Category Archives: Guide

Guide, Hebrew Roots / Commands / Law

There Are Still 10 Commandments… They Did Not Expire

Mainstream Christianity still teaches the ten commandments, but often teaches them as if they no longer are relevant because of the grace of Christ. Many teach “we don’t have to obey the commandments, or at least not all of them, because we are under grace”. The most problematic part of this logic is that to be under grace we must accept Jesus as Lord of our lives. How does one claim to submit to and disciple after Christ and then disregard following all of God’s commands. Jesus was in fact the Word made flesh to dwell among us. He lived obedience to God’s word and taught the same. He rebuked those who changed God’s instructions to suit themselves.

John 1:14

   14And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Paul puts it quite plainly and straightforward in Romans 6.

Romans 6:1-2

    1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

People have been trained to focus only on “getting to heaven”. They count heavily on grace and indeed grace is the key. However, one who wholeheartedly seeks after Christ is not just concerned with “getting to heaven” but also with obeying the Lord’s commands and instructions. This is how we show love (and respect) to Jehovah. If we truly believe Jesus is the Messiah, why would we not follow all that He taught, which was completely consistent with all of the Old Testament laws and commands from Jehovah?  Who are we to pick and choose which commands we will follow and which we do not?

Let us read what Jehovah Himself said about the commandments. Read carefully and we will review some key words further below in the article.

Exodus 20

The Ten Commandments

      1Then God spoke all these words, saying,

      2“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

      3“You shall have no other gods before Me.

      4“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5“You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

      7“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

      8“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

      12“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

      13“You shall not murder.

      14“You shall not commit adultery.

      15“You shall not steal.

      16“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

      17“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

      18All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. 19Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” 20Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.” 21So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.

      22Then the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. 23‘You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. 24‘You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. 25‘If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. 26‘And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’

Reflect on the words below from Jehovah and prayerfully consider them when you consider whether or not to follow His commands.

3“You shall have no other gods before Me.

 5“You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Note how loving God is naturally paired with keeping His commandments. Note that He brings iniquity or lovingkindness depending on our choices to love or hate Him. Do not think of idols only as false religion. Consider as example, any think or activity you place before God in your heart. Measure not by your intentions but by your observable actions of how you spend your time, talent and treasure. One clear example is to observe how much time some invest in watching and following sports compared to how little they invest in relationship with God. It can also be love of money or power or other types of pursuits besides sports.

7“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

Yes. It matters. It still matters. It is wrong and upsetting to God to use the name we use to refer to His holy presence as an offhanded expression or even curse word we say in anger. Jehovah said He will not leave that person unpunished. He sounds serious to me. He has not changed His opinion. Show Him the respect He is due.

8“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

Very clear. Very specific. It still applies. Only man has decided to ignore it because of his desires. On a more detailed point, Sabbath as observed by Jesus was actually Friday night to Saturday night by the way we currently observe our calendar. Man moved it to Sunday and changed the way in which the calendar is observed so that the “24 hour period we call a day” no longer starts with sunset.

The others are fairly straight forward and still generally accepted, though often not practiced. The whole concept we see where people spend way more than they can afford just for status or to “keep up with the Jones'” is actually basic culture of coveting what others have instead of finding joy and contentment with what God has provided us. There is a powerful transformation that we can each experience personally if we commit to fully obey the word of God in our lives. I have found it to be difficult at times but completely rewarding in my life to change directions from the false doctrine that is often taught in many churches and pursue truly understanding and living according to God’s instructions.

Come and be a true disciple of Christ. Live in obedience to the full revelation of God’s word from front to back… Old Testament through New Testament.

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Have you submitted your life to Jesus Christ? If you die today, do you know for sure that you would be with God in heaven? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Father / Yahweh, Guide, Obeying God, Speaking, Through Prophets

If You Will Obey My Voice and Keep My Covenant

Even those of us who follow Jehovah as disciples of Jesus Christ do not often, if ever, experience Him in the direct and powerful manner in which He addressed Moses. Our Father performed many might miracles to set the Israelites free from bondage in Egypt and then begin to help them learn to follow Him. He used this time to communicate in a very direct and clear manner many instructions and guiding principles which endure forever. We do well to study them and remember that they still apply, even after Jesus Christ lived, died, and was resurrected.

A foundational element of our Father’s covenant with His people is the following… “if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples”. We do well to remember this core, foundational element to our relationship with our Father in Heaven. He calls us to obey Him. He does not even call us to agree with Him… so it is ok to obey even if or when we do not fully understand why He tells us to do something a certain way or not to do something at all.

Exodus 19:1-8

   1In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain. 3Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: 4‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. 5‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

      7So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him. 8All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD

We are called first to obey Him in order to be His people. To obey Him, of course, we must study and pray for His help to understand His word properly. Then we must separate ourselves from the world sufficiently to lead our lives Jehovah’s way, in submission to Him rather than our own control and agenda or that of the world and culture around us. For us to “be to [Him] a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”, we must be different from others and set aside for and willingly submitted to Jehovah’s ways and purposes.

I encourage each of you to prayerfully reflect on your lives. Don’t rush this activity. Give it time and attention. Involve someone you trust to be honest and submitted to Jevovah, someone who will not just tell you what they think you want to hear. Are you really submitted to Him? Do you do everything His way? Do you obey all that He commands? None of us is perfect, but do not use glib expressions like that one to allow complacency to remain in your sin and stop changing your life to become more like that of Jesus Christ.

We must continue for our lifetime on the journey to study and become more like Christ. We will never “get far enough”. If we truly love the Father we will not choose to stop pursuing Him any more than we would claim to love our spouse and then say… “We have been together for 20 years, so now I no longer have to show love to him or her because I have done that already. I no longer need or want to consider how to please them more. I will just continue doing whatever I am doing my way, even if I know it hurts them.”

Our journey to become more like Christ, if genuine, lasts our entire lifetime and we never complete it…but it transforms us over time to be more and more pleasing to the Father. Continued obedience, as a sign of our love for Him, is how we fulfill our covenant with Him.

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Have you submitted your life to Jesus Christ? If you die today, do you know for sure that you would be with God in heaven? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Addiction, Guide, Sin, Study the Word, Teachable

The Truth Will Make You Free

Many of us are captive to addiction and other sin and do not even realize it.  Some of us realize it and want to be set free, but struggle to break free. There are many programs that claim to help, and some of them are helpful. However to truly be set free from our addiction  we must learn and apply God’s truth to our lives. The truth will make you free from addiction (and other sin).

John 8:31-36

The Truth Will Make You Free

      31So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”

      34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. 35“The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. 36“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

For any who are struggling to overcome addiction or sin, it is good to come before God and pray for His help. Study and learn His word and apply it to your life. Come together with others who share your faith in Christ and seek their help. Find others who follow Christ that have gone through what you are struggling with. Ask them about their journey to overcome addiction with God’s help.

There are many programs that claim to help, and some of them actually do, but to fully be set free from addiction and sin of any kind, we must lean on the truth of God’s word and seek His help to apply it in our lives.

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Have you submitted your life to Jesus Christ? If you die today, do you know for sure that you would be with God in heaven? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.