Romans 3:23-24… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

I have been listening to all the stuff that people have been saying about Josh Dugger. I don’t really watch their show. But that is only because I don’t watch a lot of reality shows unless it is Big Brother. It seems to me that the media is using what Josh did as a 14 yr old child as a tool to bring down the entire family. Some are saying that the Duggers is part of a dangerous cult among other things.

I guess this is a personal thing for me because I knew a young man that was 13 I believe at the time and he committed sodomy against a younger child. Not only did it change the life of a young boy, but also the teenager. The teenager carried the guilt and what he would call demons from that event that forever changed his life. He ended up committing suicide because of those demons among other things. He went to professional counseling and so did the other young man. The family of the child forgave the abuser and it was dealt with in a way that helped both of the victim and the perpetrator.

I am not one that is going to condemn Josh for something that happened when he was so young. I don’t know much about this family but I do know that no matter what they are going through, that God is front and center. From my understanding his family and others seeked help from outside of their family and Josh admitted his wrong doings and asked for forgiveness from those he hurt the most. This whole media thing is like they are punishing the families and the victims all over again. What right do I or anyone else have in judging him? Thankfully we have a whole world that is full of perfect people that never done anything wrong when they were teenagers or adults. While what he did was very serious and I don’t want to take away from the seriousness of this, but I do want to say that I for one can say that I am very far from perfect and according to the standards of the media and all the perfect people I should be hung out to dry and put to death by some people or countries standards.

While I am talking about sin and specifically the sins I have committed I would say I have a long list. I have pretty much broke every commandment there is. If you don’t know how many there are, there are 10 of them. Now if you ask my husband he will refer to a movie with Mel Brooks called ‘History of the World. Where Mel Brooks says there are 15 commandments. He then drops one of the stone tablets and he then says, “We have Ten Commandments.” My husband loves this movie. But seriously in the Bible there are “Ten Commandments”.

• First Commandment: I shall have no other God’s before me

This is one of those commandments that we broke all the time and probably everyday. Where I break this commandment is when I put more of an importance on”things”. In the way I think of this commandment I would think of power, the almighty buck (money), sex, computers, entertainment or whatever gods that makes us a slave to them instead of Jehovah God. One of the examples I have of me breaking this commandment is when I want to stay home from church and play on Facebook instead of going to church and worshiping God. I try to keep myself in check.

Verdict: Guilty as Charged- Sentence is suspended due to Christ paying my debt

• Second Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Worship Any Graven Images

As I was talking to my grandsons about the “Ten Commandments”, I was asking them what they thought this one meant. They didn’t really understand it. When we were discussing this, this commandment is about anything that we bow down to and worship instead of serving God. Here in America there are those who live in massive mansions and everything is on the grandest of scales. Churches are guilty of this also. There are mega churches that are lavish and the salaries of those who are church leaders can be into the millions each year. I don’t want to offend any churches by this comment, but I do think about those churches who have all these statues and they are bigger than life. Some of these statues are made of gold and the best materials they could find. I also don’t have a picture of Jesus in my house since we don’t really know what He looked like. Well, now I do. I got it from my moms house recently. I find it sad that people will pray to those images thinking that they are praying to God. Those images or how the Bible talked about the golden calf’s will be destroyed. As I think about how I break this commandment, I would say that I like nice things. There are things in my life that has gotten in the way of God’s purpose in my life, when I should be glorifying God, not man or things.

Verdict: Guilty as Charged- Sentence is suspended due to Christ paying my debt

• Third Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of the Lord Thy God in Vain

This is one of those commandments that I had the hardest time with. The normal language and accepted language is swearing or cursing. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t hear someone saying the “God “D” word, “F” word and a whole arsenal of other words. Even those those profess to say they are Christians are accepting of this language. I’m not going to judge others because I have no place in doing that. I can say that through my own experiences I use to swear like a sailor. About 20 yrs ago, I didn’t even pay attention to what I was saying or how I was saying it. There came a day that I was the only one in a room that was swearing and God gave me a reality check. I felt so much guilt when I heard what I was saying and realized that I wasn’t representing Christ. The more I would say things and take the name of God in vain, the further from Him I got. It was at that point in my life that I had to ask for forgiveness and knock off what I was saying. I still have to work on my thought process though. There are times in my brain and heart that I am giving someone a what for. Even thinking or feeling is the same as doing.

Verdict: Guilty as Charged- Sentence is suspended due to Christ paying my debt

• Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath Day to Rest and Keep it Holy

Wow, this commandment has been part of a long debate. The reason I say that is because if you look at the calender the actual 7th day is a Saturday, which would be the true Sabbath. The majority of those who go to church will go on a Sunday. There are some places also that is trying to make Sunday just like any other day of the work week. Some states have what is called a blue law. The area I live in for the most part besides restaurants will have businesses closed. That is changing though. Sunday is like any other day and stores are open and money is needing to be made. This is one of those commandments that I need to work on more. My husband is a truck driver and usually we only have a couple days or one day a week to do our things. In my heart though, I know that on the Sabbath, that day should be for showing reverence to God and worshiping Him. I also know that at-least for myself that everyday needs to be about God, not just one day a week.

Verdict: Guilty as Charged- Sentence is suspended due to Christ paying my debt

Fifth Commandment: Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother

This is one of those commandments that says a lot about our society. I have done past blog posts about honoring parents. There is a difference in how we honor our parents depending on our age and circumstances. The way that I was raised, there wasn’t much honoring or respecting of my parents due to choices and lifestyles that they led. I was raised in a home where God wasn’t a part of it. I did go to church and it was a daily struggle. When they would do sermons on honoring our parents, this was the hardest of all commandments for me. The ways of the world now days is far from honoring the family unit. Parents are shoved aside and placed in care centers, neglected, shamed and ridiculed. As a child we are taught that we should honor and obey. There isn’t much of that going on and when the news is turned on, we hear about children killing parents, parents killing children, perversion, violence, pornography, abuse and a whole host of other things. Satan and evil is destroying people and families all over the world.

As a child and as an adult, I had/have little respect for my parents. Not because I didn’t love them because I do. When it came to honoring and obeying, I chose not to do that since by doing so, it was against what the Bible taught. For me, by obeying them, it would mean living a life that is filled with immorality and selfishness.

Verdict: Guilty as Charged- Sentence is suspended due to Christ paying my debt

I will continue this post and will be covering the other 5 commandments, which are;

• Thou Shalt Not Kill
• Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery
• Thou Shalt Not Steal
• Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness
• Thou Shalt Not Covet Anything That is Thy Neighbor’s