1. You shall have no other gods before me.
Remember we created skits of various things that we "worship" (aka Ryan's rubix cube!). We learned that worship is something we value and spend a lot of our time with, and God should be the first in our lives when it comes to worshipping something.
2. You shall make no idols.
Peter Maus was our main character in this skit. He acted as the boy sitting on the bench reading his Bible when his different friends walked by. One friend was too busy listening to music (who played this part?) to pay attention to what Peter said, while another pair of "girlfriends" (Tyler and Nate!) were too fixated on each other to notice Peter's excitement in his Bible reading. Lastly, his other friend (was it Kenny?) was too preoccupied in sports to talk to Peter. Really, these three friends had found idols in sports, friends, and the media.
Peter was the only one not to make idols in this scenario, and will be blessed by the choice to put God first.
3. You shall not misuse the Lord' s name in vain.
Here, we talked about value, and what the phrase "in vain" meant. We learned that it means, "without purpose," and God was stating that He wants us to value His name. We also talked about the worth of a penny, a 20 dollar bill, a bag of tissues, and a laptop. After looking at the worth of these things, we realized that, depending on the value of the object, you treat it with respectively different care. For instance, pennies are trampled on and thrown on the grown because of their little value, but a laptop is often cared for and carried in protective cases because of its greater value. Likewise, we are to treat God's name with a high value in our lives and with our mouths.
4. Observe the Sabbath by keeping it holy.
This week, I became a chef for the first (and probably only) time. Remember when I showed you guys a clear cup of water? Then, we went through and poured different things in the cup to show various things that take place in our lives during the week. Some things we poured in our cup:
- Monday-- garlic powder-our attitude stinks
- Tuesday--pepper-we listen to the lies of Satan
- Wednesday--blue dye-jealous of something someone else has
- Thursday--Red dye-we hold anger against others around us
- Friday--sprinkles-we have too much of a good thing (too many video games!)
By the "end of the week," your once clean cup was a mess, full of dirt and deposits from the week. In order to get rid of it, you couldn't just pour more water in there; the residue still remained. Instead, you needed to take a day to rest and empty it all out before God. Therefore, God gives us the Sabbath to find rest and empty ourselves before him, that we might be made pure and clean again before the week that is to come.
5. Honor your father and mother so that you may live long.
With this commandment we talked about honoring our parents, and what it means to "honor them." We talked about how when we "honor something" we hold it high in esteem, exalting it and obeying it. We also mentioned how this is the first commandment with a promise. If we are to complete this commandment, God has promised so much more in store!
6. You shall not murder.
Here, we talked about the understanding that life isn’t ours to handle—murder comes from extreme emotions that we have to control. Remember when I took out the chocolate coins and spoke of what Jesus said in Mark 12:13-17? We have God's imprint on us; therefore, we are God’s and belong to him, especially with our lives.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
With this commandment, we talked about God's faithfulness. Remember: He's like Superman, ready to rescue us in our time of need! This commandment urges us to be faithful in our relationships as well, being committed no matter what happens. We looked at these scriptures to show how faithful God is:
- Strength
Psalms 91:13 - Unbeatable power
Psalms 118:6 - Protection
Psalms 91:14 - Examples in history
John 16:33 - Reliability
§Genesis 28:15
8.You shall not steal.
Ryan's candy was stolen during this night! So, we had to hold our "mock election" to determine what stealing really was, and whether or not someone "stole" Ryan's candy as he suspected. During this night, we realized that stealing is taking anything without the acknowledgement of the other person. Unfortunately, the girls did steal his candy--good thing this was all an act!
9.You shall not give false testimony.
When we lie, it's as if we are acting as part of a different family. In stations, we looked at John 8:31-47 we learn that Satan is the father of lies. In Romans 8:14-15, we see that we are children and heirs of God when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. So, we're fooling ourselves when we lie: that's not our father! Like when we were a child and hugged the leg of a stranger in the store, we are "hugging the wrong person" when we lie, obeying Satan's ways, and not God's.
10.You shall not covet.
We did two stations with this commandment: the competition with looking at the other person's project (picture or rubix cube) and the contentment guidelines. We see that it's important to be content with what we have, in order that our eyes would be fixed on our property, and not tempted to look elsewhere. When we do focus at other places, as we saw with the competition, it's much harder to do a good job at what's in your hand. You'll never succeed with your eyes fixed on what's in your neighbor's hand!
(5 basic rules of contentment:
1) Never allow yourself to complain about anything (even the weather).
2) Never picture yourself in any other circumstance or someplace else.
3) Never compare your lot with another’s.
4) Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.
5) Never dwell on tomorrow—remember that tomorrow is God’s, not yours.)
