Monday, August 15, 2016

The Ten Commandments Writing by Cindy H. Reed

Before I sit down to write, I come up with a title for that writing. Once I have the title, everything else flows around it.

This writing was originally supposed to be submitted to the magazine I write for but after I finished writing it, the Lord spoke to me and told me not to wait on publishing it. To publish it now, so here it is….

The other day, I was listening to the song – “Wait on the Lord” by Fred Hammond. After listening to his CD, I came up with several titles I could write about but I didn’t write any down and I’d later forget them.

I came up with another, wrote it down but I had a funny feeling about it; that it wasn’t the title I should be writing about but I decided to ignore that feeling.

The following day, I was up early, earlier than usual so I decided to lay on the couch while everyone else slept. Unfortunately, sleep was nowhere to be found and my mind started to focus on the Lord. My third thought brought me to my new title for this writing. My spirit was instantly filled with its morning cup of Joe because I was suddenly energized and I knew I had a new title, one that the Father wanted me to write about.

For some reason, God wants me to write about one of His precious gifts to man. His law, His rules, His Commandments. As always, I pray the Father speaks through me; that He helps me to convey His message, whatever that may be, to His audience. I pray that He blesses me to articulate in a way that every reader understands and receives. That being said, let us reflect on one of God’s most treasured gifts to man, “The Ten Commandments”.

The Ten Commandments are found in the Old Testament, the book of Exodus, Chapter 20 and then again in the book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 5.

As you may already know, these commandments were delivered to Moses on the top of Mt. Sinai. How amazing is that; to be chosen by God to receive and deliver such a gift to His people? I can only imagine the humility Moses had to have had.

Here are the laws that God presented to Moses:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:

But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.

For the purpose of this writing, I have to believe that the Father wanted me to write about His Commandments to remind every reader of them. Hopefully every eye reading, already knows 1-10 and this writing will serve as a friendly reminder but for those reading them for the first time, I pray you not only see the meaning behind each word but that you consume and digest each word, that it may fill your spirit. I pray you remember Gods laws, practice His laws and need His Word as your body needs essential nutrients to survive.

Without abiding by Gods laws, we aren’t honoring Him the way we should be. Our days are numbered and if you’re a believer, you should recognize this. If you’re not a believer, I challenge you to speak with one. I challenge you to want to feel what we feel and to want to hear the story of life after death.

Now, I’m no biblical scholar; what I am is one of God’s chosen, to write and spread, not only His word but His love. With that, let’s dissect the commandments.

The Lord tells us not to have any Gods before him. God felt the need to say this because many worshipped false gods and God, the Father, is the one and only creator of life. He’s the creator of your life so He wants you to give Him all the praise and honor for that gift – the gift of life. God is a jealous God and He has every right to be. Believer or not, we belong to Him. In the Book of Life, the Father decides when you’ll transition out the womb to when you’ll take your last breath.

I believe that many in today’s times are still worshiping other gods. These people are lost and confused. Of course, they don’t know they are, but they are. These are the people that God has called upon His anointed to reach and show them that the road to righteousness goes “right”, not left.

God doesn’t want us to create an image or likeness that is in Heaven above, or the earth beneath. Now how easy it should be to fulfill this commandment, yet, many still do exactly what God has asked us not to do. This isn’t one of those “Just Do It” commandments – this is a “Just DON’T Do It commandment.

Don’t take the Lord's name in vain. How easy is this? Aren’t we taught as children not to do this? Don’t we all know that saying “Jesus” to end your negative sentence with emphasis is wrong? Jesus is the Son of God and it applies just as if you said something like “Good God” in vain. Saying the Lord's name over and over, outside of prayer and worship – God is telling us not to do.

Let’s think before speaking if this applies to you. Make a conscious effort to change those things about yourself that displeases the Father. That’s not asking a lot of you. Just think about all you ask of Him the next time you use His name in vain. Still waiting on that blessing you’ve been praying over – think to yourself – am I in line with what God asks of me? Check yourself. You could be the holdup of your blessing.

Keep the Sabbath Holy. For me, keeping the Sabbath Holy means more than just working as the commandments state. Respect the Father on all days but especially on this day – the Sabbath.

In the times we currently live in, many treat Sunday as it’s got as much relevance as Monday through Saturday. Do better than your best to recognize that Sunday is the day, the one special day that God asks us to keep Holy.

Think about it, Gods only asking us for one day out of seven and He created all of them. He probably knew most of us couldn’t do more than one day so He made it easy and only asked us to recognize His hard work, His creations of life, etc. on the Sabbath. If God can rest on the seventh day (the Sabbath) – so should you. Gods giving us permission to do absolutely nothing, one out of seven days. That’s really awesome, don’t you think? Thank you, Lord!

Honor your Mother and Father. How hard can this be? For many, I assume it might be pretty difficult and a very tall order but as the Pastor mentioned in his sermon, it doesn’t mean you have to carry that heavy burden(s) – the wrongs your parents may have done to you, around on your shoulders for the rest of your life. You do know that forgiveness is for you? Forgiveness helps you to release and move forward.

Dump that heavy load, forgive them of anything they may have done wrong to you and God will show up and show out and your soul will be freed of that heavyweight. Find your peace by doing what the Father asks of you. You don’t have to be BFF’s, God simply tells us to honor them and by not dishonoring them, you’ll fulfill this commandment.

Don’t kill. This – to me, is my simple sentence. Two words. Again, just don’t do it. Why would anyone even want to? Well, Satan is alive and seeking souls. He’s successful in gathering many because the host he enters isn’t filled with the Holy Spirit.

We’re seeing more and more people being executed by their brother because their soul is lost. When I write posts, most of them include the words – “Each one, Reach one”. We each have a responsibility to do Gods will and try to reach a nonbeliever. Imagine if all of Gods believers had one role to fulfill and that was to reach a nonbeliever and bring him/her – our brother/sister to Christ, imagine what our world would look like today, opposed to what it actually looks like today. Don’t turn on the news – you’ll get a slap of reality, death is everywhere. The lost souls are taking over and our job as believers is to bring another to our Lord. Let Gods Holy Spirit enter into this lost soul, removing Satan’s demon(s), casting it back into the pits of hell. If we would merely do this simple task, we as Gods people, we as Gods children, will see that we can make a difference. It starts with you – every believer is called to duty. Take your role seriously!

Men and women, my brothers and sisters, stop it, just stop it! Stop the cheating, stop the adultery. Stop the lies and deceit. If you’re a child of God, do right by Him and yourself.

Protect your body that houses the Holy Spirit. Maybe if you think of it like – the Holy Spirit is within me and He can see and hear all, think about Him seeing and hearing before you do anything against Gods law. I’d think if you’re a believer and you know the Holy Spirit is within, you’d be embarrassed to know that he knows exactly what you’re up to. Remind yourself before you decided to commit adultery that God told you not to.

Bottom line, just don’t step outside what God brought together. If you’re married – read this – Matthew 19:6. “Wherefore they are no more two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God hath joined together, let no man separate.”

Stealing. Some people think, that’s not me but are you one of those people who “borrow” something from someone and purposely don’t return it, hoping the owner will eventually forget? That’s stealing!

Don’t take what doesn’t belong to you. I recall having an issue within when I’d find myself writing with a pen outside of the company that owned it. Throwing something small like an office pen, etc., into your pocketbook, briefcase, shirt pocket, and walking out the building, knowingly – is stealing. If you unknowingly take it with no intention of keeping it, bring it back but how many of us do that?

Again, my soul made me feel bad whenever I took a pen so I stopped doing it. It's stealing. Be it large or small – it doesn’t belong to you and you’re breaking the eighth commandment.

Bearing false witness. Don’t lie on someone to make yourself feel good or to turn others against the person you’re lying on. God is telling us not to lie, not to bear false witness against our neighbors. Don’t bear false witness (lie) against anyone, neighbor or not.

Let’s learn to have a clean heart. No need in lying about anything. A lie is a lie, is a lie, all day long. Purity, ask God to remove your lying and deceitful ways and to give you a clean heart.

Think about it, when you lie, you have to keep up with them because when you tell one lie, you have to tell another to cover up the first lie and so on. Eventually, you’re going to get caught up and busted, making everything worse. It’s so much easier, to tell the truth – this way, you don’t have to remember what lie you told to this one to match the lie your telling to that one.

Gods last commandment is about covertness. Another “don’t do it”. God doesn’t want you to long for something that someone else has, that you do not. Be it your neighbor’s house, wife, maid, etc. If you are true at heart, faithfully in prayer and in constant communication with the Father, you’ll know that what you want (that another person has) – might not be for you or maybe it’s not your time to have it. Maybe you’re breaking the other nine commandments and you don’t deserve it. Surely, you’ll never get it if you’re going left and allowing the enemy to entice you with covertness with what he wants you to want.

Don’t allow the enemy to take you left. If you’re on the path of righteousness – stay there, remain in prayer and wait on the Lord. Your blessing will come. #Iknow, #truth.

This is the longest article I’ve ever written and I hope and trust that I articulated Gods message in a way that is received and understood by all who’ve read it.

Do right family. Put God first. Remember His word is the only word that matters. Each one, Reach one. Take ownership of your role and responsibilities that you, as a believer have received, to help bring a nonbeliever to Christ. The devil has his team, he’s busy recruiting all day, every day. Have you raised up your children in the church? Have you spoken a word about the Lord this week to anyone – even to another believer? Have you given thought about if you don’t make a difference and join team “Soldiers for the Lord”, that the streets may get your children or other family members?

The streets are active – let’s show up and show out as disciples for the most High and let's show God that we’ve got what it takes to gather other soldiers for His team. Let’s take a stand against all that Satan has going on in the world. Let’s show Satan that we too can be just as busy! Soldiers for the Lord – do right, live right, pray right, stay right, and watch God bless right!

Amen!
Cindy


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