The Tenth Word: Beware Desire!

Beware Desire!

Finally, we come to the 10th Commandment! We might have hoped that this last Word would be less demanding, but if anything it is more so. We have seen something of a crescendo, a climax, as we have neared the end. From an attention to actions, we have moved to the realm of speech (false witness) and finally, now, to attitudes of the heart. From prohibitions against doing, we moved first to a Word against saying, and now to a commandment against even thinking about harming our neighbor. The terrain for the race has changed, and not for the easier. It as if we have left the flats, moved through the hill country, and are now cycling through the mountains. The final leg of the journey is uphill all the way to the finish line!

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The Ninth Word: Tell the Truth!

This week we look at the Ninth Commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Lying is generally wrong wherever and to whomever it is done, but the point of this commandment is lying about our neighbor, lying to harm our neighbor, in a context where the word may in fact cause harm.

The Eighth Word: No Taking!

No Taking!

This week we consider the Eighth Commandment. It is the fourth in a series of commandments that focuses on loving our neighbor.

This study is about possessions, and holding them loosely, so if you are looking for some music to accompany the reading, you could do worse than the "jazz-influenced musical gumbo" entitled "Big Gap" by Dr. John and the Lower 911.

After having dealt with our first neighbor (our parents, the neighbors we are born with), our neighbor's life, and our neighbor's wife, the Second Table of the Ten Commandments shifts focus to our neighbor's stuff. As a goal, guarding our neighbor's stuff ranks a distant third place in terms of this commandment's priorities: the second priority is loving our neighbor as our self and the first is loving God!

The Seventh Word: Honor Marriage!

(...or, "have no other mates")

This week we consider the Seventh Commandment. It is the third in a series that focuses on loving our neighbor. After having dealt with our first neighbor (our parents, the neighbors we are born with) and our neighbor's life, The Second Table of the Ten Commandments shifts focus to the most intimate aspect of our most intimate relationship--the one we leave mother and father for, the one we take vows to protect.

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The Fifth Word: Respect Parents!

"Honor thy father and thy mother!"

This week we consider the Fifth Commandment. It is the first commandment that focuses on loving our neighbor, and it is a commandment with a promise attached. The Second Table of the Ten Commandments begins at home, where vital relationships are already established and likely to need attention, rather than with the stranger or enemy. We discover along the way that our expectations about who is addressed are being turned upside down. The commandment is addressed to the strong, the adults, so that children may learn and the aging, the vulnerable, and the poor be cared for.

The Sixth Word: Protect Life!

This week, we take things a little out of order. The sermon was about the Sixth Commandment, "Thou shalt not kill!" The theme is appropriate to a weekend on which we commemorated the events of 9/11, especially given the conflict that surrounds the building of a mosque at Ground Zero and the threatened burning of the Qur'an by a Florida pastor. According to Jesus, the command to "Protect Life!" includes a requirement to seek reconciliation with, and to pray for and to feed, our enemies.

Next week we will study the Fifth Commandment. The remainder of the studies should follow in order!

The Fourth Word: Hallow the Day!

No Ordinary Appointment

This week I continue a study of the 10 Commandments at a website dedicated to the purpose: www.10wordstoliveby.com. This is a small group fellowship and discipleship Bible Study designed for use by our church. I am publishing it on the web in draft form to invite public suggestions and comment. The study and the sermon go together, so if you are in the Indianapolis area, you are cordially invited to attend. However, even if you miss the sermon, a quick read of the lesson for the week and the ten accompanying Discussion Questions may be of interest to readers of this blog. I'll be back to my familiar routine of posting after the 10 Commandments series is wrapped up in 6 more weeks.

Preview

Just imagine! The same God who spoke the worlds into existence without a lot of fanfare, is speaking a creating word directly to us. God's purpose in these commands is to establish an exclusive, dynamic, respectful, intentional relationship with us! Today we come to the Fourth Commandment. It is the final word written on the first of the two tablets inscribed by the finger of God on stone. In these first four commands, taken together, we now have a complete picture of the quality of the relationship that God wants to have with us:

A Passionate Relationship is:

• Exclusive (The First Word)
  
• Dynamic (The Second Word)
  
• Respectful (The Third Word)
  
• Intentional (The Fourth Word)

God's desire is to begin this relationship with us today. Do not wait! Make (and keep!) an appointment with God today.

The Third Word: Treasure the Name!

This week I continue a study of the 10 Commandments at a website dedicated to the purpose: www.10wordstoliveby.com. This is a small group fellowship and discipleship Bible Study designed for use by our church. I am publishing it on the web in draft form to invite public suggestions and comment. The study and the sermon go together, so if you are in the Indianapolis area, you are cordially invited to attend. However, even if you miss the sermon, a quick read of the lesson for the week and the ten accompanying Discussion Questions may be of interest to readers of this blog. I'll be back to my familiar routine of posting after the 10 Commandments series is wrapped up in 7 more weeks.

(Engraving by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld
[March 26, 1794 - May 24, 1872]

Illustration was published in "Die Bibel in Bildern" [1860].
Scan by Ivan Burmistrov.)

The Third Word: Treasure the Name!

This week our Small Group Fellowship and Bible Study groups take on the commandment that many people think of as the commandment against cussing. However, as we have learned about both the First Commandment and the Second Commandment, there is more at stake for believers in this commandment than appears at first glance. This Third Commandment is also intended to safeguard and preserve our lives. The LORD our God desires a relationship with us that is living and passionate. God wants to be close enough to us that we know his name and call on it frequently. Join us this week as we learn to keep the Third Commandment!

The Second Word: No Images!

(Baal from Ugarit. Image source, http://www.historywiz.com/images/neareast/baal-lg.jpg)

The Second Commandment: No Images!

This week I continue a study of the 10 Commandments at a website dedicated to the purpose: www.10wordstoliveby.com. This is a small group fellowship and discipleship Bible Study designed for use by our church. I am publishing it on the web in draft form to invite public suggestions and comment. The study and the sermon go together, so if you are in the area, you are cordially invited to attend. However, even if you miss the sermon, a quick read of the lesson for the week and the ten accompanying Discussion Questions may be of interest to readers of this blog. I'll be back to my familiar routine of posting after the 10 Commandments series is wrapped up in 8 more weeks.

This week our study groups take on the prohibition against the making of images. This Second Commandment, like the First Commandment, is intended by God to safeguard and preserve our lives. The Second Commandment works by keeping our relationship with God from being stunted and remaining at one stage of development. The Second Commandment provides continued evidence that the LORD our God, the living God, desires a relationship with us that is living and passionate. God wants us fully present in this relationship, not fixated on our own "man-made" ideas and pictures of who God is.

The First Word: No Other Gods!

Finally for this week, I have posted the first full article in the Ten Commandment series with 10 Discussion Questions for small groups. The theme of the study is the "1st Word" (Protestant-Reformed ordering) of God to us: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (KJV)

(Wikimedia Commons, 1768 parchment by Jekuthiel Sofer)

Ten Words to Live By: The Prologue

The first post in my series on the Ten Commandments is an introductory article with 10 Discussion Questions following for small group study.

Now Moses was there with YHWH forty days and forty nights.  He did not eat bread or drink water, but carved the words of the covenant on the tablets, the '10 Words.' (Exodus 34:28; see Deuteronomy 4:13 and 10:4)

Ten Words to Live By: The Ten Commandments for Daily Living

For the next 10 Weeks, I will be publishing a study for small groups on the Ten Commandments on a dedicated web site and will update the links on my blog. The home page for the new study is Ten Words to Live By.

The Ten Commandmants

August 15-October 17

We will begin a sermon series on The Ten Commandments as school resumes this August. In addition to sermon notes each week, the blog will include discussion starters and questions for small groups to use during their reflection times.

The primary source for the series will be Interpretation: The Ten Commandments

This resource will be augmented with the following:

The Truth about God

Smoke on the Mountain

The Ten Commandments: The Liberating Rules of God

Please write to let me know if there are other, better resources that you have used for teaching and preaching to good effect. And also let us all know why you prefer your resource books to those recommended here.