“Ta là Đức Chúa, Thiên Chúa của ngươi, đã đưa ngươi ra khỏi đất Ai cập, khỏi cảnh nô lệ. Ngươi không được có thần nào khác đối nghịch với Ta. Ngươi không được tạc tượng, vẽ hình bất cứ vật gì ở trên trời cao cũng như dưới đất thấp, hoặc ở trong nước phía dưới mặt đất, để mà thờ. Ngươi không được phủ phục trước những thứ đó mà phụng thờ.”.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves… You shall not bow down before them or worship them.
Imagine that one of your Huynh Truongs asks you: “Have you ever worshipped an idol?”
If you are like most Thieu Nhi, you would feel very offensive and give him a dirty look, but answer him: “Of course not.”
In American culture, the idea of worshipping an idol is considered wrong and stupid because worshipping an idol means you salute and adore to an image such as Buda or Lao Tu. However, if you look hard enough, you notice that worshipping an idol does not only mean image, it can be fame or fortune.
Last year, many of us fascinated with the American Idol and the fame that carried with it. Across the United States, thousands upon thousands of young people came out for the audition wanting to be the next American Idol. Only few were chosen to the final route of the selection. Many were hurt and disappointed because they were not among the chosen ones. Others were painfully witnessed themselves being ridicule by the judges on the television that watched by millions of people. However, the need to be famous and rich takes control of them. To be the next American Idol has become something that many young people worship.
In the first commandment, God pronounces that he is alone the Lord our God. We shall not have any strange god before Him. It means that we shall believe in one God. It also means that we cannot honor anyone or anything more than God.
The first commandment tells us to put God above everything else. Even though we might believe in one God, we often break this commandment by putting other people or other things first.
When a man asked Jesus which commandments in the law is the greatest, Jesus replied to him, “You shall love the God, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all you mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment” (Matthew 22:36-37).
Even Jesus recognized that the most important commandment is to love God and honor God. For Jesus, to love God is to trust in him completely. In Jesus’ life, even when he was a little child, he always putted God above everything else. During his ministry years, every time he cured someone or after he finished a job, he always prayed with his Father and praised him. Even on the cross, Jesus also mentioned God and asked God not to abandon him.
As you can see, Jesus is an excellent example of putting God first in his life.
So who is your idol? Britney Spears or Emmimen or Justin Timberlake? Or Pope John Paul II? Or God?
Tony wants to be popular in high school. He wants every girl in school notices him. However, to be popular means Tony must have expensive clothes, wear brand name shoes and have the latest games. To do that, he must work everyday after school including Sunday. With his popularity, he begins to forget about God. He is very tired that he forgets to pray when he wakes up and thanking God after a good day. He has decided popularity is better than none even when it means that he puts God aside. Last week, Lisa’s horoscope said that she should be very careful all next week especially when she gets involve with her friends at school. She may run into some troubles with her teachers at school. So she thinks she should stay away from her friends by not talking with them through the week to avoid any trouble. Lisa’s friends say it is wrong to make her decisions based on the horoscope.
Probably, you never intended to worship false gods. However do you always put God above everything else? Do you take time to talk, to praise, and to bless God right after you wake up? Could you be worshipping the false god of money, clothes, and popularity?
As human being, we tend to pay more attention to what others tell us than we do to what God teaches us through the Church and through our parents. We should listen to others such as our friends or Huynh Truongs, but we do not put them before God.
Have notice that sometimes your parents, your Huynh Truongs, and sometimes yourself put money, car, job, clothes, and popularity before God? It is good to have money, car, and a job, but we must not put them first. God must come first in our lives.
There are ways to keep the First commandment alive in our lives that is to honor and adore God above all things. In this lesson Phong Trao wants to introduce four ways that we can observe and practice the First Commandment.
First: You need to recognize that only God is God. It means that no one has an absolute claim in your heart, whether it can be a book, a symbol, a fame, or a person.
Second: Try to live your life according to the Gospel’s value and the Church’s teaching. When you observe the First commandment, you do not live your life according to your friends or MTV’s expectation.
Third: We observe First commandment when we develop a personal relationship with Jesus through our daily prayer such as Living the Eucharistic Day and follow the precepts of Phong Trao.
Fourth: We can observe the First commandment is to do examine of our lifestyle especially practice the Spiritual Bouquet.
The first command teaches us that God wants us to think of him above everything else. We know that we keep God’s first command when we believe in him and put God above all things.
Lạy Chúa, xin giúp con luôn yêu mến Chúa và để Chúa trên hết mọi thứ trong cuộc đời của con. Xin cho con luôn tin tưởng và yêu mến Chúa hết lòng con.
Lạy Chúa, có những lúc con yêu thích đồ chơi, quần áo, và sự trìu mến của mọi người xung quanh hơn Chúa. Cũng có những lúc con yêu mến bạn con và đặt họ lên làm thần tượng của con hơn Chúa. Xin giúp con biết rằng chỉ có Chúa mới là thần tượng mà con phải đeo đuổi và yêu mến.