Exodus 20:13 ~ You Shall NOT Kill (Murder)

I love this graphic ... it totally conveys the message that I get from God's Sixth Commandment to Moses. It is crude and dark and stained; the hand looks violent, hateful, and purposed. The hand is drawn on thick leather (animal hide,) which is appropriate. The white stenciled letters(all CAPS, of course)have a been sprayed on, by a stronger hand, with paint that covers everything under it, with white. I think of the precious atoning Blood of our Lord Jesus that covers our sins and makes them "white as snow."

The choice of old wood to display this message touches me. The leather has been screwed onto the wood (with new/modern brass screws) which so reminds me of our Savior. The wood has been nailed onto something else (a white wall?) with rusty old flat-headed nails.

This sign's strong message was obviously meant for all to see! Wow! I believe this piece must be divinely inspired. The message is as simple and clear as the X marked OVER the knife!

DO NOT KILL ... many translations say ... DO NOT MURDER

Well, this 6th Commandment seems like a no-brainer ... but, as usual, once we step into the Living Water, it is much deeper than expected. We have already waded in and are about to enter the deep Water How exciting!

Exodus 20:13 ~ You shall not kill.

As stated in Dake's Bible: "This law does not prohibit killing as punishment for crimes, or killing in war, which God Himself commanded these same people to do. But it does prohibit killing for malice, and premeditative and willful destruction of man who was made in the image of God (Gen 9:6). All violence (Ex 21:12), stratagem (Ex 26:14), assault and battery (Ex 21:18), hatred and anger (Lev 19:14,17), and danger to human life in general was forbidden (Dt 22:8)."

Jon Courson points out that "there are two Greek words used for 'anger' in the New Testament. One is thumus and refers to the anger one feels, that causes his veins to bulge and his face to get red. The word used here, however, is orgizo, a word that refers to the anger that smolders internally day after week after month after year. The person who harbors this kind of anger without a cause" ... is a "murderer."

Whoa! We just "stepped" right into a really deep spot in the Water!

Note to self: further digging here is bound to yield more treasure.

There are a lot of issues that could be covered here. But I want to leave the message to each one of you just as you receive it ... pure and straight from the Word of God.

I just would like to share a few up-close encounters with killing that have deeply affected me. I am sure that many of you have had way much worse, tragic personal experiences, but I can only speak from my own experiences.

Taking a life from any one of God's creatures is repugnant to me, just by nature. It actually makes me sick to my stomach ... except for flies (sorry). For the most part, I have gotten over that with ants, black widows and other vermin in my house. I know that these things must die so they don't hurt me or one of my loved ones ... I still avoid it, whenever possible... and always apologize (though I know that doesn't really help).

Mice are especially hard for me ... and gophers ... I blame Disney for making them appear so cute and lovable ... hrmph! When gophers destroyed my entire garden one year ... it was "on' ... NO problem! No problem with rattlesnakes either ... they obviously MUST go! The 6 ft garter (?) snake gets to stay, she doesn't hurt anyone. I CANNOT allow mice to be in my house because they are filthy. Yet, I still cannot directly kill them, myself.

My apologies to all of you vegans, vegetarians and fruitarians .... I totally understand where you are coming from. However, I have no problem with eating meat or plants, wearing, standing or sitting on leather, or with anyone who kills animals for food, housing, clothing, etc. As long as they make use of all of the animal as possible.... to leave waste from taking a life makes me sick as well. Ideally, I would actually raise my own food, meat and veggies .... so much healthier and kinder to the animals. BUT ... I, personally, cannot be the one to do the killing ... veggies yes; not the animals!

My first experience with killing one of my chickens ... showed me that I was definitely not called to be a butcher! Long-story-short: I just held her, while someone else wielded the axe ... oh my gosh ... that was the worst thing I have ever felt in my entire life! I never want to feel that again! I drove blocks away while a hog on my property was being shot! I came back when it was over and helped butcher him, no problem. It is the actually taking of the life that is most sickening.

God says He put His laws into our mind and wrote them in our hearts (Heb 8:10). I so believe that! We were not created to die or to kill. Nothing was killed in Eden until the fall of man! Nasty business, no matter how you look at it!

OK, I also have no issues with euthanasia for animals. I have seen it to be merciful relief. However, the process of making the decision is absolutely gut-wrenching-torture. Even if the quality of the animal's life will be severely affected, or recovery cannot be guaranteed, it is never an easy decision. We surely can't let our companions endure pain or infirmity. Though it feels like murder; it is often the kindest thing to do.

We can't help but feel that it should not be our choice whether something, or someone, lives or dies. Though it is "hard duty," I do now consider it to be an honor to be allowed to be with someone (-thing) when God takes their life ... a birth into eternity is an extremely special and holy time ... totally different.

Making the decision to put my best horse down was the worst thing I had ever had to do. Until I was with a best friend and his wife, when she had to make the decision to unplug his life support. Both of these experiences transcended words and both changed my life. There was an astounding sense of true peace and beauty during those moments, our Awesome God was SOOOO close ... Of course it was also very very sad. ... for us. I know that God, in His infinite wisdom, used the first circumstance to prepare me for the second. Bless His heart! He is so faithful and merciful!

Unfortunately, often, killing is not for mercy's sake and not at all peaceful nor "beautiful." It is not in God's "time" nor "season," but the result of a corrupt life. A willful and premeditated act is exactly what God warns against here! The ultimate disrespect for the only creation that God made in His own image!

Our Faithful God's Word is real and literal and alive ..."Every thing is beautiful ... in His time." (Ecclesiastes 3:11) "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born and a time to die .... a time to kill (not murder) ... a time for peace and a time for war... it is TRUE...

However, MURDER is one of those things that, by its very nature, is out of "His time" ... the beauty in God's perfect time is perfect and does not involve malice, anger, rage nor seething passion. The useless loss of life from political and ideological wars is sickening ... but in defense of your own country or family, an honor.

When a baby is torn from its womb, piece by piece, it is ugly and sickening, but when taken home by its loving Father, after its purpose on earth is accomplished (bringing with it saved souls) ... it is beautiful.

A useless killing, born of hatred and/or wrath is one thing.... a killing of a convicted murderer, serial killer, rapist, or child predator is another. The choice involved with taking a human life is so involved and so difficult. Never taken to be taken lightly ... life support, treatment vs no treatment, euthanasia, pregnancy "termination," capitol punishment, war.

Oh yes ... PS: Just in case we think we are "guiltless" on this commandment .... Jesus said, "Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer..." (1John 3:15) We must be reconciled to our brothers!

... DO NOT KILL ... DO NOT MURDER ...

Add your own thoughts.

Dear Father, thank You SO much for Your Living Word!

Thank You for the boundaries that You set for our good.
Forgive us Lord for any hate that

we may harbor in our hearts.

Please help us to forgive, as Christ forgives us.

Please also impress on us the sanctity of of the lives

that You created in Your own image!

Thank You Lord for Your mercy and your grace towards us.

We love You.
Amen

I am blessed every day with some new revelation of God's Word.
I will be sharing my measure of manna with all who come to my "tent.
Please, let me know if you have been blessed by the way it was prepared for you this day.
~Shalom~

Exodus 20:12 - Honor Your Parents - Yes Yours!

We have just moved on from a restful rumination on the importance and blessing of observing the LORD's Sabbath. Thanks to Jesus, we are no longer bound by the Mosaic Laws ... but they are laws and they do still carry consequences, one way or the other. This next law carries with it a really delightful promise ... that of length of days!

The Fifth Commandment begins what are commonly called the "laws of the second table;" based on the Second Commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself." The first part of God's laws concern our duty to Him; the second concern our duty to ourselves and each other.

My parents honored @ the Marine Corps Ball

We will pick up our study in Exodus 20:12 ~

"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God gives you."

Wow, this commandment carries with it such a beautiful promise ... and perhaps a warning?! Does it perhaps suggest that we can affect the length of our own lives?

The LORD our GOD used our specific mothers and fathers to bring us into this world and specific parents to raise us up. He endowed them with the serious responsibility of giving birth to and training up His children. Whether, or not, they did a good job of it; He now commands us to honor them. This is particularly important, since He directly links this commandment with the very length of our days on this earth!

God gives us no conditions here, no outs! He does NOT say: Honor your mother and father ... AS LONG AS they are honorable ... ONLY if they are good parents ... UNLESS they have abandoned or mistreated you ... IF they aren't alcholics or drug addicts ... UNLESS you are adopted or fostered ... IF they are believers ...ONLY when they are worthy ... IF you live close enough to them ... WHEN you have time ... IF you feel like it ... au contrere mon frere ... our GOD, the LORD of all the universe, says," HONOR your father and mother" ... period!

His only condition is directed at us! A condition of OUR obedience! Honor them, "THAT your days may be long." I believe that this correlation may well refer to quality, as well as quantity ... a life full of rich and meaningful days.

Jon Courson says that "the two key qualities that will bring fufillment and success to anyone's life are those of humility and submission. And those qualities are born only in the context of family."

Sounds easy, doesn't it? What does honoring our parents involve? It involves much more than we think and yet is much less complicated than we expect.

Let's start with checking into God's idea of honor:

John Wesley notes that HONOR includes:

"1. Inward esteem of them, outwardly expressed upon all occasions in our carriage towards them; fear them, Leviticus 19:3, give them reverence, Hebrews 12:9. The contrary to this would be mocking at them or despising them,

2. Obedience to their lawful commands; so it is expounded, Ephesians 6:1-3. Children obey your parents; come when they call you, go where they send you, do what they bid you, do not what they forbid you; and this cheerfully, and from a principle of love. Though you have said you will not, yet afterwards repent and obey. (As pre and teen agers, my boys used to do this all the stinkin' time!)

3. Submission to their rebukes, instructions and corrections, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

4. Disposing of themselves with the advice, direction and consent of parents, not alienating their property, but with their approbation.

5.Endeavouring in every thing to be the comfort of their parents, and to make their old age easy to them; maintaining them if they stand in need of support.


6.That thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee - This promise, (which is often literally fulfilled) is expounded in a more general sense Ephesians 6:3. That it may be well with thee, and thou mayst live long on the earth.

Those that, in conscience towards God, keep this and other of God's commandments, may be sure it shall be well with them, and they shall live as long on the earth as infinite wisdom sees good for, them, and what they may seem to be cut short of on earth, shall be abundantly made up in eternal life, the heavenly Canaan which God will give them."


Well, what can I say after that??? I need to get on the phone and call my father! How about you?


It seemed so much easier for me to comfort my mom in her old age than my dad. Nonetheless, I had better get on the ball ... quit putting it off ... and just call him!


No matter about the past, whether our parents did a great job of raising us or not ... whether it is easy for us to do ... or not ... is not even mentioned here. OUR duty to honor them is assigned by God Himself!! WOW!

OK, so basically, to honor our parents, we should:

1. inwardly esteem them ~ outwardly express our esteem, in the way we behave towards them

2. fear them ~ give them reverence

3. do not mock or despise them

4. obey their lawful commands ~ do not do what they forbid

5. come when they call ~ go where they send us ~ do what they bid us ~ cheerfully

6. when we have said that we will not ~ turn around and do it anyway

7. submit to their rebukes, instructions, and corrections (not only to the good and gentle)

8. utilize their advice, direction, and counsel ~ do not alienate them

9. make every effort to be a comfort to them

10. make their old age easy for them

11. maintain them, if they need your support

AAACCCHHHH, the inner rebel in me is rebelling inside like crazy, just reading this! I used to take all of this in such a different sense than the way that God meant it. My gentile teenage mind SO did not understand!! I had overbearing, controlling parents, who did not know Jesus ... so, I did, pretty much, opposite of all these things as a teenager and young adult. I so wish I had known what and Who I know now!

I could not have understood at that time ...as I had virtually no role models and very little training in the Truth. I certainly had no understanding of God or His will for me. It has only been as I mature in Christ and His Word that I can see and agree with the wisdom in this commandment.

This is yet another reason why it is SO important to speak God's Word to your children ... to train them up under loving, consistent, godly instruction. The single most effective way to teach these these life-giving principles to your kids is to intimately maintain your own personal relationship with the LORD and His Living Word. They will learn to believe and trust in God from your model and soon they will be able to rightly interpret His Word themselves.

Looking to Jesus ... Jon Courson points out that He was in perfect submission to His father. We have a tendency to think Jesus' life on earth was so different, because God is His father.

Courson asks us to consider that Jesus experienced more of what has embittered us or angered us than we can ever understand on this side of eternity! Jesus' father allowed all of these things to happen to Him. Jesus was abandoned on the cross ... He knew hunger in the wilderness ... He was beaten and tortured beyond comprehension, even when Jesus asked for the cup to be removed, He was denied!

Yet, Jesus yielded to His father's perfect will for our sake! He knows what it takes in all circumstances to be humble and submit His will. And because this same Jesus who honored His father and who knows what it is like to be beaten, forsaken, and ignored, He lives in us ... we can trust Him to enable us to honor our father or mother ... regardless of how difficult that may seem to be.

Yeah, uh huh ... here I am, with all my excuses shot out from under me. I must confess that I have not been faithful to this commandment lately :/ ... I think that is why it took so long to complete this study. Time to get serious and ask Jesus to enable me to honor my father, properly. I KNOW He will. God is SO faithful! He showed me how to honor my mother perfectly ... and she ended up getting saved at the age of 88, before she went home to be with the LORD!

...HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER...

One day, we will leave this earth and enter

our Groom's Banquet Room!

HALLELUJAH!
My mother has gone on ahead ... probably to set the table!

How about you all??? Any suggestions?

What are some of the ways that you honor your parents?

.
I will start: OK, I scan old photos from my childhood and make greeting cards for my parents; inside a sentiment of the occasion tied in with a pleasant memory from the picture and a Scripture. I just print them on computer paper and/or photo paper and fold it in half. They love them!

YOUR TURN NOW ... PLEASE?! Even those of you who don't usually comment ....

How do YOU honor YOUR mother and father?

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the parents that you chose for us.
Please bless each one, including those

who did not, or could not, raise us:

they are a part of our very being.

YOU knit us in our mother's womb;

YOU have a perfect plan for us.
We do honor YOU

and each of our fathers and mothers.

Please help us to show it

in a way that will bless them

and draw us all closer to You.

Thank You Jesus,

Amen

I am blessed every day

with some new revelation of God's Word.

I will be sharing my measure of manna

with all who come to my "tent.
Please, let me know if you have been blessed
by the way it was prepared for you this day.
~Shalom~
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Exodus 20:8-11 ~ Remember the Sabbath Day!

Photos: by myshilohranch~see bottom of page.

We were last looking into the third commandment that God gave Moses from Mt. Sinai:

EXODUS 20:7 ~ "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.

That study was a three course meal in itself!

As we continue to gather: I am beginning to see a correlation between Psalm 23 and the fourth commandment ... a brand new revelation to me! It has to do with our coming aside and how the Lord goes ahead, prepares, then leads us into His rest ... and for what reasons. Isn't our God SO awesome?!!!!

PSALM 23

1 The Lord is my Shepherd: I shall not want,

2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside still waters.

3 He restores my soul:

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

I will fear no evil: for You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me, in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.

Photo from Picasa: photographer, please contact me.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

How beautiful ... and thorough ... is our God??!!!!

**SUGGESTION: Go over Ps 23, slowly; let it sink in ... and see what the Lord shows you. Please, share your blessing with us: tell us what you "got" from pairing the two Scriptures!!!

OK, finally, we pick up our study at:

EXODUS 20:8

8 ~ Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Remember: means literally: to mark in the mind. I like that! I need my mind marked by God's will for me. Not by the other stuff that clutters it up, much like grafitti! Actually, in Deuteronomy 5:12 , "remember" was replaced with "keep." NOTE: More food for thought here!

Shabath: to desist from exertion. How could we possibly keep the day holy, when we are busy exerting our energies in every different direction, except towards God??? Additionaly, we usually busy ourselves with something we should have done or could have done on other days of the week. We so do not observe our rest-day as the so-very-special one that our God gave to us! SO special, to Him, as to call it holy. Wow!

9 Six days shall you labor, and do all your work:

Yes, we were created to rest 1 day out of every 7... BUT ... we were also ordered to work ... and get all of our work finished in 6 days! This is a part of the commandment that we have all chosen to ignore at one time or other. God did not suggest to us to work 4 days or 5 and rest for the whole weekend or holiday.... although, that is what seems right and fair to us!

He did not say, "do most of your work." He offers up no exceptions here. He does not say, "if you can," or "unless something else comes up." He said to do it all in 6 days ... then rest. YIKES!!! Here I thought I was a star-quality rester, but God's Word shows me otherwise.

I must confess; I often misuse the rest-days God gives me, by doing work that I don't get finished throughout the week! :( There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day, or the week, or the month, ... year.... Oh dear, it seems I have been minimizing the Lord's sufficiency, haven't I? Another trust issue??!!! I think so. :/

I am SO sorry LORD ... You are my Provider and my Provision ... You are All-Sufficient! I do KNOW You are!!!

10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates.

Only the Levites worked on the Sabbath. They were actually commanded to work, butchering and offering the sacrifices ... oh whoa, you pastors, what an honor!

God commanded man to work 6 days and to rest on the 7th, for many good reasons, physical and spiritual. As human beings, we were created to function in this manner. For healthy bodies, minds, and spirits ... we need to rest from our work on that 7th day!

Oh, how slack we have become ... and I speak of myself as one of the worst offenders! I have not made the Sabbath a priority for most of my life. God however, obviously considers this day so important a priority that He made it His FOURTH commandment!!! Helloooooo!!

11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

We are to keep the Sabbath day holy. Holy to the LORD. HE treasured and hallowed the day of His rest ... should we treat ours with any less reverence???

During Old Testament times, all work was forbidden by law on the rest day, under penalty of death!

Thankfully, we are no longer bound by the Law ... indeed, Jesus took care of all that for us! HALLELUJAH! We are now free to observe any sabbath of our choice, there is no commandment in the New Testament on this subject, no penalty stated for not keeping it.

This does not alter the fact that the purpose of the Sabbath is for our good and for God's glory. He orders our focus on and fellowship with Him only every one day out of seven ... to rest, heal, and refresh our bodies, quiet our spirits, and refill us with and grow His Spirit in us. We thrive in the presence of and in communion with God.

Jesus knows His sheep: we would go on our merry way to destruction and miss our Shepherd's best for us .... if He had not included this special time to come aside with Him in the"big 10."

We need not take this to the extreme, like the Hebrews did in OT times. Unnecessary work is one of the keys. The law allowed for emergencies, necessary care of stock and such. Many of us have necessary chores that must be done, but I believe that we ought to consecrate every ounce of that time to God!

Not that I have attained to this standard yet, as I would like to, but keeping the Sabbath is a vitally important principle of well-being! It is a proven fact, that rest and recharging increases productivity.

God first gave the Sabbath to man in Ex 16:22-26. It was gift to man, meant to be a delight, not a burden. Like all of His treasure, this gift is right here, just waiting for us to accept it! Our LORD is SO good to us!

We really NEED to set aside a sabbath day each week, on the day of our choosing, rest from our finished work, minister to the LORD and allow Him to minister to us and give us direction for the week to come.

Jesus observed the sabbath: how dare we think that we can function properly without observing it?! Granted, He followed Jewish laws and traditions, but He also drew aside as a regular practice.
The LORD, in His infinite wisdom, has a total and complete plan for us. The perfection of detail that He attends to, just blows me away! It is so true: we are totally out of balance, if we fail to acknowledge His laws of work and rest! Again, as with the law of gravity, there are consequences for breaking the law and blessings for keeping it. We can choose to ignore it, but that doesn't change the force and reality of the law.

Also, by consistently stopping once a week, to acknowledge God as the Giver of every good gift and the Provider of our bread; we are letting Him (and everyone else in our realm) know, that we recognize that ALL we have is from Him, not from anything that we have done or earned! Don't you just love WIN, WIN, WIN situations??!

I will tie up this study with an excerpt from Jon Courson's Application Commentary Old Testament~Vol 1:

"Spend time in worship. Take a break. Kick back. Chill out. Pray. Read. Talk. Enjoy. Fly a kite. Take a nap. Listen to your kids. When a day is set apart, conversations begin to flow; people begin to open up. But it takes a chunk of time -- an entire day set aside. One day should be so free, so refreshing, so relaxing that dynamics take place that would not in any lesser amount of time. The Sabbath is a gift. Make it a time when your family, your health, your soul can be restored."

Thanks for stopping by. See you next time :)

Dear Father, thank You SO much for being our Provision

for every single detail of our lives!
Thank You for loving us SO much, that you

GAVE

Your Son, Your Word, and Your Holy Spirit

to be an example and to teach, guide, and direct us in Your ways.

Please help us work as unto You

and to finish our work in Your alloted time.

Then draw us, Lord, into Your perfect rest with You.

Remind us to stop and just be still and know

that You are our God.

Amen

I am blessed every day with some new revelation of God's Word.

I will be sharing my measure of manna with all who come to my "tent.

Please, let me know if you have been blessed by the way it was prepared for you this day.

~Shalom~

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Exodus 20:7 ~ Do I Disrespect My Maker?

Photo by: myshilohranch~please contact here for use

Wow, I have been MIA much longer than I realized!

We last visited Exodus 20:5-6 where GOD told us that He is jealous for us and we are not to bow down nor serve any other gods. Ahem ... We left with His promise of mercy to those who love Him and keep His commandments.

Perhaps, I have unconsciously been avoiding this next commandment, because it is actually one of my "little foxes:" You know, those little sneaky guys that nibble off your grapes and dig away at the bases of your vines?!!

Wild Baby Red Fox ~ Photo by Daniel Silver

Song of Solomon 2:15 “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines.”

Cute, isn't he? The lesson is, of course, that little, seemingly insignificant things can cause grossly disproportionate damage. We must guard ourselves against little foxes that do great harm to a Christian’s life. No vine = no fruit = no profit for our Lord!

Please come in and join us at Exodus 20:

EXODUS 20:7 ~ You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.

*GULP*...*cringe* ... I could be in trouble here!

I grew up with parents, adults, and later with peers that habitually used God's name flippantly and even profanely! BEWARE: "social swearing" is contagious and mutually-reinforcing! It is very easy to fall into this sort of "bonding/solidarity" behavior at work, school, parties, sports etc. However, no matter how the enemy tries to disguise it ... it is straight-out S-I-N!

Until we experience a personal relationship with our LORD, it all seems so harmless, "God knows I don't mean that literally." Yes, He does know, but that does not make it OK! The LORD, Himself, warns us, right here, that He will not hold us "guiltless!" YIKES! That alone should scare the bejeebers ... errrr ...uhhhh ... garbage out of us! FYI: "bejeebers" is a "less sacrilegious (is there such a thing?) form of bejesus," which means "by Jesus."

See???!!!! We need to be SO careful! The enemy so subtly tempts us to ignore God's commandments and minimizes the importance and the power of the words we use.

Satan would love to get us to disrespect and disobey God ... after all, he was the first to do it!

Everyday, even on daytime TV and radio now, we are exposed to the trashing of God's name! It actually is proving to be "politically correct" in these days.

**We must be vigilant to not let it become common and acceptable for our kids to hear the Lord's name being taken in vain. If we limit their exposure, as much as we can, now, they will not be be comfortable with it and the habit will not have ground to grow in.

All of us have friends and relatives who, unfortunately don't understand this concept, usually because they don't know God. My grandchildren were taught from birth, and it was modeled to them, to revere God's name. Every time someone says an inappropriate word; it sticks out like a sore thumb in their world. This is the aberrant for them to hear - not the norm. These folks don't really understand what they're saying, so the kids pray for them to come know Jesus!

We are taught not to cuss using many other "4 letter" words, but "LORD" is usually not one of them.

Using His name lightly, unworthily, irreverently is what this commandment is about. As Christians, we should always show respect and reverence towards the LORD OF LORDS, Creator and Maker of all Good, in Whom we live and breathe and have our being!

I do not mean to, and SO don't want to, but I must confess that I still sometimes take His Precious and Holy name in vain. This happens mostly when I am hurt, frustrated or angry, and mostly when I am out in the barn. I actually just found a term that describes this deplorable habit: "stress expletives."

We so commonly hear, Oh Lord! Dang it! Lord have mercy! Oh my God! OMG! that we are not uncomfortable with those expressions. They seem ok ........

Jesus Christ ... His Most Holy name should be like honey to our lips and water to our souls ... THE Name above all names! I so desire to never again speak it indiscriminately! After all He has done for us! ... *my face in dirt*

"jeese!" ..."sheesh" ... "gadzooks!" ~ which really means "God's hooks," and refers to the nails driven into our Savior's hands and feet. Certainly nothing to joke about!!! "Egad!" means "O God!"

"God dammit!" ... Sorry to offend ... I must admit that I have said it . .. how 'bout you? Immediately, when it popped out of my mouth, I apologized right away, "Sorry Lord, I mean BLESS it." I certainly NEVER meant to ask God to damn anything nor anyone! We are to speak LIFE, not death! BLESSING, not cursing!

Profane ~ Meaning and Definition:
(a.) To put to a wrong or unworthy use; to make a base employment of; to debase; to abuse; to defile.
(a.) Treating sacred things with contempt, disrespect, irreverence, or undue familiarity; irreverent; impious.
(a.) Irreverent in language; taking the name of God in vain; given to swearing; blasphemous; as, a profane person, word, oath, or tongue.
(a.) Not sacred or holy; not possessing peculiar sanctity; unconsecrated; hence, relating to matters other than sacred; secular; -- opposed to sacred, religious, or inspired; as, a profane place.
(a.) Unclean; impure; polluted; unholy.
(a.) To violate, as anything sacred; to treat with abuse, irreverence, obloquy, or contempt; to desecrate; to pollute; as, to profane the name of God; to profane the Scriptures, or the ordinance of God.

I am afraid that we merely skirt the issue when we use "gosh, golly, heck, darn, dang," etc. These are just slang replacement words for the more obvious expletives: therefore can still be disrespectful to our LORD. Sort of like "bookmarking" that spot in our hearts .... yuck!

I really like what 2c33 had to day about this: good tips here!

It is very humbling that the Word tells us ... what comes out of our mouth, comes from our heart! Ewww! Ick!!! My heart must still be SO rotten! Cleaning fish is a stinky process; I am SOOOO thankful that Jesus does the cleaning.

Jesus is ready, willing, and more-than-able to take this sin (and all others) completely away and give us a good/healthy replacement for stress relief. All we have to do is agree with Him that it is sin and ask Him to remove it and enable us to walk, and talk, uprightly. He will even equip us with the tools to modify our behavior!

Finding the humor and/or absurdity in a situation seems to work quite well for me!

Drop a some papers? Mentally note to be more careful next time.

Stub your toe? Don't yell out anything; start laughing ... or singing.

We can learn to quickly access and exercise the fruit of self-control that the Holy Spirit has given us!!! Additional benefits: more fruit will grow and we will receive more seed to sow.

In conclusion:

• be careful not to make references to God without a purpose.


• remember Who we are talking about, when we use any of His names or make any reference to Him and/or His character.


• do not "cheapen" His attributes through a lack of reverence, when we speak of Him.

I have barely scratched the surface of this commandment.

PLEASE, be so kind as to share any additional information, tools, and/or tips that you have. We certainly all can use it. Thanking you ahead. :)

You all have an open invitation to comment on any/all of my blogs. Please feel welcome (because you are!) and comfortable enough to share with us!

It is such a blessing to break bread together! Thanks for stopping by!

Dear Father, God Almighty, Most Holy One,

Name above all names, Blessed Redeemer, LORD of lords,

We know and agree that we have sinned against Your Holy Name.

Please forgive us, cleanse our hearts

and our lips, that we may honor and magnify

Your Name above ALL things!

Please make us aware, as we go forth,

of how we should, and should not, use

Your Holy Name in a way that pleases and honors You!

Thank You for Your Mercy towards us. We love You.

AMEN

I am blessed every day with some new revelation of God's Word.
I will be sharing my measure of manna with all who come to my "tent.
Please, let me know if you have been blessed
by the way it was prepared for you this day.
~Shalom~