Do Not Steal.

Exo 20:15  Thou shalt not steal. 

We all agree that stealing is wrong. Even criminals who steal know that it's wrong when they do it. Some will justify stealing- the Robin Hood scenarios for one, but they too still comprehend the wrongness of stealing. Stealing is taking something that isn't yours to take.

Stealing.

Dictionary Definition-  Take something unlawfully. Take something furtively. Dishonestly present somebody's work as yours. Sneak, in hopes of not being caught.

Thesaurus terms-  theft, robbery, burglary, larceny, thieving, pilfering, shoplifting, pocketing, embezzlement, appropriation, pinching, nicking.

You can steal more than tangible items. Honor can be stolen. Ideas can be stolen. When you take something that doesn't belong to you in any way, you are stealing. 

Can you steal from God?

Mal 3:8  Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 

If something belongs to God, something is rightfully God's and we withhold it from Him and His purposes, we are truly stealing from God.

Psa 29:2  Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. 

The glory DUE to the Lord's name, the worship DUE to the Lord- people are stealing that as well. It is God's it belongs to Him and to withhold it is thievery of another kind, but stealing nonetheless.

Pro 3:9  Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 

Pro 3:10  So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. 

The Lord gives us blessings untold and we are in turn to honor Him with those blessings, do we?

Mat 22:21  They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. 

Do we render to God the things that are God's?  Do we do this--

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 

We are supposed to do that, but do we, really? Or do we reserve the majority of our heart, soul and mind for others, or even for self?

Rom 2:21  Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? 

We should not steal!

Yet we have agreed that a lot of things really *aren't* stealing haven't we? Taking a little extra when we don't need it really, just because it may be free. Is that thievery? Stealing has been redefined in a lot of ways especially in a world with digital, online, technological stealing. 

If we do not know, truly do not know, if something is stealing shouldn't we err on the side of caution? When the lines are blurred it is best to opt for the -NOT- aspect than the -OKAY- aspect.  The old adage to be safe rather than sorry is truly something we need to consider.

Let's back up a moment to the stealing from God the glory due to Him, the worship due to Him. I can't help but think of the Sabbath, most likely because it is the Sabbath right now. How many people do not honor God's command to keep the day holy and instead steal the day meant for holiness and make it a day like any other for their own whims?

Stealing holy time from God, it is a real thing if we truly stop and pray about it and study His holy word then we'd know the truth of the matter.

The Sabbath was made for us- it was made holy, it was sanctified. When the royal law was decreed by God has He used His own finger to carve the law into stone, we were told to REMEMBER the Sabbath day- to keep it holy. 

It was a day MADE for us to use as God intended us to use it, for His glory and we all know that when we are honoring God, when we are worshiping Him we are the ones who are blessed. God blessed US by setting aside this Holy Time for us, and when we refuse to honor the Sabbath, we steal this holy time meant to be filled with God's blessings and make it unholy.

May God help us to comprehend what it truly means NOT to steal, to know that if we LOVE GOD, if we LOVE OUR SAVIOR, we will KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS- and we are commanded NOT TO STEAL!

God help us towards this end. Help us to know when we are in danger of being deceived by Satan in any way. Help us to comprehend all the truth of Your commandments God, help us to live as You would have us live, to LOVE YOU and KEEP YOUR COMMANDMENTS! We would be YOURS. Forgive us, Lord, please forgive us when we fail you so miserably and so often! Please cover us in Your righteousness, we have none of our own, not a single bit!

All through YOUR LOVE, YOUR AMAZING LOVE!

Do You Love Jesus? Do Not Bear False Witness.

Do you love Jesus?

Joh_14:23  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Do you love Jesus?

Joh_14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Exo_20:16  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Mat_15:19  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies

Mat_19:18  He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness

False witness. Lying. To witness falsely is to lie plain and simple. You lie about another, and when you lie you are given false testimony, false witness. You are being deceptive.  Is there anything good about being a false witness? Is there any good in lying?

Some know firsthand what it means to be falsely witnessed against.  Once the accusations are made you are in shock. You protest you are being falsely accused but it scarcely matters. The words are spoken, the belief of them is out there. Your intense righteous indignation is pushed to the extreme. You want the truth to be out there, not lies.  Some people suffer horrifically under false witnesses. Some have been condemned to death at the mere lying words of another person. Others have ended up in jail for life over lies, unjustly accused and they have to suffer a life time of imprisonment. Bearing false witness is a sin. Every variant that exists connected to bearing false witness, to lying, is a sin in need of forgiveness, of repentance.

Jesus says if we love Him we will not bear false witness against others. Do you love Jesus? Are you keeping His commandments?

Do not sugar coat a single lie! Do not excuse one falsehood spoken against another!

Seek forgiveness!

Repent and give up any lying, do not bear any false witness ever!

Speak only truth of all others, always!

Love Jesus.

Do we think Jesus came to bring peace to earth?  People did, the apostles did, the disciples did, most- if not all- of Jesus' followers believed that Jesus was going to usher in a new era of peace with the Jewish people as the new rulers and the Roman Empire destroyed. Jesus told them that He did not come to send peace on earth. Jesus came with a sword and that sword was Himself, the Word. That sword was one of salvation.

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Salvation.

The sword of the Spirit, the word of God, the word made flesh. We are given the sword that Jesus came to earth to give.

Our weapon in this spiritual warfare is one of salvation.

Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 

Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 

Mat 24:14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. 

The gospel of the kingdom.

Mat_4:17  From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Mat_5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Mat_5:10  Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus came to teach the truth - that we are to live for the kingdom of heaven- not for our temporary existence. The things of the world that surround us, none of those things should mean more to us than the things we CANNOT see, the eternal things, the things that will last forever. We get so incredibly caught up in the temporary life we lose sight of the eternal.

Please Lord, please forever keep the eternal before our eyes, in our minds, our hearts - you are the eternal!

Believe and Obey.

Do you believe in - Eternal Life.

You will not perish if you believe in Jesus Christ.

But you say- people still perish even as they confess their belief, and you speak the truth. We all die. There isn't a single person on earth who has lived more than the maximum human life span- a hundred or so years at most. They perish. However, what doesn't perish when we believe in Jesus Christ is our hope for the resurrection in the last day, when the trump of Christ sounds and the dead in Christ rise. There is HOPE beyond perishing.

Joh_3:15  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

To perish would be to never have a resurrection to a new life, to a life eternal.

To perish is to face a second death, the death from which there is no return.

Rev_2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Those who have the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ will not be hurt in the second death.

Rev_20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The first resurrection- those raised from the dead in Christ- death has no power over those raised in Christ.

Rev_20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Death and the grave destroyed. Death and the grave to reign no more. Death and the grave ended. No more death, no more graves.

Rev_21:8  But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

All sin, all sinners will be no more.

This is life eternal, the life we are called to by Jesus Christ.

We live in this temporal world surrounded by fear, unbelief, abominations, murder, indulgers in illicit sexual lusts, those who believe in sorcery, those who worship anything other than God, liars. This is the world we live in, the world that constantly glorifies all the variations of the aforementioned evils, and there are millions of variations. This world uses covering make up and layers of clothing to shroud the evils and calls them good so that millions upon millions believe in the evils thinking they are good. Rather than admit that this world is corrupt at its very core and truly destined for destruction, people live their lives of indulgence and a lot of them do so even thinking they know Christ and have eternal life.

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 

Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 

Using the name of the Lord these people will think they have power from the Lord, that their lives are being used by the Lord, and yet they are deceiving themselves. Why? How?  The world calls them, the world and its evils are embraced by them, the evils hidden beneath layers of deception.

We need only truth, and that truth is found in Jesus. And Jesus tells us-

Joh_14:23  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

We need to keep Jesus' words.

Joh_14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

And don't try to alter those commandments to make them into something you can keep all the while committing atrocities, even subtle atrocities. Anything that goes against the commandments of God, of Jesus, even in the slightest way is a sin, a transgression in need of repentance and forgiveness, not to be overlooked at unimportant.

More on this tomorrow by the GRACE of our LORD and SAVIOR, by the WILL of GOD now and forever!!!!!!!

Eternal Life.

Eternal Life.

Jesus said of Himself--

Joh_3:15  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Do you think Jesus thought of eternal life every day? I do. He thought of it every day because He specifically came to earth taking on flesh in order to give His people a chance to have eternal life. HE - GOD with GOD in heaven, became the DECLARED SON OF GOD all so He could TAKE ON FLESH in order to SAVE US.

The sole reason for Jesus, God with us, was so we could have eternal life. Without Jesus' sacrifice we would have NO eternal life.

So, it truly is safe to say that Jesus thought about eternal life every single day of His life upon earth.

Do WE think of eternal life every single day?

Is eternal life a part of our temporary life?

If eternal life is a priority to us, and it should be, we should have it on our mind all the time. If eternal life isn't on our minds, why isn't it? Aren't we living now for the promise of eternal life? Isn't all our life right now temporary to eternity? 

Eternal life.

Joh_10:28  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

Joh_12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Joh_17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Rom_2:7  To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life

Rom_5:21  That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom_6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

2Co_4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory

2Co_4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2Co_5:1  For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

1Ti_6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

2Ti_2:10  Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Tit_1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began

Tit_3:7  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Heb_9:12  Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

1Pe_5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

1Jn_2:25  And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.

1Jn_5:11  And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

1Jn_5:13  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

Jud_1:21  Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Keep the Eternal Before You Always.

Do we think Jesus came to bring peace to earth?  People did, the apostles did, the disciples did, most- if not all- of Jesus' followers believed that Jesus was going to usher in a new era of peace with the Jewish people as the new rulers and the Roman Empire destroyed. Jesus told them that He did not come to send peace on earth. Jesus came with a sword and that sword was Himself, the Word. That sword was one of salvation.

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Salvation.

The sword of the Spirit, the word of God, the word made flesh. We are given the sword that Jesus came to earth to give.

Our weapon in this spiritual warfare is one of salvation.

Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 

Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 

Mat 24:14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. 

The gospel of the kingdom.

Mat_4:17  From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Mat_5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Mat_5:10  Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus came to teach the truth - that we are to live for the kingdom of heaven- not for our temporary existence. The things of the world that surround us, none of those things should mean more to us than the things we CANNOT see, the eternal things, the things that will last forever. We get so incredibly caught up in the temporary life we lose sight of the eternal.

Please Lord, please forever keep the eternal before our eyes, in our minds, our hearts - you are the eternal!

The Sword-Our God.

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 

We don't like to think about this verse too much, do we? When we think of our Lord we think of peace being one of the priorities.

Joh_14:27  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Jesus leaves us with HIS peace. It won't be the kind of peace the world offers though.

Php 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 

Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

The peace of God PASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING.

Eph 3:19  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 

The love of Christ also PASSES UNDERSTANDING. It passes knowledge, it is NOT knowable. We can know the love of Christ only to a point and then it goes beyond our ability to comprehend.

If we imagine peace as a life without upset we are imagining it all wrong.

What do you need a sword for? To fight, right? To protect, defend, defeat.

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 

Jesus came to send a sword- not peace.

Eph_6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God

The sword of the Spirit - which IS the word of God.

Jesus came to send us a sword.

The WORD of GOD is the sword.

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God. 

Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 

Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 

Joh 1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 

Joh 1:6  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 

Joh 1:7  The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 

Joh 1:8  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 

Joh 1:9  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 

Joh 1:10  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 

Joh 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 

Joh 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 

Joh 1:13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 

Joh 1:14  And the Word was made 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. 

The sword of the Spirit - which IS the word of God.

Jesus came to send us a sword.

The WORD of GOD is the sword.

Jesus is the WORD of GOD.

Jesus is the SWORD.

Jesus didn't come to send peace on earth, He came to bring salvation and all that means. To many people having salvation through Christ is far from what the world considers peaceful. In fact in one way or another once we align ourselves with Christ we have set ourselves up to be under constant spiritual attack.  The peace of God which passes understand is the knowledge of salvation, we are given salvation as a gift from God that we can never deserve. We truly cannot comprehend in full why God chose to take on flesh and become the declared Son of God so we could be saved. His love for us, that He doesn't want an existence without us in that existence with Him, is truly unfathomable.

More on all of this tomorrow by the GRACE of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!