The Resolutions In Summary

I'd like to tie up this series by speaking about the summary Jesus gave on the commandments:

And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.'

"This is the great and foremost commandment.

"The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'

"On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

Matthew 22:37-40 (NASB)

Trust the Lord to make it simple for us. Love God, and love others as you love yourself. A nice summary of the golden rule. Not easy to do. I know people (including myself) who have been working on it for years and still do not have it right. A friend of mine said he learned the golden rule at 5 years old. He did not want to deal with a lot of other stuff since he was still having so much trouble managing that one.

Something to keep working on. It is a big enough new year resolution for me to chew on for quite some time to come. It is about thoughts, words and deeds. It is about attitude and action. It is about all the things we struggle doing no matter how much we want to, how much we know we should.

I will try to do better in 2009 than I have in the past.

We Are Not Covert About What We Covet No Matter How We Try To Cover It

10-You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Exodus 20:17 (NASB)

I left this one by itself because most of us cannot make 5 steps out of bed in the morning before we blindside ourselves with this one. We think we have it covered, we try to keep it secret, but we are covetous deep down inside and it usually bubbles up to and onto the surface.

Somewhere someone has something we want, and want to the point of coveting it. This one is easy to miss since it is designed to be about thoughts and words more than deeds, attitude more than action. We do not have to do anything other than bounce it around our furry little brains. And since it goes on inside us, it is easy to hide from everyone. But God. He knows and cares, even if He is not in your face about it right now.

If you are honest with yourself, this is the one you know is easiest for you to break. This one was broken shortly after, or maybe just as the ball hit bottom in Times Square to announce 2009.

But no one is going to call you on it but yourself. And God. He may not get in your face, but He will get to you about it someday.

The Trippies

6-You shall not murder.

7-You shall not commit adultery.

8-You shall not steal.

9-You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Exodus 20:13-16 (NASB)

I call this next group of resolutions the trippies because they can really trip you up without you even knowing it. You think these are the easy ones: you are not a thief, you haven't slept with anyone outside the bonds of marriage and you certainly haven't killed anyone lately.

But think in terms of thoughts and words in addition to deeds as Jesus calls us to do. Have you stolen time from someone by your inaction? Have your murdered someone in your thoughts and how has that come out in how you interact with that person? Every had any issues ever with lust, even just once? Never, ever lied? C'mon, it is me who you are talking to. Be real.

In some way, shape or form, we are probably all mowing some of these down on a fairly regular basis. We just aren't good enough to steer clear of all the trippies 24/7. If you think hard enough (some of us need to think softer than that to arrive at the answer) you will have to say you missed somewhere on the list.

Remember it is about thoughts, words and deeds; attitudes and actions.

Rest and Honor

4-Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.Six days you shall labor and do all your work,but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

5-Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

Exodus 20:8-12 (NASB)

The next two resolutions deal with rest and honor.

I do not want to get into a discussion around the sabbath, which day it is, which day it should be. I want to talk about rest. Resting in the Lord, ceasing other activity to turn to Him and give Him your undivided attention. Get away from the routine of the week for a day and face God to replenish and recharge. The Lord calls us to labor on His behalf but He calls us to rest as well. Not couch potato rest, rest in Him. Doing His will, walking with Him. I think this can be as strenuous as any work you do the rest of the week, but if you are with Him, He will give you rest. And if you trust in Jesus, one day you will have that eternal rest that He has gained for you by His sacrifice.

Follow that up with honor. Your parents, your heritage, your gift from the Lord. Pay honor and respect to the seeds that were sown to make you who you are today, spiritually and emotionally, physically and mentally. Because if you honor that and keep going up the ladder, you will eventually give honor to God. You will realize that all you have to honor He placed in your life.

I need to start with Mom and Dad, but not stop until I get to the Father. It is a matter of attitude and action.

God, First and Foremost

1-You shall have no other gods before Me.

2-You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3-You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

Exodus 20:3-7 (NASB)

I thought we would start with God...always a good place to start. We all say we put Him first, but do we really? I know I often think about myself first, and then almost as often try to back and fill so it looks like I am following hard after God and walking in His will. I am not fooling Him, that is for sure. Maybe I need a "count to ten" type pause to realign myself every time I am about to do something, really train myself to think about Him, and others, and then me. I never find that easy.

Idols, there are so many to trip us up. Ever put your job first? Ever put your family first? Have you ever missed church because you had a Dallas Cowboys game to go to and they were playing early on a Sunday? Ever spent more time planning to party than to pray? Some of these may make you laugh, some make you squirm. But anything you put before God falls into the idol category as it becomes more important to you than He does at that particular point in time.

Taking the Lord's name in vain, there is so much here. You can take His name in vain through your actions as well as your words. And since the darkest battles are fought inside you, His name can be taken in vain in your thoughts as well.

Just started the list and I am messing up all over the place. How about you?

New Year Resolutions

It is a little over a day into the new year. Have you kept all your resolutions so far?

I have never been one to set resolutions as I come out of one year into the next, I know me all too well for that. But I have been thinking about it and have this group of resolutions to talk about over the next few days:

1-You shall have no other gods before Me.

2-You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3-You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

4-Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.Six days you shall labor and do all your work,but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

5-Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

6-You shall not murder.

7-You shall not commit adultery.

8-You shall not steal.

9-You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10-You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Exodus 20:3-17 (NASB)

Not an original list, but a great one. And not all that easy to follow. Think about it, how are you doing? I'll share some more of my meager thoughts over the next few days.