"Who loves Jesus?"

50 hands shot up. No one was going to say no. After all, that was what everyone had been taught since young. If you love Jesus, declare it! Don't hide!

The teacher continued. "Jesus said that if you love Him, you will obey His commandments. Who knows what the commandments are?"

A young spindly hand shot up, and a crystal clear girlish voice rang out, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And the second is to love your neighbour as yourself."

49 heads bobbed in agreement.

The teacher smiled. These 50 minds knew the commandments and the right response. They knew that they had rebelled against God and thrown God out of their lives, choosing instead to rule themselves. They also knew that is equivalent to high treason against the King of the Kingdom of God. These 50 hearts knew that they were so guilty, they could not do anything to get back in the King's favour. These 50 souls had admitted their guilt and declared themselves subjects of this merciful King. And the King forgave them. These 50 minds knew that they should rightfully be extremely grateful and demonstrate this gratefulness by obeying the King. These 50 minds knew.

"Very good. These commandments actually sum up what we know as the 10 commandments that Moses received from God."

"So, tell me, do you have any other Gods before you? Made any idols out of any graven image?"

50 heads shook in disagreement.

"Mark, what about that PSP that you love playing whenever you have any free time? Paul, what about that place on the junior soccer team that you so badly want that you will practice in the rain, but say you're tired when it's time to read the Bible? Deborah, what about all the shopping you love to indulge in all days of the week?"

"But, teacher, these are things of our life! We can't live without them!" Paul protested. Just as he finished, he realised what he was saying - these things of life that God had given had become so important that they had now usurped God's place in his life. God had given these good things, but they had become so obsessed with them, PSP, soccer and shopping became mini gods.

"Let's go on. Have you ever used God's name in vain?"

"Teacher, of course not! We don't use cuss words. We'd be in deep trouble," piped Mark.

"But your games Mark, don't some of the characters say things we wouldn't say? And the movies we all watch. There are so many cuss words inside. Or have we become so desensitized we no longer cringe when we hear them? Cussing aside, what about when we sing songs about God and don't mean them? When we sing "Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let all the earth proclaim!" do we really mean it? Or are we singing just because we have to?"

50 faces looked at each other, stunned. Many of them had just watched the latest blockbuster, and many were planning to catch the next one about a virus, a lone man and a dog. Sure cuss words feature aplenty.

"Alright, we should move on. Do you keep the Sabbath day holy? God worked for 6 days and rested 1, thus setting a pattern for us. It's a pattern we should follow. Then, what do we do on the Sabbath day?"

"Teacher, of course we all go to church and then choir later, then maybe go for a soccer game or two."

"Or shopping at the big malls!"

"Well my dears, God instituted this rest day for a reason. On the 7th day, God rested from creation work and admired how wonderful everything was. So on this day, we should rest from what we normally do during the week and think about God, who He is, what He's done, and how we are to respond. These thoughts should fill us on the Sabbath. We should also talk to our fellow Christians and build the bonds. Of course, this doesn't mean we don't eat, bathe, go to the toilet or sleep! I'm sure God didn't mean that. "

"Teacher, so you mean I should not study on Sunday either?"

"Yes that's right. Prepare yourself for the Sabbath. Study hard on other days. It's ok if you don't do as well on a certain test. What is important ultimately are not your grades. It's your relationship with God that matters."

"That's hard..."

"It sure is. Do you all respect your parents? Now you don't have to raise your hands. I'm sure all of us at one time or another thought our parents stupid, contradicting, and just plain killjoys. Well, you may be right about some of these labels, but God still says to respect them. Implicit in this command is that parents should make it easy for us to obey and respect them too. So what we can do is to pray for them, instruct them, and admonish them gently if they're being stupid or contradictory."

"Admonish our parents? Instruct them? HUH???"

"Yes, Micah. Our parents are every bit as human as us. We can be such idiots at times too, that it's really great if someone can come over and tell us very gently that we're doing things the wrong way. Remember, no one likes to be made to feel stupid, so be very gentle."

A spindly hand shot up. "Teacher, all these commandments are so tough to follow. But I'm sure the next one is what we're all not guilty of! None of us have killed before!"

"Ah, Rebekah. No, none of us have probably snuffed out the life of anyone. But let's take this further. When you kill someone, you hate someone right? And the opposite of hate is love. So, read another way, this means, 'love others'. Have you ever felt annoyed at your kid brother before? I have been annoyed by my big brother before. I've been angry at my friends before. So you see, Rebekah, we have not loved 100%. Not loving 100% means we've all killed."

"Teacher, what about not committing adultery? We're too young to have done that, and we know you haven't! Or else, Mrs. Teacher would have divorced you already!"

The teacher laughed. "No, Andrew, I'm still happily married and have not had any extramarital affairs! But, what I've done is to listen to all the songs that talk about unrequited love, that talk about sex and all. All I have to do is tune in to any of the local radio stations. Our society is one that's obsessed with sex, and we're such an obsessed society that we've tainted the notion. God intended for us to enjoy sex in marriage. But we human beings have gone and tried to be more desirable. We dress to attract. We pile on the blusher, eyeshadow and lip gloss to get that sultry look or innocent doe-eyed look that we know is attractive. Seriously, doing any of all this is also breaking the commandment of not committing adultery!"

"Now, let's go on to the next one. You must not steal. Have any of you stolen before?"

50 heads nodded, some more vigourously than others.

"Well, besides stealing from shops, how else can you steal?"

"If the chicken rice auntie returned me $2 when I should have gotten $1.50... and I didn't say anything... I guess that's stealing," Andrew replied.

"Oh I know! When you break your promises to others. I know it's stealing because my big brother does that to me all the time. He promises me something, I get all excited, and then he steals by not doing what he promised. I get so mad at him!" Sarah chirped.

"And... and... when we can sing but only want to sing next to certain people. We rob God of our talents, and we steal from using our singing to tell others about God!" Deborah piped.

"Yes yes! And... teacher, I've got a whole stash of pirated DVDs at home. I know it's stealing because... we don't pay the people who put in the hard work to produce these shows," Mark whispered.

"Why, my dears, you all have it down pat! Now you know what is stealing, so be sure to avoid it and well, if you have stolen, make restitution for it."

"Rares-tee-tiu-tion?"

"Yes, restitution. It means to make up for something, to ask for forgiveness and make things right. Alright, on to the 9th commandment. You shall not lie. We've all lied before! We've gossiped, slandered, criticized unfairly, insinuated there's something wrong, flattered someone. Even if we keep quiet when gossip is going on, we still lie because we do not put things right!"

"That's like, everything that comes out of like, any of our mouths!"

"Uhuh. So, Sarah, that's why we've all lied. And now, for the last commandment. You shall not covet. This is the most hidden one. Coveting happens in the heart when you really really really want something. You dream about it, you breathe it, eat for it, live for it. And it makes you want to achieve it. Which in the end, you do."

Joanna gave a puzzled look. "Teacher, but doesn't that mean almost everything we do wrong... is because we covet? I mean... I know I stole Priscilla's pink pencil because I wanted them for myself... And, I lied that I didn't do it even though I know I did! And... I know I wanted it so badly that for the days before I took the pink pencil, I stomped around the house, pouted, and didn't want to pray or do my quiet time!"

The teacher nodded. "Yes Joanna, you're right. Coveteousness is a sin that is hidden, but shows itself in so many other ways! So now, my dears. Tell me, do you really love Jesus?"

"Well, we want to..." 50 voices chorused.

"Then, obey him. Let's pray..."

Hmmmm.... Lil' miss mouse thinks she might just have found another show to follow. Which is baaaaaad. There's already CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, not to mention Samantha Brown's shows... ah!!!!!

Anyway, lil' miss mouse ever swore she'd never watch this show. Yeah. tough luck. Lil' miss maggie mee switched the channel to the show and made me watch. And i hate to say this, but it's quite a nice show. Quite full of suspense and all... makes my stomach churn and drop even more than CSI does. Let's just say i can have my dinner while watching a normal episode of CSI... meaning one that's not extremely gory.

So what's this TV show? Heroes. *sigh*