Happy New Year!

Just wanted to say – Happy New Year to all my readers!

Have you thought of the 10 Commandments in this light?

I am sure most of you all are familiar with the “10 Commandments.”  No, I’m not talking about the movie, silly.  Rather, the commandments that God engraved with his finger on Mount Sinai and Moses brought down to share with the Israelites.

Let’s take the first commandment “You shall have no other gods before Me.‘ ”

When looking at this command, do you ever question how do I go about not having any other gods?  What about the teachings from ministers of God that teach us that, for example, to put TV or computer in front of our worship of God makes that into a god.  By doing so we are violating the first commandment, we are taught.  But the verse doesn’t even say that!  How can they know that?

How about the third: ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.‘

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have always been told to say words such as “Oh my G…” was to take his name in vain.  But is there more to it?  How do we know what it means to take his name in vain?

The tenth commandment reads: ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.‘

To covet…. I had always been taught it means that you want specifically what someone else wants.  That item, that object, that person that your neighbor owns.  So much so that you would do anything to have it.  But isn’t there more to it that I’m missing in that teaching?

Did you know that we can answer those questions about the 10 Commandments?  Did you know that our loving Father gave us detailed instructions on how to follow him?  Follow me here.  Please don’t stop reading.

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with 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 22:36-40).

The above were the words of our Messiah, Jesus.  He was asked what the greatest commandment of the Law was.  What law did he have to go by?  The only Scripture they had – the Hebrew Scriptures.  Is “Love the Lord your God…” a commandment in the 10 Commandments?  I ask because many say we only have to follow the 10 Commandments and whatever else Jesus spoke in the Newer Testament.  Yet, Jesus is saying that *all* the Law hangs on this and the second greatest command.

So, if all the law hangs on these two, then doesn’t this mean that all of those laws apply?  Because in order to follow these two greatest commandments you have to know all the Law and the Prophets.

Back to the 10 Commandments.  Let’s break them up.  I am going to break them up into two categories.  You tell me if they do not fit:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Exodus 20:3,4,7,8 “You shall have no other gods before Me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image–any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth…

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

 

“Love your neighbor as yourself”

 

Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving 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, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Do you see how all of the 10 Commandments are broken down into the two greatest commandments?  So awesome when it’s lain out and made obvious!

So: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”   But I have only quoted only the 10 Commandments given at Sinai.

Could it be said, then, that the rest of the Law given to mankind can also be divided up into these two categories?  Let’s take it a step further now:

If all of the commands can be divided up into the two main categories, is it not possible for all the commandments to be summed up in the 10 Commands that God gave on the Mount?

Let’s look at this truth in the reverse also:  The commands throughout the Law and the Prophets show us HOW to observe the 10 Commandments, and thus, HOW to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.  AND how to love your neighbor as yourself.

So, what does it mean to covet your neighbors wife?  How do you know everything that entails?  Are we supposed to guess? How does one go about remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy?  The answer lies throughout the Law and the Prophets. 

Think a little deeper with me now.  What has the abandonment of the Law and the Prophets done to our society and world around us?  Take for example “Do not commit adultery.”

At face value, God is telling us to not have affairs outside of marriage.  But our loving Father knows that we need more instruction on what it all entails.  So he told us about not sleeping with our kin, or not committing fornication.  Or, hey, not engaging in homosexual activities!  Look what it has done to the church – accepting homosexuality as not a sin.  Accepting the creed that homosexuals are born that way so it’s okay for them.  By abandoning the fullness of the 10 Commandments, which the Church professes to believe are still applicable, the door has been opened for false teachers and interpretations. 

The interpretations of what God would require of us to live holy and acceptable lives, pleasing to our Father in Heaven, are lain out for us already.  There is no interpretation needed to interpret what is in the Newer Testament.  The foundation has been laid. Even Jesus, our Messiah and high Priest, Master, and Teacher, confirms this with his words that were quoted in the Gospel of Matthew.

Please, take out your bibles and read through His commandments.  Are you able to break them down into the categories?   Most of the commands are written to teach us how to deal with others.  Why would we abandon those?  Then the commands that are for the Levites and Priests ministering in the Temple – do they even apply to you?  Probably not. 

Our God shows us how to be holy.  We are made righteous through the Blood of Jesus, but he also tells us to be holy because he is holy.  His commands are not a burden but a joy!  When you start walking in his commands and seeing people around you saved and healed because of your walking in truth, you will discover the fullness of his joy.  He brought his people out of bondage in Egypt.  Why would he take them out only to put them in more bondage if the law was such a burden and bondage?  It was instruction on how to live holy so that we can reflect his holiness!

BE HOLY BECAUSE HE IS HOLY!

“Take heed that no one deceives you.”

Is it possible that this verse has been mistranslated/punctuated improperly through the years? Consider the following commentary and what it might mean for you in relation to the End of the Age.

In Matthew 24:4,5 Jesus said, “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ’, and will deceive many.”

This is the way the verses read in most Bibles. Now, there have actually been very few people who have come and said that they are Jesus Christ or even that they are the Messiah. Sai Baba in India is willing to say it, if it will help him gain followers, and a few others have tried it, with limited success. I have read that some of the Roman Catholic popes and priests claim to be Jesus Christ, but I do not know if these claims represent what the Roman Catholic church really teaches. In general, I think its easy for a disciple of Jesus Christ to avoid the deception of some other man claiming to be Jesus Christ.

But its quite possible though that we’ve been adding punctuation to this verse in the wrong way, so as to give the wrong meaning to it. In the Common Greek in which the New Testament was written, there is no punctuation like we have in English. Perhaps then there is a greater need for us to take heed that no one deceives us. What if we read the verse like this:

“Many will come in my name saying I am the Christ, and will deceive many.” ? It could well be that Jesus is here predicting the rise of false teachers in the church, as well as the appearance of cults – including the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons who have already deceived many millions. These people acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, they come in His name, but they deceive MANY. Not just a few.

A lot of preachers have come in the name of Jesus, and they acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ – but they are still deceivers. It doesn’t make sense to come in the name of Jesus (which means coming as the representative of Jesus acting in His place) and also claiming also to BE the Jesus your represent. For these reasons I believe that Jesus is actually saying, “Many will come in my name acknowledging that I am the Christ, but they will deceive many”. I cannot fully prove it is to be read this way, but this interpretation has certainly been fulfilled. There have been many who have come in the name of Jesus with some truth and some deception, who have deceived many. There are not so many who have come claiming to be Jesus or a reincarnation of Jesus. And those who have, have deceived relatively few compared to those deceived by cult leaders and apostate Christian leaders from mainline or even pentecostal backgrounds.

If my interpretation is correct, then we can expect false doctrine in the professing church of Jesus Christ to be very common. It is one of the eternal perils of the Last Days. Believing false doctrine CAN in many cases rob you of your eternal destiny. It does so because it causes you to accept a religious substitute for a true relationship of love and trust with Jesus.

Or…

Did Jesus warn about widespread religious deception?

When the disciples of Jesus asked about the “end of the age,” (the end of this present era) Jesus had an urgent warning for them, and for us today, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name saying I am the Christ, and will mislead many.” (Matt. 24:4-5). (There is no punctuation in the original Greek Biblical manuscripts, all punctuation was added by translators. In this verse many translators have added punctuation that changes the original meaning.)

Notice that it is the “many” that teach falsely, and that they are coming in the name of Jesus, teaching about Jesus, and teaching a part of His message, but not all of it. Only a few will still believe all of the true teachings of Jesus Christ. We are warned not to be misled because so many people will be deceived!

So, if the punctuation was *added*, and it really reads that some will come teaching about Jesus, the real Messiah, and yet lead people astray… what are the false teachings? It says that MANY will be lead astray. Many are led astray that the Law was done away with Jesus. What implications does that leave for us?

Just some thoughts.

The Word made Flesh

I was reading the following and started putting it together in my mind.  Wow!  Really lays out the meaning of John 1.  I looked up the definition in Thayer’s Lexicon of “Logos” and what the author says here does match up with Thayer’s.

“In the Newer Testament two Greek terms, when translated into English, mean “word.” These terms are logos (LAH-goss) and rhema (RAY-muh). Logos represents God’s ways and thoughts, forever unchangeable. The Bible is God’s logos written down for man. The apostle John also uses the word logos to refer to Jesus as the eternal Word made flesh (see John 1:1).”

My own analysis:

Now, exchanging the expanded definition of “logos” with “Word” in the verses from John 1 we’ll see what it says:

John 1:1 In the beginning were God’s ways and thoughts, forever unchangeable and God’s ways and thoughts, forever unchangeable were with God, and  God’s ways and thoughts, forever unchangeable were God.

John 1:14 And God’s ways and thoughts, forever unchangeable became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

If God’s ways and thoughts are forever unchangeable, how then can we say that they were changed at the Cross?  They ARE God (look at verse 1) – in other words they make up WHO God is.

Then, these unchangeable ways and thoughts became flesh in the man of Jesus/Yeshua.  It was glory for Him to live these ways out.  God’s ways are full of grace and truth, and Jesus/Yeshua lived them out and embodied them.  They are forever UNCHANGEABLE.

Hey – W.W.J.D. ?????  He would live out the unchangeable ways of the Father. Do you take that phrase seriously?

A Christmas Birthday Party

Before you read this, keep in mind, we are the BRIDE of Messiah. So that means he’s our husband. There are instructions throughout Scripture that tell the Bride how to respond to her husband, and how the Bride of Messiah should, in turn, be responding to Messiah the same way she respects her Husband.

Also, remember that when we stray away from the Lord and go after other “Loves/gods,” (you shall have no other gods before me) and then we come back to the Lord, it is as if the former love is an ex-lover.

A Christmas Birthday Party
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WIFE TO HUSBAND: Darling! I have decided to have a big birthday party for you!
HUSBAND: Wonderful!
WIFE: On December 25th.
HUSBAND: That’s not my birthday.
WIFE: I know, I know, but we’ll just SAY it’s your birthday.
HUSBAND: That’s your ex-boy friend’s birthday!
WIFE: That’s okay, I have decided to call it your birthday.
HUSBAND: No, its not okay. Why don’t you just pick any day that is NOT your ex-boy friend’s birthday?Aren’t you interested in what is true? In what is pleasing to me? Even enough to find out my real birth date?
WIFE: Now, now, don’t get upset. I have decided that we’ll just SAY it is your birthday. I’ve sent out the invitations and everybody is doing it so that makes it okay.
HUSBAND: It does?
WIFE: Yes, and you wouldn’t want me to change the date and inconvenience anyone. I have decided it is okay.
HUSBAND: You’ve decided. I would be pleased if you would just take my hand and follow me and spend a few moments with me.
WIFE: Later, later. No time now. I have invited ALL the family. My Father and Mother and Uncle Bill and Cousin Betty and Ernie and all the kids and grandkids and, Oh, the children will love it! We’ll do it forthe children! They deserve it

HUSBAND: For the children. I see, a day to exalt family…and you callit my birthday. Makes me think you love family more than me.
WIFE: Oh, you’ll love it, too, I have decided. And we’ll all give gifts to each other.
HUSBAND: This is supposed to be MY birthday? Yet you give gifts toothers? Why?
WIFE: And I’ll decorate the house…red ribbons and bows and…
HUSBAND: Red? Red is your ex-boyfriend’s favorite color! I like blue and green. Blue skies, blue seas, green grass, trees, birds…
WIFE: Oh, I’m putting up a green tree decorated with gold and silver balls and we’ll put gifts under it!
HUSBAND: Like the idolators throughout history….every green tree…That is idolatry.
WIFE: And I’ll have to buy gifts and do lots of shopping and…
HUSBAND: …so the God of Mammon will get his.
WIFE: It will be worth it! I’ll decorate and bake cookies and fruitcake and…
HUSBAND: Sounds like you’ll be really busy. Come away my beloved and spend a little time with me…a walk by the river, a…
WIFE: Later, darling. I’ll be busy, but you’ll love it…I’ve decided. The hustle, the bustle…oh, yes, and I’ve decided to have a nice baked ham…
HUSBAND: Charred swine’s flesh! On what you SAY is my birthday and is not! Who is in charge here? Why do you just do YOUR THING and assume that I will put my stamp of approval on it? If you love me, why do you not DO the things that I say? Why do you not do things MY WAY? You don’t even KNOW me! I suppose the next thing you’ll do is dress your ex-boyfriend in a red suit and have him drop down the chimney!
WIFE: Uhhhh.