Page 7 - Good News June 2009 paper

“You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3).
A class of college students had the assignment of ranking the Ten
Commandments in order of importance as they saw them. The
students ended up reversing the order. At the bottom of the list, they
placed the command “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Where would you have ranked this commandment? Many people
today utterly forget their Creator. They offer Him no praise or
thanks. They don’t even give Him a second thought.
When God says we must have no other gods before Him, He doesn’t
give us free license to have other gods as long as we place Him in
front of the line. God didn’t want the Israelites - or us - to have any
other gods at all.
The Hebrew people lived in the midst of a society that worshipped
the gods Moloch, Baal, and Mammon. Moloch was the god of
cruelty who demanded child sacrifices. Baal was the god of lust.
Mammon was the god of money. Many today still worship these
three gods, although not by the same names.
The First Commandment covers a multitude of actions we should
avoid. Some of the sins forbidden by the First Commandment are:
atheism (denying or not having the true God); idolatry (worship-
ping any other god instead of the one true God); not standing up for
God; neglect of anything due or required by Him; hatred of God;
self-love and self-seeking (putting self above God); anything that
takes our mind off God completely or in part, such as unbelief,
heresy, distrust, despair, hardness of heart, and pride; tempting
God; lukewarmness; consulting with the devil; slighting and
despising God; resisting and grieving His Spirit; and accusing God
falsely.
After reviewing such a list, who can possibly claim not to have
violated this commandment? But, thankfully, if we confess our
sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
Do you need to put away any behaviour that hinders you from
honouring GOD first and completely?
PRAYER: Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be of
Thee. Let my first impulse be to worship Thee. Let my first action be
to kneel before Thee in prayer.
John Baillie (www.coralridge.org )