Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I introduced the idea of grace with a diagram. We will build on that now, so if you missed it, go back and watch Tuesday and Wednesday’s content.
You may be familiar with the Ten Commandments. They are an important part of the tracks that God has created for our lives, the guidelines that keep us from self-destructing.
Where did they come from? They are over 3400 years old. God led the Israelites out of danger and slavery, then gave the laws by which this newly freed people were to organize their life together. Of all these laws, the Ten Commandments come first and take most important place.
In a few minutes, please watch the attached video to hear the commandments in detail. But first we need to know purpose first, to understand the commandments in their proper place…lest you come away from this thinking that Christianity is all about following a bunch of rules.
A common misconception is to make “Obey God’s laws” #1 as if it could qualify you for a life of knowing God. Sometimes Christians communicate the rules like they are number one, having forgotten how they came to know the God who helps them keep those commandments. Knowing God qualifies you to try and follow these commandments…God is working in and through his followers to help transform their lives from the inside out.
This was certainly true for Israelites. God, in his love for the Israelites, saved them from slavery in Egypt by parting the red sea. Only once they were safely on the other side of the sea from the Egyptians did he give them the commandments, and call them to live by those commandments in thanks for the gift he’d given them.
The 10 commandments answer the question: “How can I live to thank the God who has loved me so much?” Not how can I behave to earn God’s love, or avoid his hate. Not how can I get others to live by my rules?
Take a quick run through these commandments.
The Commandments deal with two things:
Relationship with God
Relationship with One Another.
The last commandment is unique, since it talks about contentment. This one may seem a bit different from the others, and it is. The others focus on our outward actions, what to do and not do, while this one focuses on our hearts, what to want and desire, and what not to.
God is in the transformation business. He not only wanted to see the Israelites as a transformed society, but also to see the minds of all his created human beings transformed in this way.
The Bible contains many other guidelines, principles and laws. We don’t have time to go through them all here. Life is complex, and there is not a specific rule for everything. But these principles, the 10 commandments, or even just the 2 commandments to love god and neighbour, or the principle of grace behind them all, can apply to any area of life. I am happy to help you interpret and apply if you have a specific question.
Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.
Read the Bible in Sync Today
Loading Content...
Share a Link to this Message
The link has been copied to your clipboard; paste it anywhere you would like to share it.
I recently read Chris Hadfield’s book – An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. Most of us know Hadfield the astronaut – and assume that being an astronaut involves a lot of adrenaline, courage, all focused on the time from takeoff to landing.
But in his book, he tries to broaden our view of astronauts, so we don’t just focus on those few days in space. HE talks about a number of the practices that he’s used in his lifetime…all in preparation for going to space, and debriefing afterwards.
For example, he says he sweats the small stuff, always thinking about the details of how he’d react to an emergency before it happens. He touts the power of negative thinking – he would always spend hours going over his failures with others, to ensure they didn’t happen again.
He studied like crazy - his kids made fun of him for having more homework, and taking it more seriously than they did! All this, in addition to the need for physical fitness and wellbeing with constant trips to the doctor, trying to avoid illness and injury.
It wasn’t glamorous or easy, his life sounds like it’s been so single-mindedly focused on making it to space that it was very boring in many other ways, thanks in part to these practices.
Those kids of practices are what prepared him for his mission going to the space station, so when things went wrong, he was prepared.
This kind of thinking is valuable not just for space travel. Any big challenge needs preparation, and if the challenge is big enough, we need to learn new routines, rituals and practices well in advance, to change who we are in sustainable ways, focusing ourselves on being ready for the task ahead.
That’s why we’re exploring the book of Acts right now to understand the first followers of Jesus as pioneers, and figure out how they organized themselves as a church community. That was a big mission, and they needed some practices as well, to help prepare them for the challenges ahead.
Question: What kind of practices do you think would be essential to being a follower of Jesus?
