesus look at you after you account for why you're a good person, only to hear Him say "I don't know you".
Today's a good day for introspection. I just learned something I needed to while looking for a quote for this post; one that I think will help me in my walk with Jesus, and an answer to a prayer. It's gonna be difficult to fix, but nothing is impossible with God. Hopefully this lesson won't be another that is too late to know. (of course, it's private!) Anyway, I hope these words will cause you to look at your own relationship with God. It's not written to judge anyone, because I still have the plank stuck in my own eye. Slowly but surely, it's coming out. But it's coming out just the same!
Praise God and thanks to Him for letting me share with y'all. Have a blessed day!
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