Saturday, July 14, 2018
Psalm 119:15-16 (NKJV) I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
KNOWING GOD
A writer in Christianity Today magazine tells how the rector of an Episcopal church in Ohio has proposed a new set of Ten Commandments based on his observations of our culture: 1. Have a good day. 2. Shop. 3. Eliminate pain. 4. Be up-to-date. 5. Relax. 6. Express yourself. 7. Have a happy family. 8. Be entertaining. 9. Be entertained. 10. Buy entertainment. The writer then adds: "He forgot 11. Get in touch with your feelings."
All of this would be humorous, if it weren't so serious a matter as talking about how the will of the almighty and holy God is offended and trivialized by many today. But that very fact suggests that making light of the original ("Thou shalt . . . Thou shalt not") Ten Commandments stems from an even sorrier situation -- the failure to know God, who He is, and with that, failure to take Him and His Word seriously.
In a culture which willy-nilly trivializes and profanes that which is holy and sacred to Bible believers, it is incumbent on Christians (parents!) to pass along to the next generation an holy awe and fear (respect) for the Lord God. As Luther begins his explanation of each of the original ten: "We should fear and love God . . . ." Such fear and love can and will rule in the heart only to the extent that the Word of God (His holy Law and saving Gospel) is the basis for godly discipline, training, and instruction.
Ultimately we want to take seriously the task of passing down to the next generation knowledge of the One Who "has redeemed me a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from sin, death, and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood . . ."
-- From the "Lutheran Spokesman"
