photo by ground.zero
I’ve been running a series about how to teach the Ten Commandments to your children. We’re going to spend a little bit of time looking at each commandment individually.
The second commandment is very much like the first. God doesn’t want us making anything more important than Him.
However, it really goes beyond that. The ancient Israelites would often follow in the footsteps of their heathen neighbors and carve idols from wood or other materials in an effort to worship gods they could see and feel. Faith had very little to do with it. These idols were gods made in the images of man, or rather, they were man-created.
We often build idols out of our own imaginations, these days. Many of us have created God into being what it is we want Him to be.
If you’ve ever used the phrase, well, I don’t think God would do something like that, or if you’ve ever heard said, why would a good God allow that to happen, or even I’ll take my chances that God is going to let that slide, you have effectively heard a different God from the One in the Bible being created right before your eyes.
We want an understanding God, a lenient God, a soft and cuddly God. A God who is our buddy and pal. After all, it’s easier to hang out with a friend than it is to submit to a sovereign Lord. A God who is jealous, wrathful and demands righteousness is no fun at all.
God is both love and righteousness, but He defines what love and righteousness are. When we start redefining the terms and conditions, then we are breaking the second commandment. That’s it in a nutshell.
It is the one area that our kids get into the most trouble when they leave home and come under the influence of the outside world. If they don’t understand who God is and how He defines truth, then they will either cave to the first belief system that sounds good to them or they will not be able to stand up and defend what it is they believe and potentially walk away.
Either way, it’s another lost soul for the kingdom.
We bless our children by reading to them from the Bible. That’s where we learn about God and how He defines His truths. We help them honor the second commandment while at the same time giving them a leg to stand up on when confronted by those who redefine God and His truths.
If you haven’t started a regular time of family devotion and want to know how to go about doing it, check out the Step By Step To Family Devotions series. It’s a slow and steady tutorial for designing a time of reading the Bible together and making God the center of your home.
The second commandment is very much like the first. God doesn’t want us making anything more important than Him.
However, it really goes beyond that. The ancient Israelites would often follow in the footsteps of their heathen neighbors and carve idols from wood or other materials in an effort to worship gods they could see and feel. Faith had very little to do with it. These idols were gods made in the images of man, or rather, they were man-created.
We often build idols out of our own imaginations, these days. Many of us have created God into being what it is we want Him to be.
If you’ve ever used the phrase, well, I don’t think God would do something like that, or if you’ve ever heard said, why would a good God allow that to happen, or even I’ll take my chances that God is going to let that slide, you have effectively heard a different God from the One in the Bible being created right before your eyes.
We want an understanding God, a lenient God, a soft and cuddly God. A God who is our buddy and pal. After all, it’s easier to hang out with a friend than it is to submit to a sovereign Lord. A God who is jealous, wrathful and demands righteousness is no fun at all.
God is both love and righteousness, but He defines what love and righteousness are. When we start redefining the terms and conditions, then we are breaking the second commandment. That’s it in a nutshell.
It is the one area that our kids get into the most trouble when they leave home and come under the influence of the outside world. If they don’t understand who God is and how He defines truth, then they will either cave to the first belief system that sounds good to them or they will not be able to stand up and defend what it is they believe and potentially walk away.
Either way, it’s another lost soul for the kingdom.
We bless our children by reading to them from the Bible. That’s where we learn about God and how He defines His truths. We help them honor the second commandment while at the same time giving them a leg to stand up on when confronted by those who redefine God and His truths.
If you haven’t started a regular time of family devotion and want to know how to go about doing it, check out the Step By Step To Family Devotions series. It’s a slow and steady tutorial for designing a time of reading the Bible together and making God the center of your home.
Related Articles:
2 comments:
Deb,
Very thought provoking. I have never heard that take on how the second commandment could apply to us today.
Insightful and practical!
Thanks for sharing.
rick
I'm glad you were provoked by the post. It's a constant struggle for myself to remember that my Christianity isn't about me, and that it's not up to me to define what God has so plainly put forth.
Thanks for leaving a comment. :-)
Post a Comment