Over the years, since grade school I have filled my brain with tons of nonsense and useless information. Things that I am never going to really use unless I was ever allowed on Jeopardy. In both grade school and high school while others were studying math, science, history, and all the other classes that one has to take in school, I was studying Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix, James Taylor, and many others. I would study everything about these bands and want to know all I could down to the most ridiculous things about them.
Which brings me to one of the greatest bands of all time Van Halen! One thing I know about the band is how particular they were with the “fine print” of their contracts. You see when bands sign up to do a concert at a venue, they have a contract and in said contract they put in it whatever they want. Van Halen put in theirs “A bowl of M&M’s in our dressing room but NO BROWN M&M’s in the bowl.” Yes, that happened and if they went in and saw brown ones, they wouldn’t play the concert!
Now I know what you’re think that’s ridiculous!!! But is it?? You see the venue missed the “fine print” so to the band that told them, “What else did the venue miss? Are out lights set up the right way? Is the stage put together correctly? Did they even read the thing?”
In scripture God has given us these things to follow. As a matter of fact, he gave them to Moses to share with us, The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 1-17)! Now these aren’t just something we gloss over because we deem them not important. If that were the case then they wouldn’t be called Commandments! How often does God looked at us and say “Did they even read it? How hard is this to follow? Why won’t they just listen?” Now I know there are times we struggle with following them but the great thing about our God is that he is loving, caring, and forgiving!
So maybe today it’s time to really dive into the scripture and read not just the fine print but everything that God has put down for us to not only read but to follow!
1 And God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” -Exodus 20:1-17, ESV