Author: hillturnfs

As believers we’re the body of Christ, the church, and we’re to assemble and worship the Lord together. I’ve always looked on this as a suggestion but it’s not.  This is an actual command from God.  It’s for our own protection.  In the Bible God has commanded us 10 times to worship together on a regular basis.  We are to treat our fellow believers as brothers and sisters and emulate Christ by our actions.

Heb 10:25 – Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as in the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching (i.e. Second Advent).

1 Tim 4:12 – Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Rom 12:16 – Be of the same mind toward one another.  Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.  Do not be wise on your own opinion.

We should all be trying to please God by following as many of His commands as possible.  These are all fairly easy commands to follow.  We just need to know what they are and that requires prayer, reading your Bible, and studying God’s Word.  You can’t “do” until you “know”.  Just remember it’s a sin not to obey God’s commands and one day we’ll be held accountable.  There are other ways besides church attendance to meet with other believers such as in a home Bible study group and on-line venues like Christian blogs.  Like animal herds in nature, there is strength in numbers.  It’s easier for Satan to pick off a lone Christian than it is someone in fellowship with other Christians.

There are 10 commandments in the New Testament for giving to the needy. I’m talking above and beyond the 10% tithe we are to give to the church. Everything on this earth belongs to God and every good thing comes from the Lord according to Scripture. Jesus gave to the poor as an example for us to emulate.  But God is no longer with us in the flesh so He gives to His children on earth through us, His servants. God also says to not store up treasures on earth because He is our provision and will surely meet our needs (see also 1 Cor 16:2, 1 Cor 15:58).  God doesn’t want us to give a while and then stop when we no longer see that particular need we were addressing. God tells us at least twice to never grow weary of giving.

The Bible says the poor are with us always so we are to look for ways to help those less fortunate.  We may not be in a position to give much financially but give what you can and there are other ways to help people that doesn’t involve money. Giving of ourselves, our time, our efforts, are also ways of helping others in need. We are to give what we are able to spare.  Remember the story of the widow who gave two mites at the temple offering which was all she had. We are to give quietly without making a show of it (giving is between you and God) because God hates a hypocrite (remember the Pharisees). We are to give cheerfully out of the abundance of the heart as the Holy Spirit moves us.

Mt 6:19 – Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

Lk 3:11 – He who has two tunics, let him give one to him who has none; and he who has food let him do likewise.

2 Thes 3:13 – But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.

Gal 6:9 – And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

2 Cor 8:12 – For if there is first a willing mind, it is acceptable according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.

2 Cor 9:7 – So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

Mt 6:3 – But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

I found 17 commands from God to believers in the New Testament related to prayer. I knew we were supposed to pray to God but I had no idea there were 17 commands! That’s a staggering amount and eclipses all other commands by a lot. If God says something twice in the Bible we should take note because it’s important. So mentioning prayer 17 times means it’s of paramount importance.  Without prayer nothing else is going to work. Jesus prayed to the Father which sets a good example for us to follow. If it was useful for Jesus to pray how much more will we benefit? God talks to us through His Word and we talk to God through prayer. The communication works both ways and is integral to fellowship with God as He intended.  If you combine prayer with Bible study God commands us at least 26 times to talk to Him. That’s astounding when you consider God is the Creator of all and we are no more than a mote in God’s eye. What mercy! What grace! What love!

There were six verses commanding us to worship God through praise and thanksgiving in the spirit by prayers to the Father (Heb 13:15, Col 3:5, Phil 4:6, 1 Cor 10:31, Col 3:17). The shed blood of Jesus removes our sin and allows us to come before God’s throne in prayer any time to ask anything of Him. Angels in heaven don’t have that access to God. Two verses confirm we can come boldly to the throne of grace by the blood of Christ (Heb 4:16, Heb 10:19-20). What strikes me is we are to pray about all things, everything, and about whatever we do. We are God’s children and He delights in hearing from us the same way we sat with our children and addressed their concerns. We are to pray always and continuously. No detail is too minor for God to hear about it.

None of us pray enough. We are all missing out on a golden opportunity to multiply our productivity and deepen our relationship with God. I was always asking God to prepare me to witness and to bring people to me. But the Great Commission doesn’t give me the option of waiting for an unbeliever to stroll by. We are to “go” and seek out the unsaved and witness to them in whatever way works. Twice God commands us to pray for more witnesses to work the harvest field bringing men to salvation (Mt 9:38, Lk 10:2). I haven’t been aggressive in my witness for Christ and I’m still not. However, I’ve started making others aware I am a witness for Christ so my availability is out there.

In the Bible I’ve identified 139 commandments from God (some are redundant). Keep in mind God made the universe and us so He makes the rules. Whatever God says is truth, is the law and is a command. God cannot lie and He is never wrong. It’s a sin to disobey a command from God.  When I grouped the commandments what jumped out to me was the basic fundamental command to study God’s Word for knowledge and understanding. That’s why God gave us the Bible in the first place. Twice God tells us directly to study His Word and seven more times God gives us commands that can only be complied with by first knowing the Word of God intimately. You cannot preach, teach, witness, lead or exhort without a working knowledge of God’s salvation plan for man from the Bible.

1 Tim. 4:13 – Till I come (Second Advent) give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

2 Tim. 2:15 – Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

1 Cor. 14:20 – Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature.

1 Tim. 4:16 – Take heed to yourself and to doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

Rom. 14:19 – Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.

2 Tim. 2:24 – And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient.

1 Pet. 2:2 – As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.

1 Pet. 3:15 – But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

Jude 3 – Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

The second verse tells me if I know God’s Word intimately I will have God’s approval. If I have God’s approval I need nothing else when I stand before the bema judgement seat of Christ. If I know God’s Word I can expect to hear Jesus say “Well done good and faithful servant.”  My only goal in life at this point is to please God to the best of my ability and that means studying God’s Word continuously. If you study God’s Word and obey His commands that will, in turn, lead you to witnessing for Jesus Christ because of your love of God and compassion for an unsaved world.

As a retired civil service manager I had two favorite sayings my staff got tired of hearing:

1.  Don’t worry about the mule being blind; just load the wagon.

2. Plan your work and work your plan.

I’m a planner, it’s what I do. The ultimate plan is figuring out how to please God, maximize our rewards in heaven and wind up in a leadership position once we go home.  The Bible is the key because it contains God’s wisdom and instructions for us to be successful in everything I just described. After salvation start obeying God’s commands. We are weak and cannot do it on our own nor are we expected to. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit so He will help us.  We just need to pray continuously for God to help us be obedient to His Word, which God will do because it’s His will for us as well. The key is to know what to ask God for, then ask for it and keep asking for it until you get it.

God’s commands in the Bible:

1.  Study the Word of God for knowledge and understanding (9 times)
2.   Pray to God continuously (17 times)
3.   Give to the needy (10 times)
4.   Assemble and worship God (10 times)
5.   Walk with God through faith in Jesus (16 times)
6.   Invest in personal relationships ( 23 times)
7.   Resist evil (10 times)
8.   Obey the 12 original commandments ( 12 times)  

King Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived and after thinking long and hard about life and happiness he came up with one conclusion.  Life is meaningless apart from a right relationship with God.  Wealth, fame and power mean nothing.  We are dust and after our brief flicker of time on this earth we go back home to the one who made us to live in fellowship with God forever (if we accept God’s mercy and grace).   Our standing in heaven will be based solely on how we live our lives here on earth (it’s why we’re here).  What we do now, right now, will affect us for the billions and billions of years of eternity in heaven.  Study God’s Word while there is time, obey the commands of God including the Great Commission of Jesus to share the gospel message to everyone who will listen to you.

God spoke the world into existence and set up the laws of the universe. God gave us the intelligence and free will to choose whom we will serve.  There are only two choices, God or Satan. Those who cannot or will not see the truth of God’s existence God calls scoffers and fools.  Once our eyes are opened our first duty is to seek God and accept God’s mercy and grace unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Our second duty, and sacred obligation, is to witness for Christ and help open the eyes of the blind.

Psalm 33:8-8 – Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.  For He spoke, and it was done: He commanded, and it stood fast.

Once we know the truth of God’s Word it is our duty to share our witness at every opportunity while we are still on this earth. Someone did it for us! It’s why we’re still here. Our goal should be to save at least one person for God’s kingdom.  Who wants to stand before God empty handed? I know I don’t.  If you find God you’ve had a successful life.  If you help someone else find God you’ve had a hugely successful life and will receive honor and glory from God in heaven on the last day.

Matthew 17:26 – For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

When you witness for Christ you’re doing God’s work and there can be no greater calling or use of your time. However, you must be able to handle rejection. Like any sales job it’s about repetition and volume. Present the gospel message and let the Holy Spirit do His work. You job is to be the sower of God’s Word always and, on occasion, be the reaper as well.  God will hold us accountable for inaction and there is no excuse. Our path is clear. We are to emulate Jesus while on this earth and we are to share our witness in order to help others to find salvation. Go save somebody, anybody, even if it’s just one person. God will faithfully reward you if you do.

The Bible has had a universal influence on mankind and all nations. Western civilization was founded on biblical principles. The Bible is the root of all western law. The United States itself was established as a Christian nation by our Bible-believing forefathers. The Bible has played an important role in the advancement of the world’s art, music, and literature. The world’s calendar and most of its holidays stem from the Bible.  The Bible has life-transforming power. Only the Bible has been able to change corrupt humanity. Millions of Christians testify that God, through His Word, has changed their lives for the better. In Scripture God says to taste Him to see if He is good. God says to test Him to see if He is faithful. Only our God says to come let us reason together.

All other religions require you to earn your way to heaven and you never know if you’ve done enough. With Christianity eternal life is a free gift from God for the asking and you never have to wonder if you’re going to heaven or not. All other religions say you can’t talk to God or get close to God but Christianity promises a loving personal relationship between you and God.  All those cold dead religions have one thing in common. They are all fake religions designed and sponsored by Satan to lead man away from the truth of the gospel and eternal life with the living God of heaven.  Since God cannot lie, when He tells the story of human history God is absolutely honest. The Bible is brutally honest about bad things done by good people and good things done by bad people. God presents our story accurately, warts and all.

The Bible is not a book that man could write if he would, or would write if he could.  First, man couldn’t have known all the facts contained in the Bible when it was written. Second, our human nature would prevent us from writing such a story because we are put in such a bad light much of the time. Who else but God would be honest enough to admit to a prostitute in the family tree (Rehab)?  When I read the Bible I don’t detect any of the BS or lying that would be present if a human being wrote it. The Bible contains facts, answers to life’s questions and wisdom on every subject in life. The Bible is alive, ever changing to meet our needs. God’s authorship of the Bible jumps out to me from every page. Can you see what I see?

The Bible is indestructible. The world will one day be destroyed by fire but God’s Word will stand forever. The Roman emperors tried to have every Bible destroyed but the number proliferated. Just about every Pope also opposed the reading and translating of the Bible because it lessened their importance in the eyes of believers, most of whom couldn’t read or write and therefore had to believe what they were told. In 1199 Pope Innocent III even ordered the burning od all Bibles to no avail.  Communist Russia and Stalin in particular tried unsuccessfully to eliminate Bibles from Russian life. China’s decades long push to discriminate against Christians and eliminate Bibles has also been futile. The more man tries to constrain the Bible the more amazing the circulation of the Bible becomes. In Scripture God says He will accomplish His purpose and that purpose is to give man access to God’s Word, the Holy Bible. Man’s futile attempt to thwart God’s will is like spitting into the wind.

Only one half of 1% of all books published survive seven years. 80% of all books are forgotten in one year. Most religious books disappear in short order but a person can walk into any bookstore in the world and buy a copy of the Christian Holy Bible. God will always ensure the availability of His Word for man because He cares for us and wants us all to be saved and that will be accomplished primarily through the Holy Bible.  No book in history has been copied as meticulously as the Bible. When scribes copied the Bible the slightest error meant the entire page had to be redone. Care was taken that not one comma or punctuation mark was omitted. The discovery of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls contained books of the Bible that were the same as we have today which proves God’s Word has not been altered by man over the centuries.  God is jealous of His Word and there is a warning in the Scriptures not to add or remove even one jot or tittle or face God’s judgement. The Bible says God’s eyes go to and fro across the earth looking for ways to fulfill His Word. If God says it then truth has been established and it will come to pass because whatever God says is Law and God cannot lie.

The Bible is prophetically accurate. I should have made this proof #1 since I’ve mentioned it several time already and it’s the most compelling evidence of God’s existence. The evidence bears repeating. The Bible is one third prophecy with over 1000 prophecies. Over 500 prophecies have been fulfilled with the rest awaiting their appointed time.  Only the true God knows how history will unfold because He wrote it. No other world religion has even fulfilled one prophecy. Bible prophecies are so specific and detailed they point directly to Jehovah so there is no excuse for unbelief.  There are 48 prophecies about Jesus Christ and I previously sent you a list of the 36 prophecies I find most compelling. These prophecies were documented in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament. The odds of one person fulfilling just eight of these prophecies and not being the Messiah is somewhere in the magnitude of 1 X 10 to the 17th power, which is a number so large I can’t get my head around it. Basically the number is so big its a certainty Jesus is the promised Son of God, God come to earth in the flesh.

Some prophecies about Jesus were very specific and these are the ones that grab my attention. Like being born in Bethlehem, a village of no more than 200 people. Like living in Nazareth, also a very small village of a few hundred people. Like being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver which happened. Like being crucified by having his hands and feet pierced which was such a cruel form of execution the Romans only used it for about 200 years before it was banned.  It was normal to break the legs of those crucified yet Scripture said the legs of Jesus would not be broken and they weren’t because Jesus was already dead when the Roman soldiers made their rounds. Prophecy said Jesus’ side would be pierced, which is also unusual, but it happened.

God said the Israelites would be slaves in Egypt for 400 years and they were there for 432 years. God said Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed and they were in 70 AD. God said the Israelites would be carried off to Babylon as slaves for 70 years and they were. God actually named the man to free His people as Cyrus which turned out to be King Cyrus of Persia.  Personally, I find this to be the most amazing prophecy in the entire Bible. What more must God do to convince man He is God? In Scripture God said He would disperse the Jewish people to the ends of the earth and regather them to the land God gave them in the end times. God reestablished Israel as a nation, as foretold, on May 14, 1948.

The Bible is scientifically accurate. Many times when the Bible authors were writing scripture under the influence of the Holy Spirit they didn’t have a clue what they were writing. They simply did as they were told or moved.  These writers wrote things that there was no way on earth they could have known. Things that weren’t known or discovered for thousands of years. Things which they couldn’t have known with their experiences and educational background. When I see these verses it’s like seeing God’s signature on His Word.  It may be easy now to see the accuracy of the Bible but you have to remember in ancient times the prevailing opinion many times was much different than what God’s Word said. Everyone thought the world was flat until the 1500’s and if you sailed out of sight of land you might fall off the earth. In Psalms it clearly says the earth is a sphere.

Everyone thought the earth rested on a giant turtle. Scripture says the earth hangs in space on nothing, which wasn’t confirmed for a couple thousand years. The Bible says the number of stars in the heavens is innumerable but in ancient times the consensus opinion was there were about 1200 stars which was about all they could see with the naked eye. With the invention of the telescope God was again proven correct.  I love the story of the guy who discovered the ocean currents. He was a believer who was convalescing from an illness and his son was reading the Bible to him. When he heard the verses about there being rivers in the sea and paths in the oceans he set about finding them based on his faith in God’s Word.  In ancient times the ocean bottoms were thought to be smooth like a bowl. Scripture said there were mountains and canyons on the sea floor which wasn’t verified until many centuries later. There are over 10,000 underwater volcanoes under the ocean that spew out fresh water. Scripture alludes to these fountains and springs under the sea.

The Holy Bible is the ultimate in wisdom literature and millions of lives could have been saved over the centuries if its precepts had been followed.  The Bible tells us the life of the flesh is in the blood yet until the mid-1800’s the major treatment for the sick was bloodletting, which only weakens the patient.  This practice is what killed George Washington.  When God gave the Law of Moses to the Israelites it included health and sanitation guidelines that included segregated latrines and isolating the sick.  Civilization in general and armies in particular lost millions of lives due to sickness and disease up through the U. S. Civil War because they didn’t apply God’s wisdom to their lives.

God requires all Jewish men to be circumcised when they are eight days old.  That is the day the level of blood clotting agent is highest in a person’s entire life.  There is a cancer causing bacteria that can be transmitted by uncircumcised males.  Science discovered this a couple thousand years later.  The Bible describes the hydrological cycle later confirmed by science.  In ancient times life was thought to self-generate from nothing while the Bible says all living things produce after their kind which we know to be true.  The left pushes the theory of evolution yet there is not one shred of evidence that shows any living species has evolved in any way whatsoever from the way God made them.  Not one.  None.