Thought of the Day - 01/07/08

Serving God and Loving Him
A Commitment to Obeying
Exodus 20:03

The book of Matthew records an event where a scribe asked Jesus, ‘Master, which is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus said unto him, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,’ (Matt. 22:36 – 40). What a statement! Just for the record, you cannot love God and hate your neighbor. This was one of the times that Jesus shut up the media and the religious leaders. Jesus in return asked a question of the scribes (media) and Pharisees about Christ’s father? They couldn’t answer. Jesus’ questions and answers continually confounded the religious leaders and the press. Today there is nothing different. The press and religious leaders argue about things that only the Lord knows and even things that God teaches in HIS WORD. His Word still baffles a lot of religious people and the liberal media all together. However, as I study the text of the Ten Commandments, I wonder how seriously real Christians take them. I, for one, know that I don’t take them as seriously as I should. The first Commandment of the Ten is very clear. It is not condensed, nor is it anything to baffle or confound anyone. The first Commandment reads, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”
All of man’s laws hinge on of these Ten small, but yet, large Commandments. Some people look to the Constitution of the United States to condone their life styles, the ways they live, or to make a point. We need to remember that this country was founded on Biblical principles and that the Constitution actually backs up God’s Word. This being said, we all know that people consistently amend our Constitution with humanly thoughts, which in my mind, undermines God’s Word. Of course, the argument could be made that the multiple additions of the Bible, veering away from the KJV, which I believe is the closest to actual transcripts have been amended too. In other words, we change God’s Word to fit our lives instead of changing our lives to fit God’s Word. Either way you look at it, man always seems to think they have a better way; don’t we? However, this Commandment cannot be amended. Loving God is not a suggestion it is an order. The words, ‘Thou shalt not,’ appear 240 times in 219 verses. In those verses, it appears 218 of the 240 times in the Old Testament, which is in 204 verses. It is implied more though. The Ten Commandments are not the Ten Suggestions. Yes, they were given to the children of Israel, but they apply to us all.
To love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind and soul is something that we could all work on. It is easily said, that one loves the Lord, but is it readily read, or shown in their lives. Another way of saying this would be, ‘it is easy to talk the talk, but are you walking your talk?’ Living for Christ is not easily done when a person puts self in front of God. I can hear people now; ‘I always follow God.’ Do you? We need to realize that the only way to love God, HIS WAY, is to put our way out of the way. That’s where pride comes in. Remember, pride separates us from God; always has, always will. To serve God with the love HE desires means we must put ourselves to the side. This first commandment seems to be easily understood, doesn’t it? We could have the attitude, ‘just don’t serve any god, but the one and True God, and everything is okay.’ This would solve everything, right? If we looked at it that way we would still have problems; mainly because of this world and its god, which is Satan. Loving and serving the One and True God would help us, but sometimes God allows things to happen so we can depend upon HIM. If we look at it in the way the first Commandment is meant, it is a lot harder to do. Just because we assume that the Lord is just talking about idols doesn’t mean that HE is. He addresses idols in the second commandment, which we will look at another time. We need to understand that if there is anything that we do that takes the place of God in our lives, then that activity can become ‘other gods before HIM.’
There are three things that we can do to help us not have other gods before HIM. We all can study God’s Word, but we all can make excuses for not doing it. Reading the Bible is great, and I encourage everyone to do it. However, sitting down and really studying something out is totally different. I can remember something that happened in one of my very first Bible studies. I can remember when the real ‘meat of the passage’ I was studying was revealed to me. It made me want to study even more. I couldn’t get enough. As a young person and even after I was saved, I used the excuse of not understanding God’s Word for not studying it. Shame on me! I have come to the conclusion that we allow activities, jobs, friendships, hobbies, etc, become gods in our lives. When it gets to the point of having to do it with our all, we come very close to doing just that. I can remember when deer hunting became that way to me. NO, I am not saying that hunting is a god. I’m saying that when it becomes more important than God does, we make it a god in our lives. Hunting is one thing for me to use, but there are other things that may be in your life that become as gods in your life. Fill in the blank, so to speak. Praying is a good way to keep other gods out of our lives. Asking God to help us daily to do what HE wants for us to do is the biggest key to not allowing other gods between you and HIM. So we have studying the Bible, praying, and now we have praising Him. Giving praise to Him for good things in our lives is easily done, but neglected. We should praise HIM and thank HIM daily for the great things HE does for us. Praising or thanking HIM for the tough times in our lives is really hard to do. However, the tough things in our lives develop us in our physical and spiritual lives. We usually want to play the blame game instead of thanking HIM. Spiritual growth is dependant upon all three of these things.
I challenge anyone reading this to look at activities, readings, hobbies, etc, and see what you have done to become more of an expertise in these areas. Does it take time away from studying the Bible, praying and worshipping the Lord in our lives? Do they keep us from being faithful to HIM in church and in our lives? HE should be on top of the list. If these three things are not at the top of our lists, then we could, and probably do have other gods in the way. Just a thought. What is your’s?