THE10 COMMANDMENT CHALLENGE ;)

Good afternoon everyone. I'm going to try something a little different and a little interactive with the blog starting today. If you have already been reading my blogs then you will understand when I  start this blog out with a controversial statement. "Religion is simply organized rules whereas KNOWING The God Of Israel TRULY is a Relationship."  Anyone can simply follow rules and although tedious in nature as well as unnecessarily burdensome they are do-able for a while. What typically seems to happen with most who have lapsed their faith, as if BY pattern,  have had bad "religious" experiences and then incorrectly condemn and dump GOD because of it. We often quickly condemn God for the actions of people!  Now out of fairness for a moment I stopped and thought of how I would feel if someone dumped me as a friend, wife, mother etc because of something someone else did that I had no control over......I would  by no means, be cool with that.

An actual relationship with God requires a lot more effort,patience and discipline and a lot less pride, arrogance and selfishness on our parts.  It truly is the greatest gift on the planet!  In order to strengthen a relationship with Him you first must be obedient to His word. ALL OF THEM.... So that is where we are going to start.  One of the most famous bible scripture known to man worldwide are  the 10 Commandments. These commandments are the foundation for the Bible and Gods word.  It is the very structure that your relationship with God  is based on. My family and I are going to start a 10 commandment journey and you are more than welcome to join us. We will go through every commandment and dissect each one for its true meaning. We will then effectively take the required steps to make changes in our lives that will please God according to his instructions laid out in the 10 commandments:):):):)

The 1st commandment:
Exodus 20:2-3 Thou Shalt have no other Gods before me.  This would count all things we put before God- Money included.  The Lord is a jealous God and we are to be obedient.  If God says we are to have no other gods then we would do well to listen. We are to put our faith in our Creator not in money or in any other object or being. We are to be following the 10 commandments as a starter,  but what does the first commandment actually mean really?
I don't worship Buddha or have a Krishna statue or any other pagan deity in my living room, but does that mean that you are correctly holding to the first commandment?

First what is considered 'pagan' and what is considered 'holy'?  Pagan would be anything that is not of God's ways directly and takes you in a path away from God either toward another false deity or altogether in more of an atheist path. Holy would be anything "of God"  If we look back in scripture to the days the Lord considers "Holy Days" are we honouring these days God speaks of? He gives very specific instructions as to the days we are to honour in his name, but do we recognize them as a society?  Do we instead celebrate  pagan rituals such as Easter and Christmas which are not mentioned anywhere in the Bible and is not of Gods instruction? What most don't realize, by celebrating these holidays you are actually paying homage to another deity or more correctly Fallen angel(demon(s) and blatantly disobeying Gods instructions.  This exactly constitutes  'worshipping other Gods' which is the very thing he tells us not to do.

1st Exercise:  Rid the home of any ritual pagan symbolism. Get rid of all Christmas Easter Halloween decorations. All pagan holiday items to be removed and destroyed. For obvious reasons if its pagan for you and your family you should not be giving it away to anyone else to use. That would effectively be encouraging this holiday.

2. Go through a life cleaning as to family/individual thoughts toward Money OR ANYTHING CAUSING STRIFE IN THE HOME...video games,facebook, television. Anything that keeps you from spending time with God and your family. Don't let these things cause a wedge in the family and give them no power.  
Most families fight in times of financial stress. I know I've been there too. This will only worsen the situation. Jesus tells us to have faith and follow him no matter what. We should have the "We wont be shaken" mentality.  As families these are the times we need to pull closer together not be torn apart. We can accomplish much more together than we can apart and  the tough times coming up financially are going to be a testament to that. The families that work together with each others and the communities interest at heart will be the ones who succeed in this type of world.

The Creator, The God of Israel made all that exists.  Only the Creator has the power to be God, looking to anyone or anything else is a dead end journey.  This includes anything you think is 'more important' than worship right now. "Being brought out of slavery and bondage" doesn't just mean the Israelites out of Egypt but also our own struggles on a daily basis with evil and dark forces.  It promises the release of slavery of sin. Moses was the physical deliverer of the physical Israelites and Jesus is the spiritual deliverer of the spiritual Israelites.

To be a true believer or "Israelite" however one would have to first submit to and obey our Creators demands in exchange for the grace given by his covenants. If we continue to hold up to our end of the bargain just as the tribes of Israel did then should we be confused when we hear the story of them having to wander the desert for 40 years for disobedience ? And if they were made to wander the desert for 40 years what does he have planned for our generation for disobedience keeping in mind the other signs?
The first step is to start doing the correct thing by obeying his word. We as a family are starting with the 10 commandments and making sure we have them right....what about you and your family...Won't you join us? ;)

The next blog with cover the 2nd commandment and steps to take to be on board with Gods plan, the way we should be- not what we have been tricked to believe ;)

GOD BLESS XOXOXOXOX