10 Rules for a Better Life (#3)

"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." Exodus 20:7

Imagine you are holding an American flag. Yes, in the end it's just a piece of cloth, but it represents far more than that. It's a symbol, an emblem of your country. It stands for things like liberty, freedom, independence, and the sacrifice that makes these things possible.

There is a reason we have a certain code of conduct for our flag. We don't let the flag touch the ground, we fold it a special way, display it only in certain ways, we even have rules for "retiring" a flag. Some of the rules in the code may sound picky, but they are there to make sure we give the flag proper respect.

Now imagine you're holding that flag in front of a squad of Navy SEALs or Army Rangers or Marines or (insert your chosen section of the military here). How careful are you going to be with the flag now? With all those soldiers watching you, would you be so bold as to use the flag to blow your nose or wipe off your sweat?You never know these days, maybe you really would do those disrespectful things. But political correctness or not, each one of those soldiers would be tempted to shoot you on site (or at least give you a beating you'd never forget). When you disrespect the flag, you fail to recognize what it means to the country as well as the ones who fight to protect it.

In the same way, when you disrespect the name of God, you fail to recognize the power and holiness of the One who created the universe, including you. Not only is it just stupid to mock the God who has your life in His hands, but the name of God has incredible power and significance because of what it represents.

God's name, Yahweh, means "I am." While we humans have not always existed, God always was, is, and will always be God. And He has never been less than everything we need. Through God's very name He tells us that He is sufficient for us. God is . . . fill in the blank. He is our Creator, our Sustainer, our Savior, our Protector, the list could go on and on. But one of God's most important attributes is that He is holy.

God is set apart. He is not like humans. He is not common. Therefore, His name should not be used lightly. Just like there are rules for how we treat the flag, God has given us the third commandment to tell us how we should regard His name. If you say that you want to honor God, make sure your give His name the proper respect: Don't use it unless you've really thought about who you are talking about.

10 Rules for a Better Life (#1 and #2)

As I explained in the last post, the rules and laws that God gives us help us live the best life possible. Laws have this bad reputation of ruining our fun, but if God's rules can drastically improve our lives if we are willing to follow them.

Following rules isn't easy. Anyone who has tried to get into better shape knows that eating healthy foods and exercising regularly is easier said than done. We know these are good things to do and we know that our lives are improved when our bodies are in better shape. But we still get distracted by unhealthy foods and lazy behavior.

In the same way, God's laws are good for us and we will feel better about life if we actually follow them. In each of the 10 Commandments, God shows that He is looking out for our best interests. If you follow them, I guarantee you'll live a more productive life with fewer regrets than if you simply ignored them.

#1: "You shall not have any other gods before me." Exodus 20:3

Some of you might think that God just made up this rule because He is insecure and He needs you to make Him the most important thing in your life. While it's true that God is pleased when we put Him first in our lives, we are actually the ones who need Him. Sure, you can make other things number one in your life such as sports, music, entertainment, success, relationships, etc. But sooner or later all of these things will fail you. God, Himself, is the only thing in the universe that will never let you down and He lasts forever.
God knows that if you build your life on any other foundation, eventually it is going to crumble. You can save yourself a lot of grief and pain by simply making God your number one priority. It doesn't mean that you can't ever do things you enjoy. But following God still has to come before anything else. This might mean you pass up on things you think are fun, but in the end it will be better for you. If you don't trust that God knows what is good and what is bad for you, then things won't work out very well.

#2: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." Exodus 20:4-6

The second commandment goes right along with the first. The first rule basically says, "Don't make anything in your life more important than me." And the second rule says, "Don't worship anything else besides me."

So this rule goes beyond just making idols out of wood, stone, gold, etc. Today, we don't really worship statues, but we do idolize public icons, prioritize entertainment, and emphasize our "right" to do whatever we want.Having a role model is great, but idolizing your favorite athlete, performer, or politician is something else. We might not make physical idols, but we create shrines to "important" public figures. We might not worship pagan gods, but we still call our favorite singer a "rock god" (we have a show called American Idol for crying out loud!). And at the end of the day no athlete is super-human, but we still want to make legends out of men who make a living by playing a game.

We might not have a temple to the gods of entertainment or laziness, but we do have stadiums and concert halls and nearly all of us have a place in our homes where we sit down and pay these gods homage for hours on end. You might actually be able to find some shrines to the goddess of pleasure, but even people who don't frequent nightclubs and other shady establishments still follow her one and only commandment: "You shall do what feels good . . . now!"

The point is, there are still all sorts of things in our society that can easily interfere with rule number one. God is sufficient for you. You don't need to worship Him and something else. Once you build up something up in your mind so much that you think you NEED it to feel normal, then you now have another "god" in your life.

These first two rules establish a foundation for everything else God commands us to do or not do: 1.) Put Him first and 2.) Stay away from anything that gets in the way of rule No. 1. Just those two rules cover a lot and the rest of the 10 commandments (as well as the rest of the Bible) help to point out more specifics.

Freedom Through Law

Tuesday Night Truth (T.N.T.) starts up tonight at Campus Life (7:00 - 8:30 pm). Throughout this fall we will be exploring the truth about God's law and the freedom we can experience through it.

Some might say, "'Freedom' and 'Law' don't go together! 'Freedom' means I get to do what I want and rules just get in the way of that." I'm not going to say that following God's law is always easy (actually, it's rarely easy), but let me ask this question: which is better, life with rules or life without rules?

But before anyone says, "I would much rather live without any rules holding me back," stop and think for a moment. If there are no rules, who is to say what is right and what is wrong? For instance, who's to say that it's wrong for someone to take something that's yours? Who is going to stop someone else from beating you up (or worse) just because they don't like you?

How much fun would it be to live in fear of what someone else might do to you? Yeah, you will be able to do whatever you want . . . as long as someone bigger and stronger doesn't come along and do whatever he wants to you.

That's why we don't live in anarchy. We make rules and laws and assign people to enforce them so we can sleep at night knowing that there is some sense of justice in the society.

I would also add that God doesn't really stop people from doing what they want. Obviously, if God immediately punished everyone who broke one of His commandments, none of us would probably be around anymore. God may give us laws, but we always have a choice about whether we'll follow them or not. So if you want to go and do your own thing, you have that option . . . but there will be consequences.

Just like parents give their kids rules to guide them, God's law is meant to guide us away from things that can hurt us. However, the guide can always be ignored. Parents tell their kids not to eat too much junk food, but they do it anyway and get a stomach ache. Some continue to do it their whole lives and have heart attacks or other health problems. Or parents may say not to play in the street, but kids do it anyway and get hit by cars.In the same way, God tells us not to lie. But people do it anyway and wonder why nobody trusts them. He tells us not to covet or steal. But people do it anyway and wonder why they always want more. He tells us not to have sex outside of marriage. But people do it anyway and wonder why they have dysfunctional families.

As C. S. Lewis puts it, "There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right then, have it your way.'" While "bad" things still happen to "good" people, there are all kinds of problems that can be avoided in life by simply following God's commands.

If you look closely at God's laws, you'll see that He's simply telling us the best possible way to live while protecting us from a life that we really don't want. If you don't believe me, let me ask you another question: how are things working out for you doing things your way?