Letters to Joshua- Ten Commandments: Overview

Dear Josh,

One of the interesting things that seem to be going on in our country is a desire to keep the things of God separate from the government.  You have probably heard people talk about the separation of Church and State.  This idea was spawned way back even before the United States was even started.  In European countries many times there was such a strong National Church that the government was not allowed to govern but was in subjection to the Church.  This caused some serious problems.  When America began to govern itself the founding fathers desired to set up a system that would have government free to do it’s job without being subject to a National Church.  I don’t think the founding fathers wanted a government that was free from the influence of the Church, just not controlled by the Church.

Several thousand years earlier, Moses stood on a mountain receiving a set of laws that would give direction to the nation of Israel.  Most people call these the Ten Commandments.  He received other more specific rules and direction from God to help govern the nation but the guiding principles of how to live were captured in the top ten.  Many of the laws of our land have as an inspiration the Ten Commandments Moses brought down the mountain.  In fact many of the countries of the world are influenced by these basic foundational guidelines.  Your life and mine are subject to their authority.

I want you to be familiar with these because over time you will find that these are connected with the Big Picture of how we should live.  Over the next few weeks I am going to break these down for you and give you a feel for what these mean.  There is no separation of our lives and the Word of God.

Love,

Dad

Photo by thisRobot

Letters to Josh is a series of letters written from a dad to his son Josh trying to capture some of the important life lessons he wanted to pass on.  These letters are a bit random in nature but each is written to address a key issue in the development of a young man.  These letters are written from a very imperfect father whose love knows no bounds for his son.  These letters are shared with you (the reader) only because we hope that the things we are learning and thinking through will help you and your sons.