Lamentations 5:1 Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
Ah my Friends, this plea of Jeremiah is so appropriate to our present situation. ‘Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. Our necks are under persecution: we labour and have no rest.’ (Lam.5:2-5) Yes my people, citizens of far off lands have first call on a lot of our possessions, since we borrowed their money to live an extravagant lifestyle we certainly could not afford by our own means. Now we are in jeopardy of either working for less money, or losing our jobs completely, along with our homes and much of our earthly possessions. Even if we did not lose them, we definitely could not replace them as quickly or easily as we once did. And though it’s become a rough experience, Friends, it was necessary to bring us back to our senses, bring us back down to earth, and the true reality that we could not maintain that excessive lifestyle built on debt, deceit, unwarranted dreams and fairy tales. Like Jeremiah, we’re now lamenting our unfortunate situation, but one brought on by our disobedience to God and His statutes. Does anybody talk about the Ten Commandments these days? Not much it would seem, cause we’re all too busy with our own preoccupations, but people, that’s the standard we ought to maintain. So let’s take a quick look and see how we shape up. (Exodus Chap.20) And the first and most important is, ‘Thou shalt have no other Gods but me.’ Hn! How many ways and times have we broken that eh Friends? Not only worshipping man made idols, but also paying more attention to worldly values and possessions, which, if they consume our lives and keep us away from God can also be considered breaking that first rule. In fact, anything that takes us away, removes our focus from God can be viewed as an idol. That also takes care of rules 2 and 3; to not make graven images of anything nor bow down to them. ‘for I the Lord am a jealous god.’ Guess we didn’t take that seriously enough in spite of all the examples of other societies that tried it our way and failed. Then there’s ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy god in vain.’ We don’t even seem to consider that much anymore. I’m sure of we took a survey of the Ten Commandments, many of us would not get that one. The same with ‘Remember the Sabbath day; to keep it Holy.’ Now that can be a bit contentious, for with the 24/7 society we run nowadays, it’s impossible to shut down everything for one day. In any case, different religions consider different days the Sabbath, so I guess we’ll have to just hope that as many as possible keep holy whatever day their religion considers the Sabbath. And only working six days a week has become impossible for some people, who are either greedy and want to accumulate too much, or they just have to work all the time to make ends meet, what with the way the economic situation’s been going lately. But people we need to take time off regularly, to rest, recuperate and regenerate both our physical and spiritual selves, so we can be productive. A tired, worn out body or spirit is prone to making more mistakes than a well rested one. When we’re overly tired we become a danger to ourselves and those around us. That’s partly why the Lord said to take at least one day off per week. Even He rested after creating the world. Then He says; ‘Honour thy father and thy mother.’ Well some of us could never have heard that judging by the disrespectful manner in which we treat our parents. This generation is definitely the worse so far. I’ve literally heard children tell their parents to f…off. But as in some other areas, I blame the parents for that kind of behaviour. True, they say that you only make the children, not their minds, I still believe that if our behaviour was right in the first place, the children wouldn’t turn out so badly. But then again, even with lots of good parents the children are either too busy with their own lives or simply could not be bothered with their parents, just dumping them in a nursing home, then hardly visiting them, but as soon as the parents move on to greener pastures, they are the first ones screaming to read the wills, and get rather upset if nothing much was left for them. Lots of us possibly ignored the last part of that directive too; ‘that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.’ Perhaps that’s why many of us are dying young. Who knows, because the Lord keeps His promises? Oh my people, if the directives we’ve already covered were the only ones, the Lord might find it in His heart to be truly merciful. But with the next five? No way Jose! ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Chuh! Human life is possibly the cheapest and most forgettable thing on the earth these days. ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ Hn! That’s the way of life, more the rule than the exception. ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ Steups! This brings forth a sad chuckle, for stealing and cheating are again an almost accepted way of life. ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’ Well tell me how many of us don’t lie, gossip and pass on erroneous news eh? Look at our media, especially the tabloids; half of what they report is not true, or slanted to create convenient innuendo that sells papers and boosts ratings. Our admiration of the celebrity nonsense is taking us further and further down Dirt Street to the point where we are immune, or even happy to see these unfortunate people taken down a peg or two. Good things are no longer considered news, only unfortunate, contentious stuff. And if those four rules didn’t do us in, then this last one surely will.’ "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, nor his wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.’ Well Friends, it’s sad to say, that’s what our society is all about; covetousness. That’s a big reason why we’re so deep in the mire of debt and destruction, because we all want what our neighbours have. All the ads that drive our society are based on that negative aspect of our nature. They encourage us to want what others have. It’s what drives the economic engine, encouraging us to buy what we can’t afford and oftimes what we don’t even need. Ah Friends, many of the young don’t even know about the Ten Commandments, and that’s our fault. We did them a great injustice by not teaching them the right way. And look what’s happened to our society now; it’s crumbling, for the simple reason that we did not pay sufficient attention to the basic directives of the Most High God Jehovah. Consequently we’re paying a stiff price for that disobedience now. But with our God, it’s never too late to repent and change our evil ways. He’ll forgive us. That’s His everlasting promise. Therefore, since we’ve been given another chance, let’s use it to build a new society nuh, one based not on the evil principles of mammon, but on God, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, so that at some later date, instead of lamenting, like now, we’ll be celebrating. Much LOVE!…the ten commandments…please take them very seriously…they can mean… life…or …death…
Ah my Friends, this plea of Jeremiah is so appropriate to our present situation. ‘Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. Our necks are under persecution: we labour and have no rest.’ (Lam.5:2-5) Yes my people, citizens of far off lands have first call on a lot of our possessions, since we borrowed their money to live an extravagant lifestyle we certainly could not afford by our own means. Now we are in jeopardy of either working for less money, or losing our jobs completely, along with our homes and much of our earthly possessions. Even if we did not lose them, we definitely could not replace them as quickly or easily as we once did. And though it’s become a rough experience, Friends, it was necessary to bring us back to our senses, bring us back down to earth, and the true reality that we could not maintain that excessive lifestyle built on debt, deceit, unwarranted dreams and fairy tales. Like Jeremiah, we’re now lamenting our unfortunate situation, but one brought on by our disobedience to God and His statutes. Does anybody talk about the Ten Commandments these days? Not much it would seem, cause we’re all too busy with our own preoccupations, but people, that’s the standard we ought to maintain. So let’s take a quick look and see how we shape up. (Exodus Chap.20) And the first and most important is, ‘Thou shalt have no other Gods but me.’ Hn! How many ways and times have we broken that eh Friends? Not only worshipping man made idols, but also paying more attention to worldly values and possessions, which, if they consume our lives and keep us away from God can also be considered breaking that first rule. In fact, anything that takes us away, removes our focus from God can be viewed as an idol. That also takes care of rules 2 and 3; to not make graven images of anything nor bow down to them. ‘for I the Lord am a jealous god.’ Guess we didn’t take that seriously enough in spite of all the examples of other societies that tried it our way and failed. Then there’s ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy god in vain.’ We don’t even seem to consider that much anymore. I’m sure of we took a survey of the Ten Commandments, many of us would not get that one. The same with ‘Remember the Sabbath day; to keep it Holy.’ Now that can be a bit contentious, for with the 24/7 society we run nowadays, it’s impossible to shut down everything for one day. In any case, different religions consider different days the Sabbath, so I guess we’ll have to just hope that as many as possible keep holy whatever day their religion considers the Sabbath. And only working six days a week has become impossible for some people, who are either greedy and want to accumulate too much, or they just have to work all the time to make ends meet, what with the way the economic situation’s been going lately. But people we need to take time off regularly, to rest, recuperate and regenerate both our physical and spiritual selves, so we can be productive. A tired, worn out body or spirit is prone to making more mistakes than a well rested one. When we’re overly tired we become a danger to ourselves and those around us. That’s partly why the Lord said to take at least one day off per week. Even He rested after creating the world. Then He says; ‘Honour thy father and thy mother.’ Well some of us could never have heard that judging by the disrespectful manner in which we treat our parents. This generation is definitely the worse so far. I’ve literally heard children tell their parents to f…off. But as in some other areas, I blame the parents for that kind of behaviour. True, they say that you only make the children, not their minds, I still believe that if our behaviour was right in the first place, the children wouldn’t turn out so badly. But then again, even with lots of good parents the children are either too busy with their own lives or simply could not be bothered with their parents, just dumping them in a nursing home, then hardly visiting them, but as soon as the parents move on to greener pastures, they are the first ones screaming to read the wills, and get rather upset if nothing much was left for them. Lots of us possibly ignored the last part of that directive too; ‘that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.’ Perhaps that’s why many of us are dying young. Who knows, because the Lord keeps His promises? Oh my people, if the directives we’ve already covered were the only ones, the Lord might find it in His heart to be truly merciful. But with the next five? No way Jose! ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Chuh! Human life is possibly the cheapest and most forgettable thing on the earth these days. ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ Hn! That’s the way of life, more the rule than the exception. ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ Steups! This brings forth a sad chuckle, for stealing and cheating are again an almost accepted way of life. ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’ Well tell me how many of us don’t lie, gossip and pass on erroneous news eh? Look at our media, especially the tabloids; half of what they report is not true, or slanted to create convenient innuendo that sells papers and boosts ratings. Our admiration of the celebrity nonsense is taking us further and further down Dirt Street to the point where we are immune, or even happy to see these unfortunate people taken down a peg or two. Good things are no longer considered news, only unfortunate, contentious stuff. And if those four rules didn’t do us in, then this last one surely will.’ "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, nor his wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.’ Well Friends, it’s sad to say, that’s what our society is all about; covetousness. That’s a big reason why we’re so deep in the mire of debt and destruction, because we all want what our neighbours have. All the ads that drive our society are based on that negative aspect of our nature. They encourage us to want what others have. It’s what drives the economic engine, encouraging us to buy what we can’t afford and oftimes what we don’t even need. Ah Friends, many of the young don’t even know about the Ten Commandments, and that’s our fault. We did them a great injustice by not teaching them the right way. And look what’s happened to our society now; it’s crumbling, for the simple reason that we did not pay sufficient attention to the basic directives of the Most High God Jehovah. Consequently we’re paying a stiff price for that disobedience now. But with our God, it’s never too late to repent and change our evil ways. He’ll forgive us. That’s His everlasting promise. Therefore, since we’ve been given another chance, let’s use it to build a new society nuh, one based not on the evil principles of mammon, but on God, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, so that at some later date, instead of lamenting, like now, we’ll be celebrating. Much LOVE!…the ten commandments…please take them very seriously…they can mean… life…or …death…
SCRIP-BITS 