Commandments, not suggestions

KING JAMES VERSION OF 10 COMMANDMENTS

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

graven image

noun

an object of worship carved usually from wood or stone : idol

Wor·ship

noun 

reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred

 This includes plastic, metal, rosaries, statues, scapulas, Crosses, saints, Mary and even the Bible if someone is worshipping the material book , rather than reading the words and building a relationship with God through them or learning how we should live our lives through reading it.. There is a difference in having a material item to look on as a reminder, and feeling that the item or person has supernatural powers equal to or above our Lord. We have access to His power because He lives in us Gal 2:20. It is imperative that we remember where the power is coming from, and give Him due praise. He will not share this with another. It is our duty in love as believers to speak His Truth into the lives of other believers for open rebuke is better than hidden love.

A word from Charles H. Spurgeon: 

Saul had been commanded to slay utterly all the Amalekites and their cattle. Instead of doing so, he preserved the king, and suffered his people to take the best of the oxen and of the sheep. When called to account for this, he declared that he did it with a view of offering sacrifice to God; but Samuel met him at once with the assurance that sacrifices were no excuse for an act of direct rebellion. The sentence before us is worthy to be printed in letters of gold, and to be hung up before the eyes of the present idolatrous generation, who are very fond of the fineries of will-worship, but utterly neglect the laws of God. Be it ever in your remembrance, that to keep strictly in the path of your Saviour’s command is better than any outward form of religion; and to hearken to his precept with an attentive ear is better than to bring the fat of rams, or any other precious thing to lay upon his altar. If you are failing to keep the least of Christ’s commands to his disciples, I pray you be disobedient no longer. All the pretensions you make of attachment to your Master, and all the devout actions which you may perform, are no recompense for disobedience. “To obey,” even in the slightest and smallest thing, “is better than sacrifice,” however pompous. Talk not of Gregorian chants, sumptuous robes, incense, and banners; the first thing which God requires of his child is obedience; and though you should give your body to be burned, and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do not hearken to the Lord’s precepts, all your formalities shall profit you nothing. It is a blessed thing to be teachable as a little child, but it is a much more blessed thing when one has been taught the lesson, to carry it out to the letter. How many adorn their temples and decorate their priests, but refuse to obey the word of the Lord! My soul, come not thou into their secret.

THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE

^{OLD COVENANT (TESTAMENT)- FOLLOWING THE LAW OR 10 COMMANDMENTS …letter of the law}

^{This is Exodus 34:28 they are speaking of Moses:}

²⁸ And he was there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

²⁹ And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of the testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses knew not that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him.

³⁰ And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.

³¹ And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses spake to them.

³² And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that Jehovah had spoken with him in mount Sinai.

³³ And when Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.

³⁴ But when Moses went in before Jehovah to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.

³⁵ And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

1.     NEW COVENANT (TESTAMENT) -ANYONE THAT BELIEVES IN CHRIST IS GIVEN THE GIFT OF GRACE. YOU ARE MARKED WITH A SEAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (EPH 1:13) 13in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,-- in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory.

2.     Definition of SEAL

a : something that confirms, ratifies, or makes secure : guarantee, assurance

Christ living in us. Gal 2:20… Moses did not have the Spirit of God the way that we do today. He had to go to seek God outside of himself.  The time in the presence of Father allowed him to shine, but he had to go to God on a mountain.   Jesus came and returned to the Father as He promised us.  The Spirit now dwells in us rather than on a mountain. Now we can have time in His presence and speak to Him at will. Continual praying without ceasing, and spending time in His Word will cause us to shine with radiance as the SON.  

2 Corinthians 3

American Standard Version (ASV)

3  Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you?

² Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men;

³ being made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of flesh.

⁴ And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward:

⁵ not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;

⁶ who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

⁷ But if the ministration of death, written, and engraven on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look stedfastly upon the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which glory was passing away:

⁸ how shall not rather the ministration of the spirit be with glory?

⁹ For if the ministration of condemnation hath glory, much rather doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

¹⁰ For verily that which hath been made glorious hath not been made glorious in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasseth.

¹¹ For if that which passeth away was with glory, much more that which remaineth is in glory.

¹² Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech,

¹³ and are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look stedfastly on the end of that which was passing away:

¹⁴ but their minds were hardened: for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remaineth, it not being revealed to them that it is done away in Christ.

¹⁵ But unto this day, whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart.

¹⁶ But whensoever it shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.