Gods Law

We have been following a course in home group recently on evangelism and Gods Law. I have made some notes on my understanding of what we have looked at and felt I should share it here. Its a step away from my usual lame jokes but hey, I can be spiritual sometimes! Sorry if its hard to follow these are my study notes :)

The Law

(Scriptures taken from Matthew 5 verse 17-20)

A common misconception is that Jesus came along in the New Testament to eradicate the Old Testament laws and replace them with a new scheme of living, therefor we are able to ignore all the 'outdated rules' - This as we know is incorrect. Jesus says in matthew 5 v 17 not to misunderstand why He came, He cae to fulfil the law of Moses, not abolish it.

Moses set out clearly the 10 commandments in Exodus 20 vwerse 1-17. We find it easy to keep the big, life changing,memorable commandments 0 Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Honour your Mother and Father. Yet, Jesus says in Mattew 15 verse 18 that breaking even the smallest detail of Gods law and leading others in the same way (ie in our example to others, how we bring up our children etc) that you will be least in the Kingdom.

So, to re-address the 10 commandments, that Jesus is upholding as part of the law of Moses, to hate is to murder in Gods eyes, to look on another woman or man in a lustful way is to commit adultery. How many of us have taken longer on our lunch break, used work time to surf the internet or taken that tool or bit of electrical cable that work wont miss? Have you claimed too much expenses? Yes? well its all stealing! Just by going about our everyday lives, not checking our hearts, we are steeling, lying, murdering and commiting adultery.

And thats justthe 'Big' commandments! - what about honouring your father and mother? We've all donethings our parents wouldnt approve of or asked us not to do (no matter what our age) thinking we know best.

As for worshiping other gods or having idols - ok so how many of us have a Golden calf on our mantle piece? LOL aaahhh well......A god is something that we adore, something that attracts our attention, our time. Its something that basically takes our eyes and focus off God. If I were to divide up my week in to portions for each area/activityhow big would my God slice be? TV, work, exercise, spending tome with family and friends, socialising, washing the car, surfing then net, taking holudays, shopping, doing stuff at church even...do these things take priority in our lives? Yes some of these are good things even talents that God has blessed us with Himself, however, His intention wasn'tthat these would become our focus....or our gods/idols.

I trust that most of us as christians do not misuse Gods name and I am sure many of us use the Sabbath (in most cases Sunday) to spend time resting in God, focussing on Him, devoting our time (His time) to Him.

However, Matthew 5 verse 19 says @if you break even the smallest commandment and teach others to do the same@ - it isour priority to make sure that those around us know Gods laws and are followingthem. God promises us that those who follow His laws and teach them to will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven. We are not responsible for the actions of others ut we do have a

tresponsibility to believers and non-believers alike to teach Gods law and scripture correctly and to ensure that people realise the urgency of doing so.

if thats not enough to take in, making sure we follow every one of the laws, a warning then comes!! in verse 20 Jesus says tha unless we obey God better than the religious teachers of law and the pharisees then we cannot enter the kingdom of God at all!

We strive to be like Jesus, to follow the example set by Him. We pray that God will give us strength, determination and conviction. We ask Him to reveal out Hidden sin. God wants us all in Heaven. With our hearts and eyes fixed on Him and His law in our hearts God has promised us security in eternity!! Amen ;)