Why covet?

After Exodus 20:17 and Philippians 4:10-13 

Why covet anything

not yours? Why covet

what you don’t have?

Do you believe that

having what you don’t

will solve your problems,

promote your reputation,

make you happy, make

you fulfilled? Here’s

the secret: even getting

what you don’t have 

or want doesn’t work,

because it’s never

enough.

 

Secret, Part 2: In lack

and plenty, abundance

and need, be content,

because you can do

all things in hm who

strengthens you.

In all things,

be content.

 

“Coveting, at its heart, is character assassination of God.” – Clay Smith, sermon March 17, 2024.

 

Photograph by Fikry Anshor via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

A small change to help the Word really do its work – Stephen Kneale at Building Jerusalem.

 

Ten Correctable Mistakes We Make When Preaching and Teaching – Steve Burchett at Christian Communicators Worldwide.

 

Good Night, My Son: A Father’s Tribute Through Tragic Loss – Conrad Mbewe at Desiring God.

 

The false witness

After Exodus 20:16 

The false witness,

the liar, wreaks

reverberating havoc.

It does not matter

if the false witness

is on the campaign trail,

or the courtroom,

in the police report,

in the academic paper,

in the classroom,

in the marketplace, 

in the Ph.D. thesis,

in the pulpit or pew,

in the scientific study,

in the home.

False witness is

the acid eating

the bonds of love,

the bonds of community,

the bonds of trust.

It is the wind and water

eroding the foundation

of life, of our life.

Whether by omission

or commission, false

witness destroys until

itself is undone.

 

Photograph by Taras Chernus via Unsplash. Used by permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

The Leak – poem by Seth Lewis.

 

When the Blind See and the Seeing are Blind – Mitch Chase at Biblical Theology.

 

What is the Unpardonable Sin? (Matthew 12) – Dan Doriani at Crossway.

 

Great Gamble: The Failed Launch of Moby Dick – Jason Clark at This is the Day.

 

“Timor Mortis Conturbat Me,” poem by Anonymous – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Theft

After Exodus 20:15 and Luke 18:18-30 

It raises a question,

telling us not to steal,

the question being is it

really that simple? If

we don’t shoplift or

rob or burgle or take

what isn’t ours, that

fulfills the command,

right? Theft, however,

comes in many forms,

the most obvious being

the taking of something

we don’t own, something

physical. But there are

other things that can be

stolen, like credit for

something, a reputation

or good name. An opportunity.

A reward. A friend, A place.

A position. And more than

this, there is the theft 

of not giving, of ignoring

a need while having the means

to meet it, turning our faces

away as if we never saw it,

so it doesn’t exist. Remember:

thou shall not steal. Thou

shall not take what isn’t

yours. That shall not ignore

the need you can meet.

 

Photograph by De An Sun via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

“Queen-Anne’s Lace,” poem by William Carlos Williams – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Difficult, Possibly Unfixable Lot of Chronic Illness… in This Life – Jess Habib at The Gospel Coalition.

Five words

After Exodus 20:14 and Matthew 5:27-28 

A message telegraphed

in five words, miscroscoped

like so many messages

into summary simplicity,

meaning more than

its words say. That word,

adultery, means what it

says, its formal definition

of being unfaithful to the one

selected for you, the one 

you loved, the one who loved

you, the one provided to you

to come alongside to be one,

one flesh, the oneness pointing

to the kingdom.

 

And it means more, a synonym

for faithfulness in life, faithful

in all things, to all people,

faithful to your spouse,

your children, your family,

your parents, your friends,

your church, your work,

your society, your culture,

your God. An impossible

standard, only brought

to reality by the One.

 

Photograph by Clay Banks via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Four Years After Our Hardest Day – Tim Challies.

 

The School of Faith – When God’s Ways Are a Mystery – Sarah Walton at Set Apart.

 

The Flight from God, & a Flight into the Country – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Psalm 23 – Megan Willome.

A metaphor

After Exodus 20:13 and Matthew 5:21-26 

Murder is a metaphor,

meaning much more

than it implies. Murder

encompasses any kind

of destruction of people,

a body, a mind, a heart,

a reputation. It doesn’t

have to be acted out or

spoken. The heart rages

and is guilty. The mind

thinks, and is guilty.

The lips speak, and are

guilty. The hands act,

and are guilty. Murder is

any form of destruction

of life. And it is forbidden;

thou shalt not.

 

Photograph by Jr Korpa via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Hometown – poem by Kelly Belmonte at Kelly’s Scribbles.

 

Whatever Happens, Love Thy Neighbor – Larissa Phillips at The Free Press.

The real, the symbolic

After Exodus 20:12 and Ephesians 6:1-4 

Honor your parents,

even if they fail,

even when they fail,

because they will,

because they do. But

they are in place

for a reason, to provide

structure and to nourish,

to bring up and sustain,

to rain and create

stability, a picture

of the divine, a symbol

of all authority on this earth.

Likewise, parents and

authority are not

empowered to vex,

to anger, to betray those

entrusted to them. Instead, 

they are to lead,

they are to love,

they are to nurture.

 

Photograph by Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

A Father’s Prayer for His Son – Tim Challies.

 

Getting Found: A Three-Year Anniversary – Martin Shaw at the House of Beasts & Vines.

 

A Dedication to My Wife – poem by James Matthew Wilson at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

The Miraculous Phenomenon of Post-Hurricane Weather – Samuel Schaefer at Front Porch Republic.

 

A Sword in the Devil's Heart: Halloween Sermon by St. Gregory Thaumaturgus – Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

Rest has meaning

After Exodus 20:8-11 and Matthew 12:1-14 

To rest is not doing

nothing; to rest is

to recognize we have

limits, that we cannot

do everything. To avoid

rest is destructive; it

will destroy you. To rest

is to acknowledge

dependence on one who

is greater. To rest is

to know we are not

the center of the universe.

To avoid rest is

to embrace slavery.

To worship busyness

is to worship self.

 

Photograph by Jessica Mangano via Unsplash. Used with permission.

 

Some Sunday Readings

 

The Bottle Collector – poem by Liz Snell at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Absent Fathers in Children’s Literature: A Problem? – Betsy Farquhar at Redeemed Reader.

 

For Richer, for Poorer: How to Steward Money in Marriage – Randy Alcorn at Desiring God.

A day of rest

After Exodus 20:8-11 and Matthew 12:1-14 

It is a day of rest,

a day set aside,

a day to set work

aside, and rest.

The example is

there from

the beginning,

to work hard

six days and rest

on the seventh.

 

Rest does not mean

idleness, or a day

to observe rigidly,

without exception.

It can be a day

to do good, to bless,

to show empathy,

to show care and

compassion. That is

not work; that is

loving the Lord

of the Sabbath.

 

Photograph by Sincerely Media via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Autumn – poem by Rainer Marie Rilke at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Every person is a tree. Every tree tells stories – Pierce Taylor Hibbs at Moments That Make Us.

 

The Good Life – poem by Rusty Rabon at Society of Classical Poets.

And he speaks

After Exodus 20:1-2 

And, signifying all

that came before

is connected to what

follows, he speaks,

the voice to be heeded,

the voice to attend,

the voice like no other,

the voice that spoke

creation into existence,

he speaks. He is the Lord,

the Lord our God; he speaks

in the voice that all

hear, all understand.

He is our God, the God

who brought us out

of slavery, out of Egypt,

into the land he promised,

calling us back, striking

the chains that bind us.

The voice is the voice

of the one who made us,

the one who delivered us.

 

Photograph by Irina Iriser via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

A Biblical Perspective about Obedience at Work – Hugh Whelchel at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

When You Fear Your Best Days Are Behind You – Lois Flowers. 

 

Modern Mysticism: Rod Dreher’s Living in Wonder – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Reading is Fundamental – Marty Machowski at New Growth Press.

 

This Who Make Them Become Like Them – Brad Littlejohn at Commonwealth Dispatches.

 

The Unity of Charity: C.S. Lewis and the End of Ecumenism – Michael Ward at An Unexpected Journal. 

Self-Directed Kindergartners

When our oldest had completed his first year of middle school, we decided the time had come to change schools. We had become increasingly concerned with the direction he school district was going. And then came the 6^th grade English teacher, whose notes from school included spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. For seventh and eighth grades, he attended the local Catholic school (and we’re not Catholic).

Then came our youngest, eight years behind his brother. He had attended a local pre-school, and it was time for kindergarten. We had him on a waiting list at the Catholic school, but the odds of getting him in were long. We weren’t members of the church, and the early grades were the most crowded. So we expected to send him to the local elementary school.

A friend who was a teacher aide at the school had warned us about one particular kindergarten teacher, the one who believed in and practiced self-directed education for kindergartners. He class was chaos, the friend said, and children learned nothing. The previous year they had “self-educated” themselves into learning to play with toys better.

The letter assigning our youngest to a class arrived. It was that teacher. I called the Catholic school principal in desperation. Was there anything at all available? Anything?

It just so happened a spot had opened up that very day in the kindergarten class. A family had suddenly been transferred to another city.

Sold! I said.

The chaos of a self-directed kindergarten class was almost too painful to contemplate. To throw a child into a class where he or she had no previous relationship with the teacher, might know a few of the other students, and be told to develop their own education plan was a bit over the top, even for some of the experimental things being tried in the school district at the time. (This craziness was generally abandoned once the first grade teachers discovered the problems of self-directed kindergartners becoming first graders.)

There was no relationship, and no rules. There was chaos.

We don’t normally associate relationships with rules, but as Andy Stanley points out in The Grace of God, rules followed relationship in the Old Testament. We thing of the books of Moses as crammed with all the rules, regulations, shalt nots and do nots. And they are. But they came after God provided relationship. And the rules, also known as the Ten Commandments and the Levitical law, were designed for a people who had not been a nation for 400 years, who had previously been slaves, and did not have the first notion of how to govern themselves as a people.

The rules followed relationship. Grace was there first, before the law. In profound ways, the law was a demonstration of God’s grace. The law was not a tool for God to micro-manage their lives, but to help people live and work together.

God saw what happened with the people while Moses was with him on Mount Sinai. The self-directed Israelites decided to build themselves an idol, like the surrounding nations and tribes had. They whined and complained and pitched temper tantrums. They wanted their toys, and they wanted them now.

Imagine what their first-grade teachers would have thought.

Led by Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter, we’re discussing The Grace of God. Too see more posts on this chapter, “Redeemed by Grace,” please visit Sarah at LivingBetween the Lines.

Photograph by George Hodan via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.