Freedom is Good News Part 103

“You shall have no other gods before me.”  As it stands, this is the first of the 10 Commandments.  We have been talking about the greatest commandment – the one Jesus cited in Matthew 22:37 and have seen that the first step in loving God with all that we have and all that we are is to be obedient children of our Heavenly Father.  When considering obedience, our first stop must be the 10 Commandments.

Some time ago, I read that there are approximately 5,000 laws enacted every year in the U.S. - in federal, state, and local legislatures.  God told Israel, “I give you ten!!”  We know that as time went on, Moses asked for guidance in dealing with the multitude of people that accompanied him in the wilderness.  God gave him statutes and precepts to go along with the ten – but that’s another story for another time.

The first commandment had to do with God’s mandate that His people worship Him alone.  Let us consider why.  God is a God of forgiveness and mercy and grace.  The bible tells us that He knows our frame and that we really are prone to sin.  He so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to save us from our sins.  Knowing this, then, if we break any of the other commands, we are called to go to Him and repent of our sin and He is true to His word and will forgive us.  Correct?  Yes! 

OK then, if I have another god before Him and in this way sin, who is going to forgive me?  The reality is, there are no other gods to offer me forgiveness. 

But, you ask, we really don’t have statues of Molech, Dagon, Baal or Rephan as did the pagan people of Israel’s day.  True, but we have made many other gods that we in the 21st century serve and worship and place before our heavenly Father.  Have you ever heard the term, “the almighty dollar”?  Many people chase “the buck” to the exclusion of faith or family.  There is only one who is Almighty and He tells us to trust in Him with all of our heart.  But I have a better one for today; the internet in all of its various forms.  Hours spent in front of a screen – any screen – whether playing games, texting, checking e-mails or facebook posts, we can very easily find ourselves being addicted to the “machine”; a sorry sight indeed.  We are serving a machine rather than have it serve us.

Some people serve the entertainment industry.  I read about a man who claims to have seen over 5000 movies in his short life.  Why?  Some people serve the fashion industry.  The desire to have the best clothing and accessories to the point of spending beyond ones budget is a sin and a placing something before God.  We in the U.S. have an abundance of food, whether it is in the grocery stores or at restaurants.  Sometimes our appetites control us rather than the other way around.  I could go on but I believe you get the point.

Is there something in your life that takes precedence over obedience to God?  The word worship literally means to deem something to have a great amount of worth.  Worship is a shortened form of the two words – worth ship.  This worshiping God with our whole heart and soul is not too hard.  But we’ll talk more next time.  Obedience = love for God = good news.

Freedom is Good News Part 102

We’ve been considering, what I have called, the prime directive given to us from God.  And we have come to see that Jesus labeled the words from Deuteronomy 6:5, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”, as the greatest commandment (or prime directive).  I’m not sure we’ll ever get anything closer than that. 

But how do we attain that directive?  It is my belief that this command to love God is a life-long goal for us.  When you put together the heart, which in Hebrew is understood as our feelings, thoughts, motives, aims and will; the soul, which basically means a “breathing creature” and refers to the essence of life; and strength, which is easily understood as power; we have a complete picture of who we are.  This may sound overwhelming at first but as in any journey, it starts with a single step!

So, what if I told you that this first step is as simple as obedience?  But is obedience really all that simple?  Yes, it can be!  Take for example, “You shall not steal.”  Is it difficult for you not to steal from another person?  Is it difficult for you to logically consider that some tool sitting in the middle of the shop floor when no one is around, really belongs to someone else?

The laws that God gave to us are for our own good and the good of society.  Stealing, lying, murder and adultery, etc. cannot be permitted if a society is to survive.  But how does this apply to our love for God?

I’m glad you asked!!  In John 14:21 Jesus says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.  He who loves me will be loved by my Father and I too will love him and manifest myself to him.”  He goes on in verse 23, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my words.  My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.”  To bring this down to everyday life; what parent wouldn’t feel the love of their children in their obedience to the rules mom and dad placed upon them – always coming home at curfew time, being honest about the company they keep, mowing the lawn without having to mention it more than once.  Oh!  Perhaps I’m talking about an ideal world!!  But I think you get the point.

God delights in our obedience.  God blesses us for our obedience.  Our Father in heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ want to abide with us!!  How amazing is that!!  The God of the entire universe, Creator of all things wants to have us near Him!!  Friends and brethren, I get goose bumps just thinking about it.

This prime command that we are looking at is not unlike the first commandment, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  You shall have no other gods before me.”  Let’s take a look at what it means to have no other god before Him.

Freedom is Good News Part 60

I just re-read the previous article and paused to consider the fact that Abraham was called a “friend of God”.  You believe in an Almighty God, creator of the entire universe.  What would it be like to know that God calls you His friend?  Indeed, what would it take to be called God’s friend?

We saw in that article that Abraham was obedient to God.  We also saw that obedience is linked to faith.  “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness.” (Gen. 15:6 & Rom. 4:3)  There are four concepts, faith, obedience, friendship with God and righteousness that are brought together in the book of James 2:21-24: “Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did (obedience) when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.  And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness’, and he was called God’s friend.  You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.”

So just what is faith?  Is it merely a belief that God exists?  Earlier in this same chapter of James (verse 19) we read, “You believe that there is one God.  Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder.”  That in itself is a telling statement!  We must go beyond that if we are to be a friend of God.

Some time ago, a friend and brother in Christ, said that a good working definition of faith is having a trust in God so as to know that His every intention for you is always good.  I believe this gets to the heart of a true faith.  When we know and understand that God’s intentions for us are always good then we will have no problem in doing what God wants us to do.  We will be obedient and so emulate our father Abraham. 

There is another aspect to consider when we look at the word obedience, and that is love.  The easiest way to connect the two concepts of obedience and love is to see what our Savior had to say about them.  In the gospel of John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love me you will obey what I command.”  In verse 21, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.”  And in verse 23, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.  My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.  He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”

How can we say we love and trust God and then not do His will; not obey Him.  This kind of obedience is a good thing; for it pleases our Father and is the conduit for His love upon us.  And that is “Good News”!

Freedom is Good News Part 59

In our previous article we saw that we should “Look to the rock from which you were cut …. Look to Abraham, your father.” (Isaiah 51:1 & 2)  As we consider this we see that Isaiah is not the only one to call Abraham our father.  In two of Paul’s letters we receive the same information: Rom. 4:16, “God’s promise comes by faith and is guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring … for he is the father of us all.  As it is written: ‘I have made you a father of many nations’.  So he is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed.”  And then in Galatians 3:29 we read, “If you belong to Christ then you are Abraham’s offspring, and heirs according to the promise.”

This is quite interesting, but it is found in the words of Jesus how we must apply the information.  In John 8:39, “If you were Abraham’s children then you would be doing the things Abraham did.”  Perhaps we should be looking into the life of the man Abraham to see just how we might emulate him!

Abraham was truly one of God’s “mighty men” of the scriptures.  He is mentioned many times in both the Old Testament and the New.  When we begin the book of Genesis we are given a whirlwind tour in the first 11 chapters.  I liken it to God putting the video on fast forward.  In these 11 chapters we cover approximately 1800 years.  But when we come to chapter 12, and are introduced to Abram (Abraham’s original name), things begin to slow down and we get to take a closer look at the man who was called “the friend of God”.

Genesis 12:1, “The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and come to the land I will show you.”  Abram did not negotiate with God.  He did not quarrel with God.  He did not argue with God.  Abram picked up stakes and left!  And so he traveled to the land of promise.  The writer of the book of Hebrews, in the chapter of the faithful (chapter 11) says it this way, “By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”  As we consider how we are to emulate this man who is called our father, perhaps this should be our first stopping place.

The significant word here is “obeyed”.  In the scriptures, this word can be linked to two other important words: faith and love.  Quickly referencing this we may look at Hebrews 3:18 & 19, “And to whom did God swear that they would never enter His rest if not to those who disobeyed.  So we see that they were not able to enter, because of unbelief.”  The children of Israel were a rebellious lot.  We learn in Numbers 14 that when God wanted to take them into the Promised Land they were unwilling.  God tells us that their disobedience is because of their unbelief.  If we believe God, if we have faith, we will be obedient to Him. 

But obedience is also linked to love; and we will consider that in our next article, God willing.