What is Sin? Part 2

Last week we learned that, sure enough, we do all sin. Every single one of us, just like the Bible claimed. But seriously, you ask, do you really think we are that bad? I can think of fifty people right off the bat who are so much more of a sinner than I am!

Lets look closer at the first commandment. Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me." This little verse is often overlooked by readers or combined together with the second commandment regarding idols. It is, however, its own commandment. I will argue that no other commandment can be broken unless this commandment has first been broken.

"You shall have no other gods before me." You shall love nothing more than God and care about nothing more than you care about God. Nothing. Not your husband, not your children, not your housework. Nothing.

Take a minute to consider how this would look practically worked out in your life. If you love God most, then you will never become impatient with your children. Instead, you will love God's command to show preference to others, to love others more than you love yourself, and to treat others as you want to be treated. Plus, you will think of the massive amount of perfect patience God has shown you and you will immediately recognize that whatever the children have done to you can never compare to what you have done to God.

If you love God most, you will never disrespect your husband. Instead, you will recognize God's command to submit to and respect your husband. You will rightly see your relationship with him as an image of how Christ interacts with his church and you will seek to act towards your husband as the church is to act towards Christ. You will understand that God has given you your husband - regardless of his spiritual condition - and that to disrespect him is to disrespect the One who gave him to you.

The second commandment refers to the making and worshiping of idols. It is easy to see how you are loving a god besides the true God in this commandment.

The third commandment talks about misusing the name of the Lord. What are some reasons we would misuse God's name? Perhaps you hear it misused all the time, and have become numb to it. You don't notice when people use it inappropriately and you don't notice when you use it in appropriately. I would say that you are loving comfort more than you are loving God in this situation. You are loving the opinions of man rather than the opinion of God when you choose to misuse His name

The fourth commandment tells us to keep the Sabbath day holy. Whenever a Jew chose to work on the Sabbath, what she was doing was blatantly declaring that she loved her work more than she loved her God. She was choosing housework over obedience. She was choosing dishes over meditation. She was choosing cooking over pleasing God.

The fifth commandment orders us to honor our parents. Therefore, if we choose not to show honor to our parents we are loving ourselves more than God. We are choosing to dishonor the guardians that God Himself picked out for us. Does this commandment apply even to bad parents? I would say yes. God did not qualify His commandment; He simply said to honor. This may mean that some of us will have to accept that our parents are going to mistreat us and take advantage of us. But if we love God most of all, obeying His commandment will be worth the struggle involved.

Does this make sense? I could keep going through the last five commandments, but I believe the point has been made. In other words, every time we speak out of anger, every time we are impatient, every time we gossip, what we are actually doing is loving an earthly god more than our Heavenly God. And God tells us in Exodus 20 that every time we do this, it is sin.

If you are anything like me, right now you are realizing that you sin a lot more than you are aware of. Unfortunately, the picture gets darker before it gets brighter. Join me next week to talk about 'man's chief end.'

Witty Wednesdays

Just a Tap on the Shoulder

A passenger in a taxi leaned over to ask the driver a question and tapped him on the shoulder.

The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up over the curb, and stopped just inches from a large plate glass window.

For a few moments everything was silent in the cab, and then the still shaking driver said, "I'm sorry, but you scared the daylights out of me." The frightened passenger apologized to the driver and said he didn't realize a mere tap on the shoulder could frighten him so much.

The driver replied, "No, no, I'm sorry, it's entirely my fault. Today is my first day driving a cab .

.. . . I've been driving a hearse for the last 25 years."

From Joe Thorn: Note to Self, Live

I wandered over to Joe Thorn's blog and found this short article that I think is well worth the few moments it takes to read:

Note to Self, Live.

He gives two things to consider. I am considering them.

God bless!

Happy Monday Ladies!

I just wanted to let you all know that the last two weeks I have posted on Thursdays rather than on Mondays. I will probably be keeping this up over the next few weeks as the school year comes to an end. My weekends are becoming far to busy for me to prepare a blog worth reading for Monday morning :) So please come and read on Thursdays.

Also, I'm sure you all have noticed that the girls and I have been slipping a little lately in the Witty Wednesday department. Let me start out by saying that I have never once carried my fair share in this department! I am opening up Wednesdays to all of you. If you have any submissions you think are funny or amusing, please email them to myself or Jasmine or Betsy and we will post them.

nichole

Preview Weekend

As you all know, Ryan and I are moving our family (Lord willing) to Louisville Kentucky to go to Seminary at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. We went there this past weekend to attend the Fall Preview Conference. We were able to bring our boys with us which was fantastic. We had a great time! We met other couples (old and young) who were thinking of attending this fall. We met the teachers and deans of the school as well. We got more information about this coming fall semester and found out some exciting information about the diploma program that I would like to enroll in next year, as well. We saw God's hand in so many ways.

We also were able to check out some local churches and go house hunting. We think that we found the church we will be attending when we move, as well as the home we would like to buy. We got to explore the Louisville area and become more familiar with the city. For all this and more we are beyond thankful. We are so full of anticipation about the move and this new direction that God is taking us in, that we wanted to just stay there and jump right into it! However, we did have to check ourselves back into reality. We still have much to finish up here at home in Kenosha before we can fully pursue what we see very clearly as God calling us to SBTS in Louisville. So to that end I would ask that you all pray for us and share these prayer requests with your small groups as well so that they can pray for us.

First of all pray for us that God will provide financially for us and prepare the way for us to go down to Louisville. We need to finish up our house projects and find a good aggressive realtor. We need to sell our house for a really good price and as such we need the house to be appraised high as well. A realtor told us that the biggest problem that people are running into when selling their homes in this market is that even when the seller gets an accepted offer, often times the banks appraiser is appraising the homes much lower than the sellling cost and so people can't produce the funds for the house. Pray that God will work in all these situations and work out all the details. Pray that we will sell our house quickly and for a good price. Pray that we will have wisdom in deciding which house to buy down in Louisville. Please pray that God will save the house for us that He wants us to have. Pray that in all these things that we will stay focused on Christ and God's perfect love and provision for us and as such trust Him and follow Him by the Holy Spirit.