Basic #3 - part 2 Angels and Demons! Told you I wasn't finished with it yet! and maybe you'll even get lesson #4!-

Oh yeah, the process!  Enough already!  Oh no, ladies and gents!  The process isn't over until we breathe our last!  Now, how has your week been?  If yours has been like mine, well rough I'd say.  I have been up and I have been down.  I have praised God one day and (I'll do a little confessing here).....I have spewed filth another.  Yes, you heard me right.  I have been angry half the week and been caught up in the rhetoric at work and due to my physical pain and disgust at situations beyond my control have chosen to use words that brought me down.

                 

God reminded me of that fact, in a strong fashion this morning, through a post on facebook by someone I graduated High School with.  Every day she posts a scripture verse and today's verse was James 3:9-10,

"With it we bless Adonai, the Father; and with it we curse people, who were made in the image of God.  Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing!  Brothers, it isn't right for things to be this way."  JNT

I didn't curse people, but oh how my mouth gets me in trouble!!!!  Am I the only person who has this problem?  Somehow I doubt it. This is the point of extending my previous post.  I want to use myself as an example.  Didn't really want to do this, but I might as well.  At least I can't sue myself, ha!

Do you struggle on a daily basis trying to live a Godly life?  Do you sometimes, or many times, feel like a failure?  Heaven knows I do or use to!  There are nights when I would go to bed feeling like the lowest of the low, because I believed I had failed God.  "Why did I say those things?"  "Why did I do that?"  "Why did I give in to that?"  Is this where you are?  Do you struggle with a sin, an addiction?  You know, a lot of people think an addiction is something like drugs or alcohol, but an addiction could be anything you can't leave behind.

The problem is exactly my problem throughout this past week, I had not been plugged in.  Let me divert for a moment to give you an example.  One of my jobs, at work, requires the use of a lift to raise the baskets of parts to a level of ease for our use.  On Thursday, I went to pull an empty basket out and replace it with a full basket, but the lift had not been charged up the night before and the battery was dead.  It would not move.  The Set-up brought another lift over, but the battery on it was also near death, so short story, we had to bend way over to reach our parts for 20 minutes or so.  Result - aching back!  One person did not do their job of plugging in the lift and others paid the price!

I did not plug in to the Word, both written and through prayer, this past week and the result was devastating both to me, to others and to my God!  I brought myself down through my words, I brought others down through discouragement and disgraced my God through my language.  I hope I learned my lesson!

To carry this lesson further is to even give you a basic lesson #4 The 10 Commandments aren't commandments!  I know you are probably like me and have grown up learning them as THOU SHALT NOT!, but nothing could be farther from the truth!  The Jews call them The 10 Words.  Each one is actually a heading for a section of corresponding in-depth instructions from God to the Children of Israel.  

The Jews teach that these Words are connections to God.  In essence, they are how we plug into God in order to keep charged.  If we want to connect to God, obedience is the key and he gives us the power strip with 10 outlets to plug into.  The key is that we have to connect to all 10 in order to charge correctly.  We cannot pick and choose which ones we want.

Have you ever tried to hook up a DVD player or gaming system to your television and left off one of the color coded plugs in the back?  You connected, but not everything worked correctly, right?  See what I mean?  You will still have a relationship with God, but you cannot have the best possible relationship until you connect to all 10 outlets!

What about reward and punishment?  Well, let's see, if I stick a paper clip into a power outlet and I get shocked, is that outlet punishing me?  Absolutely not!  I have connected with the power source, but not in the proper way.  I have received what is due me for not connecting properly.  If I plug my computer into the power outlet and turn it on, I get to play games!  Am I being rewarded?  No, I am connecting properly to the power source.  Am I making any sense?

Does this help?

Could it be that in today's Christian society and our somewhat disregard for the Older Testament, we have overlooked some of the connections?  Is this perhaps why so many Christians struggle with sin in their lives and day to day living?  Are we not plugged into all the outlets?  Have we picked and chosen which of the 10 we plug into or perhaps we have chosen how we interpret them or re-interpret them?  Have we decided over the course of history how God's connections are defined?  Perhaps we need to look at the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 to see how they should be interpreted and defined correctly!

I want to go back over all 10 of those connections with you and let God search YOUR heart as He has mine.  See if there is an empty outlet or perhaps just a spot where that plug-in has loosened and isn't connecting properly and remember they are not multiple choice.  

1. God spoke all these words, to respond:		א. וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים אֵת כָּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה לֵאמֹר:
2. "I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.		ב. אָנֹכִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִיךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים:
3. You shall not have the gods of others in My presence.		ג. לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל פָּנַי:
4. You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness which is in the heavens above, which is on the earth below, or which is in the water beneath the earth.		ד. לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה לְּךָ פֶסֶל | וְכָל תְּמוּנָה אֲשֶׁר בַּשָּׁמַיִם | מִמַּעַל וַאֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ מִתַּחַת וַאֲשֶׁר בַּמַּיִם | מִתַּחַת לָאָרֶץ:
5. You shall neither prostrate yourself before them nor worship them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a zealous God, Who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me,		ה. לֹא תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לָהֶם וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם כִּי אָנֹכִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֵל קַנָּא פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבוֹת עַל בָּנִים עַל שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל רִבֵּעִים לְשׂנְאָי:
6. and [I] perform loving kindness to thousands [of generations], to those who love Me and to those who keep My commandments.		ו. וְעֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד לַאֲלָפִים לְאֹהֲבַי וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָי:
7. You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not hold blameless anyone who takes His name in vain.		ז. לֹא תִשָּׂא אֶת שֵׁם יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לַשָּׁוְא כִּי לֹא יְנַקֶּה יְהֹוָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר יִשָּׂא אֶת שְׁמוֹ לַשָּׁוְא:
8. Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it.		ח. זָכוֹר אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ:
9. Six days may you work and perform all your labor,		ט. שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד וְעָשִׂיתָ כָל מְלַאכְתֶּךָ:
10. but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God; you shall perform no labor, neither you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your beast, nor your stranger who is in your cities.		י. וְיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת | לַיהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה כָל מְלָאכָה אַתָּה | וּבִנְךָ וּבִתֶּךָ עַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָתְךָ וּבְהֶמְתֶּךָ וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ:
11. For [in] six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.		יא. כִּי שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים עָשָׂה יְהֹוָה אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ אֶת הַיָּם וְאֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּם וַיָּנַח בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי עַל כֵּן בֵּרַךְ יְהֹוָה אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת וַיְקַדְּשֵׁהוּ:
12. Honor your father and your mother, in order that your days be lengthened on the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you.		יב. כַּבֵּד אֶת אָבִיךָ וְאֶת אִמֶּךָ לְמַעַן יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ עַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ:
13. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.		יג. לֹא תִּרְצָח: ס לֹא תִּנְאָף: ס לֹא תִּגְנֹב: ס לֹא תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָׁקֶר:
14. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or whatever belongs to your neighbor."		יד. לֹא תַחְמֹד בֵּית רֵעֶך ס לֹא תַחְמֹד אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ וְעַבְדּוֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ וְשׁוֹרוֹ וַחֲמֹרוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר לְרֵעֶךָ:

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I want to leave you with one final scripture for today.  

"You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."  Deuteronomy 4:2

Are you connected and staying charged?  Don't get caught in the middle of no man's land and your phone is dead, okay?  Until next time, Shalom!