"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."
"You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name."
GOOD MORNING, my dear brothers and sisters, I love you!!! I just really wanted to tell you that right up front this morning, and let me make no mistake about it, I really do love you. It is Tuesday and the day we pray for cures for all the things that cause us to be sick or hurt. And yes, some of those things I will tie back to some of the basics we need to learn in life. Please pray today for Marshall Lewis, one of our flock at the Bridges. Please lay him into God's loving arms for His will to be done, Marshall is very sick and has not eaten for nearly a week. We people are selfish and love to keep our friends as long as we can, but with Marshall, like others, it is time to let go. Marshall, in my opinion, is born again and has been for a long, long time.
Back To The Basics, Day 6: Exodus 20:4 - "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." 7 You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name. (NIV)
As I get started today, I want to take a look at our Military. When one signs up for our military and the testing is done, where do they go? Basic Training of course, and after the members of our fine military graduate from basic training, where do they head? Most often more school, but they do not stop learning and doing things that they did in basic training. You will find our Generals and other officers are still doing basic stuff like running and keeping their bodies and mind in good shape.
How about you, what do you do each day that is basic? Let's start with when you wake up, first thing if you are like me, you head to the bathroom. Then after that you get your teeth brushed up and you more than likely take a shower and fix your hair. Yes, fix that hair, remember God knows each and every hair on your head. This is very basic... What are some of the basic things you do each morning before you start your day? Oh, and did I say, Dolores and I always start the day with prayer. In fact even before I get out of my own bed I am talking to God.
Let's take a look at the scriptures of today, and yes, they are basic and they are from what we know as the Ten Commandments. Yesterday I started with "You shall have no other gods before me." and now we add the rest of that commandment. We are not to make ourselves an idol and bow down before it and worship it. Even when we go to the altars in our churches and get down and pray before a cross, we really must keep in mind we are bowing down before Jesus and we are not bowing before the cross. We are not saying, dear cross of Jesus clean me, we are praying Dear Father in Heaven, in the name of Jesus who died on the cross to clean me, I ask that you clean me today of sin... In the name of Jesus. No symbol, no cross, nothing else but God should you bow down before. I for one was very upset when our very own president, President Obama, bowed down before some of those foreign leaders. I don't care about their customs, I care about Jesus.
Of course this is different than after a show the actors take a bow, that is not bowing down in worship, and I would sure hope and pray that those on stage would remember who lent them their talent and as they thank the ones who came to see the play by taking that bow, they might just say Thank You Jesus and give Him all the glory. So bow down only to God, my dear brothers and sisters, and that is very, very basic... Now let's look at that verse about cursing.
Exodus 20:7 - You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name. (NIV)
Brothers and sisters, there is a price to pay for misusing the Lord's Name. It means more than just no cursing, for you can misuse the Lord's name without cursing Him. You might blame something that is going wrong in your life directly on God, and you might just tell others that. You might say that God is not answering my prayers and put blame on Him. You might be calling on God to heal you from say lung cancer and it is not getting better and you get upset with God. Maybe tell others something like, I don't believe there is a God! Brothers and sisters, there is no bigger way to misuse the name of our Lord than to have denied that there is a God. Very basic stuff, my dear brothers and sisters, and please learn the basics and pass them along in your talking with others. And remember that last line. For the Lord will not hold you blameless if you do curse the Lord.
Basic stuff, folks, when you think about misusing the name of the Lord, basic thing is to think it over before you open your mouth. Run whatever you are going to say through your brain and even your heart before you put it out of your mouth, for once out of your mouth it is out there... and remember this basic thing on the computer, once you press the send button it is out there. Think about what you are doing, go to some basic thinking.
Dear Father in Heaven, you gave us a heart, a brain and a mouth among a lot of other parts. Help us learn to use more than our mouth when we are talking to others and more than our fingers when we are typing to others. Lord, help us to learn the basics each day and to use them for Your good. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Now go forth in the name of Jesus, loving Him and loving others as you share the blessings that God has trusted to You... love ya, Pastor Dan.
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