Greetings!

In today's message we read about the all to often misunderstood Shall Not's. All of these are really for our benefit and are not unreasonable demands of a distant and demanding deity.

Yahweh gave His Laws to man to protect, guide and give peace and security.

Consider the two sides of each Command:

1) Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

The more "stuff" we have cluttering up our lives the less peace we have. Far to many things have become gods in today's lost world. Consider abortion, pornography, LGBTQ, BLM and the list goes on. When we see the command as we should, when we see Yahweh as the only true God, then we will see peace.

2) Thou shalt not make thee no graven image...

Why worship, or "venerate", anything made by man?
Can a piece of wood or stone do anything for you?

3) Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain...

If you love The one true God why then would you abuse His Name?

4) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

This is one that is really misunderstood. A day of rest after six days of work is modeled after Yahweh's work in the creation of all things and all life. Consider what Yahweh has done for you and ask yourself, "Can't I spare one day?"

5) Honor thy father and thy mother...

The first commandment with a promise. No matter how you feel your parents didn't give they still gave you life and are therefore worthy of your respect.

6) Thou shalt not kill.

The focus here is not on defense or war but on murder and should be understood! You don't want to be murdered, do you?

7) Thou shalt not commit adultery.

This command is repeated many times, think about it. Do you want your wife or husband to have an affair? Try to put yourself in the place of the one offended by adultery and ask if it feels good or are you hurt to find out.

8) Thou shalt not steal.

Do you like to be stolen from?

9) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Have you ever been the victim of a false rumor? A lie so big that it hurts your employment or your marriage? How did it feel?

10) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, neither anything that is thy neighbor's.

Think of the money you could save by observing this one! How many times have you seen your neighbor has that new truck and suddenly your truck seems a lot older than it really is. Golly, you need a new truck to keep up with the neighbor!
But do you? Covetous attitudes cause strife, happiness is obtained when you learn to be satisfied with what you have.

In HIS Service


Here is today’s message from our friends at the ICR: