Thursday Sept. 22, 2011 Commandments 9

"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

Good Thursday Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. Thursday and the day we pray for families, your family, my family, all families, and of course The Family of God. Pray for your church family, and it goes on and on for families. And yes, pray for schools, and speaking of schools, NEXT WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2011, IS MEET YOU AT THE POLE DAY. This is one day you can join the kids of our schools, private schools, public school, as they gather at their flag pole to pray. Be sure to check the time of your school's prayer at the pole if you are going. Trust me when I say the kids and teachers will make you welcome. At our school, Cumberland Valley High School in Central Pennsylvania, they made the kids go to the flag pole on the football field, instead of letting them use the flag pole in front of the building. "Just another way of some schools to shove Christians away." I will try and keep you reminded for that date.

We now have a first name for our "baby boy Wenerick" with cancer. Noah is his name, so we start praying today for "Baby Boy Noah." Also pray today for Carry The Light Ministries as we place three crosses on the front lawn here at our home where the food pantry is located. I am calling it free speech.

Commandments Day 9: Exodus 20:16 - "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." 17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (NIV)

So you think we are done with commandments just because we are at those last two of the commandments we call the "Ten commandments," think again. We might finish tomorrow, or maybe not.

Exodus 20:16 talks about not giving false testimony against your neighbor, so first let us say, who is your neighbor? In my opinion your neighbor is everyone who is, well not you. We will get into that more tomorrow when we talk about loving your neighbor. So what is false testimony? False testimony is, well, a lie, a fib. Now while we think of giving testimony in court, let's face it, whenever you are talking about someone, be it at the water cooler or at a party, or in church and you are say something like "Hey folks, have you heard about old Joe" and then you make a statement about that person it is, well it is a testimony and it should always be the truth. Let's look at Psalm 50.

Psalm 50:19 - You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. 20 You speak continually against your brother, and slander your own mother's son. (NIV)

You see where I am coming from on this. "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." Ever, be in court, at a party or any other place. In other words, if you do not have something true to say, or even something good to say, the best thing might be to do is to keep our mouths shut. Again I am using the word "our" meaning you and me.

Ok, let's now look at our next scripture for today.

17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (NIV)

Now watch as I update this commandment a bit... Keeping it the same but for today. Watch now - You shall not covet your neighbor's house, or his summer house at the beach or his big camper parked in his driveway. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, girlfriend, or husband or boyfriend, or his manservant or maidservant, or anyone who works for them, his ox or donkey, his Cadillac or Buick, or his Lexus, his boat, his big woodpile or the amount of money they make, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Brothers and sisters, if you share your blessings and you give to God, he will flood you with blessings over and over again. You just do not need to covet your neighbors things for God will give you enough of your own. Let's pray.

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for another day, and thanks for bringing the family Wenerich to us, and Lord we uplift "Baby Boy Noah" today and ask in the name of Jesus that he be healed of cancer from the top of his little head to the tips of his toes. We also ask you touch the family and Lord, our food pantry, as we step in to help them with food so they have their earned dollars for expenses related to the cancer of their child. Lord, be in our schools, be at the flag poles next week, Lord, be with us and help us with all the commandments and help me as I continue on with this subject tomorrow. Lord, thanks for the messages each day. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Now go forth and share those blessings. Hey, instead of coveting your neighbors stuff, give them some of yours. How about that? Love ya, Pastor Dan.