Hola Amigos y Amigas,<\/p>\n
Well, first off I want to apologize for my tardiness on this week\u2019s discussion on the 10 Commandments. As I am certainly blessed with time at work to write, I chose to put together some stuff on last week’s 7th commandment discussion, which pushed this week\u2019s discussion to today. Anyhow\u2026<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been looking at the 10 Commandments to see how they might teach us about God\u2019s moral truths and how they speak to our own condition. I\u2019ve also tried to put them in terms of love, for the commandments really are profound, more than just a \u201cthou shall not\u201d.<\/p>\n
And so now let\u2019s look at and consider the 8th commandment:<\/p>\n
Exodus 20:15
\nYou shall not steal.<\/p>\n
Now stealing is acquiring someone else\u2019s stuff dishonestly. You all know about stealing. I would guess most (if not all) of us have experienced firsthand both sides of stealing; Someone stealing something from us and Us stealing something from someone.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll say it first- I have had many things stolen from me AND admittedly, I have stolen many things from others. And I know I\u2019m not alone in this. So then, going with the assumption we all know about stealing, let\u2019s think about it a little deeper.<\/p>\n
I think there are various forms of stealing and I think there are various ways of stealing. There\u2019s direct stealing and indirect stealing. There\u2019s blatantly open stealing and subtle secret stealing. There\u2019s informed stealing and ignorant stealing. I mean, just think about what you may learn from the news around you\u2026 A bank was robbed, a car was jacked, an adult was mugged, a child was kidnapped, a fund was embezzled, a price was fixed, a report was plagiarized, a resume was padded, a name was slandered and on and on and on. Wow!<\/p>\n
And I think how we regard stealing initially comes from how we were raised by our parents, then how we were influenced by our peers and ultimately how our conscience comes to regard it.<\/p>\n
Okay so, in just thinking about it\u2026the command is so simple to understand. Don\u2019t steal. I mean it just flat-out says it. Don\u2019t steal. The real question is what constitutes stealing? Ohhh\u2026 ha ha. We know what stealing is, but then we ask: Are they really stealing or am I really stealing? See? There\u2019s that apparent loophole, there\u2019s that technicality.<\/p>\n
Why is this? Why do we ask \u201cIs that really stealing?\u201d?<\/p>\n
Watch this: If you are loving toward your fellow man, you wouldn\u2019t steal from him\/ her would you? Why not? Because you are seeking their best, not your best. You want them to have what they have and do not seek to take it. Why would no thought of stealing come to mind? Because you are contented with what you already have.<\/p>\n
A fleshly example: This is kinda funny. My own kids are more willing to share when they have had enough. This is kind of a low-level way to look at this, but if my son has had all the cookies he could possibly eat and his belly is full of cookies, I can assure you he would have no desire to steal a single cookie off his sister\u2019s plate. He is not greedy at that point, ha ha. He is content.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an amazing reality: In the love and assurance that comes from God, a believer can be contented while having nothing. This spiritual contentment washes away that inner thief. The apostle Paul comes to mind\u2026<\/p>\n
Philippians 4:11b-13
\n\u2026I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.<\/p>\n
(I can\u2019t help myself\u2026) And what may possibly be Paul\u2019s secret?<\/p>\n
Acts 9:1-2
\nNow Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he (Saul) found any belonging to The Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Then\u2026<\/p>\n
Acts 9:19b-20
\n\u2026Now for several days he (Saul) was with the disciples who were at Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, \u201cHe is the Son of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woah! Paul was this Saul. His conversion completely changed him from the inside out! If you read acts, you\u2019ll see God taking care of him without fail. Jesus Christ was his reason for contentment. And to complete the thought\u2026 \u00a0I would suggest well-contented folk do not go
\naround stealing other people\u2019s stuff.<\/p>\n
At this point, I wish to bring up something current to our day and age. Several years ago, I became more and more convicted in my mind that I was stealing. Yep! How? With my access to computer-related stuff, I was able to get copies of the then-latest and greatest versions of software. I got games, Windows, Office, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, you name it! I thought to myself that there was no way I was going to pay $800 for Photoshop. I thought who\u2019s going to care if I install it on my home PC. No one\u2019s going to miss it. I wasn\u2019t making copies to sell like those pirates, just using it for myself. And I was a Napster fiend! Great googlie-mooglie. But you know\u2026 I got all that for free. I didn\u2019t pay for it, but someone did.<\/p>\n
In our digital age, getting stuff like that online and for free is so easy; we can pay no thought (or dollars) to it. Back then I thought like the herd mentality.. my little hard drive is amongst millions and millions. What I have is really insignificant. This past viewpoint of mine was a 3rd person perspective. I had to come to a 1st person perspective\u2026 I have thousands of dollars worth of stuff here, my bank account would be smaller had I paid for it out of my pocket. I wasn\u2019t content to save my money and buy it.. I had to have right then!<\/p>\n
Does anyone else have a story like this to share? Have you been shown something you used to do was really stealing? Please share if you are willing. Let us be content and not knowingly transgress the 8th<\/sup> commandment.<\/p>\n Peace, Hola Amigos y Amigas, Well, first off I want to apologize for my tardiness on this week\u2019s discussion on the 10 Commandments. As I am certainly blessed with time at work to write, I chose to put together some stuff on last week’s 7th commandment discussion, which pushed this week\u2019s discussion to today. Anyhow\u2026 We\u2019ve […]<\/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-76","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\/76","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=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"