WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Ok, you've heard it and so have I.  "The ten commandments are SO old fashioned" or something like that.  We hear all the time how the ten commandments are really taken as though they are the ten suggestions.  We don't like to consider them as binding on our lives.  After all, since they are in the Old Testament and we now live in the New Testament times, they no longer apply. 

Today, I want to challenge that thinking as being shallow, immature, and destined to destroy our relationship with Jesus Christ.  We may not find it acceptable to stone violators, but the Bible DOES say Christ fulfilled the law - which started with the ten commandments.  Proper Biblical interpretation requires us to hold the same view of the OT scriptures as the Apostles did - and they held the OT as Divinely Inspired and as part of the story of the relationship between man and God.  For the Apostles, that story was unfolding - and it is for us as well.  Prophecies are found in the Bible about what is yet to come, as certainly as what has already happened.  Christ is the way to God - and Christ fulfilled the ten commandments.  He did so not to free us from them, but to cause us to look to Him for help as we seek to follow them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about a legalistic view of them, either.  Our salvation is based on the finished work of Christ on the cross and the empty tomb.  Neither will we STAY saved by following the ten commandments.  BUT, our spiritual maturity and strength is sapped when we try to pick and choose what to follow without any help from proper biblical understanding.  That understanding demands we understand the ten commandments in light of the new testament, NOT ignoring them all together.

Over the next few days, I will be posting some thoughts about the ten commandments and how ignoring them is destroying our intimacy with the Lord and we don't even realize it.  While the ten commandments SHOULD point everyone to their need for Christ's saving work in their lives, they also reveal cracks in a believer's relationship with Jesus.  If you are hungry for a deeper, more intimate relationship with Christ, then join me on this 10 day journey starting tomorrow!

And that's Just a Thought for today!

May the Lord Bless and Keep you!


Pastor Greg

ARE YOU A BONDSERVANT, SLAVE, OR SERVANT?

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ... (Romans 1:1)

Sometimes translations don't give us the whole meaning of an original text.  The whole meaning of the original text is important to the sincere student of the Bible.  Good Bible interpretation involves understanding what the text says in light of the time in which it was written, the intent of the author, and the choice of words to convey the message.  Today, we look at the word "bondservant."

The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates the Greek word doulos as "slave" rather than "bondservant" as in the NKJV.  However, a cultural study of the times in which this was written, there was a difference between a bondservant and a slave.  Both were owned by their master, but the slave served by compulsion, while the bondservant by choice. Therefore, the KJV translates the word "servant" to bring out the service aspect.  And a "servant" worked for, but was not "owned" by the master. The servant had time to himself, not in the service to his master. Which word best fits the text? I believe the best word is "bondservant" – if Paul's life was any indication about how connected we are to Jesus; and Jesus showed it in how connected He was to the Father in Heaven.

Now that we've covered the meaning of the word, let's get to the application.  Paul was declaring himself to be a willing servant-slave to Jesus Christ.  He made no bones about answering to Jesus for his actions, taking orders from Jesus, and seeking to honor Jesus for his character and nature.  And I can think of no one this side of Jesus' crucifixion, burial, and resurrection who had more of an impact on the world's faith than Paul as he served the risen Savior, Jesus Christ. 


 
Paul seemed to hold nothing back from serving Jesus.  He "ate, slept, and thought" Jesus.  Soli Christo gloria, "Only Christ's Glory," seems to be his motto.  Paul may have once persecuted Christians, and even believed Jesus to be a fool and a dead one at that.  But after meeting the resurrected Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, Paul was convinced that Jesus really IS God and that He is alive and wants to communicate with us to instruct us in His aims for us in this life.

So, I ask myself today, "Are YOU a bondservant of Jesus Christ?  What might you be holding back from the Lord in your service to Him?"

The outcome of events often frustrate me when they aren't as I wish.  After muttering, sometimes not so quietly, about it, I breathe deep and accept them.  I hold back the deepest parts of me because I am afraid of the pain that change will bring (as it always does with hard-headed people like me who seem to only learn by hard knocks).  I hold back for the sake of dignity when I should be loving, caring, and giving.  I don't want to look the fool, weak, or wimpy.  My machismo comes flying out of me.  But that wasn't Jesus' way, and it isn't what He wants from me.

There are many other ways I hold back.  I want to be like Paul, but I'm more like Peter, who resolutely, boldly, and confidently told the Lord he would NEVER deny the Lord Jesus, only to do so three times before the cock crowed in the morning.  My own bold, resolute, confident service to the Lord is more often flawed in action than in intent!  Some bondservant I am when the choices are to be made!

And that is the rub.  It's one thing to CALL oneself a bondservant, but it is altogether different to BE one when choices are to be made.  Do I do this for MY convenience, protection, or understanding?  OR Do I do this because it is what Jesus wills - period?

Lord, may I be a better bondservant today than I was yesterday, because YOU deserve it.  You demonstrated true bondservice as you did ONLY the will of the Father.  You gave me Paul's record as an example.  How far short of your standard I fall.  How great is your grace and mercy that I should still be the center of your love, patience, and purpose as you make me into your image.  I can bask in your love, serve you with gratitude, and delight in your pleasure today.  I am your bondservant - and I will try to be a better one today.  For your glory, Amen!

And that's "Just A Thought" for today. May you be blessed in your walk with the Lord Jesus.

Don't Starve Your Soul

Bible Reading: (Psalms 119:15) I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.

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"There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech." - C. H. Spurgeon

Could it be that this is the very downfall of our faith? I mean could it be that the lack of meditations and so a failure to respect to the ways of God is destroying our faith? The blessing of taking time to meditate is cursed by hurry and the tyranny of the urgent.

It is through this meditation that the word of God can soak our souls with His life-giving power, making our spirits strong for the work He has given to us to do. Through this meditation we assimilate the bread of life and rinse it with the living water. We cannot afford, in a world bitterly opposed to faith at all levels, to starve our souls. We cannot afford to simply have a form of religion but denying the power thereof. We who KNOW whom we have believed have committed everything to His care. Ought we not simply commit our souls in one moment of Hell-avoiding faith but also commit our souls to Him in daily living?

We love wheat, but will not harvest it. We love corn, but will not shuck it. We love fruit, but will not reach to pluck it. We love water, but will not stoop to drink it. We must say "NO" to some activities in order to take time to say "YES" to meditating on the precepts of the Lord. Let us do so, beginning today.

Morning Devotions

Bible Reading Num_14:11

What's your favorite brand of weed killer? Mine is "Roundup." It seems to work more quickly and completely than anything else I've ever tried... not saying I've tried much, mind you. I'm no gardner. But one of the things that I've found with using weed killer is that it kills everything else, too. You have to be careful with it when there's a week you want dead because it's choking out the plants you want to thrive.

Doubt (unbelief) is a spiritual weed that seems to keep cropping up in our lives. We need to kill it. It is the most unnecessary, disappointing, and insulting of all sins in our hearts. It really offends our Lord, who neither deserves it, nor can stand it. How it must crowd out our relationship with Him... It must be cruel to Him for us to doubt after all He's given to us to feed our faith.

But let's use the Bible as our weed killer, lest we kill more than the weed of doubt - lest we kill the weed of faith, too.

• Ignorance. The weed of faith can be killed by ignorance - of God's love and power, of God's past work on your behalf. Not remembering what He has done will help doubt grow and kill faith.
• Superstition. The weed of faith is often killed by misplaced faith. It is God, not some talisman or superstitious chant/ritual that gives us strength and purpose.
• Busy-ness. The weed of faith is killed by a lack of time to properly commune with the Lord - because you are too busy.
• Materialism. The weed of faith is killed by learning to trust money to solve your problems rather than trusting the Lord. Money often creates more problems than it solves.
  

Yes, there are many things that will keep our faith from growing - even if we think we've killed doubt. How provoked do you think our Lord is when we let that happen?

PRAY: Dear Lord, forgive me for provoking you by letting my faith in you die. Fill me with your Word that I may not be guilty of ignorance, superstition, busyness, or materialism. Rather, let me be filled with your Spirit, for Your purposes, and confident of your presence. Help me to continually walk by faith and not by sight, never to doubt or forget that YOU are my Savior, and no one else.

In Christ's name, Amen!

Morning Devotions

Bible Reading: Son_2:3

Ah, the blessedness of "tasting" the Lord! Spurgeon points out that this is perhaps the highest or most advanced of all the five senses in terms of intimacy - and when applied to the spiritual appreciation of our Lord and Savior, it is all the more wonderful. Spurgeon marvelously illustrates in his Morning By Morning devotion for today that our faith will be applied to our five senses - hearing, seeing, smelling, touching - and tasting. It is this idea that I want to meditate upon this morning.

I remember in my own life when I heard the voice of God calling me to believe. It was then I trusted and was saved. The Bible says that "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." So it was.

Next, I saw the truth of scripture and began to trust it for the details of my life - ordering my marriage, my finances, my time, my worship, my prayers, and my friendships. My work was also addressed in the Scripture. I saw the Lord's leadership in my life.

As I grew in prayer and relationship with Jesus, I can now recognize that I was beginning to "smell" the Lord by admiring Him in an adoring way, as one who curls up next to his love and breathes her fragrance through his nostrils. Yes, I learned to love the fragrance of the sweet Savior, appreciating not only his physical blessings, but his very real presence in my life.

I began to touch Christ with my spirit, caressing Him, as it were, with peaceful and delightful communion, as Spurgeon puts it. Christ touched me back with His tender mercies and gentle leading.

Now, I can taste of His person as I drink Him in daily, taking for my very nourishment His Spirit, His way, and His holiness. I marvel at the delightful and sweet flavor of His righteousness and yearn for the continual change in my character that comes from a regular tasting of my Savior's sweet goodness.

Will you not also strive to progress through these stages of drawing near to the Lord? Will you join me in adoring and communing with Jesus Christ under the apple tree before you must part into the labors of life?

Bro. Greg