Month: June 2019

Re:Verse passage – Exodus 20:3 (day seven)

9 questions to determine who your god is:

Who do you love?
What do you get excited about?
What does your heart desire?
Who do you turn to in times of trouble?
Where do you run when you need something?
What occupies your mind?
Where do you spend your energy?
How do you spend your money?
What fills your schedule?

As we answer these sorts of questions we get the most accurate answer of who our God is.

Re:Verse passage – Exodus 20:3 (day six)
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

The 10 Commandments were intended to do for more than condemn us. This new covenant with the people of Israel was God’s next step in restoring His blessing. The first commandment then, with the others to follow, show us the way or what’s required. “You shall have no other gods before me” is not only a worth demand from God, but a state of being. When we devote ourselves to the Lord alone, when we love Him with all of our heart, when we know Him and follow Him above all else, then we know his blessing. The same blessing He promised Adam and Eve, Abraham, Jacob, and now the people of Israel, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus.

Re:Verse passage – Exodus 20:3 (day five)
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

God begins His commandments with a clear demonstration of His vast wisdom and knowledge of the human race in at least a couple of ways.   The first commandment serves as a foundation for the other nine. Before learning and understanding all that God demands in a covenant relationship, we must first know who He is, and who we are in this relationship to Him. Once this is settled, we can begin to discover the priorities and structure God expects in our lives. Second, this first commandment also addresses the Egyptian influence that has shaped the hearts and practices of the Israelites- polytheism. They have been immersed in the Egyptian culture- one of the most polytheistic civilizations known to man. They were affected from their time in captivity. Note the activity of idol worship when God was delivering the commandments. So the first commandment addresses their greatest weakness and greatest need. The fact that the human race is quickly distracted from pure devotion to God, and will unwisely build our faith and relationship with God on less than a complete and eternally sturdy foundation. We are easily swayed.

Re:Verse passage – Exodus 20:3 (day four)

This is the first commandment given to Moses on Mt. Sinai…given to begin to establish a relationship between God and His people, Israel.  Even as Moses was carving #1 on the stones, the children of Israel were back in camp making a golden calf…an idol…to worship instead of God.  Needless to say, the commandments were certainly pertinent to the contemporary society of Israel.

What about today?  Is idolatry even an issue in today’s culture?  Absolutely!  Satan continues to use this powerful tool to turn us away from God.  Think time…possessions…passions!  Anything that consumes our thoughts and diverts our minds and hearts from God.  “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”  (Colossians 3:5)  God is the one, true God and we cannot divide our allegiance and trust between Him and anything else.  Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Re:Verse passage –Exodus 20:3 (day three)

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Whole lotta gods out there—you know, those concepts or people or things that you’ve organized your life around, made concessions to, or given up dreams for so that they could make your life secure. We’ve all been there over and over. Those gods will claim to shield you from suffering, be it pain or hardship or loss or sickness or famine. The actual God will shield you from no such thing. Instead, the actual God will teach you to live the kind of life that suffering will not destroy. If your god has convinced you that it can separate you from suffering, your god has not prepared you for reality. Only the God who actually is will lead you to know how to live in the universe that actually is.

Re:Verse passage – Exodus 20:3 (day two) “You shall have no other gods before Me.

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” Matthew 4:8-10

Anything that takes your focus and affection is a ‘god.’ It can be the promise of fame and fortune, but ultimately it costs your soul. God is not in the get rich quick business. He doesn’t guarantee success if you follow him, and frankly  we should be very wary of anyone or thing that does. In fact, all we are promised during our lives is that it will cost us everything. Jesus was not swayed by the promise of the kingdoms of the earth, and we shouldn’t be either. The joy of serving the Lord, and walking in his presence is enough reward for any of us.

Re:Verse passage – Exodus 20:1-17 (day seven)

This week begins an exciting new study of the 10 commandments, and there are a couple of things I would like for you to do with me along the way:

1. Since through much of the summer we will be studying a verse a week, and since the 10 Commandments are critical to our life as believers, I would like for us to memorize the text. I believe God will bless that effort and grow us more than we can imagine through a memorization exercise.  We will start with Exodus 20:1-2 this week.
2. As I study I am going to work through 4 questions for each commandment to help set a baseline for what we are looking for:
   A. What is forbidden?
   B. What is required of me?
   C. What does this say about God’s character?
   D. Where is this commandment referenced in the New Testament?

I hope you’ll do both with me through the summer and see how God uses them to grow us.

Re:Verse passage – Exodus 20:1-17 (day six)

“This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”-Jesus, John 17:3

This is a first; a significant introduction. Up to this point stories of God had been handed down from Abraham to Jacob, and onto his sons, grandsons, and great grandsons, but nothing had been written down, until now. God sets a new precedent, that His Word would become His primary and most concrete form of revelation, with the Ten Commandments serving as a formal introduction to a chosen people.

And not just a greeting, but an introduction to eternal life. God gives His people His written law, so they might know Him, love and obey Him, and thus have eternal life. The law tells us, there is no god like our God.

The law proclaimed it, Jesus, the Word, fulfilled it.