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What does God require in the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments?
Sixth, that we do not hurt,or hate, or be hostile to our neighbor, but be patient and peaceful, pursuing even our enemies with love. Seventh, that we abstain from sexual immorality and live purely and faithfully, whether in marriage or in single life, avoiding all impure actions, looks, words, thoughts, or desires, and whatever might lead to them. Eighth, that we do not take without permission that which belongs to someone else, nor withhold any good from someone we might benefit. (Romans 13:9) (from here)

'Love one another.' 'Love does no harm to its neighbour.' How simple it is, Lord. The commands - 'Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal.' - how simple they are. And neither should we be horrified by your Son's raising of the bar. To not be people of anger and lust and grasping - why should this be so hard? Why not, like him, endure suffering without retaliating or making threats? Why not rejoice in our wives, satisfied by their breasts and intoxicated by their love? Why not be content whether well fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want?

Because it is hard, Lord: it is terribly, depressingly hard. Because we know we cannot even before we try. Because we don't even like the thought of such a life - hungry yet content, beaten yet enduring. You ask too much and make us picture things happening to us that we'd rather think of as impossible. And then you ask still more of us and we feel that there's too much degradation, too much meek self-abasement, no fighting, no striving to improve our plight, no recourse to justice.

But, Lord, they treated you this way so that all might go well for us. So that whatever we might suffer in this life, you are ever by our side and on our side, and we never need fear the reckoning that comes after death. Justice has been resolved strangely, but it has been resolved and one day will reach its consummation. It's because of this that we can endure and not give way to hate or envy. Help me do it! Help me ever look to the joys and recompense of heaven! Help me remember what joys and blessed things I have now! Help me even to love! Help me help others do this! Amen.

Be responsible for your people; don't be responsible for your people / 10

What does God require in the fourth and fifth commandments?
Fourth, that on the Sabbath day we spend time in public and private worship of God, rest from routine employment, serve the Lord and others, and so anticipate the eternal Sabbath. Fifth, that we love and honor our father and our mother, submitting to their godly discipline and direction. (Leviticus 19:3) (from here)

With you is our rest, our home, and our family. We have some of these now, and when they are good it makes us happy and whole. But when they are not, we still have hope - in the greater rest we will enjoy on that eternal Sabbath day, and in the perfect relationship and belonging we will know as we eat and walk with you.

Let us respond to these blessings with glad obedience. Let us rest from our work and find spiritual and physical refreshment together with the brothers and sisters we have in you. And as in giving life to us and caring for us, our parents reflect something of who you are, let us play the lovely part of showing them love, honour and respect.

Amen. May it be so.

Be responsible for your people; don't be responsible for your people / 9

What does God require in the first, second, and third commandments?
First, that we know and trust God as the only true and living God. Second, that we avoid all idolatry and do not worship God improperly. Third, that we treat God’s name with fear and reverence, honoring also his Word and works. (Deuteronomy 6:13-14) (from here)

We are to live according to reality - to worship you, the One God who exists, and to worship you as you are. We are not to strive or long for or delight in anything else, be it real or of our imagining, as if it were better or more mighty that the One God, almighty in power, goodness, and perfection. We are not to speak or act as if you are something other than what you have revealed yourself to be.

Lord, it is somehow strange for us that what is good and what is real should so exactly adhere. We are so steeped in postmodernism that we forget how key is truth, that at the heart of it all you really exist and you really are the one, good, perfect, mighty God, and that it is because of the true reality of this that we are to worship you and you alone. You are not some Wizard of Oz, posturing and cravenly demanding obsequience, but Almighty God who made us and before whom we would die, were we to see you face-to-face. And it is because you exist and are such a God that it is so monumentally stupid and perverse of us to speak or act as if there were many gods, or as if we looked to the sky and found you no bigger than our imaginings, no different than our desires.

And it was while we railed against you or quietly dismissed you that you stooped low to have mercy on us, and yet still as your children, we struggle to trust you and wholly give you our allegience. Instead of enjoying the good with which you bless us and praising you for it, we slyly give it our true love. Forgive us again, Lord. We praise you for who you are and want to know you better, for this knowledge is what we need to fill our hearts and make good our deeds. Help me, help my people, with this.

Be responsible for your people; don't be responsible for your people / 8

What is the law of God stated in the Ten Commandments?
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below—you shall not bow down to them or worship them. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. You shall not covet. (Exodus 20:3 & Deuteronomy 5:7) (from here)

Lord God Almighty, thank you for giving us these basic details of how we are to live, for making it sufficiently practical that we can figure out what it looks like in our different contexts and times. We must love you and not worship idols, nor use your name irreverently, and we are to pass a day each week intimately with you. We must love our neighbour by not doing to him things that we would hate - dishonouring our parents, murdering, cheating on our spouse, stealing, lying and slandering, envying what belongs to another. By these self-centered, self-serving deeds our society is undone. But by giving honour where it is due, by not reacting to misfortune or illtreatment with rage, by keeping the vows and covenants we have made, by being content with what we have, and by speaking what is true - trusting in the Lord's protection - with these deeds all is well with our soul and well between us and our fellow man.

Lord, thank you for this. Thank you for the realism of it, for the call to not add to the world's evil and injustice, for the possibility of individual, mass good. Were we like this Lord - cheerfully, humbly, unshakeably devoted to you, and living with upright, tender-hearted, generous consideration of others. How pitiful and rank that we prefer to be other.

Thank you for your Son, that he was this man, and that, in him, we are too. Thank you for freeing us from sin and Satan, so now we can always chose the good. Help us do it. Give us great love for you and others. May I grow in this, to show it and encourage my sisters in it. May they do this for me too.

Amen and amen.

Be responsible for your people; don't be responsible for your people / 7

What does the law of God require?
Personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience; that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love our neighbor as ourselves.What God forbids should never be done and what God commands should always be done. (Matthew 22:37-40) (from here)

We love because you first loved us. We love because you taught us what love is, because love is who you are and apart from you a thing we would never have imagined. This is your law - to love, to love you, and to love our neighbour. It is from this place of loving you that we act to please you, not because we are coldly enamored with duty or because we are scared. This is amazing. This is what is not understood.

Fill me with this wholehearted, integral love which I have but feebly. Forgive me for when I neither feel nor think nor live this way. Help me help my women to see that this is what you ask, this is what you pardon, it is what you give. May they grow in this love in every fibre of their being, even as I do.

Amen and amen

Be responsible for your people; don't be responsible for your people / 6

How can we glorify God?
We glorify God by enjoying him, loving him, trusting him, and by obeying his will, commands, and law. (Deuteronomy 11:1) (from here)

God, we are quick to proclaim and celebrate, follow and sacrifice ourselves for many things - for bands, technology, careers, children. Our actions say these things are everything, and sometimes we fail to see that they are not. Other times we at last obtain a thing long strived-for - and still we are not satisfied.

How foolish we are not to do this with you. Your perfections so complete, beautiful and majestic that it is fitting to glorify you - there's nothing even slightly unhinged in it. Perhaps we struggle to glorify you as we should because it's hard for you to comprehend your perfections-

May that struggle be cause for more glory and more trust as we see that you are even better and more powerful than we can know. May this knowledge make us quick to trust you, and trusting, to obey. May this glad, eager obedience speak well of you. May our lives bring you glory. If I do nothing else, may I help my women with this - to know you better, and knowing you, cherish and love you more, and loving you, obey you happily and speak of you warmly and with great joy and pride.

Lift the veils from our eyes, soften our brutal hearts, and strengthen our feeble knees that we might see and glorify you.

Be responsible for your people; don't be responsible for your people / 5

What else did God create?
God created all things by his powerful Word, and all his creation was very good; everything flourished under his loving rule. (Genesis 1:31) (from here)


Father, Son and Holy Spirit, out of nothing you made all that is. You made it very good. And the pinnacle of all your creation was man. You wished to delight and bless us with all else and grant us the nobility of ruling all under you. Father, the minuteness and vastness and intricacy of what you have made and how all hangs together so finely is too much for me. It is so awesome it burdens my mind. I cannot fathom it and, if I make the attempt, it turns my stomach. So I prefer not to think on it. Yet the knowledge that such splendour, such genius complexity exists goes with me and I am in awe.

How is it that people accuse, mock and dimiss you as if you were like us, as if you were a man, only bigger, and foolish or mean? You are ALMIGHTY GOD, Creator of all that is, of the very sunsets that make us feel spiritual, of all we neither know nor understand.

This world continues each passing day because you sustain it. We breathe and live because you give us what we need and you keep our bodies working. Again, this is too much for me and it frightens me when I should be glad. Forgive me Lord, that before such constant, enduring, lavish examples of your kindness, I doubt that you are good. I ought be humble, but I need not fear. Help me trust that you work all out for my good, that you who are attentive and tender towards sparrows care for me, that the worst that can happen - that I might die and be with you - truely is a better good. Let me not be able to keep from sharing this glad assurance with my people. Let me entrust their lives to you.

Be responsible for your people; don't be responsible for your people / 4

How and why did God create us?
God created us male and female in his own image to know him, love him, live with him, and glorify him.And it is right that we who were created by God should live to his glory. (Genesis 1:27) (from here)


Creator God, you knit me together, from sperm and egg you made me, a new person in the world! And you have repeated this miracle more times over than can be counted. You did it even more strangely with Adam and Eve. You made us, you made each of us, because you wanted to and you could.

You made us different to plants and animals - we have the honour of being made in your image. We are not you - even in that brief time of purity, we were not you - but we are like you. We were more like you then, but we are still like you now, though without Christ every beauteous, godly part of us is battered and perversely thred. But in Christ, we become part of his perfect humanity. Because we are in him, you look at us and see one whose every action and thought was true to you.

Change our hearts, Lord, so we become more like that in our selves; so our lives shout great things about you; so people look at us and say we've "got something special going on, something spiritual"; so our big-heartedness and uprightness tell of your beauty and justice. Let us do this as husbands and wives, daughters and fathers, as brothers and sisters in you, because this is how you made us. We reflect your glory as together we live out this life.

Thank you for the honour of being made like you and being given the privilege of representing you, that through our small lives your Name might be glorified. We are ambassadors of a perfect Prime Minister, princes of a perfect King, executives of a perfect CEO, head teachers of a perfect Principal. These examples are strange because we do not experience perfect authority in our life, but we can imagine. May we delight to use the talents, strengths, opportunities and riches you give us to serve you and show your greatness. May this be everything to us. May you be our King. Help us to help one another do this better. Help us to help each other lift our eyes to you, marvel in you, and give our lives to you, our great and gracious King.

Be responsible for your people; don't be responsible for your people / 3

How many persons are there in God?
There are three persons in the one true and living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are the same in substance, equal in power and glory. (2 Corinthians 13:14) (from here)


Father God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, this world you made is old, but you are older yet. This world is real, it's not of our imagining, but it did not think itself up or create itself out of nothing - you designed and wrought it. You are the Reality at bottom of all this. There are things we have and things we instinctively look to that seem self-evident to us, and that is because of you, who are One Triune God. We are each unique and uniquely precious, and we each have a part to play, if we are male or female, child or adult, married or single, and according to our talents and circumstances. All this because you are Three. And yet we do not each play a solitary, discordant part. We turn to the people around us, we love them, we each contribute what we can, working and playing together in one accord. All this because you are One.

Thank you and praise you, Mighty God. Forgive me for when I take your Nature for granted, as if it were an unremarkable thing. Without you, we would never have imagined such a God - we would have one, or we would have many. Help me to love and worship you as you are, the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Help me to help my people do the same, and to delight in the love and unity-in-diversity we know because of who you are. Thank you for the reassurance that you are not only in favour of human community and uniqueness to the service of all, to a common end - it is the truest expression of who we are, under you. Help me to play my part in my work and marriage, and help me to encourage and equip my women to play their part too, with great joy, satisfaction, and affection, ever wondering at you, ever bowing before you, ever resting in your care.

Be responsible for your people; don't be responsible for your people / 2

What is God? 
God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in his power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. Nothing happens except through him and by his will. (Psalm 86:8-10 & 15) (from here)


God, now that I have been reminded a little of who you are - or much, but can only understand a little - it is strange that I may address you. You who are infinite (and eternal and unchangeable) in power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth, why do you trouble yourself with me? Yet you do and have done most incredibly. You have loved, and loved me, as no-one else has ever loved or ever will. Your death for me so ground-breaking that it is now the definition of love. By that one deed we may understand what love is, though we will never understand. You are the one God, perfect and limitless in your goodness and power, the God who troubles himself with every thing and every passing moment under the sun. And you will, and you do, trouble yourself with 'my women', for they are yours. A thousand thousand times better than me, you know their hearts and lives, their ugly failures and beautiful triumphs. Everything is okay. They are in your care.

Be responsible for your people; don't be responsible for your people / 1

I kinda hit a wall there, towards the end of last year (all of seven days ago it would have been "the end of this year"). I think I've nutted out how to stop this happening again going forward. You will see what have been the problems in the solutions I've found - rest well each day, by taking the evening off or the morning if I've got work stuff on in the evening; replenish my (introvert) energies, by having Monday as a thinking-writing-listening, people-free day; have realistic expectations of what I can do when in the Chilean year; remember that God is ultimately responsible for his people and will see them through.

It's the last of these that this post's really about. I've gone back to basics (as we must always!) with the New City Catechism. (If you have kids or find the antique language of the commentary and prayers hard to follow, just click on the settings cog and change to 'Child Mode'.) My memory being what it is, I'm doing no more than having a read and a ponder, then writing my own prayer, which I thought I might share with you.

What is our only hope in life and death? 
That we are not our own but belong, body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ. (Romans 14:7-8)


Dear Lord Jesus, I belong to you. I am yours; I am not my own. Thank you for purchasing me, for your willingness to pay with your blood. Thank you that you did this for my brothers and sisters too, that this is what binds us together, what motivates and makes possible our love for each other, and what has made us secure unto heaven. Thank you that in the responsibility I feel as a leader and for these people, I don't need to feel - nor should I feel - even a gram, a milligram of responsibility for their perseverance in the faith. It would be good to encourage and strengthen them and perhaps I am even called to do it, but it is you, O Lord, who will shepherd them safely through, however excellent or poor my efforts be.