Book Review

Edith Schaeffer's " Ten Things Parents Must Teach their Children (and learn for themselves)"

Lady L'Abri approached the ten commandments in a way that I had not viewed them before. She continually asked the questions of "Who am I" and "What fulfills me?" She states: "The warped view forgets that God has made people and that He has made the rules in line with who they are, and with who they really are." The really are is what kept me sorrowful as I read this book. I know that I'm not patient, kind, humble, or bear well with others. But I had always thought that as far as the 10 commandments were concerned I was earning (ha,ha) a pretty solid B. How wrong I was.

I have many examples (more than the 10!) but I will leave you with this one quote that struck me into a stunned silence as to how I break # 3:

" How often do people forge God's name to a request, or an order, or a promise, or a message of some kind? It is a serious thing to say, "God told me you were to give this," or "God told me I should come and give you this message" unless it is absolutely certain that the command, the request, the message came from God. There is too frequently a very light and easy use of the phrase, "God told me" when the ideas have come from a person's own mind and have not at all been revelations from God. The use of God's name, as if one had a signed note from Him, is a very serious thing to attach to a request one is making of someone else to do something in one area or another of Christian work. A claim to have the right to use God's name in this way can be a serious forgery. To clam to know exactly what God wants another person to do is to usurp the place of the Holy Spirit who is meant to lead the people of God, the sheep of the Shepherd, the believers, individually."

God has revealed himself in His word and I as one of his representatives on this earth, should be pointing others back to His word. His desires for me are simple and yet I misshape them into incongruous lists and pharisaism. This was a great encouragement to be in the Word and continue to commit it to memory. My prayer is for His words to come from my mouth untainted.