The Ten(der) Commandments

August 2, 2022
Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
Psalm 1:1-3

Last week I was invited to join with our Hursttown church to celebrate a one day vacation bible school with the theme of the ten commandments of God. What fun to sing and dance to songs like “The Ten Commandment Boogie” and “This little light of mine”. We had a young group of kids who seemed genuinely interested in participating, especially when it came to pizza and cookie break time.

I was inspired a while ago to reinterpret the 10 commandments, which can be found in 3 places in the bible; Exodus 20, Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 5. The reinterpretation was my way of helping our grandkids to think about what God wants for us. At the risk of repeating a previous midweek posting, here’s my list as I hear God speaking to the children;

1 - Love God with all of yourself.
2 - Don’t worship anything or anyone else,
3 - Don’t use God’s name in a bad way.
4 - Remember to spend one day every week as a holy day for God.
5 - Respect your mommy and daddy.
6 - Don’t murder (Life is a precious gift from God).
7 - Be faithful to your husband or wife.
8 - Don’t take what does not belong to you.
9 - Don’t say bad things about other people.
10 -Don’t spend time wanting what other people have, be grateful for what you already have.

School has started, so I will have less time with our grandkids, but I hope to keep up the habit of encouraging them to share from bible memory verses and these commandments. I always get an uplift to my spirit when I hear sweet young voices speaking from God’s word. My oldest grandson taught me to read scriptures from a personal perspective. His life verse (as The Lord put on my heart is ) Psalm 1:1-3; “Blessed are you William, when you do not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But your delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law you meditate day and night. You will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, whatever you do will prosper.”

I encourage you to take some time every day to sit with God, read your bible and listen for the Holy Spirit to direct you to a verse to memorize. We have so many voices screaming at us in our world today to go this way or that way, to allow for everything and anything so as not to exclude anyone, to focus more on our rights and needs, you get the idea. How about becoming like a child in VBS again and read, sing, and celebrate the commands of God. Pastor and author Ron Mehl writes; “Oh, how we need God’s help! How we need God’s Spirit! How we need God’s loving guidelines. The truth is we need help beyond our age or experience” (The Ten(der) Commandments, Reflections on the Father’s Love pg.30).

AMEN