COVENANT-KEEPING WORSHIPERS

Read Exodus 20:1-17, the Ten Commandments.

We see how the Ten Commandments break into two groupings, with the first four dealing with our relationship with God and the final six dealing with our relationship with our neighbor.

Most fascinating is the way Jesus further boiled down the Ten Commandments (indeed the whole Law) into a singular command: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27)

There’s something we should be clear about here at the outset. The commandments are not about becoming a law-abiding citizen, as is commonly thought. They are about becoming a covenant-keeping worshiper.

In that light, it’s interesting how the most important words in the Ten Commandments, indeed in the whole of the Law, are most often excluded from the commandments when we see them inscribed in public places and even in Christian literature. They are these: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2)

The Ten Commandments do not begin with commandments. The Law does not begin with laws. It begins with relationship. “I am Yahweh,” God says. “I am the God who heard your cries and who brought you out of Egypt, out of the cruel slavery under which you suffered.” I am God. I delivered you. This is the most primitive taproot of our entire faith. This cannot be overstated. If our faith does not come down to something as simple as “I am yours. You are mine,” we are missing the core essence of the Christian faith and likely lost in some form of a counterfeit religion. 

-- Excerpted from “Wake-Up Call” with J. D. Walt 

#6294

GOD LIVES WITHIN YOU

Jesus said to His disciples, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15-17 NKJV)

Dwell on the fact that God lives within you.  Think of the power that gives your life.  The realization that God is dwelling within you may change the places you want to go and the things you want to do today.

-- Max Lucado

#5960

FOLLOWING GOD’S PATH

“I long for Your salvation, Lord, and Your law gives me delight. Let me live that I may praise You, and may Your laws sustain me. I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commands.”  (Psalm 119:174-176 NIV)

In these verses, the psalmist expresses a deep longing for God’s salvation and a delight in His law. Let’s explore three key points from this passage:

Longing for Salvation: Life can be challenging, and we often find ourselves in need of rescue. The psalmist acknowledges this longing for salvation -- a desire for God to intervene, deliver, and redeem. As believers, we too can cry out to God when we feel lost, broken, or overwhelmed. Our hope rests in His saving grace.

Delighting in God’s Law: The psalmist finds joy in God’s law. This isn’t a mere set of rules; it’s a reflection of God’s character and wisdom. When we immerse ourselves in Scripture, we discover God’s heart. His commands guide us, protect us, and lead us toward abundant life.

Acknowledging Our Straying: Like lost sheep, we sometimes wander away from God’s path. We make mistakes, lose focus, and drift along with the culture. Yet, even in our waywardness, God seeks us out. He doesn’t abandon us. Instead, He lovingly calls us back, inviting us to return to His ways.

Heavenly Father, we long for Your salvation. Your law is our delight, and we seek to live according to Your commands. When we stray from Your path, gently guide us back to You. May our lives be a testimony of Your sustaining grace. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

-- Author Unknown

#5852

A THEME OF OBEDIENCE

“Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”  (Joshua 1:8 NLT)

“As the Lord had commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua. And Joshua did as he was told, carefully obeying all the commands that the Lord had given to Moses.”  (Joshua 11:15 NLT)

Joshua carefully obeyed all the instructions given by God. This theme of obedience is repeated frequently in the book of Joshua, partly because obedience is one aspect of life the individual believer can control. We can’t always control our understanding because we may not have all the facts. We can’t control what other people do or how they treat us. However, we can control our choice to obey God. Whatever new challenges we may face, the Bible contains relevant instructions that we can choose to ignore or choose to follow.

-- from the Life Application Study Bible


#4051

INTO YOUR HEART

"And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”  (Deuteronomy 6:6 ESV)

Notice that it doesn’t say ‘on your minds’ because there is a difference. I think there is a difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge, and that distance between the head and the heart, about 12 inches, is a long distance to travel. It is information up here [in the head] but it is transformation down here [in the heart]. So, what the writer of Deuteronomy is saying is, this can’t just be in your head, it has to get into your heart.

-- Mark Batterson, from a talk entitled “Parenting 101”

#4041

WILDERNESS WANDERINGS

“This book records the words that Moses spoke to all the people of Israel while they were in the wilderness east of the Jordan River… Normally it takes only eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai… But forty years after the Israelites left Mount Sinai… Moses gave these speeches to the Israelites...”  (Deuteronomy 1:1-3a NLT)

The Israelites spent 40 years on a journey that should have lasted 11 days. It wasn’t distance that stood between them and the Promised Land. It was the condition of their hearts… God sentenced them to wilderness wanderings because they rejected His love, rebelled against His authority, ignored His commands for right living, and willfully broke their end of the agreement… In short, they disobeyed God.

We often make life’s journey more difficult than necessary by disobedience. Accept God’s love, read and follow His commands in the Bible, and make a promise to stick with God whatever your situation. You will find that your life will be less complicated and more rewarding.

-- from The Life Application Study Bible

#4037

GOD’S LAWS FOR LIVING

“Lord, You have given us Your laws and told us to obey them faithfully. How I hope that I shall be faithful in keeping Your instructions! If I pay attention to all Your commands, then I will not be put to shame.”  (Psalm 119:4-6 GNT)

There are times when it can be so tempting to 'bend' the rules in certain cases, especially if we don't think we'll get caught. But when we resist the temptation and follow God's laws for living, we'll invariably see that God has just spared us from needless grief.

-- Matt Donnelly,  ChristianityToday.com


#4033

AN UNENLIGHTENED CONSCIENCE

"You shall not…"  (Exodus 20:1-17)

To say of an act done, "My conscience is quite clear", sounds smug and satisfactory. It does not by any means follow that the speaker's conscience ought to be clear.  It may simply show that [it] is sadly unenlightened.

-- Bishop G. E. Reindorp

#3738

LIVING IN GOD-HONORING WAYS

"Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity." (Romans 12:2 Phillips)

Jesus told us to live IN the world but not to be OF the world (see John 17:13-18). To be "in" the world means living in today's culture -- we all live in a culture -- and to be physically present to and with others. To be "of" the world means to buy into the values, morals and ethics of culture. Clearly, much of our culture is good; but also, just as clearly, some is not. We need to be alert to ways that the world tries to squeeze us into its mold -- to have us conform to its values. Having a biblical worldview will help us resist the temptations and seductions of society and help us to live in God-honoring ways.

 

-- Martin Marty and David Clark in Between Two Altars video series discussion guide

#3721

THE TROUBLE SPOTS IN LIFE

In her beautiful novel about Maine, The Country of the Pointed Firs, Sara Orne Jewett describes the ascent of a woman writer on the pathway leading to the home of a retired sea captain named Elijah Tilley.


On the way, the woman notes a number of wooden stakes randomly scattered about the property, with no discernible order.  Each is painted white and trimmed in yellow, like the captain's house.  Curious, she asks Captain Tilley what they mean.  When he first plowed the ground, he says, his plow snagged on many large rocks just beneath the surface.  So he set out the stakes where the rocks lay in order to avoid them in the future.


In a sense, this is what God has done with the Ten Commandments… He has said, "These are the trouble spots in life.  Avoid these, and you won't snag your plow."


-- John Killinger in To My People with Love




#3662

BEING HONORABLE

True honor comes as the result of being honorable… "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you," is the first of the Ten Commandments with a promise. The children are challenged to honor parents unconditionally, but a close observation reveals that parents are expected to live by the other nine commandments. If they do, they are indeed worthy of such honor. The challenge for contemporary parents is that we will so live our lives that we will be worthy of our children's honor and thus our children will find it easy to honor us.

-- Gary Chapman in Five Signs of a Functional Family


#3607

GOING TO ALL THE WORLD

“Then Jesus told them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.’”  (Mark 16:15 NLT)

The church can no longer fling open the doors and expect the crowds to rush in. We are no longer a “come here” organization as is evidenced by the large number of people who will not or no longer “come here.” But what is the alternative? The answer to fulfilling our call to reach the world is to go to the world. Jesus didn’t instruct the disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the world to come to them; he instructed them to go to the world. Though our going will look different from that of those first disciples, the command still stands.

-- Bryan Collier in The Go-To Church: Post MegaChurch Growth (Abingdon Press, 2013)


#3513

THE HONEY OF LOVE

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves His child as well.  This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands.  In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome,…" (1 John 5:1-3)

Honor and glory are indeed due to God and to Him alone, but He will accept neither of them if they be not preserved in the honey of love. Love is sufficient of itself; it pleases by itself and on its own account. Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit. It is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. I love because I love; I love that I may love. Love is a great thing provided it recurs to its beginning, returns to its origin, and draws always from that Fountain which is perpetually in flood. Of all the feelings and affections of the soul, love is the only one by which the creature, though not on equal terms, is able to respond to the Creator and to repay what it has received from Him. For when God loves us He desires nothing but to be loved. He loves for no other reason, indeed, than that He may be loved, knowing that by their love itself those who love Him are blessed.

-- St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)


#3277

LISTEN TO HIS VOICE

"You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him." (Deuteronomy 13:4 NASB)

God is our true Friend, who always gives us the counsel and comfort we need.  Our danger lies in resisting Him; so it is essential that we acquire the habit of hearkening to His voice, or keeping silence within, and listening so as to lose nothing of what He says to us. 

-- Francois Fenelon


#3090

LOVING GIVING

Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31 NKJV)

It is possible to give without loving, but it is impossible to love without giving.

-- Richard Braustein

 
#2876

GOD'S STRATEGY TO TOUCH THIS WORLD

Salvation is always granted on God's terms, and it reflects the nature of God Himself. The most identifiable characteristic of salvation is the quality of our love, first toward God and then toward His people. Without a love relationship on both levels, vertically and horizontally, we have not experienced God's salvation. If we get this basic truth wrong, we are in desperate trouble.

God's strategy to touch this world is vitally linked with these two basic relationships. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He said in Matthew 22:37--40, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

-- Henry Blackaby and Melvin D. Blackaby in Experiencing God Together: God's Plan to Touch Your World


#2869

DOING GOD'S WORK

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between two persons. God has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it -- if I but keep God's commandments.

-- John Henry Newman (quoted in An Angel a Day by Ann Spangler)

 
#2722