9th Commandment – Tell the Truth

Posted on February 23, 2019 by dkoop

# 9 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”  Ex 20:16

Lie:  An untrue statement made deliberately.  To give a false impression (Webster)

The Lies We Tell (a partial list)   Mark Twain said there are 869 different kind of lies. I don’t know about that but there are lots of ways to not tell the truth. Here are a few:

  1. Exaggeration: To represent as greater than actually is

Or in relationships we blow out of proportion.  Statements like:  You always make a mess”  “You never…”   Each time we tell that fish story the fish gets bigger and bigger.

Our motive:  try to inflate our low self-image or our case, make ourselves look better.

In 1993 the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey ran a help wanted ad in the paper. They advertised for electricians with expertise at using Sontag connectors. The ad got 170 responses even though there is no such thing as a Sontag connector.  The Authority ran the ad to find out how many applicants falsify resumes.

  1. Excuse: Misrepresenting the truth about a failure on my part.

There’s a story of friends decided to go for a drive instead of showing up to class on time. When they did arrive, the girls explained to the teacher they had had a flat tire. The teacher accepted the excuse, much to the girls’ relief. “Since you missed this morning’s quiz, you must take it now,” she said. “Please sit in the four corner seats in this room without talking.” When they were seated, the teacher said, “On your paper write the answer to one question: ’Which tire was flat?’

Our motive:  to get out of consequences for our mistakes

  1. Silence: Deception by remaining silent when I should have spoken.

Just by silently listening to people say things about another person that you know are not true and not speaking up and coming to their defense is to bear false witness.

  1. White Lie: Perceived as good for both teller and the victim of the lie.

“Do you like this dress?”  “Yes” when you don’t.

Our motive:  Disrespect, (they can’t handle the truth) laziness, we don’t want to explain.

Famous American Fibs
– The check is in the mail.
– I’ll start my diet tomorrow.
– We service what we sell.
– Give me your number and the doctor will call you right back.
– Money cheerfully refunded.
– One size fits all.
– Your luggage isn’t lost, it’s only misplaced.
– Leave your resume and we’ll keep it on file.
– I just need a few seconds of your time.

– This will be a short meeting
– Your table will be ready in a few minutes.
– Open wide, it won’t hurt a bit.
– Let’s have lunch sometime. (Bits & Pieces, December 9, 1993, pp. 12-13.)

  1. Slander: Misrepresenting the truth with the intention to hurt someone.

This reminds me of a lady who was very resentful and bitter toward the new young minister in her church, so she shared with a few women falsely that he was having an affair with one of the young married ladies in the congregation. Of course, like all gossip the false rumors spread throughout the church and the community.

Once confronted by the minister, the young lady and her husband about the lie she admitted her sin, repented and asked for forgiveness.
However, to make his point to the woman about the damage she had caused the minister said, he had one condition she must fulfill.
He said, “Take a bag of feathers and release them from the bell tower on a windy day.” Then the next day, go around the town and pick up every feather.” She said, “there’s no way to get every feather.”  The minister said, “The same is true when you speak falsely about another person.”

Our motive:  Hurt another.  Make our self look better

6.  Gossip: Telling information about someone that is not first hand.

7.  Half lie: Telling the truth, but not the whole truth. Half-truth is a whole lie.

8. Spin: Retelling facts to my favor, ignoring or downplaying facts

I heard about a teen age boy who was supposed to be home at midnight and came in at two a.m. in the morning, but everyone was asleep.  He crept up the stairs and as he did so he hit a stair that squeaked and his dad woke up.  “Is that you Bobby?”  “Yes.”  “What time is it?”  Before he could say a word the coo-coo clock struck twice.  He said it was the most ingenious moment of my life when I stood there a coo-cooed ten more times.

  1. Deception: Statement(s) intended to deceive (even the truth)

A school principal received a phone call. The voice said, “Thomas Bradley won’t be in school today.” The principal was a bit suspicious of the voice. He asked, “Who is speaking?” The voice came back, “My father.” –James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 288.

We could make a truthful statement, but say it in a way that you deceive another person. Pastor Adrian Rogers tells of a time when he was driving home with full knowledge of a burned out headlight. He was pulled over by a policemen who asked, “Did you know your headlight is out?”  Wanting to avoid a ticket he raised his eyebrows and in a surprised tone said, “My headlight is burned out?”  He says, the officer let him go with a warning, but God did not.

  1. Flattery: Telling what another wants to hear, but I don’t believe.

Insincere praise: saying something to someone’s face that you wouldn’t think of saying behind their back. To a woman’s face you say, “That’s the prettiest dress I have ever seen!” but behind her back you would say, “She looked like a mess in that dress!” Or to your minister you might say, “Wonderful sermon, pastor.” but in the car on the way home you would say, “That’s the most boring thing I have ever heard.”

This reminds me of a story about two brothers who were well-known in their community to be two of the most evil men in the entire county. They were cruel, abusive, and involved in just about every kind of crime from gambling, to drugs, etc. But they had lawyers who were more than capable of twisting the truth to help them avoid prosecution. One day one of the brothers died. And his surviving sibling went to see the pastor of the local church to ask him to do the funeral. He said, “Reverend I will write your church a check right now for one million dollars. All you have to do is promise to say at the funeral that my brother was a saint.” Now, he was asking this pastor to lie about his brother, to share false compliments, insincere flattery, in his funeral message — but the pastor accepted the check and agreed. Finally the day of the funeral dawned and the pastor stepped to the pulpit. Then with great conviction, He said, “This man in the casket before you was one of the most cruel men I have ever known.  He was a liar and a thief. He had his filthy hands into just about every kind of crime you can think…but…compared to his brother….He was a saint.”

  1. Hypocrisy: Attempts to deceive another about something I am not

A pastor announced one Sunday that next Sunday he was going to preach on lying. And as preparation for the message he wanted the congregation to read the 17th chapter of Mark. The next Sunday the preacher began by asking those who read the 17th chapter of Mark to raise their hands. More than ½ of the people raised their hands. “Very good,” the preacher said. “You are the very people I need to speak to. There is no 17th chapter of Mark.”

In Boston a minister noticed a group of boys standing around a small stray dog. “What are you doing, boys?” “Telling lies,” said one of the boys. “The one who tells the biggest lie gets the dog.” “Why, when I was your age,” the shocked minister said, “I never ever thought of telling a lie.” The boys looked at one another, a little crestfallen. Finally one of them shrugged and said, “I guess he wins the dog.” –James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 287.

Let’s end with another survey.  How many of us have been hurt by someone’s lie?   How many of us get angry when lied to? In theory we all agree that honesty is the best policy. But how do we learn to consistently tell the truth?  According to Jesus we need to know where the lies begin.

Jesus said, “For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, lying and slander.”  Matthew 15:19.  The heart of the issue when it comes to lying is an issue of the heart.  This is the problem.  If I am going to live as an honest person, I have to deal not with what I say, but with what motivates me to lie.    My grandfather had two open heart surgeries to address his physical heart problems.  I needed spiritual heart surgery that Jesus offers:  “If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation.”  2 Cor. 5:17.  My heart is under construction by the great physician.

We should all pray as David did, “Create in me a pure heart, oh God.”  Psalm 51:10

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

 

 

 

 

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8th Commandment – Respect the Property of Others

Posted on February 23, 2019 by dkoop

# 8 Exodus 20:15 “You shall not steal.”

“Steal” – to take the property of another without permission or right (Webster)

Let’s start by taking a little informal survey. Have you ever had money stolen? Ever had a car stolen? What about having something stolen from your car? One time someone broke the window of Niki’s car and stole three CD’s.  It cost more to fix the window than what was taken.   Have you ever had your home broken into? There is something intensely personal about having an object stolen. It is a violation and we feel hurt, confused and angry.

Stealing creates victims. As we have suffered at the hand of a thief, we feel exposed, vulnerable and exploited.

There are 138 synonyms for synonyms for stealing.  Here is a partial list:

Deceit – charging for work not done, adding to expenses, false advertising

“The Lord hates dishonest scales and dishonest weights” Prov. 20:23

When a repairman makes unnecessary repairs, a doctor makes unnecessary tests, a salesman skips over the fine print, when a car is sold and the problems are not shared this is form of stealing.

A law firm threw a surprise birthday party for one of its lawyers, on the cake was happy 80th birthday.  The lawyer said.  “I’m only forty, where did you get 80?”  “Oh your secretary must have added up your billing hours!”

A salesman dies and is given a tour of heaven and hell, heaven looks nice, beautiful scenery, people picnicking, but in hell he sees people partying, getting drunk.  He thinks that looks like more fun.    He chooses hell.  Next thing he knows, he’s being poked with a hot pitchfork and tormented.  He exclaims this is not what I chose, the Devil says, “Oh, you must have seen the demo”

Seize. Using without permission, using and abusing another’s possession

They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance.  Therefore, the LORD says: “I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. Mic 2:2-3

Defraud – to deprive of something by deception

Insurance Fraud

More than one-third of people hurt in auto accidents exaggerate their injuries, adding $13 – $18 billion to America’s annual insurance bill. (Rand Institute for Civil Justice)
PA’s Insurance Fraud Prevention Authority estimated that insurance fraud cost the average American household over $5,000 year in the form of higher premiums and higher prices for goods and services.

Employee Stealing
In a 1999 book, Michael Mortiarty said, “Workers around America frankly admit that they spend more than 20 percent of their time (seven hours a week) at work goofing off. That amounts to a four-day work week across the nation.  When an employer is paying for our time and we come in late, leave early, take three coffee breaks and a long lunch it’s a form of stealing.
Almost half of Americans admit that they regularly call in sick when they’re not. One in six Americans regularly drinks or uses drugs on the job.

I read about one young man who went to look for a job at a place where they really weren’t looking to hire anyone. The conversation went something like this. Manager: “I’m sorry I can’t hire you, but there isn’t enough work to keep you busy.”  Applicant: “You’d be surprised how little it takes.”

Embezzlement:  The American economy loses $40 billion annually from theft on the job.

Withhold – hold back or deny

“‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight.” Lev 19:13

If we owe someone money we need to pay it back.

Taxes

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their   full time to governing.  Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue.”  Rom. 13:6-7

Tax avoidance is good stewardship.  There’s no reason we should overpay on taxes. Tax evasion is illegal.  God says it’s stealing,

A man who had cheated the IRS out of hundreds of dollars developed a guilty conscience so that he couldn’t sleep. He wrote a check for $500 dollars and enclosed a note that said, “I underpaid my taxes last year and I’m feeling guilty. Please accept the enclosed payment I owe you. And, if I still can’t sleep, I’ll send you the rest that I owe you.”

Borrowing with no intention of paying back

‘The wicked borrow and do not repay” Ps 37:21

A lot of people have no intention of paying back.  The worst loans are made to friends and relatives.  This applies to anything, not just bankruptcy.  Anything borrowed:  Tools, skies, punch bowls.  What is it in our garages you need to go home and return to somebody?

Thief – one who takes illegally by secret.

“A thief is disgraced when he is caught.” Jer 2:26

Billions of dollars are lost every year in this country over the theft of goods and services. One estimate says that 1 out of every 52 shoppers carries something out of the supermarket for which they haven’t paid. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, 4 million people are caught shoplifting every year.

A couple in Chula Vista, California went on a shoplifting spree at a local discount store, swiping a variety of items from the store’s shelves, and hiding them in the baby carriage they were pushing. The haul got so big that the carriage finally collapsed, spilling couple’s baby onto the store floor, along with the loot. The baby wasn’t injured, but the commotion attracted the attention of store security officers, who made a quick arrest.

What’s shocking is that only 10% of all shoplifters come from low incomes. 70% are middle class and 20% are classified as wealthy.

America is a country of thieves. One new hotel reported that in their first ten months of operation they lost 38,000 spoons, 18,000 towels, 355 silver coffee pots, 1500 finger bowls and 100 Bibles.

Rob -to take illegally by force

True story from our dim-witted criminals department: A man walked into a convenience store, put a $20 bill on the counter and asked for change. When the clerk opened the drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving his $20 bill on the counter. So how much did he get from the drawer? Fifteen bucks.

“They practice deceit, thieves break into houses, bandits rob in the streets; but they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Hosea 7:1-2

A guy walked into a little corner store with a shotgun and demanded all of the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of Scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the cashier refused and said, “Because I don’t believe you are over 21.” The robber said he was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because he didn’t believe him. At this point, the robber took his driver’s license out of his wallet and gave it to the clerk. The clerk looked it over and agreed that the man was in fact over 21 and he put the Scotch in the bag. The robber then ran from the store with his loot. The cashier promptly called the police and gave the name and address of the robber that he got off the license. They arrested the robber two hours later.

Robbing God

In the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi writes: “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse” Mal 3:8-9

God says if I’m not tithing then I’m paying my bills with stolen money that belongs to God.

We’ve taken what was supposed to be spent on God’s work, and we bought toys and trinkets, and bought houses and clothes and gone on vacation and bought computers with it and God says “I’ve been robbed”

I asked earlier about how you feel when you realize that you’ve been robbed.  How would you feel if it was someone you knew, someone you trusted someone you loved, and someone you thought loved you?  How much more would it hurt? Can you imagine how God feels when his own children defraud him?   What if I came home with $100 dollars and I said, Kaleb you have been a good boy so I give him 90.  Then all night he is mad because there is still $10 in my wallet.  So he sneaks in while I am sleeping and takes the other $10. How would I feel about a son like that?

Cheat –conspire or sneak        “Cursed is the cheat” Mal 1:14

In 1969, 58% of high school students let someone else copy their work, In 1989, 98% did so Almost 80% of college students admit to cheating at least once.

Pirate– copy illegally – any thing that is copy righted  

It is our church policy to be legal in all we do.  That’s why we pay an annual sum to CCLI, which gives us permission to print and display songs.  We also have a CCVL, which gives us permission to show movie clips in church.  For all small groups we either buy a book for each participant or we copy if we have permission.  When someone says, “Let’s just buy one book for the small group and make copies.”  That’s stealing.   If they were to say, “It will save the church money!” Is that what we are all about?   If that’s what we’re all about lets shoplift the donuts and coffee we need for Sundays! It would be a lot cheaper.  Let’s shoplift the paper we need for bulletins!  Let’s heist the sound equipment we need!  While we’re at it, forget the offering let’s just rob the bank.  It’s not a matter saving money or  not getting caught, it’s wrong.

If you make a copy of a DVD or CD for a friend so they don’t have to buy it, it’s stealing.

It’s estimated that 400-600,000 copies of films are traded digitally every day. Many movies are available on the Internet before they hit the theaters, thanks to illegally copied pre-release versions which are offered to the press.
A cover of a U. S. News & World Report has a picture of an All-American teenage boy wearing a pair of headphones –looking pretty much like millions of teenage boys in any city and town in America. The caption says, “Wanted.” And in smaller letters, asks “Got a digital pirate in your house? Got a lawyer?”

Notice That with Stealing God Will Take Action

With some sins, God gets involved.  On the verses listed, we see that “God remembers”, “God will repay”, I am planning disaster, “they are under a curse”  The Hebrew word for curse means to “take away” It’s not voodoo or anything.  God chooses to bless and when he curses he removes his blessing.  Like the in the Garden of Eden, it’s a garden, everything is blessed, it’s great, When Adam says I don’t think I’ll obey you.  The ground is cursed, the blessing is removed.  It makes things more difficult.  Things will grow, but so will the weeds, thistles and thorns.   When we choose to go our own way and disregard God’s way.  We live in the absence of his blessing.  It makes things a lot harder.  We are living cursed instead of blessed.

When it comes to stealing, I’ll leave us with this statement: “I can live blessed or I can live cursed.”   Which will we choose?

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

 

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7th Commandment – Honor Marriage

Posted on February 19, 2019 by dkoop

#7 “You shall not commit adultery” Exodus 20:4

In a New York church’s Sunday School children were studying the Ten Commandments.  Each week the children would bring home an illustrated card that dramatized one of the Ten Commandments. The first week showed people worshiping at church. Another week, to illustrate,  “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” the card pictured Cain in the act of slaying Abel.

Some parents began to dread the picture that would come home the seventh week. They anxiously wondered how the publishers would illustrate the act of adultery. But fortunately, tact prevailed. Under the caption, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” was a picture of a dairyman, leering villainously, as he poured a huge pail of water into a can of milk. And this illustration wasn’t too far off the mark for, adultery is anything that weakens or contaminates the exclusivity of our marriage vows.

The Los Angeles Times (March 1, 1998) published the following definition of adultery submitted by one of it’s readers:

“Adultery is when you participate in the type of close behavior with someone who is not your spouse, and you would not want your spouse to behave likewise with someone else.”

I like that because in my opinion, adultery is much more than improper physical relations with someone other than your spouse. Adultery is anything you do that threatens your spouse’s trust of you. Any behavior that weakens your relationship with her or him; it is any action that gets you closer to another person than you are to your mate.   Internet relationships would fit into this category.   Also Pornography.

God is no kill-joy.  God invented sex.  But like everything it must be controlled.  He wants us to use it not abuse it.  All of God’s gifts have limitations on them.  God has given us the gift of water.  We can’t live without water.  But too much of it and we’ll drown.  God has given us fire.  Fire can either warm us or burn us.  It’s how we handle it.

God has given us a sex drive.  Properly controlled and expressed within a marriage it’s beautiful and fantastic.  But outside of marriage it is destructive and detrimental to your health as a human being emotionally, spiritually and in every way.

How To Respect My Marriage

  1. Invest In My Marriage

“Husbands and wives must be faithful to each other.  Heb. 13:4

At Yellowstone, they have a world famous geyser, “Old Faithful”  Why is it faithful, at a specific time period it erupts, day after day, month after month, year after year.  What if old faithful stopped doing this?  It wouldn’t be faithful any more, it would just be “OLD”   Same is true of marriage, we must remain faithful.  Continue to be as loving and kind as we were when dating or courting.  It doesn’t end after we say “I do.”  It’s like any product, if you bought a car and you wanted power windows, power locks.  What would happen after a few months and the power windows went out.  You wouldn’t be happy, because that’s what you thought you were getting.  You might call the car a lemon.  Well in dating and courting, we sometimes try to sell more than we can deliver.

  • Am I the same person my spouse married?

 Are you cultivating a friendship?  Spending time together?  It takes a lot of energy to get a friendship going, but not as much keeping it and maintaining it.  The goal we have in our marriage is to be best friends.  I heard Mary Alda, the wife of Alan Alda, the actor, one time say, “It’s real easy to leave your spouse.  It’s not easy to leave your best friend.”  We heard a pastor one time say that each of us should keep our lawns so green that it would make everybody else’s look brown by comparison.

Dr. Willard Harley says every couple has a love bank and we are making investments, committing loving acts, meeting the needs of our spouse or we are making withdrawals.  An unloving act, a selfish act is a withdrawal.

Willard Harley, a Christian psychologist, director of a network Mental Health clinics in Minnesota has spent the last 27 years as a marriage counselor.  He’s interviewed thousands of couples and discovered the ten most important needs of husbands and wives.  They are discussed in his highly recommended book His Needs/Her Needs, of studies of thousands of couples over a 27-year period:

The top five needs of most men are:                    The top five needs of most women are:

  1. Sexual fulfillment                                         1.  Affection
  2. Recreational companionship                    2.  Conversation
  3. An attractive spouse                                   3.  Honesty and openness
  4. Domestic support                                        4.  Financial support
  5. Admiration                                                    5.  Family commitment

Did you see any similarities between those two lists?  No.  No wonder we have so much trouble adjusting in marriage.  Men come in to marriage thinking for some strange reason they’ve married someone very much like themselves so they set about trying to meet the needs they have in their wife and feeling very, very frustrated when she does not respond the same way he does.

Most women come into marriage thinking they’ve married someone very much like themselves.  They set about to meet the needs that they have in a man and cannot understand why he does not respond the same way she does.

Solution:  Get serious and get down to the full time business of learning what it is that your spouse needs and determining that you’re going to meet those needs to the very best of your ability even if they are not necessarily your needs or you don’t have them in the exact same way.  This will go such a long way in protecting our marriages.

  • Am I investing or making withdrawals?

Our choice is to invest and build or marriages or to let them go by the wayside.  It will take energy to invest in any relationship, your marriage, better to invest in your marriage.

According to Dr. Lana Staneli, author of a book on marital triangles,  “of those who break up their marriage to marry someone else, 80% are sorry later, 70% get another divorce. Of the 25-30% who stay married, only half of them are happy.”   So adultery is anything but a route to happiness and bliss.

God has given us this command is to protect us from all this pain but, it is also the way to experience the greatest joy and satisfaction!

An intimate relationship between a man and woman committed to each other as husband and wife for life far outshines all other forms of intimacy.  There is a misconception in the world today that monogamous Christians are somehow sexually repressed; that sex within God’s guidelines is somehow not as “FUN”

That if you follow God’s rules and regulations in this area you miss out in some way. But this is simply not true. Obeying God in this arena provides us with the purest form of pleasure—and this makes sense! After all God designed these “earth suits” including their sexual systems. God created us in such a way that husband and wife can experience a oneness which is impossible for a man and woman otherwise. His will is that husbands and wives would enjoy a vital, regular, and mutually satisfying physical relationship. If you doubt this then read the Song of Solomon!

The latest research by social scientists is confirming over and over again that this is true. A study published by the University of Chicago (1994) came up with the following conclusions:  married couples reported being the most physically pleased and emotionally satisfied.

Redbook did a sexual survey that involved 100,000 women, (on Sexual Satisfaction) even more astonishing than the # that responded was the results.  They included a section that had religious involvement.  Categories:  Religious.  The least religious were the most unsatisfied.  The most religious were the most satisfied sexually.  The most religious were the most orgasmic.  

Again and again there has been independent confirmation like this by social scientists that God’s plan for our sexuality really does make sense. It really is the best. His detour signs don’t bind us! They liberate us to experience intimacy in it’s most fulfilling form.  The best sex is “unadulterated”

  1. Commit to God’s Way

In the past fifty years, we’ve gone from a culture in which TV programs were not permitted to show husbands and wives sleeping in the same bed to the soap operas of today in which 94% of every sexual activity is between partners who are not married or not married to each other.

Newsweek, 7/20/92, published a study made of 104 leading television writers and executives conducted by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, the study found that Hollywood’s views run far from the mainstream of public opinion. Though 85 percent of Americans believe adultery is wrong, only 49 percent of TV writers and executives do.

Our culture has come to the point that it glamorizes, defends, and promotes adultery. Katie Roiphe writes for the New York Times Magazine and says,  “Women’s magazines practically recommend [adultery] to their readers as a fun and healthy activity, like buying a new shade of lipstick or vacationing in the Caribbean.”

“How can a (person) keep his way pure? By living according to…” culture.  No!   By living according to your Word.”   Ps. 119:9

  • What determines our view of right and wrong?
  • Is it easier to believe the views of television and movies?
  1. Think Through the Cost of Unfaithfulness

Adultery literally hurts people, but we rarely hear that in the world these days.  Satan is very much like an unprincipled used car salesman who will do anything to get us to purchase a car that we cannot possibly afford. When it comes to adultery he doesn’t want us to think beyond “now.”

He doesn’t want us to consider the painful cost of our actions. He doesn’t want us to think about the consequences or look down the road we will travel if we ignore this detour from God. He doesn’t want us to calculate how many payments we will be making for the rest of our lives: payments of loneliness and regret….payments of destroyed families and shattered marriages. He would rather not have us understand the pain that will come with this sin.

One experienced marriage counselor took the time to actually list the agonizing consequences of yielding to the temptation of adultery. Here’s what he came up with:

“I will inflict untold hurt on my wife, who is my best friend and has been faithful to me. I will lose her respect, love, and trust. I will destroy my beloved daughters. All their lives, they will hurt if I do this. I might lose my wife and children forever. I will shame my family….my parents….my siblings. I will destroy my example and credibility….others may follow my example and yield to this sin. I will lose my own self-respect. (Though God could forgive me, could I ever forgive myself?) I could form memories and flashbacks that plague future intimacy with my spouse. I could cause a pregnancy that would be a lifelong reminder of my sin.”

You possibly can think of things to add to this list because the road to adultery is a road to unbelievable pain and anguish.

Lets’ be faithful in our marriages.

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

 

 

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6th Commandment – Respect Human Life

Posted on February 19, 2019 by dkoop

#6 Exodus 20:13  “You shall not murder.”

Have you ever seen the Ten Commandments posted on a display or wall?  Niki and I have a Ten Commandments wall hanging that someone gave us as a gift. They probably thought we needed to follow them better!  VI reads “Thou shalt not kill.” This is from the King James Version.  Thou?  King James causes my spell check to go crazy!  Now I’m not down on the King James Version because that translation was used by my parents and grandparents and theirs before them.  This version has helped many people, me included.  I must point out that like any translation, there are strengths and weaknesses.   One weakness of the KJV Bible is the way that it translates Exodus 20: 13.  “Thou shalt not KILL.”   This overarching word “kill” has caused much confusion.  We take it to mean “kill” anything.  Hebrew is considered a relatively primitive language.  Even as primitive as it is, the Hebrews had a word for murder, (this is the word used here in Exodus 20:13.) An accurate translation would be, “You shall not MURDER,” which we find in the NIV. Hebrews had a word for murder, they had a word for killing animals for food, killing animals for sacrifice, and for capital punishment.  So the Hebrew language is not the one to blame here it is the King James English translation.

Murder According To The Bible

  • Hebrew word: “ratsach”
  • Murder is when one individual takes it upon himself to end another person’s life

What Is Not Considered Murder

1.   Killing animals…

  • for food (Hebrew word: “tabach” )

“Everything that lives and moves will be food for you.  Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.” Gen. 9:3

You can be a vegetarian.  But be honest enough to be for personal reasons not Biblical reasons.  You have no biblical basis.  We have recorded that Jesus ate fish and that he ate the Passover meal, which included lamb.

  • for sacrifices ( Hebrew word: “zebach”)
  1. Death Penalty (Hebrew word:  “muth”)

“The murderer shall be put to death.”  Num 35:16-17

  • The Death Penalty is the government’s responsibility – to provide justice.

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established… He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”  Rom 13:1-5

That is, you have to provide indisputable evidence that the accused is actually guilty. You can’t just say, “I know he’s guilty, just kill him!” In our country, a person won’t be pronounced guilty if there is even a “reasonable doubt” he’s innocent.

Vigilantes are rarely as generous. Nor do they seek any evidence beyond their own opinions. No one should be put to death on the basis of someone’s opinion, but only on the basis of proven facts.

Due process is an effort to guarantee that only the truly guilty will be punished. Which is another difference between vigilantes and what God intended as a justice system within the government.

The Bible contains very careful guidelines for the legal system:

Legal System in the Law – Deuteronomy Chapters 16-19 

(16:18-20).  Local judges

 (17:8-13)  A Supreme Court.

 (ch 18) Qualifications of government officials

(19:1-14)“Cities of refuge. To protect..

 (19:15) We see it also in the requirement for more than one witness to establish guilt, and in the (19:16-21)  penalty for perjury It is better to let a guilty man escape punishment for lack of conclusive evidence than to take a chance that an innocent man might be wrongly condemned.

We have a similar legal system as well.   Let’s look specifically at one example of a vigilante verses our legal system: On April 19th 1995, Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. 168 people died in that blast, including 19 children.

McVeigh murdered 168 people. He believed he was fighting for justice. He thought the U.S. government had taken the lives of innocent people in Waco, TX.  And whether or not he was right about that, he didn’t have the right to take vengeance.   Not only did he not have the right as an individual, but there was no due process. No one went on trial. No evidence was brought forth. And it was not the guilty who were punished, but the innocent.

Whatever our government did right or wrong in Waco or anywhere else, 19 children in daycare shouldn’t be killed for it. Not to mention others who had nothing to do with what happened there.

Timothy McVeigh murdered the people in the Murrah Federal Building. But he himself was not murdered. He was brought to justice by the government, who had a right to do so. Massive evidence was presented. Due process was observed. He was punished as the  actual perpetrator of the act, not just someone who had the same skin color or was associated in some other equally insignificant way.

Do you see the difference between murder and the death penalty? You may be for or against the death penalty, but please recognize that there is a difference between it and murder.

For someone to be put to death, there needs to be:

  • The involvement of a legitimate government
  • Due process – the presenting of evidence
  • A commitment to punish only the guilty, not the innocent.
  1. War

“…There is a time for war…”  Eccl. 3:8

  • War is the government’s responsibility to maintain peace.
  • John the Baptist talking to men of war says…

“Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely– be content with your pay.” Luke 3:14

John could have said, “get out of the military,” but he didn’t. A foreign country occupied Israel when the NT was written.  They were in a struggle, 63 BC they were invaded, 70 AD the Jews revolted.  Jesus, Paul and the other New Testament writers never spoke against soldiers or the government’s responsibility to maintain order.  Jesus healed a centurion’s servant,  a Captain over 100 men.  He told the people to carry a soldier’s pack not 1 mile but two.  He used war in a parable.

Now enough of what this command DOESN’T say….what DOES it say? What message or principle is God trying to get across to us in this text?

Well, basically God is saying ONE THING and this is it: In giving us this law God is saying respect human life.

What is murder?: Suicide, homicide, genocide, infanticide/abortion and euthanasia.

  1. Suicide:  The CDC found that 47,000 Americans took their own lives in 2017—2,000 more than recorded in 2016. The national suicide rate has increased 33 percent between 1999 and 2017, according to the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System data. What’s worse, a broader Associated Press analysis of government records indicates that American suicides are now at their highest point.  It’s now the second-leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 35.
  2. Homicide: By the time the average American child finishes elementary they have already witnessed over ten thousand murders on television.  They have watched over 100,000 acts of violence on television.  We live in a violent society.  Every 22 minutes in America somebody is stabbed, shot or beaten or strangled to death.  More kids die from violence than they do from illness.
  3. Abortion: 26% of all pregnancies in America now end in abortion, one out of four!  Americans have been killed through abortion, that’s more than all of the wars put together.  In the 30 years since ROW v. WADE legalized abortion in our country over 57 million unborn children have lost their lives in this manner. Their names would fill the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial wall over 1000 times. And 97% of those 57 million lives were ended simply because they were an inconvenience to their parents. These children were not conceived as a result of incest or rape they were perfectly healthy and the pregnancy did not threaten the life of the mother.  More baby girls are being aborted than boys now that you can find out the sex, where is the feminist outcry?  Bumper sticker:  “Support unborn women’s rights.”
  4. Euthanasia (Ending a life early)
  • God decides when my lessons are learned and when I go home.

“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  Ps 139:16’

More and more people these days say that, if life becomes too difficult to live they should be allowed to end it all through euthanasia.

  1. A Hateful Attitude According to Jesus

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you anyone who is angry with a brother or sister (without cause)… Matt 5:21-22

So I have broken this commandment and I’m there has been a time when we all have.  We are all murderers deep down inside. We are lot like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day in that we would rather deal with externals but Jesus is not satisfied with that. He wants to deal with INTERNAL things. He wants to talk about what is happening in our hearts. He knows that long before I would murder someone, I would begin the process with my thoughts.

I read this week that the majority of the Bible was written by murderers.   Moses wrote the first five books of the OT, all the law was given by a murderer.  The one wrote you shall not murder, had in his past.

David a murderer wrote the book of Psalms.  Paul who wrote 2/3rd’s of the NT was murderer!

So the lawgiver the worship leader and the apostle were all killers in their past.  But look what God can do in these people’s lives!  God can do that with you.

Let’s respect life.

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

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