The Ten Commandments

Just recently, someone is actually giving anyone a chance to win $20K by just reciting these Ten Laws in 20 sec. or less. Just go to Ten and Win for more info.

Back on the subject, most of us can remember 10 popular games, characters, actors, etc. Yet, we can't remember all Ten Commandments. The best way to find them all would be Exodus 20. But, in a nutshell:

• 1)No other gods before Him.
  If you still think Odin, Zeus, Jupiter, and Baal can save ya, they won't, so dump them all and hard, putting God first. This must've been why it became the first Commandment. Even in Matthew 6, Jesus said that you can't have two masters. You can either serve God or Money, but not both.


• 2)Make no graven image/idol.


• 3)Don't misuse His name.
  While the KJV and other similar translations would use "vain", simply put in this case, is not to misuse God's name as a curse or any type of exclamatory.


• 4)Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy.


• 5)Honor thy mother and father.
  Personally, I can remember this as #5 from one episode of King of the Hill episode where Hank makes Bobby join an after-school youth group. Long story short, head to here and find "Reborn...". Spoiler alert, near the end, this guy was talking to his son about #5, and shows it on his back ink.


• 6)Must not kill/commit murder.
  God's standards are so high, he even puts hatred here.


• 7)Must not commit adultery.
  Same with #6, He even places lust here. Even Jesus said it in Matt. 5:28 that lust is adultery in the heart.


• 8)Must not steal.
  Though, we all call stealing nothing of value just nothing, but it's just the same, theft is theft.


• 9)Must not lie/bear false witness/testimony.
  Whoever says they never lied is already a liar. White lies, harmless fibs, etc. count here too.


• 10)Must not covet/envy.
  Here, even myself, had mistook envy for jealousy like everyone else. Envy is wanting something another has that you want. Jealousy always involve three parties-living or inanimate; that is, A fears losing B to C simply put. If you want a synonym for envy, it's here as covet.

Now, the million dollar question, have you kept all these Laws, not just a couple? If you wanna leave a comment to answer this, feel free to, but please be honest. Even I found myself guilty of not keeping a few of these, especially #2, 5-10. In fact, not all of them. Though I'd never physically killed a fellow human or animal such as a dog, squirrel etc., but have hated.

Speaking of idols, you can probably call the Met Star, Playstation, and Xbox as a few, but I don't worship them. In fact, hard though it may be, I'm gonna try to keep the Commandments as much I possibly can.

Off the Record-An Outta State Bible Study

Just as the title says, it doesn't hurt to take notes of something even if it wasn't in church. Or in FL in fact. Long story short, this was from a Bible study I've gone to at my cousin's in Bolivar, NY.

Funny to say, it's been a month since this, so stay with me. There wasn't much of an actual topic for this, but should there be one, let's find it together, yeah? Basically, whenever someone in that group was thinking of something, we go to each of our few translations, three being the two King James, New and traditional, and NIV. As usual, I'll be using NIV.

Let's start with Ephesians 3:7-9. "I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his people. Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things." An interesting thing is that 1 Cor. 15:9-11 states a similar thing, "For I am the least of the apostles and do not even be deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed."

In my words here, we all aren't perfect or without sin. Sometimes we feel that we're undeserving of such rewards. If you remember that God didn't made us to be perfect and his infinite love can cover a multitude of sin, there shouldn't be much else to worry. That phrase, "...by the gift of God's grace..." reminded me of something. Have you heard of, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't get him to drink."? Same principle goes for atheists, but "horse, water, and drink" are replaced with "atheist, evidence, and think" respectably. The fact is that an atheist needs to have that thirst for God to start thinking just like a horse to water. In other words, only then can they start to decide whether to convert. This is why we sometimes need to make our teaching edible to nonbelievers.

There are a few more passages to look up if you like:

• 1 Cor. 15:38-41


• Matt 22:30


• 1 Cor. 35-50


• Gen. 5


• Romans 1:18


• 1 Cor. 6:9


• Lev. 20:13


• 2 Tim 4:3-4


• James 1:12


• Matt. 19:4-6 and 5:28

Yet, Psalm 14:1 has an interesting story. "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Why so is have any of you heard about a judge in FL naming April Fool's day an atheist holiday? If not, an atheist was trippin about his kind not having a holiday as we Christians, Jews, etc. with Christmas, Hanukkah, and whathavyu. Just like any other spoiled ingrate, he takes it to court. After the judge hears this guy's nonsense case, he recites that very verse while stating April 1 is already an atheist day. That's where "fool" comes in.

Again, with 2 Tim 4:3-4, that came to me somehow in a dream. One night, I was sitting at some park near a statue. What was on it happened to be possibly the Greek spelling for Timothy. Though the verses were unclear at the moment, I woke up as usual at 1am for work and looked at a few verses that would been the ones. Then it hit me, later on in the day as I was watching a YouTube video about Joel Osteen's exposure, that very passage showed up at the end. The gist of it is this, "There will be a time when no one would tolerate sound doctrine but hear only what their itchy ears want to hear and turn to myths and idols."

This is the first time that I'd shared this vision outside from a select few. Joel here only tells the people what they want to hear, not need.

4-12-09: A Few Fundamentals of Hope

Especially in a such a time as this, there's still hope. You may think we have it hard now, but even Job had his hardships, it goes like this in 7:6 "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and they come to an end without hope."

Let's move on to 14:14 "If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come." Remember, this is in Old Testament times before Christ's birth. Acts 23:6 kinda ties in with this "Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, 'My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead.'" Job was unsure at the time whether a man would live again while Paul had hope in resurrection.

Again, with John 11:23-25 when Jesus was ensuring Martha that "Your brother will rise again." She even answered that she knew "he will...in the resurrection at the last day."

Here's something, most of ya'll must've heard of WD-40, yeah? This is what you my not have known, the letters WD are Water Displacement and the number 40 meant it was the 40th attempt to get it right. The makers knew it was there but didn't just give up at the first crack, hence the saying "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Should you like to learn more of it, go here. Anyway, that phrase still holds true, just because you couldn't get it right at first, hope is still there.

We all may remember David and Goliath. He had hope and took the decision of belief that God did deliver Goliath into David's hand. Many think Christianity is all about rules and regulations. Not entirely true; don't trip about them and just give yourself to Jesus and let him worry about them, which is the one thing to do.

To end this today, I'll say this: hope is still around. Don't give up on the first try and keep going. Hope is biblically a joyful and confident trust of eternal salvation.

3-15-09

Well, let's go to 1 Chron. 1:1-3 which names off a line from Adam to Noah. "Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah." Why I'd brought this up was the fact each of their names lead to a prophecy of Christ's coming. Here it is:

• Adam-Man(kind)


• Seth-Appointed; Chosen


• Enosh-Mortal


• Kenan-Sorrow


• Mahalalel-The Blessed God


• Jared-Shall come down


• Enoch-Teaching


• Methuselah-His death shall bring


• Lamech-despairing; hopeless; lost


• Noah-rest; comfort

To link these in my words: "Man is appointed for mortal sorrow. But the Blessed God shall come down teaching that His death will bring rest for the hopeless, lost, and despairing." Not just this, but throughout the Old Testament, you can find several prophecies/hints which led to Jesus' Coming. Even Isaiah 7:14 prophesied His birth through Mary, "Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." Unless you caught this earlier, the name means "God with us". I can go on all day with some small clues that led to Christ's arrival, but, again, it's throughout the OT.

1-18-09: How to be Glad in When the Snakebite Enters Your Veins

Well, as simply as I can put this, is just like Day 14 in the "Purpose Driven Life". There will come a time or two, maybe more, when things don't go right and you'll feel the snakebite entering your veins. Again, it's like Disturbed's "Prayer", living won't always be easy.

Let's go to Psalm 137:4-6 "How can we sing songs songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof my mouth if I don't remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy." Barren, in this case, is anywhere God's name isn't known or those who wanna silence His name.

Still, how to be happy in the midst of all this chaos? Simple, just believe anyway. It may not be easy, but if doing so even when you don't feel like it is worship that'll please God.

Moving right along to Psalm 63:1 "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirst for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water." Yet, it was this, the rest of David's psalms, and his faith that had God calling him "a man after His own heart".

Once again, we'll have our troubled times and such trials to test our faith, but all I can say is just believe anyway. God is more concerned with our response to fear than the fear itself. That is, don't be building any golden calves to face your fears to.

1-25-09 "I Gotcha Where I Wantcha."

Yep, another one I'd held back for a while but it's coming together. Here it is, "I got ya where I want ya and want ya where I got ya."

There'll be a time when Satan thinks that way and wants to call checkmate. So, don't let his scratchin zombie claw get into your twilight zone. Let's start with Psalm 37:18-19 "The days of the blameless are known to the Lord, and their inheritance will endure forever. In times of disaster, they will not wither; in days of famine, they will enjoy plenty."

Just like the chorus of Disturbed's "Prayer", life won't always be easy, we will be tested. Even in 1 Tim. 4:1, "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." I also put up in a blog from "The Purpose Driven Life" that once we become saved, Satan, like Agent 47, will accept a contract for our hit. That is, even before, he still wanted to bring us away and assume checkmate.

As in chess, the King will always have at least one more move, God won't call "Checkmate" just because there's nowhere else to go. Don't listen to Satan's taunting, making you declare checkmate. Let's not forget how he tempted Jesus for the 40 days. After all that, Jesus still came out strong and never gave in. An hour, day or two is one thing, but try 40 days. So, in the end, Satan may just say, "I got ya where I want ya. You failed at everything-your life, job, happiness, even at you faith. CHECKMATE!" Don't listen to them and either ignore it or recite some verses to annoy him.

3-1-09: The Question About Faith

Pretty odd line, yeah? Well, it primarily needs to do with significance. Without faith, pleasing God would just be merely as impossible as trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. There are a few examples of faith, and here they come.

First off, there's progressive. You'll find a bit in 2 Peter 1:5-6 "...make every effort to add to your faith goodness, ...knowledge, ...self-control, ...perseverance, and ...godliness." This is an example of progression. God chose to have us develop overtime instead of overnight which He could've done. Again, He chose for us to develop overtime and not be fully grown overnight. This way, we wouldn't learn too much and constantly forget though we will but this is why we happen to relearn the same lesson several times even if it was like 50 times before.

Next, there's destructive. Let's go to James 1:19 "...Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger." Notice how destructive many of us become when we don't just listen in the first place? It goes onto verse 20 "for man's anger doesn't bring about the righteous life that God desires". Again, this is why it's best to stop and listen once in a while.

Third and last for now, though by a few adjectives, but it all goes into polluted. Two other words can be misdirected and shipwrecked. Let's head to 1 Cor. 13:2 "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I have nothing." Verse 3 is almost like 2 but "If I give all I possess to the fire and flames..." Anyway, we can give until it hurts and give some more, but if we don't learn the brotherly love described here, our faith doesn't mean jack.

Funny that many of us put faith into a soap opera, news, or any other media that may want to silence God's name or even misuse it. What I'm saying is that when we put all our faith into a show, the news, or even Wall ST, it's just not polluted, but shipwrecked and will soon be gone with the world. So, may our faith faith be on God, not on just self and definitely not in Wall ST.


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