I Know You're Here
Theme of the Week: Your Plumb Line
Tuesday, April 8, 2003
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Key Bible Verse: "Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God" (Exodus 20:7). Bonus Reading:Jeremiah 2:4-13
I remember hearing a chapel message at Wheaton College during the 1970s, when the Death of God movement had reached its peak. Professor Robert Webber spoke on the third commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." We usually interpret that in a narrow sense of prohibiting swearing, said Webber, who proceeded to expand its meaning to "never live as though God doesn't exist." Or, stated positively, "Always live in awareness of God's existence." The more I study the commandment in its environment, the more I agree with Webber. The key to living in such awareness must be found in the great Jewish legacy of the Old Testament.
When we look back on the covenant between God and the ancient Hebrews, what stands out to us is its strictness, the seeming arbitrariness of some of its laws. I see no such reaction among the Hebrews themselves. Few of them pleaded with God to loosen the dietary restrictions or eliminate some of their religious obligations. They seemed, rather, relieved that their God, unlike the pagan gods around them, had agreed to define a relationship with them.
—Philip Yancey in The Bible Jesus Read
My Response: I will live today aware of God's constant presence.
Thought to Apply: Let us therefore yield ourselves and bow to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, which can neither err nor deceive.
—Augustine of Hippo (church leader)
Adapted fromThe Bible Jesus Read (Zondervan, 1999) by permission.
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Thank you, holy God, for clearly revealing Your standards. Please enable me to align my life with them.
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