The Ten Commandments – All God, no idols - 23rd March 2007

It’s Friday, and todays theme is worship, not of idols but of God.

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol

I was reading an article on the BBC website last night about people who are addicted to gadgets, such as mobile phones, PSP’s and other such things. There doesn’t appear to be a self help group for these people yet, but it looks like one might be needed. Apparently they text each other for help.

What do you worship? Or another way of looking at it, what do you spend all your time thinking about, or always have with you, or bore your friends senseless about? What could be embarrassing if friends started talking about it because they noticed that it was central in your life?

I suspect that some of our idols are subconscious, but unfortunately that isn’t an excuse either. Go back to one of yesterday’s commandments, what gets in the way of family time and friendships?

This gets us to the first commandment

1. You shall worship no other God but me.

It’s taken us a while to get here, but we are now looking at the most important commandment of them all, the central plank of the Christian faith. Think back to the things we have talked about.

· Coveting deals with what we think about.
· Lying, stealing, adultery, murder and honour deals with our behaviour towards others
· The Sabbath, Blasphemy, Idols and Worship deal with our relationship with God.

We have seen how the different commandments interlink with each other and how they impact on our lives. They are simple in their construction and yet far reaching in their meaning. They are the rock on which the Christian faith is built, and we have seen that they can and do apply to today’s society

If you take one thing away from what we have looked at this week – let it be the first commandment, because on this all else is built, and when (not if) we fail, this is the one that we come back to. Our Eternal God, a father who wants the best for his children, knows each one of us better than we know ourselves and he loves us, unconditionally. No pre agreements, no get out clauses, no ifs, buts or maybes.

Have a great weekend.

Rejoice in the Lord, always.