This week the blog is sponsored by Reformed Free Publishing Association. This post is about their brand new picture book, The Ten Commandments for Children, written by Prof. Ron Cammenga and illustrated by Ana Sebastián.

Jesus Christ is glorified when we obey Him. That is what Jesus meant when he told his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Because we love our Savior and we want to bring glory to his great name, we live according to his law—by keeping the Sabbath day holy, avoiding theft and murder, telling the truth, and all the rest. We want our children to show the world their love for Jesus, and so we teach them to obey God’s law, too, even from a young age.
But what is harder to explain to our children, and what we can often forget, is that there is so much more to keeping God’s law than following a list of do’s and do not’s. God sees and knows our hearts.
We might bring the whole family to church each week, but God knows where our minds actually are on Sunday morning. Our children might not swipe the gadgets from Best Buy that are small enough to fit in their pockets, but God sees the bitterness and envy they harbor toward friends and classmates who always seem to have the latest device connected to their air pods.
Truly keeping God’s law is so much more than external obedience. Truly keeping God’s law is loving him and loving others from the heart.

If you are looking for a resource you can share with your family to explain and apply this truth, consider The Ten Commandments for Children by Ronald Cammenga. This new children’s book from the Reformed Free Publishing Association (RFPA) explains and applies each commandment in language that kids understand. In two to three chapters, it covers what God forbids—the negative side of each commandment—and what he requires—the positive.
The book is made up of 28 two-page chapters that can be used either as lessons or devotions on God’s law. Here is the layout of the book:

Chapters 1–2 introduce the law of God
Chapters 3–6 explain why God has given us his law
Chapter 7 teaches about love, the summary of the law
Chapters 8–28 present each commandment in two to three chapters, focusing first on what is forbidden in each commandment (the negative) and then what is required (the positive)

This book is the first in a three-part series by the author, Prof. Ron Cammenga of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
If you have children or grandchildren, Ten Commandments would make a great devotional to close out the summer or start the school year off right.
“The book is designed not just to be read to them,” says the author, “but also to serve as a devotional you can use with your kids in the morning before they go off to school.”
Kids and parents alike will also appreciate the beautiful full-color illustrations by Ana Sebastián, a digital illustrator based in Madrid, Spain.

Here are a couple of excerpts from chapters 24 and 25 that demonstrate the positive and the negative applications of the ninth commandment.
From Chapter 24, “Do Not Lie!”
A lie is a deliberate untruth. You know what the truth is. But you deliberately change the truth.
Often people lie to cover up a sin or avoid punishment. How often haven’t you done that? You were being mean to your sister or brother, but when your mother asks you about it, you lie. You deny that you said or did anything mean.
From Chapter 25, “Speak the Truth in Love!”
We must speak the truth that God is the only true God, that God’s word is truth, that God’s Son Jesus is the only Savior. We must also speak the truth about ourselves—never lying to impress people with how great we are. And we must speak the truth about others so that we never put them down or make them look bad. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 12:22, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight.”
Let’s teach our children to glorify their only Savior, by keeping his commandments from the heart.
You can purchase your copy of The Ten Commandments for Children here. Subscribe to the Reformed Free Publishing Association email list on their website homepage to be notified of sales, news, and upcoming children’s book releases.

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

Those who hunt for Kindle deals will find another small collection today.
(Yesterday on the blog: How Joni Eareckson Tada Blessed Me (Forty Years Ago))
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If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him. —C.T. Studd

One of the customs of our church is to thoroughly evaluate the men we call to be pastors and elders. Once we identify a candidate for the office, and once he has indicated his interest, we complete a thorough evaluation of his life and character. We work through a document that describes the qualifications the Bible holds out and asks whether he meets them or falls short. The prospective elder and his wife complete this evaluation first before the existing elders and the entire congregation do the same. By the end of the process we feel confident that the men we call are also qualified. (And, to ensure those men remain qualified, we repeat this process every six years or so.)
It never fails to fascinate me that when the Bible describes the qualifications of an elder, its focus is almost entirely on character. There is one qualification related to skill (he must have the ability to teach) and one related to desire (he must want to serve in this way), but beyond that, there is an extensive list of traits of character: he must be gentle, he must be hospitable, he must be generous, he must be devoted to his wife, he must be a faithful father, and so on. Where we are so easily swayed by accomplishments and raw ability, God’s foremost concern is for character. When it comes to the leadership of the church, God demands they be men of upstanding character, men who are above reproach in the eyes of their family members, their church, and even their community.
I recently took some time away from being an elder—a sabbatical that followed more than a decade of constant service. Upon returning, the members of the church re-evaluated me in light of those qualities, a process that is humbling but also encouraging, for Christians love to identify strengths more than weaknesses and graces more than faults. It was a blessing to receive their affirmation that they believe I am qualified to continue to serve among them. Meanwhile, we have just gone through the process of identifying a new elder and examining his suitability for the office. Through those two contexts, I found myself pondering character.
I have often heard it said that character is who you are when no one is looking. This is a well-worn phrase that communicates an essential truth: You tend to be on your best behavior when you are in the public eye. But if you wish to know who you truly are, and if you wish to know what your character is really made of, you need to look at yourself in those times when you are alone and those places where no one is present to spot your behavior or stand in judgment of your actions. You need to consider the situations in which your mind is free to wander and your hands are free to act. The truest gauge of your truest self is known ultimately only to you. Hence, character is who you are when no one is looking.
But as I considered the character of an elder, I also found myself challenged with this: Character is who you are when only your family is looking. I consider this equally important when gauging strength of character, for family knows who you really are just as much as solitude does. After all, when no one is looking, you are not being challenged by other people, you are not being sinned against, you are not being forced to practice courteous conduct and gentle speech. You are not practicing or neglecting discipleship through Word and prayer, you are not failing or succeeding to lead others through trying circumstances. It’s just you and the silence, just you and the screen, just you and your own thoughts. In that way, you learn a lot about yourself when only your family is looking.
One of the elements of my life that concerns me most is my ability to be on my worst behavior around the people who are most important to me. You would think I’d always be at my very best before the people I love the most. Yet somehow I can put on airs before strangers and then let down my guard before my family. Somehow I can live to impress people I barely know while being apathetic toward people I know the best and whose lives are deeply intertwined with mine. There is something about home life that can breed arrogance and apathy, entitlement and hostility.
Before God calls me to serve the church he calls me to serve my family and before he calls me to love the people of my local congregation he calls me to love the people under my own roof.Share
But before God calls me to serve the church he calls me to serve my family and before he calls me to love the people of my local congregation he calls me to love the people under my own roof. Long before I think about laying down my life in service for my brothers and sisters, he calls me to lay down my life in service for my wife and children. My family knows who I really am in a way neither the crowds nor the solitude do.
Who am I? What kind of man am I? What kind of character do I possess and display? I will learn that in the darkness, in the solitude, in the times when no human eyes sees me. But I will equally learn that when I am before those people who see me constantly and up close, for character is who I am when only my family is looking.