Saturday, May 1, 2021

Book Review: Ten Words to Live By

 

Ten Words to Live By: Delighting in and Doing What God Commands

You may think you know the Ten Commandments, but this book will open your eyes to ways you may be thoughtlessly breaking some of them.

Take the third word, for instance: “You shall not take the name of the LORD in vain . . . .” Did you know that in the Ancient Near East the name expressed the sum total of a person’s character? And since God is holy, compassionate, just, etc., to pray “in His Name” is to pray according to His character. If we preach a moral code we don’t uphold, we misuse God’s name.

It’s hard to express in a short review how eye-opening this book can be. Author Jen Wilkin is a Bible teacher and an advocate for biblical literacy who has authored multiple books. Find her at JenWilkin.net.

I borrowed my copy of this book from a library, but I plan to buy this book because I need time to think through the end of chapter verses for meditation and questions for reflection. For instance, at the end of the third chapter: What situations are most likely to trigger you to misuse the name of the Lord? How could you change our typical response . . . ?

I recommend this book because passages on the Ten Commandments have become so familiar we may read them without thinking through their implications.

 

 


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