God’s first commandment is simple:
You shall have no other gods before Me.
Exodus 20:3 NKJV
Whenever I get to meet a new person, someone who I think will play a role in my future – whether it’s a child, a teenager, fellow teachers, writers or businessmen - whoever - I usually try to find out their pet peeve- their pique, that irritating, upsetting area, the vicinity, that topic, subject or issue that is their Numero Uno. What I have observed is that with most of us our Pet Peeve is a line or boundary that denotes who you are as a character and please, pah-leese, don’t irk them by crossing that line, and if you do, it’s to your detriment!
Quick Q: What’s your Number 1 rule?
Some peeves are amusing..
• I know a taxi driver based in Ridgeways, hapo flats - who I trust implicitly but, he will not work after 7pm. So go figure… When I travel to Nairobi from Dar, the bus inevitably lands in Nairobi at 11.30pm (yes, it’s an 18hour horror of a road trip!) so I usually begin to plead with him from the previous week, calling him from my +255 line, peppering my speech with profuse apologies and compliments on his reliability and trustworthiness..”Please please please, come to the bus stage and pick me up at 11 pm, please, naku’omba, you know I cannot trust those unscrupulous lying thieves parading as taxi drivers who lie in wait for weary passengers!”
You shall have no other gods before Me.
Exodus 20:3 NKJVWhenever I get to meet a new person, someone who I think will play a role in my future – whether it’s a child, a teenager, fellow teachers, writers or businessmen - whoever - I usually try to find out their pet peeve- their pique, that irritating, upsetting area, the vicinity, that topic, subject or issue that is their Numero Uno. What I have observed is that with most of us our Pet Peeve is a line or boundary that denotes who you are as a character and please, pah-leese, don’t irk them by crossing that line, and if you do, it’s to your detriment!
Quick Q: What’s your Number 1 rule?
Some peeves are amusing..
• I know a taxi driver based in Ridgeways, hapo flats - who I trust implicitly but, he will not work after 7pm. So go figure… When I travel to Nairobi from Dar, the bus inevitably lands in Nairobi at 11.30pm (yes, it’s an 18hour horror of a road trip!) so I usually begin to plead with him from the previous week, calling him from my +255 line, peppering my speech with profuse apologies and compliments on his reliability and trustworthiness..”Please please please, come to the bus stage and pick me up at 11 pm, please, naku’omba, you know I cannot trust those unscrupulous lying thieves parading as taxi drivers who lie in wait for weary passengers!”
• At the wonderful church where we worship as a family in Dar-es-Salaam, the Senior Pastor’s numero uno is ‘don’t-call-me-pastor-call-me-charles’… if you call him ‘Pastor!’ he gets irritated..
• I understand that totally because I get really irritated when my students call me ‘tee-cha’ (teacher) Ai! I always instruct them to call me by my name and if they call me ‘tee-cha’ I respond by calling them ‘student’… I also get really irked if you call me ‘Mama so and so’ – aahhrrggh!!! it’s not a sign of respect but rather of demeaning my whole beautiful Nyakio-Self!! For example: Are you a male in his prime 30’s but not yet a daddy?... and I meet you in a business-arena, should I call you ‘son of and so’? I think NOT!!
When placing rules and regulations, whether it’s for your own home (or should I say, especially if it’s for your own Home).. or office or business, the 1st rule of engagement or commandment is the one that normally indicates the boundaries, marks the edges of behaviour and puts an invisible chalk mark on the ground which signifies: Do not pass this point.. and if you do - then this game ain’t for you, you’re OUT! or you’re on your own..
In my last article, the topic was about Breaking All The Rules - some of which were commandments handed out by our parents as we were growing up… What was the #1 rule at home when you were a kid? Think about it, did it define or does it - in a way - still symbolize your family’s personality?
Now, most articles I have read about the 1st Commandment rush to tell us how we should keep this commandment, but let’s move a tad slower, lets flip this pancake over and look at the deeper implications of a number 1 rule.
With God, it began like this:
"The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.” 15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights."
Exodus 24:12-18 NRSV
The level of importance of this number 1 commandment is this:
a) God gave Moses 613 laws. Of the 10 we must follow to this day, this was the NUMBER ONE.
b) Moses was invited or called by God to spend a glorious 40 days and 40 nights in His Presence (.. so God had plenty of time to talk with Moses and decide which rule was to be first and which last)
c) In any relationship the number 1 rule usually marks an imaginary boundary line.
a) NUMBER ONE:
Let me ask you a question. When placing rules and regulations, whether it’s for your own home (or should I say, especially if it’s for your own Home).. or office or business, the 1st rule of engagement or commandment is the one that normally indicates the boundaries, marks the edges of behaviour and puts an invisible chalk mark on the ground which signifies: Do not pass this point.. and if you do - then this game ain’t for you, you’re OUT! or you’re on your own..
In my last article, the topic was about Breaking All The Rules - some of which were commandments handed out by our parents as we were growing up… What was the #1 rule at home when you were a kid? Think about it, did it define or does it - in a way - still symbolize your family’s personality?
Now, most articles I have read about the 1st Commandment rush to tell us how we should keep this commandment, but let’s move a tad slower, lets flip this pancake over and look at the deeper implications of a number 1 rule.
With God, it began like this:
"The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.” 15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights."
Exodus 24:12-18 NRSV
The level of importance of this number 1 commandment is this:
a) God gave Moses 613 laws. Of the 10 we must follow to this day, this was the NUMBER ONE.
b) Moses was invited or called by God to spend a glorious 40 days and 40 nights in His Presence (.. so God had plenty of time to talk with Moses and decide which rule was to be first and which last)
c) In any relationship the number 1 rule usually marks an imaginary boundary line.
a) NUMBER ONE:
If you value my friendship, will you offend me?
I don’t know about you, but I value my friendship with God. It’s based on among other things, the fact that God values our friendship. Incase you didn’t know, He loves you so much, the Lord is forever and always reaching out, over-extending Himself towards us, bestowing on us gifts of mercy, goodness and love. His Word – the Bible, is full of illustrations, beautiful graphic images of His Love for us. Listen, which book or novel have you read lately that’s (1) dedicated to YOU , and (2) that showers you with the kind of Love and Graciousness that God bestows upon you? Never, ever doubt how much God LOVES you.. ever. So here is your wonderful God, reaching out to you, communicating… and as we all do when making new friends, or going to a new country, God proclaims His numero uno rule.
And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
You shall have no other gods before Me”.
Exodus 20:1-3
Exodus 20:1-3
Now, if I - as a human - as Nyakio - listens to and respects your nutty – yes, you – your number 1 rule or request, then surely I should respect my God’s number 1 commandment?
b) Communion with the Lord. 40 days and 40 nights
When we say we have communion with God and He with us, it means that we have a very special relationship – a spiritual union, an empathy, a UNITY with God. To communicate with God means that He carries, He converses, He conveys an idea to us, we to connect to God. Now, when I connect to my Lord, it is so simply sublime, amazing and awesome, the last thing I want to do is get disconnected..
Or interrupted. How do you feel when you’re on the cell phone with your girl-friend, best bud, maybe that midnight phone call from Stato or somewhere overseas, and your credit runs out in the middle of a deep conversation, a ‘dip-storo’, mpango or plot? Aiyeeeee! Do you feeeel me? By the time they or you call back, the zing, the zest, the vra-vra-voom… it has dispersed, dissolved.. gone.
What is sin? Sin is the separation of man from God. It’s an interruption in our conversation with Him, a disconnect. It’s a Movement. It’s our movement, not His. If we keep breaking His rules, we’re separating ourselves from Him, we break AWAY, we’re disconnecting away from that beautiful, hallowed holy communion, that very special spiritual unity which God cherishes so much.
God asks simply this:
b) Communion with the Lord. 40 days and 40 nights
When we say we have communion with God and He with us, it means that we have a very special relationship – a spiritual union, an empathy, a UNITY with God. To communicate with God means that He carries, He converses, He conveys an idea to us, we to connect to God. Now, when I connect to my Lord, it is so simply sublime, amazing and awesome, the last thing I want to do is get disconnected..
Or interrupted. How do you feel when you’re on the cell phone with your girl-friend, best bud, maybe that midnight phone call from Stato or somewhere overseas, and your credit runs out in the middle of a deep conversation, a ‘dip-storo’, mpango or plot? Aiyeeeee! Do you feeeel me? By the time they or you call back, the zing, the zest, the vra-vra-voom… it has dispersed, dissolved.. gone.
What is sin? Sin is the separation of man from God. It’s an interruption in our conversation with Him, a disconnect. It’s a Movement. It’s our movement, not His. If we keep breaking His rules, we’re separating ourselves from Him, we break AWAY, we’re disconnecting away from that beautiful, hallowed holy communion, that very special spiritual unity which God cherishes so much.
God asks simply this:
You shall have no other gods BEFORE Me. NKJV
Worship no god BUT me. Good News Bible
You must not have any other gods EXCEPT me. New Century Version
Do not worship any other gods BESIDES me. New Living Translation
None. Not even one. NO OTHER. Zero. Zilch. Got it? What’s zero in your mother tongue?? Yeah, that one…
c) Invisible boundaries
While growing up my buddah (dad) and I really valued each others company and loved our times together (still do) and one of the things we loved doing was hiking. Mostly we hiked through land he owned then, and he particularly loved walking along the fences and boundaries – inspecting the land markers and fences, pointing out to me the breaks in the barbed wires where folks would create shortcuts to streams or rivers, directing my attention to the trees he had had planted along the precincts. And often, especially when I was younger, his point would be, ‘this side is ours, that one isn’t… don’t go that way.. don’t trespass’.
Our unofficial or official number 1 rules are a bit like that… don’t cross over. Yes, we’re in this together, we’re walking together, but if you do cross that line, you’re no longer in my territory. You’ve crossed the line, you’re on your own.
When we get guests in our homes, we’re quick to point out where the essential rooms are, and for me, I am very specific about the no entry into the master bedroom.. When we join a new office, we’re given rules, and the first one usually demarcates or points out the absolute no-go-zones. Universities, clubs, etc, where people gather together, social settings - it doesn’t matter what version of official language is used to pen the rules, Rule numero uno is the one rule you don’t daren’t break! Even with friends, there are lines that you simply don’t cross..
Question: Think about it, which line can your friends not cross WITH YOU? What is your numero uno rule?
Now, God has a Spiritual Kingdom. A spiritual social setting for all our souls. And in this Kingdom, He asks us to note that this is The First Commandment, His Spiritual Boundary.
You shall have no other gods BEFORE Me. NKJV
Worship no god BUT me. Good News Bible
You must not have any other gods EXCEPT me. New Century Version
Do not worship any other gods BESIDES me. New Living Translation
A Deeper Relationship
This week, don’t get yet into thinking and messing up your mind about the finer details of which other gods God is talking about. Do this instead Pray, Meditate and Think on the below. (You can also Pray, Eat & Love….lol)
Are you trying to grow or mend a relationship right now? It may be with a friend, someone you hurt by mistake, or it may be your co-worker. You need to get your job done and this ‘dark thing’ is in the way… clouding your relationship. Or maybe you want to tread deeper waters - you may be wanting to mature your relationship with your wife, hubby or teenager. Skiza – if you value (and admire) that person and want to have a richer, more meaningful relationship with them – then, dig around, investigate, and find out what their number 1 rule is, the numero uno. Usually it’s right there in black and white but I have noticed is that many many people make a concerted effort to be dumb, ignorant and blind to the invisible rules of their partners, aiyee! So, please, open your eyes and minds – stop being insensitive. And when you find that pearl of wisdom - respect it.
Don’t push it,
don’t laugh at it,
don’t make fun of it,
and especially -
don’t belittle it.
Love that person and respect their boundaries regarding their first commandment. Up there I had put the word (admire) in brackets. It’s a tough choice. But through prayer you can begin to appreciate, approve of, and think highly of that person plus respect who they are as an entity! You will also find that because of respecting their numero uno, you will gain a deeper, more meaningful and joyful relationship. Plus a surprising sweet citrus twist - the additional pleasure of your relationship moving into a trustworthy arena… because if they can trust you to respect rule numero uno, then they will trust you with more pearls of knowledge, extra seeds of insight into their soul and numerous showers of love. Do that for your nagging wife, your befuddled husband, your spendthrift girlfriend, your totally unbearable teenager...
I will pray with you.
Finally,
Obedience is better than sacrifice. Follow the above pattern for your God. Respect The First Commandment:
This week, Pray on it, Meditate on it, Keep it, Observe it, Respect God.
You will be pleasantly surprised by how such a simple compliance from you will result in a profound relationship with God, more pearls of knowledge directly from The Lord, extra seeds of wisdom straight from the Creator of Life, and sumptuous showers of Love and Blessings from God our Heavenly Provider.
Obedience is better than sacrifice. Follow the above pattern for your God. Respect The First Commandment:
This week, Pray on it, Meditate on it, Keep it, Observe it, Respect God.
You will be pleasantly surprised by how such a simple compliance from you will result in a profound relationship with God, more pearls of knowledge directly from The Lord, extra seeds of wisdom straight from the Creator of Life, and sumptuous showers of Love and Blessings from God our Heavenly Provider.
