The Grass is Always Greener...

10th commandment...

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

My neighbor has a house, and he has a wife, but I've haven't seen any servants or farm animals. I must be in good shape then. Is this really speaking about the things we covet, or is it speaking of coveting in general by stating specific things? I would lean more in the direction of the latter. The bible gives us plenty of examples of how damaging this sin can be. One good one is how it affected King David. David was a godly man, however he was just a man and sinned like any other. He saw a woman bathing from his home, he was drawn to her by his lust for her (coveting). When he lay with her (adultry) she became pregnant. Seeing that she was married, he had her husband moved to the front lines in battle so he would surely be killed (muder). He litteraly coveted his neighbor's wife and he ended up commiting 4, if not 5 more sins in the wake of this one sin. It can be very dangerous for us to want more than we have. Everything we have is given to us by the Lord. He gives us what we need and we are not here to say he didn't do good enough. Because when Christians covet, you're basically claiming that God gave me all that I have and would ever need, but I need more... I need his wife, his car and his house. God knows you better than you know you, all He wants is for you to trust Him. Remember this for tomorrow everyone, we all open gifts and we may all become guilty of this sin if we are not careful. *MERRY CHRISTMAS*

Liar!...

9th commandment...

"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."

Lying, one of the most commonly broken of the ten commandments and that is not just by chance. There are some people who have based their entire lives on lies. The movies often portray it as just a way of life, or that truthfulness is a thing to avoid. I'm here to say NO! Find another way. Cliche says, the truth hurts. Real life says, the truth hurts even more when it has had lies around it. Lying is responsible for most, if not all, of the evil on this planet. If lying didn't exist, I wouldn't have to blog about God's grace because we would all know that God's word was the truth. We would know for sure that we were saved by His grace. He wants us to live honestly and He wants us to live for Him. *MERRY CHRISTMAS*

If It isn't Yours, Don't Take It...

8th commandment...

"You shall not steal."

I hope everyone can see how this is God's grace at work. Taking what isn't yours is harmful to all parties involved. Most would think the theif would only receive punishment if he or she was caught. However, their problems only begin with the act. As with all sin, stealing starts in the heart and it will stay there even if the act is never carried out. The bible tells us that the sins of the father carry on to future generations, for example, Adam sinned, therefore we all are born sinners. Or when Noah cursed the children of his son. If you don't repent of your ways you may end up hurting more than yourself with all you have done. Our Lord doesn't want that for you or your children, therefore he has set this as a law so we may know what to avoid. His sacrifice on the cross is what will wash the sins away, but wouldn't it be better for us to not squander that away on the things of this world? Remember God loves you and will welcome you with open arms. *MERRY CHRISTMAS*

Look but dont touch? I dont think so.

7th commandment

"You shall not commit adultery."

I don't know how to start this one, so I'll start with myself. Without Christ's blood, I am guilty of this sin. Just like murder from my post yesterday, this sin starts in the heart. I'm not saying that the following statment is 100% true, but sadly, it may be. I don't think there is one person on this planet that has not commited this sin. "But I'm not dating anyone and I'm not married, so how could I have cheated on anyone?" Well, you may have never cheated on anyone, nor have I, however, most (if not all) people have commited adultery. Here is how. You don't have to cheat or even have relations with a person to commit this sin. Like I stated above, this sin starts in our hearts, I could look at a detestable site on the internet or dwell on how good looking someone is and be just as guilty as the man having an affair with his secretary. This is called lust, the begining of adultery. Lust will take your life and turn it on its head, it can destroy relationships, marriges and families...

The grace?

To put it as simply as I can, our God gave us this law so we may avoid this problem and keep it far from our hearts. It was not to bring us down or to take the fun out of life. *MERRY CHRISTMAS*

Define Murder?...

6th commandment...

"You shall not murder."

Its easy to see how God shows grace from this rule, right? You would think that, but people still don't follow it fully, and many don't really understand it.

Murder: to kill unlawfully and intentionally.

Jesus tells us that murder can be carried out in your heart, even if you never kill anyone. If the bible defined murder, the biblical definition would be: to have intent to kill, or to hate another -- Or, to take another person's life. That is not in the bible, but by reading it you would find this definition to be true. To hate is to murder. To desire to kill is murder. If it was done in your heart, by God's law, you already did it. We come back to how this commandment shows grace and you may find it to be a little harder to find now that you see the biblical definition of murder. His grace abounds everywhere and forever, even here. You may think that hate isn't that bad, but that is obviously false. Try and think of a time when hate made something good come about. God is protecting us from ourselves. He is telling us that our anger can make our lives very hard and miserable. He loves us very much and wants us all to love Him and one another as we love ourselves. He does not want to see us suffer the consequences of murder and hate. *MERRY CHRISTMAS*

So That You May Live Long...

5th commandment...

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you."

Love, respect, obedience. These are a few of God's favorite things. When He tells us to honor our father and mother, He is talking about all of those things. Some may ask,"what if my parents aren't respectable?" Or "what if the things they request of me are things I should not obey?" Love them. Show them the love that you have for them and show them the love of Christ in your life. What I love about this law is that His grace is spelled out for you. "So that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you." God wants you to have a long and abundant life and He wants you to live it while walking with Him. *MERRY CHRISTMAS*

Editor's Note: This post is a day late becaus I had no time to edit and post it yesterday. I apologize for any inconvenience.

White Sabbath...

4th commandment...

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

Right away, I see God's grace in this law. God is giving us a day off. This day is set aside for us to enjoy Him and for Him to enjoy us. Its a day to spend with your Father, your Daddy. He wants to know us so we can be with Him one day in eternity. Scripture says that God made the Sabbath holy. When people hear the word holy, they often think of angels flying and singing or a picture of a person with a halo over their head. When I think of this word I think, of the word different, or set apart. We are call to be unlike the world or "holy". Make the Sabbath important in your life, the same way you make the Lord important. *MERRY CHRISTMAS*

In Vain...

3rd commandment...

"You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."

Many know this command but don't really understand its meaning. The NIV words it as you see above. In other translations, it is stated as taking the Lord's name in vain. This generation sees this as not to saying the name Jesus Christ in anger or to put the word "damn" after the name of God. Although it is true that doing those things is vainly speaking the name of the Lord, that is not the only way it is done. We know that the power of our words are great, and the name of the Lord is greater still, so calling on the name of the Lord with ill intention or malace could also be classified as a violation of this statute. In the New Testament, it is writen that swearing is detramental to you and can invoke a curse on you. Not swearing as in saying a vulgar word or phrase (which is also frowned on), but swearing as in saying, " I swear mom, I didn't eat the cookies" while you dust the crumbs off your shirt. Many people do this every day. For example, a man loses his wife's wedding ring and has searched for it high and low, he finally says "God please, if you let me find this ring I will never lie to my wife ever again" while in his heart he already plans on just putting his wife's ring back where it belongs so he can act like it never happened. Now, others say that they come in the name of the Lord and yet their intentions are only to benefit from what they can gain from using his name, and thus, are doing so in vain. After this it still may be hard to see how He is protecting us from something with this law. I tell you, He protected you from cursing and shaming your self and your family. He has also removed you from the wrath that will come to those who lead others astray in His name. Be glad He has given us safe gaurds from all evil, if we just obey. *MERRY CHRISTMAS*

I am a jealous God...

2nd commandment...

"You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."

This is a complex commandment, and not just because it is longer then the others. Idolatry--it's a word that most people don't understand. It's easy to look up it's meaning, but it's hard to understand the biblical definition of the word. "An idol? Do you mean like a statue to a god?" My anwser to that is yes--and no. Making an image or an idol is usually thought of as a statue, and for good reason, a statue that is being worshiped as a god is, in fact, an idol. "But people don't really make statues to worship anymore do they? That's so old fashioned!" Actually, yes they do, just not in the same way. There are still some people that make statues to worship, but the big thing now a days is worshiping the things we own. "I don't worship my car and my TV or anything like that, so I'm okay, right?" No you may not kneel and pray before them (unless a big game is on) however some people do treat their jobs or cars or phones like they are the most important things in their life. Family members, celebrities, spouses, these can all become idols to us if we are not careful. "Then how do you find grace in a commandment where God calls Himself jealous?" We can see it by looking at what we are really putting our faith in. I ask you, don't cars break down? Don't people lie, fall short, even pass away? Or we could go back to the statues, they are just stone, no more powerful than the rocks they are made from. Now ask your self, how bad does it hurt when a close family member betrays you? Doesn't loosing a job turn your life upside down? If the anwser to any of these is yes, then you should be able to see God's grace. He is not only trying to have us serve Him and Him only, He is trying to save us from the pain that comes from putting your trust in the things of this world that will ultimately let you down. Put your trust in Him and keep no idols in your heart. *MERRY CHRISTMAS*

You Shall Have No Other...

1st commandment

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me."

Often times this list of rules is looked at as only a list of rules. They are rules, but there is more to it then just a set of things that are set in place to make your life harder. About a month ago, I received a revelation from the Holy Spirit. That revelation was about the grace that God shows us in all things. One of those things was about the Ten Commandments.

This is the first on the list and is considered the most important command that the Lord gives us. You may be wondering how there is grace in this rule, it is just about putting God first and it doesn't help me. God gives us this as our starting and finishing point in the law. If you follow this law you will be making God the most important thing in your life and by default you will obey the other laws. That is His grace. He made it so all we have to do is follow Him and we would be saved. If I stoped here my point will have been made. However I like details and I have 9 more days and 9 more commandments to go. So be sure to come back and read more tomorrow. *MERRY CHRISTMAS*

The Ten Days of Commandments

I was going to use the Christmas song (12 Day of Christmas) here, then I remembered my distain for that song and decided that was a bad idea. However the song is a good, kinda punny way of starting my new, ten days of blog posts. I will be making a new post every day from now until the day we wish our saviour a happy birthday. These ten posts will be covering none other then (drum roll) The Ten Commandments, and how you can find God's grace in them. They will be posted in order that they are writen in the Bible. Look for my first post later on today.  *MERRY CHRISTMAS*

*Editor's Note*
The editor of this post just so happens to thoroughly enjoy the above mentioned Christmas song... So enjoy!

Every Knee!

6 Although he was in the form of God and equal with God,
he did not take advantage of this equality.
7 Instead, he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant,
by becoming like other humans,
by having a human appearance.
8 He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
death on a cross.
9 This is why God has given him an exceptional honor—
the name honored above all other names—
10 so that at the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth,
and in the world below will kneel
11 and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.
Phil 2:6-11.


Does this mean that by everyone bowing and confessing that Jesus is Lord, that everyone will go to heaven? My former pastor had a saying. He said "Everyone will go to heaven one day. Not everyone will stay." That may still be confusing to some so I will break it down a little further. On the final day, be that day the day of our death or the final day of judgement, we will stand at the feet of the one true God. Being that God resides on the throne in heaven, we will arrive in heaven on that day. Therefore everyone will go to heaven. Sadly the second part of that saying is the truth. For those who did not except Christ as their savior, Jesus says that on the final day you will say "Lord Lord", and He will say "depart from me you doer of evil, I never knew you". He tells you to depart, not everyone will stay. Back to my first question. Will everyone go to heaven? Well the scripture above says that
everyone in heaven, on earth,
and in the world below will kneel
and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father. You may say, "I thought that confessing that Christ is Lord meant you excepted Him as your savior. That means everyone should go to heaven right?" Sorry to say, that's not true. Like I said before, Jesus told us what will happen when we are judged on our final day. We will either be excepted in to His kingdom or rejected forever, as if He never knew us. But, before that happens He says that we will say Lord Lord. Crying Lord Lord is confessing that He is, well, Lord. However, at this point it is to little to late. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, just not all will be in time to enter His kingdom. On this earth is where we need to confess that He is Lord, not everyone will do that while we are here and in turn there will be those that He does not know on that final day. Though this is painful, it is true.

Tuned out

Pictured Below: Impending Doom

"If its to loud you're to old" I've been familiar with this quote for years. It is not my quote, however, quotes like this (and I'm sure there are many others like it) are the reason I'm writing today. When I was younger, I was a fan of rap music. At first I wanted to listen to any kind of rap I could get my hands on. Eventually I no longer wanted to listen to just any rap, but only the kind that glorified God. Having only listened to this one genre of music for 3 or 4 years, I knew who a lot of the artists were, and what their message was.

Wednesday night youth group had become a regular part of my schedule, but this week was a little different and for some reason that I can't recall at the moment, my parents were not able to pick me up. A women from the church had been doing some work. She was not part of the youth's leadership, but we knew her well. She was the only person at the youth meeting that was able to give me a ride home so I went with her after service. As we were driving we started talking about youth and work, pretty much just making small talk. Then she said something that has stuck in my mind ever sense. First she asked the question, "What kind of music do you like?" I replied, "I like rap." Her response, with a wagging finger in my face, was, "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CHRISTIAN RAPPER!" I must have forgotten that she was my only way home because I just looked at her and said "Where do you get your info from?" That wasn't the most respectful way of asking that question and in retrospect I should have phrased it better. That question lead to a surprised look and a small stammer from her, followed by a questioning statement... "Well name one then!" I named three. I then had a nice talk with her about the Christian rappers that I knew. She still seemed skeptical, so I brought a print out of a few artist and the lyrics of some of their songs when I came to church that Sunday. I told her that I didn't expect her to listen to the songs but that I would like her to reconsider the genre of music as a viable way for the Lord to get his message across and as a good way to worship.

Years later I found my self in a similar scenario, but the other way around. I was the one saying that a specific genre of music had no Christian artists. It happened in almost the exact same way the other incident did. After youth again and in the car on the way home. This time it was another church I was attending and I got a ride with a guy who at the time was a guest speaker at youth. He was a big "metal head." For those who aren't sure what that is, a metal head is simply a person who's favorite or perhaps only music choice is heavy metal music. On the way home, he put a song on that started out sounding fairly normal. Without warning, all of the sudden the song broke into a torrent of a fast double kick drum, a complicated guitar riff and what, at the time to me, sounded like the screaming voice of a demon straight from hell itself. I prayed that he would turn it down before we got to my house so my parents wouldn't yell about what we were listening to in the car. After I was dropped off, I felt strange about what I had just heard. It had made me go as far as to question whether this man was really a Christian. I mean how could he be, he listened to music like that?

The next week at youth I was watching as the youth group praise and worship team warmed up. They started practice with a jam session, and a very heavy jam session. Having heard that, I had to admit I liked it. During that week I looked up some music in that genre on the internet. I found my third love, Christian Death Metal, or as I like to call it "Christ's Death, Metal. I now listen to nearly nothing but this music. I love the passion and skill that these men and women have for their music and their God. They have taken a genre that has been considered by many (including me) to be satanic or pagan (with good reason) and have used it to facilitate bringing the light into a dark place. Metal, although that is a very broad term, has its share of bad Metal, or Black Metal. They often have evil messages about death, Satan, sex, drugs, you name it, they sing about it. As for Christian Metal, it sings praises about God's love, Christ sacrifice, and living a right life in God's eyes. In conclusion, my goal for this post is to bring some light to the subject about the idea that "only music sung by a choir can be of God." Not that hymns and choir music can't be good ways of worship, because they are a wonderful expression of our love for our God, yet their heavier counterparts are as well. I would urge all of you to look into any genre of music and look for God's hand in the words, compare the lyrics with scripture and come to your own conclusion.


For those of you interested in Christian Metal, I have a YouTube channel that my help you, God Bless.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ChristsDeathMetal?feature=mhee

Ghosts?

This is the usual idea of what a ghost looks like. I've seen real "GHOSTS" before (note my quotations). They don't look like this. This has been a topic in my life for years, but I do not believe in ghosts in the sense that most do. If I were to say "I saw a ghost in my house" most people would say it was a dead person in my house, haunting it. I've come to the conclusion that those people are wrong. Yes, I said wrong. The word ghost has long been used to describe the dead walking the earth : the soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined,usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as wandering among or haunting living persons:

Man kind has always had a fear and or, fixation with ghosts and other unexplained mysteries. One of the only accounts of a so called, "ghost" in the Bible is when Saul (1st King of Israel) visited an exiled witch/fortune teller/medium. He asked her to contact the deceased Samuel for him. She obliged and brought him to Saul. This account has been debated in many ways. A lot of Christians say he wasn't really talking to Samuel, that the witch tricked him, or that it was a demon, and others that it was Samuel. I am one of the latter who believes this WAS Samuel. The Bible said it was him and that's all I have to go on, however, God also warned many times in the Bible not to talk to or try and contact the dead and I think there was a reason. By contacting the dead you disrupt what God has set in place. We are meant to live on this earth for a time and then die, we are not supposed come back to talk to those who are still on earth. Based on the fact that it was done at least once in history, I believe it may be possible people can still contact the dead, and that might be the only way they can come back. Now those are only my beliefs, they are not Biblical fact, although I do base this off of Biblical accounts. I do not believe it is possible for the dead to freely walk the earth as ghost. There is no Biblical evidence supporting the idea of ghosts as dead people haunting the living. So many might say "Well I've seen or heard or felt a ghost in my house" and I would say that I believe them. They have seen these things and heard these things. What I don't believe is the usual definition of the word ghost as I wrote above. The one we call the deceiver, or Lucifer, does just that, he deceives. If he can make you believe something that takes you away from the truth, he will. Like I said before, I've also seen a "GHOST." I was in my bed and I awoke to a soft but unfamiliar sound. My eyes opened to my dismay, I saw the second picture above. What your looking at is a peice of artwork I made, depicting the foot of my bed, a slightly open door, and a real event that took place. This ghostly figure came from right to left and stopped at the foot of my bed. Once it stopped it put what seemed to be an arm on my bed and I felt the bed shift as if someone had sat on the bed. I would love to tell more stories but that would make this already lengthy post even longer. To the point, I have dealt with this my whole life and my conclusion of what these things I have experienced are is nothing more then trickery by Satan himself. The reasoning would be to distract me from what the Lord has planed for my life. These are just demons, they can only do you harm if they are given the go ahead by you or God. If you want to know more or teach me something I may be missing on this topic you are more then welcome to comment.

A need to remember.

I wish I could just put all the bad and wrong I've done away and never have to deal with them again. This is a statement that many of us have thought or said about our pasts. I believe that this is a dangerous thing to ask. We've all heard the old saying if you don't know your past your doomed to repeat it. This holds strong even outside of the old saying. I used to go to a church that taught, "When you get saved God takes away everything, your sin, the temptation to do that sin, and in some cases the memories of that sin." I believed every word of that to be true for everyone when they became born again. Then I got saved. When I accepted Christ I was waiting for all of that to come to pass. Only one of those things happened for me. My sins were forgiven, that was it. I didn't get some amazing revelation that, "I don't ever want to look at website that I shouldn't, I don't ever wan't to lie, ect.... " No those things were still a temptation to me and even still are to this day. Then there is the idea that God sometimes takes away all memories of your past. Now before I go any farther I will reiterate something, I believe all of the above things can and do happen to people, I just want to stress the danger behind saying they are fact for everyone. Okay back to the topic. My memory of the events in my past stayed with me after accepting Christ and are still there. So after all of that happened or didn't happen, I felt lost, I didn't even think I was really saved. I was told for so long that when you get saved that all sin should become a bad memory or not even that. I just want to say, that's not always the case. These teachings nearly pushed me away from Christ. I thought, "This must not be true. It cant be if these things are still around me." What I came to realize is that not everyone has that plan in their life. The plan God had for me is that He wanted me to continue having those temptations in my life. Christ was given temptation, and I believe that for some it is necessary for pruning. Christ stated that even the branches that bear fruit would be pruned in order to bear MORE fruit. However, some aren't able to deal with harsh temptations and aren't given to them so not to cause them to fall. I only wanted to say all of this because it is very important to remember that God loves you very much and if you love Him with all your heart mind and soul you are under his grace, and only you can take that from yourself. He is with you always.

Warning! Flying objects!

Sinners are the arrows that missed the target. Literally, sin was a word used for missing the target in archery. I heard this from a friend once and for some reason I thought about this for awhile today. When you hit the target the location of where that arrow is becomes apparent. When you miss it may seem the arrow is lost. The LOST arrow is only that if the archer only picks up the arrows that hit the target. The arrows that missed aren't lost they are just harder to find and bring back in. So if you equate the arrows to people, the arrows that hit their target to the saved or followers of Christ and the missed arrows to sinners, you can understand the analogy. Most Christians only take the arrows out of the target and forget about the ones that missed, or they only want to talk to and lead other Christians to the target/Christ. My question is "why?" I've done this myself not wanting to talk to people that don't know Christ because I'm afraid what they may think or it may offend them. What ever the reason, it's not a good one. Jesus said He came to seek and save the LOST. He knows where those arrows that hit the target are. Now He wants the lost to be found. If you spent time carefully carving and shaping a large number of arrows would you want those arrows back no matter how hard or how long it took? The same goes for God, He wants us back, whether we hit the target or not, and he will pursue us until we are found. Obviously we are not really arrows so we don't just sit and wait, we will eventually die and meet judgement, so if we are not ready to surrender our lives to the one and only God we may eternally be lost. God Bless: Joe