Hi. Welcome to my series where I will be going through and discussing each of the 10 commandments from the Bible. The first commandment states: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2-3) #Bible #Christian #Jesus #oldtestament #10commandments

The Ten Commandments: II By Saint Stuart 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20: 4-6) This commandment doesn’t seem to come up much in modern times. Idol worship has been discouraged throughout the centuries and would be ridiculed by many people today. When Moses was up on Mount Sinai, however, the Israelites were, along with the first commandment, in the process of disobeying this commandment as well. They were intent on worshipping God who led them out of Egypt, but had fashioned an image of an earthly animal, calling it God. Not only is such a practice entirely inaccurate, but it also sparks jealousy within God, who as our Creator and Provider of all that is good has very good reason to be jealous. Our praise, worship and thanksgiving, tangible and fulfilling expressions of emotion to God, are justly deserving to Him alone. If those expressions are directed toward something that has no part in their origin then God and man both miss out on an authentic experience of worship. We must worship and acknowledge God in how we experience Him in our lives, and how scripture presents Him, not in any other depiction, description or speculation, unless it is an expression led by the Holy Spirit. Pictures of Jesus and depictions of God are created over time artistically, but to regard them as completely accurate and bow down to them and serve them as such would be a gross misconduct compared to direction those devotions to our mind’s actual experience of who God is through spiritual interaction in prayer and scriptural contemplation. I have contemplated another sort of idol – our mind’s depiction of God that is not a true representation backed up by scripture or an authentic spiritual encounter. Some might regard God as accepting of their sin, or make assumptions of His nature based on human reasoning. “If I was God, I’d do things this way, so I assume God is like that.” No human will ever be close to what God is, and unless His wisdom is received through scriptural revelation or direct communion with Him, our own understanding will not be reliable. Know God by comprehending His ways as described in the Bible and through spiritual utterings, meditation and listening in prayer and praise to Him. The ways we are able to worship and serve God are a primary importance to our walk with Him. God declares that He shows “steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:6). Obeying God is a way of worshipping Him, and when we do that we discover even more to offer praise and thanksgiving to Him for. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). In order to direct all of our heart, soul and strength solely and completely to a God with no earthly attributes, except His form as Jesus, we must keep any other earthly forms from distracting from the focus and attention of what we express to Him alone. From https://thefiretongue.com/2022/12/28/the-ten-commandments-ii/ #Christian #Catholic #Jesus #Christ #God #bible #church #spiritual #religious #believer #blessed #faith #hallelujah #praisegod #commandments #10commandments #thetencommandments

The Ten Commandments : I By Saint Stuart “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2-3) To me, this commandment signifies that God demands our focus and attention on Him alone when it comes to divine things or objects of worship. Until recently I often took this to mean that other gods are false, or even that they don’t exist. I don’t read it that way anymore. If anything, it is a biblical confirmation that other gods do exists, and God is telling the Israelites as His very first commandment not to have them before Him. What is a god? Is it a being that has attained a divine status, able to greatly influence mankind? Is it that thing in our life we expend a great amount of emotional energy thinking about, dedicating time to giving praise and thanks to instead of our divine creator? This commandment doesn’t say to deny those things exist, or to avoid considering them, but to give credit where it is due. God is the originator of those things and alone deserves the praise and thanks for them along with the many other blessings He has provided us. When I read this commandment now, I start to consider the belief of other gods, but know that my worship belongs to the one true God. Many people have come into the world to influence masses of people with human teachings that appease carnal knowledge and passions. If we are swayed by their doctrine and start to live without God’s purposes in mind, then I believe we are breaking this commandment. Let’s consider the latter type of god – the blessings we have that might distract us from our relationship with God. Money, friendships, popularity, competition, knowledge, innocence, good works, music, entertainment, stories, health and fitness, romance. These are all good things, many of which God commonly wants for us. If they become a priority in our lives, though, and we fail to acknowledge their source – God’s love – then that can become an existential problem. It’s like enjoying something without saying thanks to who made it possible. “Say thank you,” is what God is saying to us in this commandment, as a parent would say to their child when someone does something kind for them. We shouldn’t give praise and thanks to the act or provision itself, but to the one responsible, in turn strengthening our relationship with them, and acknowledging that we appreciate and benefit from their act of love. The Israelites broke this commandment many times throughout the Bible. They were in the midst of it while Moses was up the mountain receiving it as a commandment: “1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”(Exodus 32: 1-6). What an odd turn of events. They lost their leader and it’s as if they needed something to collectively focus on, to unite them, but what they did was fashion an earthly image and declare it to be God that brought them out of Egypt... Read the full article at https://thefiretongue.com/2022/12/27/the-ten-commandments-i/ #Christian #Catholic #Jesus #Christ #God #bible #church #spiritual #religious #believer #blessed #faith #hallelujah #praisegod #commandments #10commandments #moses #law #firstcommandment