The Seventh Commandment

Lovely spring weather we are having here...it is the very end of March and we had a couple inches of snow dumped on us this afternoon! It wasn't supposed to stick (according to the weather people) but it certainly did stick! Hopefully some of you are having better spring weather than me!

Anyway, I have three more commandments after this one to post on and I am praying I can convey my thoughts in a manner which will be understood.

The seventh commandment...

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery (KJV)

New Testament:
Matthew 5:27-28 - Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. (KJV)
and
Matthew 5:32 - But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause fo fornication, causeth her to commit adulter: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. (KJV)

To me, this commandment is stated rather clearly...at least knowing that if you lust after a woman that it is considered adultery (or lusting after a man if you are a woman). But, what is considered lust? I do not consider lust to include the comments of "I like her hair" or "I like her smile", but that is my conviction. I get stuck on is that little skip of your heart lusting? In some ways I think it is, but in another way I'm not sure. It's kind of a natural reaction when you see someone who you are interested in. If this person is married then yes, I think that is considered adultery. But if the person is single? I'm not sure. How do we stop these natural reactions from happening? The commentary in my Bible says that Jesus did this to take the listener's attention off the physical and onto the spiritual side of a person. It seems that we would need to take our eyes off the physical image of a person and put it on their spiritual image and if we do that then there is less of a chance for us to fall into lust with someone.

An easy thing to say would be if all women would dress modestly then the men would be able to keep pure thougths easier. I agree with this, but is it realistic? In our society today, no I don't think so. I think it is wonderful when women respect their bodies enough to dress modestly and want to help the men stay pure, but unfortunately, not all women think this way. How would we train up our boys (and girls) to not lust after another person? Teaching them the right kinds of people to share company with would be a wonderful way to begin. Also, we must teach them that they should not get to know someone physically until they have married, but rather get to know the person on a spiritual and emotional level first. These are the two levels that will help them to understand if the relationship will work or not.

I do not think we can get rid of lust all together, but as with any sin, we must strive to avoid it and rely on God to help us keep away from it knowing full well that He will forgive us if we sin and ask for forgiveness.

There is another verse in Matthew that discusses adultery. The Bible also states in Matthew 5:32 that anyone who divorces, except for biblical reasons -- the only reason given is fornication, causees their spouse to commit adultery. And furthermore, if he himself remarries while his wife is still alive, he commits adultery as well! To me, this verse is pretty plainly stated...divorce results in adultery which is sin.

Now do I belive that someone who divorced and remarried and is now saved should divorce their current husband? I don't think that's for me or anyone besides God to say. That is for the couple to pray about. I don't necessarily believe that they should divorce just to escape that sin, because then they would both be living in sin once again. If I were in that situation, I would rely on Jesus' forgiveness and follow what I feel He is leading me to do. It's a tough decision and a touchy topic so if I have offended anyone I do apologize and ask for forgiveness, that was not my intention.

Blessings in Christ,

The Sixth Commandment

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:13 - Thou shalt not kill (KJV)

New Testament:
Matthew 5:21-22 - Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgement: 22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. (KJV)
*It is sidenoted in my Bible that "kill" in v. 21 means murder and in v. 22, Raca literally means "empty head".

It is easy for most of us to not kill someone, and as long as we do not kill anyone then we are following this commandment...but according to the New Testament, that is not the case. Jesus expanded on this commandment. We must now in addition to not literally killing anyone, we have to control our anger towards our brothers and sisters. If we get angry with a brother or a sister for no reason, then we have broken the sixth commandment.

Keeping our anger under control is more difficult for more of us than simply not killing someone. How do we control our anger? The most important part to this is prayer. Before we rush to anger, we should stop, take a deep breath and whisper a prayer for the ability to stop the anger brewing inside of us dead in its tracks. For some people this will be the end of it for that episode, but for others they will need to continue to keep praying for the strength and ability to let their anger go.

What if our anger is "justified" as we see it? Like we have a reason to be angry (maybe someone caused us harm in one way or another). Well, we need to forgive that person and when we forgive then we will be able to be released from the grasp of anger.

Blessings in Christ,

The Fifth Commandment

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:12 - Honor thy father and they mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (KJV)

New Testament:
Matthew 19:19 - Honor thy father and they mother... (KJV)
Jesus says this commandment in the section where the young ruler came to Him and asked Him what good thing shall he do that he may have eternal life. After this question, Jesus said to keep the commandments and the young ruler asked which. Jesus recited six of the 10 commandments to this young ruler.

Honoring our fathers and mothers seems like it should be a simple command. But how do we really honor them (in God's eyes)? Is it listening to what our parents say? If that is the case then there are many instances where I have gone wrong, but if I had listened to what my parents had said, in some of those cases I would be going against what I felt led to do by God. Who is more important? In my opinion, God is.

Paul says several times throughout his letters Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise (Ephesians 6:1-2 KJV).

This is one that I definitely need to continue to work on. Even though I no longer live under my father's roof, I still respect my mom and dad and want to make them proud of me, but to me, there is a balance between making them proud/honoring them, and doing what I feel led to do. I also would like to stick in there my happiness, but does that make me selfish? To want to be happy and enjoy what I am doing with my life? In some ways I do think so because I may be putting my wants before what both God and my parents want for me, but in other ways, the happier I am with what I am doing, the easier it is to be a good Christian to others. Maybe it's not always supposed to be easy to be a good Christian, but I don't think it should be hard to be one all the time.

As much as most people want to honor their parents, honoring our parents is harder than it seems like it would be at times, but it is something which we all must strive to do since Jesus commanded we do.

Blessings in Christ,

The Fourth Commandment

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:8 - Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy (KJV)

New Testament:
Mark 2:27-28 - And he said unto them, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath; 28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. (KJV)

This is the one commandment that some Christian "scholars" say today's Christian's do not keep. In reading their reasoning, I understand. The sabbath is the Jewish term for the 7th day, if we think about it, the 7th day of the week (as most commonly recognized by people today) is Saturday. However, we should look at it as keeping the Lord's day holy. Most Christians now-a-days have service on Sunday and would consider that the Lord's day. This practice fell into place (from what I understand) based off the principle that Jesus rose on the 3rd day and we know that He was crucified on a Friday so the 3rd day would put it to Sunday.

We know that Jesus healed on the Sabbath saying Is it lawful to do good ont he sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? (Mark 3:4 KJV). The Pharisees later plotted against Jesus trying to figure out how to destroy Him because of His actions (Mark 3:6), but Jesus kept on healing those who needed to be healed whether it was the Sabbath or not.

How does one go about keeping the Lord's day holy? Most likely that would include fellowship with like minded believers. But what kind of work is prohibited on Sundays? I know some groups where cooking is not allowed so the women will prepare Sundays meals on Saturday. Most people would agree doing laundry would be considered work, but some go as far as not allowing wash to be hanging out on the line on a Sunday. I was told by someone that anything we could do on another day of the week, we should refrain from doing on Sundays. I believe the gentleman who told me this was meaning to not fuel up cars, not do house chores, not work at a job, and other things like that, but he had no objections to a woman cooking on a Sunday.

What types of activities would be allowed? A lot of churches near where I live would go with fellowship and napping :) I myself am not one for naps, although I have found myself enjoying one every couple weeks, so I will often sew, read a book, play a game or work on a puzzle. Things that I do not generally have time for during the week...however, as I mentioned before, if I begin to feel frustrated with anything, I will stop because I do not feel that an activity in which I become frustrated is one to be done on Sundays. With the spring and summer months coming upon us rather quickly now, I may also take a walk and just enjoy God's creations :)

How do you keep the Lord's day holy? Is there any work that you would believe to be okay and allowable on the Lord's day?

Blessings in Christ,

Fajita Seasoning

Fajitas are considered a staple food in our apartment :) So instead of buying seasoning mix, we got a recipe (from a friend) and have used it ever since.

1 1/2 teaspoon Oregano leaves
1 1/2 teaspoon Seasoning salt (we use lawry's)
1 1/2 teaspoon Cumin
1/2 teaspoon Paprika
1/2 teaspoon Chili powder

Combine all the ingredients together. We "coat" the chicken chunks in the pan with this seasoning and then add some water and just guess on how much to use. If I had to estimate, I would say we probably use 1/2 of this recipe per chicken breast. Just a guess though! So un-scientific we are...I am beginning to think I sound like my grandpa. As my sister said, he is one of the worst people to get a recipe off because it's "a little bit of this" and "a little bit of that" :)

Enjoy!

Blessings in Christ,

If there really was a God...

...why would he let this happen to me? Some people may find this statement rather disturbing... saying if the person really believed in God, then they would have no doubts no matter what happened to them. But really, if someone never questions why God allowed something to happen then either they do not believe in God or they believe questioning is wrong. I do not believe God is against us questioning why something happened, I believe it is in our human nature to, but He does not like when we try to take over the situation and "clean" it up ourselves rather than relying on Him. There is a difference...

The God of the Old Testament was a punishing God, but Jesus in the New Testament is a loving God. How is an innocent child dying in a horrible way a loving thing? How is a woman being violated a loving act? How is an act of terrorism which kills many many people a loving act? I understand that death is a part of the cycle of life and that for Christians, death is not the end, but I still question the timeliness of death in certain situations.

From what I understood while reading, the New Testament does not really speak on tragedies that we experience today. Rather it speaks on the acts of Jesus and His teachings. I have a friend who was violated and unfortunatley because the Bible does not discuss these tragedies very much, she now thinks she will go to hell no matter how she lives her life because she is no longer pure. I try to explain that it is different when it is taken from you rather than when you give it away, but with no scripture to support that, she does not believe it. In time, the question will go from "why did this happen to me", to "is there even a God".

This is another thing besides non-resistance which I struggle with. As the question goes... "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Is it punishment for something a person might have done or is it because of something else?

P.S. I do plan to continue my posts about the 10 Commandments, I have to gather my thoughts on the next few first :)

Blessings in Christ,

Latest sewing project :)

I have been wanting a "card" holder (for gift cards and those annoying "rewards" cards you have to have for nearly every store now), but not like a wallet (I already have one of those which is too full!!)... So I made one. I think it turned out pretty good.

Here's a few pictures.







I had this fabric left over from a sewing project that I am working on for my sister's very late birthday present. I had the batting as well and "quilted" the two fabrics and batting together with the machine. I just went from there, I know, a horrible explanation, but if anyone is interested, I will give a better one :)


Blessings in Christ,