Everyone has their Top Ten

We are far enough along in the college football season now to start seeing the BCS Top Ten listing each week. I don't know about you, but I am always curious by Sunday afternoon/Monday morning to see who landed on their Top Ten. And then, all throughout the week, people around me (and possibly around you, too?) debate the merits of the Top Ten teams selected. We all wonder why certain teams are even there, or why certain teams are not. Being in the BCS Top Ten is a pretty big deal!

You probably have some sort of Top Ten list yourself. Like the Top Ten places I want to visit in my lifetime. Or, the Top Ten things I would buy if money were no object. Or, the Top Ten names I'd want to name my children. What kind of Top Ten list do you have? If you are older, you might have a list of the Top Ten things I want to do before I die. Since it is November and we are soon going to be thinking about Christmas (if you haven't started doing so already), maybe your Top Ten list is for gifts you'd like to receive from family and friends.

David Letterman has his Top Ten, too. As a matter of fact, he has become somewhat legendary for his Top Ten lists during the past 15+ years. His lists are usually funny and/or cynical things, usually at the expense of some poor soul (or some group of unfortunate people). It's kind of like you really don't ever want to be on his Top Ten lists!

So, just about everyone has a Top Ten list. Even God has His Top Ten.

God's Top Ten have been around for a long, long time - possibly 5,000 years? And, His list of Top Ten hasn't changed in that time. The same Ten are on it year after year after year. They must have been the right Ten since they've stood the test of time, don't you think?

Unlike David Letterman's Top Ten lists, God put the most important one first, and then the other nine fall neatly into place after that with some degree of diminishing importance. Just in case you haven't looked at God's Top Ten lately, I thought I'd remind you of them here (compliments of Eugene H. Peterson's writings in The Message - Exodus 20):

1. No other gods, only Me.

2. No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don't bow down to them and don't serve them because I am God, your God, and I'm a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me. But I'm unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments.

3. No using the name of God, your god, in curses or silly banter; God won't put up with the irreverent use of His name.

4. Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don't do any work - not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everyting in them; He rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; He set it apart as a holy day.

5. Honor your father and mother so that you'll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.

6. No murder.

7. No adultery.

8. No stealing.

9. No lies about your neighbor.

10. No lusting after your neighbor's house - or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don't set your heart on anything that is your neighbor's.

It is amazing to me how these Top Ten, quite simple and written so long ago, still apply to us, even today. Oh, and by the way, they can be found in a book that has sold more copies than any other book ever in existence - the Bible. Good reading!