October 11, 2012

Living Proof

Thursday, October 11th, 2012

 

 

Personally, when I hear someone start to talk about the 10 Commandments, all I can think of is a list of rules that all Christians are supposed to follow. Until now, I have not thought of them as anything more. Needless to say, my viewpoint on what Moses was telling the Israelites while on Mount Siani has completely changed.  

Now, Moses was on Mountain Siani speaking to the Israelites when he was giving these commandments. At this time, most of the Israelites knew they should’ve murder, steal, commit adultery, worship other gods, or to honor your father and mother, but they were on the journey to the Promise Land. The reason why God had called Moses to proclaim the commandments to the Israelites was to equip them for what God wanted for their lives, because where they were headed, was not fulfilling these commandments. They would be noticed by living their lives set apart from what the world had been living. These commandments were set in place by God not as a list of do’s and don’ts, but God gave us instructions to protect the Israelites and us and to make our lives better.

How does this look today? LIVE IT OUT. God had these instructions set so the Israelites would be noticed as someone different, they would be questioned why they are living in such a different way. Shouldn’t we be doing the same? In James, he exclaims what it is like to be set apart. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (1:27). This is what God wanted for the Israelites, to have them be set apart from what the world wanted them to conform to. Is there a difference in your life that people can see?

This brings me to my past point, my friend Macy put this into perspective. If there was a gunman that walked into your school or work place and asked a random person where all the Christians in the building were, would they say your name? If we’re living out what God has called us to do we should be one to the names that the gunman would hear. People need to notice the change that we’ve gone through and want to know more about Christ through the way we live our lives.