1 & 2. No other idols/gods
3. Don't use His name in vain
4. Keep Sabbath holy (rest!)
5. Honor your parents
6. Don't murder
7. Don't commit adultery
8. Don't steal
9. Don't lie
10. Don't covet
Going down this list I realized something. I have broken every single one of these commandments. #6 &7 sound pretty severe, but looking at Matthew 5:27 and 5:21... I realized I'm guilty of these as well ! Christ said even if we lust/fantasize in our mind we commit adultery...if we are angry with our neighbor we murder him.
Overall I am a...
Idolatrous
Disrespectful
Over-worked
Disobedient
Murderous
Thieving
Lying
Jealous
Whore
*Hear me out for a second and see where I am going with this*
Then we looked at Romans 6:23 "...for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord"
Thank goodness for Jesus' atonement or I'd be up Molasses Swamp without a paddle. It's a pretty hard concept for us humans to wrap our minds around the truth that someone died FOR us. I saw a video at church once where they took 10 kids to like New Zealand for a retreat. They lived on a farm and took care of this lamb the entire week (along with other animals). At the end of the week the farmer told the teens they would be killing the lamb. Many of them cried in horror at this news. Then the farmer related the lamb to Christ (aka "the sacrificial lamb"). It was like the most life changing video I've seen. Sometimes the reality of the crucifixion seems to disappear because Christians discuss Christ's death so often. I hope to change that nonchalance attitude. After all, I consider Him my Father who DIED so I could live eternally.
As a kid, you accept things as truth without much questioning. Accepting the biblical story was no problem for me. Yes Christ came, died and rose again. Issue for me, however, was that living eternally part. Questions arose...
What if I didn't want to live eternally?
What would I do with all that time?
What if my short attention span led to an eternity of boredom?
What would eternal clocks look like?
Is God's time like military time? If so, that's too complicated...
You get the idea. Anyway I realized around age 10 that I had two options. Possibly be bored in heaven, or be on fire in Hell. You can guess which option sat better with me (hint: I wasn't the neighborhood pyro).
So I guess bible study has led me this week to contemplate how much I really do deserve the brimstone and fire end of the spectrum AND how thankful I am for God's gift of eternal life. Now I am just wondering if the New Testament was never written...what anti-depressant I'd currently be taking.
Galatians 5:16-18
"So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses."
