James 3:5-6  So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

Stories abound of forest fires destroying thousands of acres. Investigation often finds the cause to be a spark from a campfire or a cigarette. James knew of great blazes coming from small fires. He knew how similar our tiny tongue is in causing raging havoc for our neighbor. Have you started any such "fires"? Have you said untrue things about others? Have you said true things about others with intent to harm? Take some time to reflect, to repent, and then to rejoice in God's forgiveness.

Now start some good fires! Firefighters sometimes use fire in a controlled burn to eliminate fuel from the approaching flames. This creates a barrier to further damage. Our tongues can prevent further damage when the latest rumor reaches our ears. "I don't think we should be spreading this around." Our tongues can prevent further damage by a positive word. "Well, I don't know about that, but..." and then say something good about the person. Our tongues can prevent further damage by following that Golden Rule of Jesus. "How would we like it if such things were said about us?"

Speaking of Jesus, we can learn from Him. "He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). Speaking of Jesus, His tongue was silent before His accusers so He could win forgiveness for the sins of our tongues (Mark 14:61). He forgives the destructive fires our tongues start. He moves us to "speak well" and start good fires.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Ephesians 4:28  Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

The Seventh Commandment, like all the Commandments, is foremost an offense against the First Commandment. To steal from another is to place our desire for something above God Almighty, the giver of all good things. In other words, we worship what we intend to steal. We look for satisfaction and security in the materials of this world rather than in our heavenly Father. This is the most eternally devastating aspect of stealing. So consumed in the anticipated joy of what we believe we must have, we underestimate the value of knowing God through His Son, Jesus Christ. The result is the loss not only of whatever we esteemed so highly as to steal but also of the everlasting life, peace, and joy of God's presence in heaven.

Additionally, stealing leads us away from the ministry of Jesus Christ. Paul explains in Ephesians 4:28 that our labor is intended to produce something valuable for our neighbor in need. Jesus came into the world needing nothing. He set aside the goodness of heaven in order to work for sinners. His entire life on earth was a labor of love, from which His Holy Spirit gives to us. Each day, Jesus resisted temptation and obeyed His Father so that, through faith, we could be counted sinless and perfectly obedient. He suffered and died innocently on the cross, from which we receive full forgiveness. Jesus did indeed work to share with those in need!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Hebrews 13:4  Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous.

Satan accused God of building walls of protection all around Job and his family and household (Job 1:10). According to Satan, that's why Job was so upright. Yet Luther says above that those hedges of protection are exactly what God wants around every husband and wife and around every family. Picture a ten-foot-high invisible fence around every marriage, keeping intruders away, building trust in the family, resisting temptations, ensuring safety for the children.

Some would tell us today that marriage is purely a private matter, that the marriage of others are none of our business. Luther couldn't disagree more. God makes marriage the basic building block and foundation of all society. When husbands and wives separate or divorce, it's not a private matter. It affects parents, children, friends, neighbors, church family, and the whole community. In those difficult cases, God is certainly gracious and merciful and will make "all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). Yet God and all of us would much prefer to use this Sixth Commandment as a great fortress of protection around every marriage.

None of us can say about marriage and families, "That's not my business." God commands everyone to help and protect. Onward, Christian soldiers! Fight for husbands and wives and children. Send anniversary cards. Offer to babysit. Be informed and active in what the government is doing to protect marriage. Encourage church attendance and family devotions. And let marriage be held in honor by us all.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

Matthew 5:22  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, "You fool!" will be liable to the hell of fire.

A pastor asked his 8th grade confirmation students if they thought they could keep the Ten Commandments. One brave girl replied, "I'm pretty sure I've broken all of them, except number five. I've never killed anyone."
 

The pastor didn't want to burst her bubble, but he was compelled by Scripture to explain that "murder" doesn't only mean the physical act of ending someone else's life. He shared Jesus' words from the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus redefines murder to include anything that could lead to bodily harm or injury. A lively discussion followed as the class named all the ways we "murder" people today - gossip, lying about people so others will be mad at them, getting in fights. Ideas flowed.

God knows very personally what murder is like - both in its broad definition, when Jesus was lied about and crowds were stirred up against Him, and in its literal sense, when He was kille to pay for sins that He did not commit. Our good and gracious Lord wants to protect all of us from experiencing murders in all its forms.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Ephesians 6:1,4 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.....Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Honoring one's parents and all those in authority over us is meant to help us imitate the honor and love we have for God Almighty. As we recognize all that God gives us in our lives, we praise, thank, serve, and obey Him. We do this as we recognize how much we have through Him.
 

We then have the opportunity to praise, thank, and lovingly serve and obey those He has given to help us live well in life. The world, Satan, and death work desperately to influence us to dishonor God through sin and selfishness. They work to influence us to dishonor our parents, our family members, and all those around us. They want us to believe that the best honor is to honor ourselves over all else. And that leads to guilt and condemnation before God.

So we ask God to forgive us because of Jesus' honorable gift of His life, death, and resurrection. We ask Him to empower us to respect and love those He has called to help us live faithful lives. While being family may be tough in this day and age, it is not impossible with the God of love leading us in our day-to-day living.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 50:14-15  Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.

It is a little surprising that the Creator of the cosmos has a name. After all, before creation, God was alone. He had no one to talk to. Yet He does have a name - many names, in fact - I Am; Yahweh; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the Lord. We know these names only because He has revealed them to us. This means He is not a farr-off, uncaring God. Rather, He wants us to talk to Him. He wants us to thank Him for all He has given us, and He wants us to call on Him in times of trouble because He loves us and will take care of us.

How shameful it is, then, when we use His name to wish evil on others or lead them astray. And how ungrateful we are when we do not thank Him for His gifts or call on Him when we need help. To know His name and His goodness without talking to Him is just as sinful as using His name to curse or deceive. Let us give thanks, then, that He has revealed to us the only name under heaven by which one may be saved: the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is never too late to ask Jesus for help and forgiveness, and "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Joel 2:32). That is what faith does: it calls to the Lord for help in the day of trouble.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Bill loves bow hunting. He loves it so much that he began setting boundaries for himself on how much time he spent in the woods, lest his marriage take a deer season size hit. His wife loves reading. She loves it so much that her children have to pass a hand in between her face and the book in order to get her attention. Some people love making their homes beautiful; some people love work; some people love their ideas or their minds. Luther tells us that our hearts are inclined to one interest or another. We are all leaning into something, making something the most important part of the day, that season, or this life. We can also do this with important relationships: loving our children, our spouse, or our friends so much that it crowds out the space intended for God.

Picture inclination not just as letters on a paper but as an action of the whole body. Whatever it is, we love it so much that we lean toward it rather than toward God. We rest our head on its chest; we snuggle to it so close that we can hear its heartbeat. This type of relationship is reserved only for God. We are invited to incline to Him, to lean into His heart and into His Word, and He overflows what we need for all the rest - time, energy, love, attention, and resources. Our inclination is intended only for One - the One who sacrificed everything, leaning into our world, to save us.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,