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Love Thy God
On Mount Sinai God gave Moses Ten Commandments. These were the first among many laws that God gave the Israelites. These first Ten Commandments were to instruct the Israelites how they were to treat God and treat each other. These Commandments were initially inscribed on stone tablets by the hand of God, Himself (Exodus 31:18). In this lesson, we will look at the first three of the Ten Commandments—the ones that pertain to our treatment of God.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods besides me (Exodus 20:2-3).”
When God delivered the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, He delivered them from a land of people who were pantheistic—they worshipped many gods. There was a god of the harvest, the moon god, the sun god, etc. God wanted them to know that there was just one God and He was Him. Who was this God? He was the One who used a mighty hand to deliver the children of Israel out of the land of slavery. He was their Deliverer. It was not the sun god, nor the moon god, nor the god of cattle nor the god of rain. It was He and the Israelites were not to give tribute or worship to any other so-called god.
“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments (Exodus 20:4-6).
Not only were the Egyptians polytheistic, they were also idol worshippers. The sun was the symbol for Ra, the Sun god. Anubis was half man and half jackal. Hathor, the goddess of motherhood, was imaged as a cow (sometimes female) with a sundisk on her head. This was the culture the Israelites were delivered from. This was the culture they spend four hundred years being indoctrinated into. So, when God gave the command that they should make no graven (or carved) images to Him, this was a whole new way of living, a whole new way of worship. It was a whole new lifestyle. Some people in Egypt made their living making and selling idols. Now God was saying that that was no longer acceptable.
Why was idolatry so bad? First, God was separating His people from the rest of the world. Nearly every other nation had an idol for a God. Even the Philistines had Dagon, a half man, half fish idol. He didn’t want the Israelites to be like the other nations. He was setting them apart.
Another reason is that God wanted His people to have a personal relationship with Him. He did not want them giving His praise to a piece of stone or wood. He wanted them to worship Him directly. As Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4, “God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.” Worship is a matter of the heart. It is our heart touching the heart of God with praise and adoration. God did not want praise going to anything (or anyone) else.
God says that He is a jealous God. This does not mean that God is envious of the idols that got worshipped. God is saying that He is protective of the worship that He is due and He gets angry when people assign worship due Him to anything or anyone else. Besides that, oftentimes, demons would associate themselves with these idols, thus robbing God of His praise and causing people worship them unaware. Worshipping idols is an empty act.
“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name (Exodus 20:7).”
God is holy and His name is holy. When it is spoken, it is be for a purpose and with reverence. Nowadays, people name their children all sorts of “cute” names, but in the Bible days, names meant something. Abraham’s name meant Father of Nations, which he was. He was the father of Israel through Jacob and Arab people through Esau. Jacob’s name meant Deceiver and that is what he was. Samuel’s name meant Heard by God or God Hears, which was exemplified in 1 Samuel 2 when God called and ordained Samuel a prophet to Israel . Jonah’s name means Dove. The dove is a symbol of peace (Genesis 8:11). Jonah brought a message of peace to the Ninevites. God’s name, Jehovah, means I AM.
This is the name by which He called Himself. He doesn’t live because He is life. He doesn’t just exist because all that exist emanate from Him. He is. Not only Is He, but He is whatever you need Him to be in any situation. For Abraham, He was Jehovah-Jireh, the God that Provides. For David, He was Jehovah-Shalom-the God of Peace. As He was for them, He will be the same for us.
There is power in God’s name. This is evident in our society. I am amazed how people take the name of God in vain. I often hear GD this and GD that. Then there’s JESUS CHRIST. Let’s not forget, “Holy Cow, Batman!” Yet, you never hear people misuse the name of Allah, Buddha, Confucius, Mohammad, or Joseph Smith. Why? There’s no power in their names. There’s no spiritual sense of ‘rebellion’ in misusing their names. So people don’t do it.
As we can see from these first three commandments, they are not burdensome nor are they for naught. There is a reason for each of His commands. Next time we will see the purpose and benefits of the Fourth Commandment.
HiStory
History is our study of the past but what really is history? It is His story being played out in our world and in our lives. God knows the end from the beginning. He knows how it is all going to end. (He wrote it out in the Book of Revelation.) This is why He could send prophets to warn the Israelites what was about to come. Sometimes, it was to warn the people about what He knew was coming (i.e.- consequences of their actions). Other times, it was because it was to warn the people about something that He was actively bringing to pass. So, from our perspective, history is the part of the story that we know, the past. In reality, it is His Story unfolding.
Faith That Makes a Difference: Part Two
43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years,[a] but no one could heal her. 44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. 45 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” 47 Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace (Luke 8:43-48).”
These verses tell us about a woman who suffered for thirteen years with some sort of bleeding problem. It could be that she had a menstrual cycle that never ended. In her attempt to end her suffering, she went from doctor to doctor trying to be healed. These doctors likely gave her some herbs and advice on what she could do to stop the bleeding. Yet, none of them worked. Then she heard that Jesus was coming to her town. She knew her problem was over.
She went to where Jesus was. As He walked through town, He was surrounded by a large crowd of people. Yet, this woman knew that if she could get close to Him, if she could just touch Him, even just the hem of His garment, she would be healed. Determined, she made her way through the crowd. She pushed through some and crawled passed others but she made her way to Jesus and reached out and touch the hem of His tunic and she was healed instantly.
The touch didn’t just affect her but it also affected Jesus. When He was touched by the woman, who is unnamed in Scripture, He immediately stopped and asked the question, “Who touched Me?” The Disciples answered, “Master, you are surrounded by hundred of people who are pressing in on us from every side. How can you ask ‘who touched Me?’ when everyone is touching you.” Jesus then turns and sees the woman and says, “Daughter, thy faith has made thee whole.”
Oftentimes, preachers and teachers solely focus on the woman and her faith (and so will I) but for just a moment, let’s focus on the crowd. By the Disciples’ own admission, Jesus was being touched by many people, yet none of their touches caught Jesus’ attention. It was only the touch of this woman. Before her touch, Jesus seemed to be unaware of her presence but after her touch, He took notice of her. What was it about this woman’s touch that caught Jesus’ attention?
I believe it is because it wasn’t the physical touch that Jesus noticed but the spiritual one. Remember, Jesus is being touched physically by many people yet He didn’t notice any of those touches but He noticed hers because “power went out from Him.” When she touched Jesus in faith believing, her faith became a catalyst for healing. She understood that Jesus was God. He wasn’t just a good man. He wasn’t just a prophet. He was God and as God, He was power. She knew that if she could get close to Him and touch Him, or even something that was connected to Him, even the edge of His clothing, she would be healed. She had faith and her faith was manifested in her action—she made her way through the crowd to touch Jesus.
When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed,suffering terribly.” 7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” 8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith (Matthew 8:5-10).”
Similarly, when the son of a centurion was sick unto death, the centurion sought out Jesus. When Jesus agreed to go to his house, he told Jesus that his house was not worthy of Jesus’ presence, but if Jesus would just say the word, his son would be healed. He said that he was a man of authority and a man under authority. He understood that all Jesus had to do was ‘give the order’ and sickness would leave his son. Jesus responded that He had not seen such great faith in all of Israel.
Hebrews 11 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. Both of the people in this article exercised faith that pleased God. This is evidenced by the fact that each got what they sought. If we want to get answers from God, we need to exercise that kind of faith. It was not a faith of maybe it will work or maybe it won’t. Instead, it was a faith of “I know it will work.” It is faith that doesn’t doubt but it believes as concretely as one believes the sky is blue.
Jesus also says that if we have that kind of faith, even if it is as small as a mustard seed, we shall have nothing withheld from us. What kind of faith do you have? Do you trust in God more than the circumstances around you? The woman with the issue of blood could have said, “I’ve seen so many doctors and none of them were able to do anything so I may as well give up.” If she did this, she would have not sought out Jesus and she would never had been healed. If the Roman centurion thought, “I’m not Jewish, He won’t help me” or “My son is near death, there is nothing that can be done,” then his son would have died that day. Instead, the centurion had faith and he was able to enjoy his son for a little while longer.
We cannot go by what the world says. God has the last word.
Is your faith a faith that makes a difference?
Faith That Makes a Different: Part One
Stepping Out on Nothing
Perhaps you have asked, “What is faith?” I’m sure you’ve heard sermons on it and attended Bible studies regarding it. But what exactly is it? How do we exercise it? How do we walk in it? We are all familiar with Hebrews 11:1—“Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things unseen.” But what does that mean? I believe the Holy Spirit has given us the answer.
Faith is believing in that which is not likely or is impossible to happen. Real faith does not just believe in what is improbable, but what is impossible. Real faith doesn’t just believe in that which is not likely to happen but in that which cannot happen. Real faith is not believing in the face of the odds but believing in spite of the odds. Real faith is believing for that for which there is no earthly way possible it could happen.
Let’s allow a few heroes of the faith bear witness:
· Noah exercised faith by building an ark to be saved from a flood, even though up to that time no rain had fallen on the earth.
· Abraham exercised faith by believing God for a son when he and his wife were elderly and she was unable to bear children!
· David walked in faith when he entered into a battlefield to face down Goliath, an experienced and armored warrior. He exercised his faith by believing that God would give him the victory even though every natural and military law would have marked him for dead.
· Peter literally walked in faith when he stepped out of the boat and stood on the surface of the water even though every natural and physical law dictated that he should have sunk to the bottom like a rock.
The best definition of faith I can think of is line from one of Shirley Caesar’s songs. “Faith is stepping out on nothing/landing on something.” Essentially, that is faith. It is believing God for what you want or need even though everything is against it happening. Circumstances, laws, or situations do not bind God. God is God. He can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we may ask or even think.
Genuine faith does not just believe in something or for something that could possibly happen. Genuine faith believes in something or for something that cannot. In short, faith says, ‘yes,’ when everything else says, ‘no.’
The Call to Disciple
God’s Word
Why disciple? The church needs teachers. Teaching, in fact, is one of the core missions of the church. Ephesians 4 tells us the God gave some [people] to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12, emphasis added). As a friend once pointed out, there is no comma between pastor and teacher because a pastor must be a teacher. His job is to equip the saints—giving them the spiritual tools they need to do the work God has given them—witnessing to the lost.
Discipleship is not new. It did not come into being at the dawn of the church age. Discipleship has been around as long as Israel has been around. God commanded the Israelites in the Book of Deuteronomy to disciple their children. “You shall teach them [God’s commands] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up (Deuteronomy 6:7).” Later in the Proverbs, Solomon reiterates this command: “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).” Parents are called to be the main disciplers of their children not the church.
Jesus commanded that we be disciplers of men. In the Great Commission, Jesus commanded, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen (Matthew 28:18-20, emphasis added).”This Commission is repeated in the Gospel of Mark (Mark 16:15). It was never the Christian’s job to convert anyone. It was, and still is, the Christian’s responsibility to make disciples. We are called to be two things: witnesses and teachers. When we evangelize, we are simply telling the Gospel story and leaving the results up to God. We can attempt to persuade but the end decision is theirs and the end result is God’s.
Discipleship was the model Christ gave us. When He came to earth and began His ministry, He chose twelve men. These men would accompany Him and watch Him do His work. He would then send them out to do it. Talk about on-the-job training. The model was later used in the Church. Barnabas took Paul under his wings and taught him. Later, Paul took Timothy, Titus, and few others under his tutelage. In his final letter to Timothy, Paul charged Timothy to do the same thing: “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2).”
There is a desperate need for discipleship in the church. First, it is essential to disciple new believers. Those new to the faith do not fully understand even the fundamental doctrines of the faith. They are babes and they need to be taught the core beliefs. As Peter told his church, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.” I believe that this is one of the reasons churches have what has become known as the revolving back door. New members join but they don’t stick around because they are not being spiritually fed. And like any starving soul, they look for nourishment elsewhere.
Second, there is so much false doctrine being taught in our seminaries, on television, and even in our churches. Christians need to be taught the truth so that they will be able to distinguish it from error. Paul wrote “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting (Ephesians 4:14).” If you don’t know what you believe and why you believe it, you will fall for anything (any lie of the devil or trick of slick talkers). [In another lesson, I will discuss False Doctrine and False Teachers.]
And finally, we should disciple other Christians because it was the model Jesus gave us. As mentioned earlier, it was the method Jesus used to train the twelve. It was the model Barnabas used to train Paul and Paul later used to train Timothy. It should be the same model we use to train others. It is not solely the responsibility of the pastor to teach the Word but it is the responsibility of every mature believer. Just as a parent teaches a child how to walk and to talk, mature Christians should teach newer Christians what the Bible says about how to live godly.
Not only are we to teach or train others, but we are to teach them what the Bible says and not what we want the Bible to say. God gives us enough information to form truthful doctrine. We don’t have to add to it or take away from it. For instance, I have heard some say that the reason Cain’s sacrifice in Genesis 4 was not acceptable to God was because it was not a blood sacrifice. However, that is not what the Bible says nor what God said. The Bible said Abel brought of the firstfruits but Cain just brought an offering. Second, the command to offer blood sacrifices for sin had not even been given yet. Third, God told Cain if he did well, he would be accepted. The Hebrew term means to be cheerful or to do good. This suggests that God was referring to Cain’s heart or motive in offering and not his offering itself. As I’ve heard many times and found to be true, the Bible interprets itself. In other words, rarely does the Bible says anything just once but either the command or lesson is repeated in another place.
I hope you see now why discipleship is so important in the church. Without it, people will fall into all sorts of error and begin to believe things that are ungodly. It is because people failed to disciple the next generation that the churches Paul and Peter and Timothy led were rebuked in the opening chapters of Revelation. They had fallen away from the faith and into false doctrine. It is because the generation before ours and our generation have failed to disciple that our society is in the quandary that it is in—godliness on the decline and homosexuality, pornography, greed, and malice on the uptake.
If we want God to bless America, then we need to bless God by studying and teaching His Word…before it’s too late.
Hello world!
Welcome to CyberDiscipleship. What is CyberDiscipleship? I’m glad you asked.
I’ve known for a long time that God has called me to be a discipler or a teacher of His Word. Teaching seems to be my main spiritual gifting. Writing seems to be one of the outlets He has given me to teach others, especially since I’m not on staff at a church or para-church organization yet. He has also given me the internet which allows me to reach the whole world with His message. So, for the foreseeable future, that is what I will be doing—being a CyberDiscipler.
Cyber-Discipleship 