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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Today we’re looking at three powerful statements by God, describing how you and I should live, EVERYDAY as a people of God. . . no matter where in the world we live! Did you miss what I just said, my friends? These Life Principles from God transcend geography, nationality, ethnicity, skin color, language, generation, whether you live in a mega city (population over 20 million people) or a rural village, or out in the open spaces with your closest neighbor more than 5 miles away!
Is that possible? Are there really some God given, guiding Life Principles that can apply to EVERY living human being, everywhere in the world? YES…are you ready? Here we go! God actually SPOKE these statements, audibly, for all to hear, to over 1 million Hebrew runaway slaves, at Mount Sinai. Let’s look at Exodus 20.
“Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land…” (Ex. 20:12) With this statement God turns the direction of His Guiding Life Principles, from Vertical to Horizontal. Principles 1-4 (Ex. 20:1-11) have been focused on the relationship God designs for His people with HIM, Holy, Jehovah God. Principles 5-10 (Ex. 20:12-17) focus on how God has designed human life to be lived in relationship with each other, as God honoring people, WHEN the relationship with HIM is right…starting with Family!
By God’s design, FAMILY is the centerpiece of any society, everywhere in the world. Family produces the next generation carefully, and is immersed in family love. Family protects the unborn, the infants, and children, during their most vulnerable years. Family teaches, trains, and tolerates mistakes, in the forgiving love of family. Family love is designed to be the strongest human bond. Family is like an incubator for babies and children, for it’s here they are intended to be the safest, and most nurtured. Family is intended to be life long, always a welcoming, loving, accepting, forgiving, healing place.
Consider Deuteronomy 6:5-9 and Moses’ instructions for how family is responsible for training up their next generation. Then add Psalm 78:1-7 and see how even the children yet unborn are benefiting from the development of a God honoring family into which they will be drawn and developed. Now… look at our families, as far back as you can see. They weren’t perfect, but can you see God’s hand at work, generation after generation? Do you see the power and miracle of adoption into a God honoring, God loving family?
If your parents are still alive, how can you apply this guiding Life Principle? How can you honor your parents? As they age, could it be that you will become their care-givers? As their financial means may become insufficient, could it be that you will support them financially? Could it be you will help them grow spiritually, so they pass from this life into eternity, with a strong confidence in Jesus?
And what if your relationship with your parents has been strained? What is God calling you to do to ‘honor your parents’ if the lives they lived, or are now living, are not God honoring? What if you have been dishonoring to them in your past? And what about YOU as parents & grandparents? Have you lived lives your children will honor you for?
Do you see that when parents live their lives in God honoring ways, their descendants will grow up to call them “blessed”, and will seek to honor them and follow in their footsteps, passing on to their children what their Godly parents taught them? And when parents choose another path… when parents turn to alcohol or drugs or gambling or porn or divorce or abuse or dishonesty or anger or absenteeism or abandonment, oh the results are so very much different from what God designed & intended for the human family!
As you know my friends, the family has been a major target of Satan and his demons for centuries. Stand strong my friends, empowered by God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. Reject every scheme of the dark kingdom to harm your family. Have you noticed this is how the first seven chapters of Proverbs begin?
Here’s another of God’s guiding Life Principles: “You shall not murder.” (Ex. 20:13) God wants us to value, respect, and celebrate human life just as much as HE does! Here God is not talking about the horribleness of war nor about defending yourself or your family or the innocent to the point of ending the life of one who is determined to kill you or the innocent. Here God is calling us to honor as sacred, human life, from the moment of miraculous conception, to the moment of natural death. Any pre-meditated ending of the life of another living person is murder and is abominable and God will judge the murderer severely.
Abortion is murder of the vilest kind, for the fundamental, God given responsibility of parenthood is to protect the life of their child at all costs, especially when that child can do nothing to protect itself. Oh the price of judgment millions of people will pay before God, for ending the life of innocent, unborn children. And oh the glorious wonder of God’s grace, forgiveness and healing of those who have tearfully repented of this great sin, claiming the power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ to earn their forgiveness and their restoration.
Here’s another Guiding Life Principle from God: “You shall not commit adultery.” (Ex. 20:14) Perhaps you ask why ‘adultery’ is such a big deal that it was punishable by death, by God’s instruction, in ancient Israel? (Deut. 22:22) Adultery violates the sacred and holy vow of marriage. The miracle of human reproduction is a sacred process requiring a man and a woman AND GOD. Conception cannot take place without all three and God has designed this glorious act to take place ONLY within the holiness of the marriage covenant. This is intended by God to assure that the child, conceived in God honoring love, will be born and raised in a God honoring family.
Oh what a mockery has been made of this sacred privilege and the horrible, global pandemic of shame and broken hearts that have resulted from adultery. While I’ve met with several couples who have encountered this marriage killing experience, I’ve found ONLY the forgiving, restoring, power of God can lead a person or couple back to emotional and spiritual health, after adultery. In truth, most people never fully recover from this horrific tragedy called adultery. It breaks trust, of course, and makes it almost impossible for trust to be restored.
But did you know my friends, adultery is not always physical? Jesus said “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully in her heart has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:27,28) That’s very clear isn’t it? This is ’emotional adultery’, and it sadly happens millions of times every day. This is the root of pornography.
And my friends would you consider what “spiritual adultery” might be? This is when God’s people turn from God and give their hearts, their adoration, their worship to something or someone else!! Consider the graphic description of this found in Jeremiah 3:6-10! And then look closely at Ezekiel 36:16-21 “So I poured out My wrath on Israel because they had defiled it with their idols. I dispersed them among the nations and they were scattered through the countries!” We’ll look more closely at this next week, but my friends, it is very important we understand God hates with a passion, ‘spiritual adultery’, and He will not stand by idle while His people give their worship to other things, all the while claiming to be His people!
So my “Walking with Jesus” friends. . .how is your heart today? Is your heart truly faithful to God and to your spouse, if married? Are you guarding and protecting your heart from being drawn away from God to anything else, that might draw your worship, your love and your commitment.
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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