Message to Charlotte and Raleigh
(This started as a message written for the upcoming North Carolina New Church Newsletter, but it can apply to anyone, really.)
"Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God, Jehovah is one! You shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them dilligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
"...If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." (Matthew 19:17)
The Ten Commandments contain, in brief summary, all things of religion. Through them the conjunction of God with people, and people with God takes place. There is nothing more holy. (True Christian Religion 283)
The Ten Commandments are not merely restrictions on our lives. They are guardrails put in place to help us from driving off into disaster. What's more, they are given to us for the sake of conjunction--the Lord connects with us, and we with Him, through them. The Lord is Love Itself, and so desires nothing more than to conjoin with us in order to make us happy. This is why He tells us that the commandments belong on our hearts and before our eyes and on our doorposts. They are an instrument of His love for us.
This fall, congregations all across the New Church are working in harmony to study and practice the Ten Commandments. Except for during holidays, there probably has never been a time when so many New Church congregations were able to meet together in the spiritual world, as it were, and to work, not just as individuals in the church but as a Church as a whole, on learning and living the same teachings at the same time. It seems fitting that this new practice begin with the Ten Commandments, which contain "all things of religion."
We don't have to be part of the formal "campaign" that the larger societies are running to join in. I invite each of you to find your own way to bring the Ten Commandments into your lives in the coming weeks. Reading the book, Rise Above It, by Ray and Star Silverman is one way. Joining in an online discussion group at NewChurch.org is another. Yet another way is to read through the commandments on your own, and getting together in your homes once a week to discuss them with one another. True Christian Religion has an entire section devoted to the Commandments starting with number 282, and there's a wonderful list of references at HeavenlyDoctrines.org in the directory of teachings under the heading, "The Ten Commandments".
And as you read the Word, and teach it to your children, and share it with one another, and live it, know that you are doing it not just on your own, but as part of the greater kingdom which is the Lord's Church on earth.