A lot of people get really exercised when the subject of the Ten Commandments comes up. They insist that they be removed from public places because their freedom of religion (or lack thereof) is infringed by the mere presence of the Commandments.

I guess those same people would like to rewrite history so that the Jews and their history would disappear as well.

As for me, I find that much, if not all of the rest of Judeo-Christian faith rests on those few words of Law and that our entire system of Justice is in one way or another founded upon it.

I wonder if those "church and state separatists" would like to see our legal system fade into memory as well?

Without getting too political, God said quite plainly "2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me."

Now, what did He mean by that? Well, here's my belief: we should put God first and love Him entirely, serve Him to the best of our ability, and keep Him in our thoughts continually. If we make God an afterthought, ignore Him in all but the worst of times, and serve Him only when its convenient, how can we expect Him listen to us?

What sort of gods could we put before THE God? You name it! We could put material possessions first; we could put relationships first. We could put drugs or alcohol first; we could put career first. We could put power first; we could put money first. We could put ALL of those things first! The fact is, God doesn't want us to put ANYTHING else ahead of Him!

Tough to do, but they're not called "commandments" for nothing!

Jesus had a thing or two to say on the matter. When questioned about "the greatest commandment," Jesus said, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40)

Did you get that? Everything else in the bible, i.e., in all of God's Word, is based on these two commandments! So, if you "get" this one little passage, everything else makes sense and will fall in line!

So, if it's that simple, why did we need Jesus to pay our sin debt and rescue us?

That one's a little tougher! The fact is, we're not CAPABLE of following the commandments without divine help! None of us, not even one of us, can keep from straying from God!

Romans 3:10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." 13"Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." 14"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." 15"Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16ruin and misery mark their ways, 17and the way of peace they do not know." 18"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

The good new is this: God DID send us help! He sent the only sacrifice that He would accept; His only Son! If we will accept His free gift and ask Jesus to live in us and help us, He is faithful to do just that and THEN following the commandments isn't such a hard thing after all!

And seeing them in a public place isn't offensive any more, either!