Monday, April 22, 2013

S is for Scripture


I come from a long line of preachers. I didn't realize how long until I joined ancestry.com.

My mother's dad was a Baptist preacher. That's probably why she's such a scrapper. They say there's no one more rebellious than a preacher's kid. Here's a picture of my grandfather when he was ordained. See how he's looking upward? He was very dramatic--guess that's where I get my drama. I wonder what my grandma was thinking.

My parents were very moral, hard-working people. I don't know that I'd call them godly people--to me, godly, means Christ-like, and I've never known anyone who was Christ-like. As I said in a previous post, my dad was ridiculed for being quiet and shy. My mother was bullied because she had bright red hair and a lot of freckles. She told me because her eyebrows and lashes were very light, kids called her pig-eyes. My mother was tough--she could take it, but the words did their damage. She never forgot them. She was in her late 60s when she went to an esthetician for permanent make-up, her eyes lined and her lips more defined.

Sad how we can never let go of those things that wound us.
Wouldn't life be simple if we could all live by the Golden Rule and treat others the way we want to be treated.

Matthew 7:12

12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (NIV)

Do you know The Ten Commandments? Can you list each commandment? Living them would certainly simplify life on this earth.
 
The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV)
1
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or 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; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6
“You shall not murder.
7
“You shall not commit adultery.
8
“You shall not steal.
9
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10
“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”


Do you have a favorite scripture? Can you quote your mom or dad's favorite scripture? Or do you have one you quote when you're happy, sad, afraid or before you sit down to write? Share.

3 comments:

Sanderella said...

Yes I have never known anyone that was Christ like either. I am a Christian, but do not believe in organized religion or their spokespersons. I have always felt it was one persons thoughts, and we all have them in interpreting the bible, and church isn't a place for politics. Then there are tax issues/shelters,donation abuses, preachers living high on the hog, and so on. So I simply pay no attention, and do not donate to religious organizations, nor do I open my front door to them when the flocks are out a calling....

Charles Gramlich said...

As far as I know, no one in my family was ever a preacher. I'm probably the closest we got, as a teacher.

Ian Anderson said...

I am a preacher's kid. Sandy, I understand your frustrations, but after all, Christians are just as broken as the next person. If you're looking for a perfect Christian, or a perfect church, you won't find one until Christ himself returns.

My favorite passage of scripture comes from Isaiah 11. The picture of perfection in that chapter is what I long for - the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.