1st Commandment: "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."

The precepts of the Decalogue are adapted to all mankind, and they were given for the instruction and government of all. Ten precepts, brief, comprehensive, and authoritative, cover the duty of man to God and to his fellow man; and all based upon the great fundamental principle of love.

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." Luke 10:27. See also Deuteronomy 6:4, 5; Leviticus 19:18.

In the Ten Commandments these principles are carried out in detail, and made applicable to the condition and circumstances of man.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Jehovah, the eternal, self-existent, uncreated One, Himself the Source and Sustainer of all, is alone entitled to supreme reverence and worship. Man is forbidden to give to any other object the first place in his affections or his service. Whatever we cherish that tends to lessen our love for God or to interfere with the service due Him, of that do we make a god.

Patriarchs and Prophets page 305

GIVE YOUR ANGER TO GOD

From Solid Ground daily devotionals by Mark Finley

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Prov. 16:32

We get control of our anger by giving it up to God. An inner-city kid named Ben can teach us how.

Ben grew up in a Detroit ghetto, a place where anger flows freely in the streets, where getting even with anyone who disrespects you is a way of life.

By the time Ben reached high school, he had developed quite a temper. As he listened to the radio one afternoon his buddy yelled, “You call that music?” and flipped the dial to another station. Ben shot back, “It’s better than what you like!” and grabbed the dial.

His buddy resisted, and is that instant a blind anger took hold of Ben. He grabbed the camping knife that he carried in his back pocket, snapped it open, and lunged at his friend’s belly. The blade hit his friend’s ROTC belt buckle with such force that it snapped and dropped to the ground.

Ben stared down at the broken blade, and his knees just about gave way. He had almost killed someone. He’d almost killed a good friend. Over what?

This incident forced Ben to face his anger head-on. He had to do something about it. He could not handle his temper alone. Ben prayed, “Lord, You have to take this temper from me. If You don’t, I’ll never be free from it. You can change me.”

Back home, Ben locked himself in a bathroom and began reading the book of Proverbs. He read many texts that spoke pointedly about uncontrolled anger and where it leads. The words seemed written just for him. This verse impressed him the most: “He who is slow to anger is better that the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” (Prov. 16:32).

“The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression” (Prov. 19:11). We become angry when we magnify the errors of others. We become obsessed with what another has done to us. Their actions control us.

This is what happened to Ben. He knew he had to deal with it. Proverbs provided the key. He agreed with the wise man that “wrath is cruel and anger a torrent” (Prov. 27:4), and “he who is slow to anger allays contention” (Prov. 15:18).

These words gave Ben hope, something to aim at. He made a commitment to read the Scriptures each day and gave himself and his problem wholeheartedly to God. A sense of peace replaced Ben’s anguish and panic. As he walked out of that room he felt God had changed him.

God dealt decisively with this young man’s uncontrolled anger. The hands that had once lunged with a knife became the disciplined, skilled hands of a surgeon. Ben Carson became one of America’s respected pediatric neurosurgeons.

God can deal with your anger too, but only if you give it to Him. Is there any anger in your heart? Why not give it to God as you pray today.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

From the Devotional book "The Promises of God" by H.M.S. Richards

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee (Isa. 49:15).

Can a woman forget her child? She may, but it’s unnatural. A little girl was told by her busy mother to go and play with her dolls, but the child complained, “I just love them and love them, but they never love me back.” And so God keeps loving us and loving us, but often we do not love Him back. Yet He does not forget us, even as a mother does not forget her wandering son, but remembers him as her baby.

“If I am thy child, O God,” said Augustine at the time of his conversion, “it is because thou didst give me such a mother.” And surely many of us may say that.

Of the daughter of Pharaoh it is written, “She saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept” (Ex. 2:6). A true woman may resist many things, but no woman with a mother’s heart can resist the cry of her own child. How many thousands of mother’s have sacrificed their lives for their babies! The story is as old as the world and as sweet as heaven. God uses it to picture His love to us. “Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”

A true mother never forgets, never forsakes. She follows her babe through childhood, adulthood, and down to the end to the darkest path the world has ever known. She never forgets.

From the great father-mother heart of God comes the promise “Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” He will not forget, because He loves and cares.

MEDITATION PRAYER: “Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old” (Ps. 25:6).

PULL THE RIP CORD OF FAITH

Solid Ground daily devotionals by Mark Finley

 

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:5

Sandy’s friends craned their necks up at the blue sky and caught her tiny figure hurling itself out of the plane. This was her first time to jump without a line, and this time Sandy was going to pull the rip cord herself.

Her friends far below counted with her – one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand. But the parachute didn’t open. Nothing was happening. They waited as Sandy fell farther and farther. Why didn’t she pull the rip cord? If something was wrong, what about her reserve chute?

Tragically, this young woman plummeted all the way to the ground and died instantly. When the ground crew rushed to the site, they noticed her parachute still folded neatly in the pack on her back. What had happened?

Then they saw the cloth of her jumpsuit torn away on the right side of her chest. It seemed as if she’s been desperately clawing at it. In fact, she’s dug through her clothing and actually lacerated her flesh with her fingers. The terrible truth dawned on them. Her rip cord was on her left side! In a moment of panic she had forgotten and kept pulling and yanking and clawing at the rip cord on the right, but it wasn’t there.

Is it possible that we are frantically pulling on a rip cord that isn’t there? Any time we trust in our own strength to overcome temptation we are pulling on a cord that isn’t there. Any time we trust our own power to overcome the enemy we are diving for disaster. It wasn’t that Sandy didn’t put forth any effort – she was frantic. She tried as hard as she could. Her problem was that her effort was misplaced.

The Scriptures make two counterbalancing statements. The first says, “I can do nothing.” The second says, “I can do all things.” Jesus said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Without Him all of our best efforts are in vain. Without Him we are powerless. Without Him all of our best efforts are doomed to failure. “Human effort avails nothing without divine power” (Prophets and Kings, p. 487).

The apostles pulls the right rip cord when triumphantly declares, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). Through Jesus the weak become strong. In His strength and power we are overcomers. Our Lord has never lost a battle with the enemy. He is not about to begin now. Grasp His power. Fight in His strength. Yield to His grace. Pull the rip cord of faith.

The Promises of God

by H.M.S. Richards

Get your own copy of "The Promises of God"

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler (Ps. 91:4).

     Have you not seen little chicks peeping out from their mother's feathers? Remember their little whispers of contented joy? How warm and safe they were! In this figure the Lord shows His care for His own. Just as a hen spreads her wings over her brood and allows them to nestle there in safety, so the Lord will protect His people and encourage them to hide in Him. We may shelter ourselves in God and feel the deep comforting peace that comes from the knowledge that He is guarding us. We may sleep, for He is awake protecting us. We trust while He covers us. God Himself becomes our house and home and refuge and rest.

Under his wings I am safely abiding;

Though the night deepens and tempests are wild,

Still I can trust Him; I know He will keep me;

He has redeemed me, and I am His child.

- Rev. W. O. Cushing

     From this place of safety we go out to war in the Lord's name and cause, and His care follows us in that, too. We need protection from all the fiery darts of the enemy. When we trust God implicitly, we find that His truth is our shield and buckler.
     We are protected in His truth and by His truth. God cannot lie. His Word "is true from the beginning" to the end (Ps. 119:160). His promises never fail; they must stand forever. His sure truth is all the shield we need. How important is, then, to receive it, to read it, to hold it in our hearts.
     Come, friend, let us hide under those great wings until earth's calamities be overpassed.

MEDITATION PRAYER: "They that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee" (Ps. 9:10).

HEROES OF FAITH: ESTHER

I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish! Esther 4:16

by Mark Finley

     Have you ever grieved over your background? Have you wished your early childhood was different? Have you felt you were born with three strikes against you? Esther certainly could have. She was orphaned at an early age and brought up by the Babylonians after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
     Esther never knew her real parents. She was a Jew in a foreing land, brought up in a hostile environment as part of the despised minority. When Vashti, the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus, embarassed him, Esther was one of the manyyoung women brought into the harem and put in the custody of the king's eunuch. A corrupt palace lifestyle in the ancient world was hardly conductive to Esther's faith.
     Mordecai kept his eye on her, even in the king's palace. He urged her to keep her ethnic background hidden. For a year Esther was trained in the life of the harem. When she finally made her appearance before the king, he "loved Esther more than all the the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins" (Esther 2:17). Enamored with her beauty, poise, and character, Ashuerus immediately apponted her as his new queen.
     What was God's strategy in all of this? Why was Esther exalted to such a key position? Haman, one of the king's princes, hatched a plan to destroy Mordecai and the Jews. Every Jew was to be slaughtered.
     Mordecai overheard rumors of the plot. He appealed to Esther to speak out. "If you remain completely silent at this time," he said, "relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14).
     Esther met the challenge, and God responded. Thanks to her courageous attittude, God's people were delivered.
     In the divine drama of detiny, God has placed you in the world for a time such as this. We did not choose to live in the beginning of the twenty-first century. This is God's doing. Like Esther, we have been called to the kingdom for a time such as this.
     God calls us to faithfulness. No matter what are our backgrounds, He wants us to be loyal to Him. Esther made a powerful difference in her world. We can make a difference in ours today.
     Take on today with courage. You are God's man, God's woman, God's youth, destined to live at this time, this day, to make a difference for Him.

HEROES OF FAITH: ABRAHAM

As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. Gen. 17.4.

Devotional by Mark Finley

     The single hallmark of Abraham's experience is his steadfast faith in the will of God.
     This is certainly not to imply that Abraham never questioned. His life was marked with failure. The Old Testament revels his human lack of trust. Sometimes he was impatient. Sometimes he was deceitful, but his faith was constantly growing. Throughout his life experience he developed an unwaivering trust in God.
     God summoned Abraham to leave his home in Ur of the Chaldees. God selected this patriarch as a special recipient of His blessings. Abraham was given his first great test of faith when he was 75 years old. God promised that he would become the father of a great nation, but only if he passed the test of faith by heading for the unknown land of Canaan, 400 miles south. God promised, "I will bless those who bless you... and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen. 12:3).
     Abraham believed God and stepped out in faith. His faith must have been unusually strong, because when God called, he packed his family belongings and left. Yet Abraham's faith was not complete. When a famine swept through Canaan, he did not wait for the Lord to provide for him; he fled to fertile Egypt in search of food. There he resorted to lying, claiming that Sarah, his wife, was his sister. He did not object when she was taken to Pharaoh's household. Only God's intervention prevented Sarah from becoming one of the Egyptian ruler's wives.
     Abraham's faith was tested again as he waited longer and longer for a child. Again he failed the test by conceiving a child with Sarah's maid, Hagar. With great guilt he repented, and Sarah at last bore Isaac.
     Abraham's final test of faith came at the climax of his life story. God commanded him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. He woke his son. He cut the wood. He climbed Mount Moriah and erected the altar. He even lifted the knife. As the old man prepared to slay his faithful, obedient son, God cried out, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God" (Gen. 22:12). God Himself provided a ram for sacrifice. Faith conquered.
     God led Abraham to the same test again and again. Each test challenged his faith, and at each test his faith deepened. God is daily leading us to the "test of faith." Each day He appeals to us to trust Him more. When we fail the test of faith like Abraham once did, He prepares another one. He will never give up on us. He strengthens us for each test until that day we pass the final test and can go home with Him.