Politicians: Do not take the name of the Lord our God in vain! Do not bear false witness in His name!

Sunrise at the altar of Old Sheldon Church, Beaufort, SC
May the Son of Righteousness shine upon the candidates
as well as all people.

My child, if sinners entice you,
    do not consent.

Proverbs 1:10 NRSV

I spent last evening watching the GOP candidates debating. There was indeed some debating going on. But, there were also a lot of attempts to entice candidates to act and speak rashly against one another. Questions were posed in attempts to get the candidates to speak negatively about one another and to fight amongst themselves rather than actually letting the voters know exactly where they stood on various issues. A few of the candidates managed to not get pulled into the breaking of the commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." They managed to deflect the enticement to sin even while speaking truthfully from their hearts and minds. It seems at least some of them are wise enough to know that they don't need to give fuel to anyone from an opposing party for later debates.

Now, many of the candidates sound as though they are attempting to appeal to a Christian base. However, I did not recognize the Christianity in some of what was said last night. Just because someone says they are a Christian doesn't make it so. I've seen more than one local politician decide it's time to start showing up for worship just prior to elections. Please, don't use the name of Jesus to get elected. Do not consent to sin by taking the Lord's name in vain.

Thanks be to God for those candidates who have managed to not get pulled into breaking the second or eighth commandments and who are not confusing their own (the world's) brand of morality with Christianity.

God's Peace - Pr. J

No Coveting

The Tenth Commandment.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is his.

What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not estrange, force, or entice away our neighbor's wife, servants, or cattle, but urge them to stay and [diligently] do their duty.

(http://bookofconcord.org/smallcatechism.php)

I have sometimes wondered about the differences between the ninth and tenth commandments. It was terribly difficult for me, as a young person, to be able to memorize theses last two properly separated as I could not understand why we taught them as two instead of one commandment. I also could never comprehend (and still don't) how one would go about urging cattle to stay and do their duty. Maybe, not show and entice them with greener grass in another pasture? The only real difference that I see, for the purposes of memory work, is that the ninth commandment has to do with inanimate property; the tenth deals mainly with living, breathing creatures. 

I was online last night researching glasses to help correct color-blindness. I and other members of my family are a bit color blind. It doesn't affect life too adversely; unless, you happen to be working with electrical wires that are color coded. That can be a problem. Mostly, I recognize every color. They just look a little different to me than to those with good color vision.

Sometimes we can all be a bit color blind. We see greener grass when in fact what we may be looking at are dried out weeds. Just because someone tells us the grass is greener; doesn't always make it so. Beware of covetous people who would draw you away for their own selfish purposes.

Sometimes we see someone that we might think we want; but, again, the grass is not always greener... Ensure that you are not falsely enticing others to leave the one who loves them. If they would leave them for you; they well could leave you for another.

Learn to love what is yours and leave your neighbors' alone.

God's Peace - Pr. J