Greetings Everyone,<\/p>\n
I hope all is well for ya\u2019ll. As my pot-o-coffee brews this mornin\u2019, I thought I might get started on this week\u2019s topic of thought. I find myself rushing too often when faced with an end-of-the-day bell. This way I have more time, heh heh.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been revisiting the 10 Commandments on this Google group to see what they can teach us about ourselves. Those old commandments we first learned as a child seem archaic. And it is true that these words in the Bible are thousands of years old. Ahhh, but what is time to an Eternal God such as ours? Here\u2019s an ASYGR group \u201cWord of the Day\u201d for you:<\/p>\n
TRANSCENDENT: universally applicable or significant<\/p>\n
Ain\u2019t no such thang as out of style with transcendent, homeys! Can you all think of some examples of transcendent things? How about non-transcendent? Oh, I got one\u2026. Parachute pants. Man what was I thinking, blowing $75+ on a pair!!!<\/p>\n
Okay, so please recall the 1st Commandment: \u201cYou shall have no other gods before Me.\u201d And also the 2nd Commandment: \u201cYou shall not make for yourself an idol.\u201d<\/p>\n
The angle I have been taking on the commandments is how they manifest true love for God and our fellow man. Why this angle? Because true believers will manifest love for God and for their fellow man. And this love is not an emotion, but the kind of love that is self-sacrificial borne of deep deep convictions. And you want to know something? This 3rd command on the table today shines a bright light on our dark areas\u2026<\/p>\n
Exodus 20:7 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him (or her) unpunished who takes His name in vain.<\/p>\n
So, you may have thought (as I did) in times past that this commandment means don\u2019t say \u201cGodd*****\u201d or \u201cJesus Christ!!\u201d or such expressions. I would suggest this is a valid way to look at this command. But frankly, this is a shallow understanding.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an exercise to uncover meanings: Pick out the obvious main words; Take, name and vain. Now find out what those main words are saying to better understand the command. Ready?<\/p>\n
Take: \u00a0Means to use, to claim, to stand by, to identify with, to bind oneself by, etc. So, imagine this example\u2026 I say I\u2019m a Redskins fan, so I take the Redskins as my own, defending them in this hostile land of Baltimore Raven fans. I buy and wear Redskins apparel, I know the players and coaches on the team, I watch the games on TV, etc. So I have great understanding of the Redskins, I\u2019ve invested time in them; I\u2019ve \u201ctaken\u201d the Redskins as my own.<\/p>\n
Name: Now \u201cname\u201d really means so much more than a Jim, Joe, Jane, or Jill. If you haven\u2019t already done so in your thinking, you need to see \u201cname\u201d as the representation of everything about the bearer of that name.<\/p>\n
You know, nowadays we pick names because they sound cool or because they have some sentimental meaning. But back then, names were given as description or reality of that person. For example, \u201cMoses\u201d means drawn out of water (Exodus 1:10). Other examples include \u201cAdam\u201d meaning earth and \u201cEve\u201d meaning mother of all the living (Genesis 3:20). And Whis\u2019 given name \u201cLloyd\u201d means grey\u2026 entirely appropriate I would say, heh heh!<\/p>\n
So just imagine all the wondrous and rich meanings of the Lord\u2019s name; His character, His attributes, and anything else that He has revealed about Himself by His word in His autobiography, the Bible. The Lord\u2019s name is a big deal!<\/p>\n
Vain: Means shallow, superficial, empty, marked by futility and ineffectiveness, having no real value, worthless.<\/p>\n
Solomon had a bunch to say about vanity in the book of Ecclesiastes. I can\u2019t help but think how some people who have everything they could ever want (like Solomon did) are subconsciously trying to find more meaning in life via things bigger than their possessions and themselves\u2026 things like\u2026 transcendental things \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
Now we are ready to piece it all together: 3rd Commandment\u2026<\/p>\n
Do not \u201cidentify with\u201d \u201ceverything God\u2019s name represents\u201d in \u201cshallowness\u201d.<\/p>\n
To do so gives Christianity a bad name\u2026 To do so is irreverent. To do so is trifling. To do so is to give lip-service\u2026 and may I be so bold to say this\u2026 to do so is hypocritical. Frankly, I say this because it is easy not to think about it. Self-deception and Hypocrisy go hand in hand. How do we truly love God when we claim to be His and yet don\u2019t even know Him because we haven\u2019t taken the time to read and comprehend what He has already said? What in the world are we following then? O\u2019 Lord, let us not be hypocritical and self-deceived!<\/p>\n
If we truly love God, we wouldn\u2019t want to say or do anything that would that would bring disrepute on His name would we? This is the essence of the 3rd command.<\/p>\n
Questions\/ comments welcome!<\/p>\n
Peace,
\nJim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greetings Everyone, I hope all is well for ya\u2019ll. As my pot-o-coffee brews this mornin\u2019, I thought I might get started on this week\u2019s topic of thought. I find myself rushing too often when faced with an end-of-the-day bell. This way I have more time, heh heh. We\u2019ve been revisiting the 10 Commandments on this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,60,64,13,61,62,47,63,58],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study","tag-59","tag-exodus","tag-gods-law","tag-gospel","tag-moses","tag-mount-sinai","tag-old-testament","tag-tablets","tag-ten-commandments"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":357,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}