Don’t go hankering after your buddy’s stuff. That’s the gist of the tenth commandment, which speaks against discontentment with one’s lot in life. To be more accurate, the tenth commandment states, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, [ Read More ]
The story is told of a man who received a call from the middle school down the road. The voice on the other end of the line said, “Sir, we are calling because your son has become a serial liar.” To which the man responded, “Well, he must be pretty good, because I don’t have [ Read More ]
During the winter of 2003, I was drugged and robbed when abroad on an overseas trip. I had never undergone such a thing, and never before had I experienced the subsequent cocktail of anger, fear, and indignation. That is because God created a world in which individuals have a right to their own body, heart, [ Read More ]
“Sex outside of marriage,” Woody Allen once said, “is a pretty empty experience. But as far as empty experiences go, it’s a pretty good one.” The famous comedian’s joke might be good for a chuckle but, in the end, his quip isn’t quite right. God designed sex for marriage and sex outside of marriage is [ Read More ]
Few commandments are more immediately relevant to our Western and American ills than the sixth, often translated as, “You shall not murder” but better translated as, “You shall not kill unflawfully” (Ex 20:13). God created all things, living and non-living, and for that reason we should give all things their proper respect. Most importantly, God [ Read More ]
What a happy, life-altering, exhausting, and intimidating thing it is to be a parent. There are moments of undeniable joy and laughter—holding your newborn, hearing him laugh for the first time, singing to her, teaching him to walk, experiencing her first words. Who doesn’t have fond memories of their child saying, “I love you mommy” [ Read More ]
One Saturday morning, a mother went in to wake her son and tell him it was time to get ready for temple. “I’m not going,” he replied. “Why not?” she asked. “I’ll give you two good reasons,” he said. “One, they don’t like me, and two, I don’t like them.” His mother replied, “I’ll give [ Read More ]
When my children were toddlers, I learned the value of rules and their enforcement. A toddler’s abilities, we might say, far outstrip their wisdom. Much of what they are “free” to do could harm them. For example, I found myself saying “No, Riley, you may not climb on top of the glass-topped coffee table and [ Read More ]
Imagine if a woman’s husband found out that his wife routinely told her friends, “I like to see my husband as a 6’2” Antonio Banderas who lifts weights, whose perfect idea of date night is perusing the aisles at TJ Maxx, who drinks froufrou smoothies made out of strawberry, and who delights in talking about [ Read More ]
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. (Ex. 20:3) The first commandment is absolutely foundational, utterly basic, to individual and societal flourishing. The truly good life starts with accepting this command as the rule of life. In Israel’s day, the nations were thoroughly committed polytheists. They viewed their own gods as finite and [ Read More ]