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THE 2ND COMMANDMENT!

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THE 2ND COMMANDMENT By emb

One of our dear readers had a question concerning the 2nd Commandment...

"...I have to ask you, being someone who professes to be a Born Again yourself - aren't all those animated gifs you have on your site, the ones of angels, and pics of Jesus, God, and heavenly things a direct violation of the 2nd Commandment?

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image - any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;"

I wrote her back...

Do you understand the biblical definition for 'graven image'? God is not talking about just any image of a bird, or cat, or angel or sun, moon, or cow that he had formed made and/or created.

Here is what God is talking about and why it is forbidden:

Definition for graven image:
idol: a material effigy that is worshipped;
"thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image"

God wants us to ONLY Worship Him. Christians would not be able to use cameras, or use their God-given ability to paint and draw like Michalangio who painted images for the Roman Catholic church if all images were forbidden. Our homes would not be able to have any pictures unless they were the abstract art. Our books would be devoid of any ocean or fish or bird or cave pictures. How boring! No nativity sets, no baby Jesus or Jesus on the Cross, no stars, moon, sun, etc.

You must understand the bible in full context - not just taking a verse out. To better understand what God is saying we also check out the verses before and after the verse in question.

Before the verse it says... Exod. 20:3-5

[3] Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

The Number 1 Commandment is to put God first and formost - Worship God Only.

To further explain what 'no other gods' means, God continued by saying this (2nd Commandment)...

[4] Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

To further explain what He means by 'graven image', He continued by elaborating and explaining it to us by saying this...

[5] Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

As you see, the WHOLE Context of what God is saying here is that He does not want us to worship any images. WORSHIP GOD ONLY.

The images I have on my website are harmless just like the images on TV or in a coloring book or picture book. They are just pictures. When you buy a bible for your child and it has pictures to go along with the Old Testament stories, do you think it is against God's commandment? I have been a Christian since I was a little girl. Close to 50 years. I don't know of any Christian who believes that Christian artwork is a sin against God or His commandments.

If you were to Google 'Christian Art', you would get this result...
Results 1 - 10 of about 60,000,000 for christian art

That is 60 million! Listings of Churches, Biblical sites, and Galleries of those gifted artists who love God and want to share their talent and love with others.

All these things simply help to enhance our understanding and love for God and our Lord Jesus Christ. As long as we do not go against God's Word and bow down and worship an image rather then the true God and Father of Lord and savior Jesus Christ, then it is just part of God's wonderful creation. He gave us many beautiful and wonderful things to amaze and bless us. Art is just one of them.

Christian Symbols are simply that. Symbols. They are not idols. As long as we aren't praying to them and worshiping them instead of the one and only true God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, all is well.

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As I was thinking about this and praying to God about it, this story came to mind...

>The Master Teacher by emb

The master teacher came into the room and seeing the 3 children, he said to them. "Here is a rule I want you to keep." He then motioned at his workbench and said, "Do not touch anything."

He looked at the children in their eyes and said, "Do not touch anything on this shelf or above this shelf or below this shelf. This is a rule. Do not break it."

He asked the children, "Do you understand? I will be watching you and when I get back later this afternoon, if you have been good and did not break my rule, you will get ice cream!"

All the children cried out in glee and jumped up and down.

"But if you are bad and break my rule," said the Master, you will get no reward of ice cream and you will be punished." With that he left the children alone.

Sally saw a large box in the middle of the room with many puzzle pieces in it. She decided to have fun and work and put the puzzle together.

Tommy quickly went to the building blocks on a rug on the floor. He loved to build things. He smiled as he got busy.

Laura went directly to a chair and sat down with her hands folded in her lap. She saw a large canvas with paper on it and lots of paints, brushes, and drawing items. She loved to draw and paint, but she sat where she was. She watched the other children having fun and pointed her finger at them and told them they would be in big trouble when The Master returned. They were breaking his rule!

They insisted they were being good and tried to ignore her though she was making them feel uneasy and guilty. She was putting them in a bad mood.

The day wore on. Sally had a beautiful landscape picture from her putting her puzzle together. Tommy had a great farm house complete with barn and fence built from his blocks and construction set. Laura, however, had nothing. She still sat on her chair with an unhappy scow on her face.

Finally the Master Teacher came into the room. Laura jumped up and ran to him. "I have been very good, Master, I did not break your rule! I did Not Touch Anything! Not like them!" She looked behind her at the other two children and said, "They were bad! They were playing with your stuff!"

The Master asked each of them if they had touched anything on his workbench. Had they touched anything on the shelf, above the shelf or below the shelf? Each of the two children said, "no".

The Master then turned to Laura and said, "You have disappointed me Laura. While you did not break my rule, I put these things here to bless each of you and you did not use what I had given you. Sally put her puzzle together and made a thing of beauty. Tommy worked hard and built a wonderful farm house with the things I left for him. I gave you a big canvas to make me a beautiful picture with but look at it. It is unused. Not only did you not do anything constructive while I was gone, but you accuse others of being bad when it is you who were not paying attention when I gave you my rule. Truly I said you were not to touch anything but had you listened, you would know that it was pertaining only to my workbench. Not to everything. Because you have not broken my rule, you will not be punished, however for making my good followers feel guilty about doing what is good in my sight, you will not get a reward of ice cream like they will."

Moral of This Story?
Obey the Word of God. Do not take it out of context and accuse others of being in the wrong. That way you won't be disappointing God Himself!

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Always remember, when you take God's Word out of context, you no longer have the truth. You have a lie. The bible tells us the author of lies is the devil himself. He uses lies to trap and snare people so that they are not all they can be through Christ Jesus. He tries everything he can to destroy the Word Of God because the Word of God is our weapon against him. If it is destroyed, we are defenseless.

We who love God must understand that God is our Father. He always wants the best for us. All that He does is to our benefit. Like the bible says...

Matt.7: 9-11
[9] Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
[10] Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
[11] If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

He is not going to make ridiculous rules that vex us instead of bless us.

Just remember, "Sincerity is no guarantee for truth" - A person may honestly believe what they are telling you, but it doesn't mean that what they are telling you is true. If it doesn't seem like something a loving parent would say or do for their child, chances is, it is not something Your loving Father and God would say or do or expect you to do.

To edify means to build up. We are to build each other up in the truth and love of God's Word. Reminding each other of what Christ Jesus did for us. We are free and have sonship rights thanks to him. We can boldly come to the creator of the entire universe without fear knowing that this great one is our Father. It was because Jesus Christ gave his life to made this available for us. Now how cool is that?

1 John 3:2 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he [Christ] shall appear, we shall be like him [Christ]; for we shall see him [Christ] as he [Christ] is.'

That's our Hope - our anchor

Hebrews 6:19a
[19] Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast,

Our Valuable Anchor
http://www.shangralafamilyfun.com/BibleStudy/ouranchor.html

God Bless You Most Abundantly!
:) Shangy!

2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.

May you, and all those you love,
be so blessed and fortunate
as to stand approved before God,
unashamed of your workmanship.

May God Always Bless You and Yours As
You Stand Steadfast on His Word Of Truth!

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