Exodus 20:3-17 –
“You must not have any other god but me.”
“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.”
“You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.”
“Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
“Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
“You must not murder.”
“You must not commit adultery.”
“You must not steal.”
“You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.”
“You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”
The Ten Commandments! If you think about it this is the only part of the bible that I know which are the direct words of God. The rest is “inspired” by God. Some would argue that the words of Jesus are the direct words of God, but this is not a debate on the trinity. Anyway, the first three become written on your heart once you accept God as God. The Sabbath law is just the way we are made, we cannot work all the time. The last 6 are not only written by God in the bible, but are written on our hearts. How many of us know from birth that these are wrong? God wrote these laws on our hearts, in our conscious, so we know right from wrong.
How many of us fail at most of these? Everyone looks at murder as the big one and easiest to say they have not done. Our courts put people to death for that but why not the rest. Unfortunately, God is not as compassionate as our court system; he hates the entire list and will sentence us to death for any. Fortunately we have Jesus to confess our transgressions and should take advantage of that!! 1 John 1:9 gives us the way to clean ourselves.
Many, if not most, churches today do not focus on this aspect, where salvation is number 1and repent your past sins! Many teach once you are saved, past, present and future sins are forgiven. This is something I personally don’t believe (NOTE PERSONALLY). I feel salvation is fixed (although there are some places which I have read which would imply otherwise) but forgiveness is not. I believe you must list and repent of all sins. This opens the communications between you and God. He doesn’t want to listen to a dirty Christian, therefore take the confession shower and you will not offend Him!! Open each prayer with confession, that way it’s taken care of. Make the confession specific also, not just “forgive me of my sins”
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Proverbs 23:31-34 – “Don’t gaze at the wine, seeing how red it is, how it sparkles in the cup, how smoothly it goes down.For in the end it bites like a poisonous snake; it stings like a viper.You will see hallucinations, and you will say crazy things.You will stagger like a sailor tossed at sea, clinging to a swaying mast.”