In Tens

With a new year comes all variations of the top-ten list.  How did the top-ten list come about, I wonder?  Google doesn't seem to know.  TIME Magazine issued a "The Top 10 Everything of 2010."  Top ten campaign ads, crime stories, oddball news stories, political gaffes, tweets, quotes, food trends, fleeting celebrities, toys, numbers (yeah, numbers, odd), etc.  Take a look -- this may make number one on your top-ten time wasters list: Time Top-Ten.

All the top-ten talk got me thinking of things in tens.  Not really top-ten because I don't like the idea of ranking things.  But, I came up with some lists of ten.  They are not my favorite celebrities or dresses worn to the Oscars.

Here's one.  Try reading through these and letting them speak to you today.  Or, read one each day.  I think I might just read through them everyday.

Ten Scriptures I Really Relied Upon In 2010, And May Need Again In 2011

1)             “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and will all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  Matthew 22:37-40

2)             “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40

3)             "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corin. 12:7-10

4)             “Be still and know that I am God.”  Psalm 46:10

5)             “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”  1 John 4:10-12

6)             “The law was added so that the trespass might increase.  But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Romans 5:20-21

7)             “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.”  Hebrews 4:16

8)             “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”  1 Corinthians 10:31

9)             “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6

10)          “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if he does not we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”  Daniel 3:17-18