No. 497 - WHERE ARE THOSE MISSING COMMANDMENTS?

No. 497

Jim Davidson - NEWSPAPER COLUMN

WHERE ARE THOSE MISSING COMMANDMENTS?

If you are at least 50 years of age, may I ask you a couple of somewhat
personal questions? When you were growing up, did you know clearly what was
right and what was wrong? And here is the second question: Do you think the
vast majority of our young people today clearly know right from wrong?
Just ponder those important questions for a little while, and as you do,
permit me to tell you about a fantastic lady I met a few months ago. After
speaking to the Chamber of Commerce banquet in Vandalia, Illinois, Randy and
Patty Sprague came up and purchased a copy of my book, ³Learning, Earning &
Giving Back.² I signed it and they went on their way.
A couple of weeks later I received a very kind letter from Patty and she
included some samples of her writing. She is a very talented freelance
writer and she told me about an unpublished book she has written, titled ³No
Tears For Tabitha,² that is about her daughter who has Downs Syndrome. I
read her manuscript and I predict that someday it will be published and can
be found on bookshelves all across the nation. Patty also desires to write a
weekly column that would be published in the newspaper. We will just wait
and see what develops for her.
The reason I have given you this background is because of something else
she sent me just recently titled ³Where Are the Missing Commandments?² Her
work will speak for itself.
It begins: ³I am fed up! Tired of hearing it! Mad! If I hear another
report about taking the Ten Commandments down again, I’ll just ‹ just
scream! Then the Lord spoke to my heart. For every one that has been taken
down, 1,000 should have taken its place! Why hasn¹t every God-fearing,
Bible-believing Christian in America posted their own Ten Commandments in
their yards? Why hasn¹t every God-fearing Bible-believing church in America
put up their own Ten Commandments monument on their own property?
Here are three extreme reasons why we must replace what has been torn
down:
€ The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto
the simple. Psalm 119:130
€ For thou has magnified thy word above all thy name. Psalm 138:2
€ Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that
we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3:24
Every single person who walks by and reads those words receives light!
Every man who gazes upon it receives understanding. Every woman reading
those words is being taught by the Lawgiver Himself! Every child would
clearly understand right from wrong.
From the Web site Adherents.com: Here are the top 10 religious bodies
and their memberships: 1. Roman Catholic Church: 66,407,105 (2002) 2.
Southern Baptist Convention: 16,400, 000 (2003) 3. United Methodist Church:
8,251,042 (2002) 4. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 5,503,192
(2002) 5. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: 5,038,066 (2002) 6. Church
of God in Christ: 5,000,000 (1991) 7. Presbyterian Church (USA): 3,595,259
(2001) 8. National Baptist Convention of America: 3,500,000 (1987) 9.
Assemblies of God: 2,687,366 (2002) 10. Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod:
2,512,714 (2003).
Approximately 119 MILLION people here in this list claim membership to a
church body! Let¹s just divide that by half and that would be 59.5 MILLION
people that could take a stand for the Ten Commandments. Wouldn¹t you like
to see that many Ten Commandments signs in those yards? And what about the
church property itself? WHERE are those missing Commandments?²
Well, Patty I don¹t know where all of them are, but I do know where two
more are. Soon after I shared this idea with Viola, she went to the computer
and typed them up on a letter-size sheet of paper, put them in frames and
hung them outside of both the front door and the back door.
A few days later I went to my graphic artist and had him put them in a
professional format, with a shadow box effect, showing an American soldier
with our nation¹s flag in the background. It really looks sharp and it
contains a clear message for anyone who comes to visit us in the future.
When it comes to yard signs, I would never recommend anything that is gaudy,
cheap or distracting, but people who are talented and creative can produce a
design so attractive and blends in so well that it not only gets a message
across, but actually enhances the property.
The millions of my fellow Americans who value freedom and know our
heritage understand what is at stake here. Just consider these words that I
ran across recently, ³The Bible is a collection of different legends,
mutually contradictory and written at different times and full of historical
errors, issued by churches as a Œholy¹ book.² Dictionary of Foreign Words,
Soviet Government, 1951.
(Jim Davidson is a motivational speaker and syndicated columnist. You
may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)