“The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.” Psalms 19:7-11
Category Archives: God’s commandments
TEN COMMANDMENTS: A PATH TO TRUE FREEDOM
The Ten Commandments: A Path to True Freedom by Christian Kahnt.
A Loving Gift, not a Restriction
The Ten Commandments were given by God as an expression of His love for humanity. Like a parent https://youtu.be/NWcKMQqAZ9Y?si=X0r9k_P6weov5diqgiving guidance to a child, these commands are designed to protect us, bless us, and keep us from harm. They are road signs on life’s journey, pointing us away from danger and toward a life of peace and fulfillment.
2. Freedom Through Boundaries
True freedom isn’t about doing whatever we feel like – it’s about living without the weight of guilt, broken relationships, or consequences that harm ourselves and others. The Ten Commandments show us how to live in harmony with God, others, and even our own hearts. They free us from the chaos that comes when we disregard what is good and right.
3. A Blueprint for Relationships
The Commandments focus on two essential relationships:
- Loving God (the first four Commandments): They teach us to honour and connect with the One who made us.
- Loving others (the last six Commandments): They guide us in building healthy, respectful relationships with the people around us.
Jesus Himself summed this up when He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind” and “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39).
4. Protecting What Matters Most
Each Commandment isn’t just a prohibition but a safeguard for something precious:
- “You shall have no other gods before Me”: Keeps our hearts anchored in what is eternal and unchanging, rather than fleeting pursuits.
- “You shall not make idols”: Protects us from investing in false hopes that will ultimately disappoint.
- “Do not misuse God’s name”: Calls us to honour God in our words and actions.
- “Remember the Sabbath”: Encourages rest, reflection, and restoration in a fast-paced world.
- “Honor your father and mother”: Instils respect for family and wisdom.
- “Do not murder”: Safeguards life and peace in our communities.
- “Do not commit adultery”: Protects trust and love in relationships.
- “Do not steal”: Upholds fairness and integrity.
- “Do not lie”: Builds trust and truthfulness.
- “Do not covet”: Promotes contentment and gratitude.
5. A Path to Flourishing
Far from being a heavy burden, the Ten Commandments are a path to flourishing. They invite us to live as God designed us to live—in harmony with Him, with others, and with ourselves. When we follow them, we experience peace, joy, and a deeper sense of purpose.
The Gospel and the Commandments
The Commandments show us God’s standard for holy living, but they also reveal our inability to meet that standard on our own. This is where the gospel shines brightest.
Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly on our behalf. Through His life, death, and resurrection, He offers us forgiveness for our failures and the power to live transformed lives. In Christ, the Commandments are not burdens but blessings. We obey not to earn God’s love, but because we’ve already received it.
Sharing the Good News
As we reflect on the Ten Commandments, let’s embrace them as a positive, life-giving framework. Share this perspective with those around you – on social media, in conversations, and in prayer groups. Remind others that God’s commands aren’t about restriction but about love, protection, and freedom.
By choosing to live within the wisdom of God’s guidelines, we step into the abundant life He desires for us – a life marked by love, peace, and true freedom.
Pastor Christian Kahnt is the Assistant Pastor at the Parramatta Christian Church NSW Australia
FAMILY – GOD’S MASTERPIECE
The number of married households in America has fallen from 71% in 1971 to 47% in 2022? When mothers and fathers cannot take their place in God’s order, and children lack the example of a working father, society sets young people up for a life of government dependence and wasted potential. This is the big challenge facing the new Trump-led government, a godless generation.
America’s retreat from work serves as an indictment of the US welfare system. After the Left purposefully throttled President Donald Trump’s red-hot economy in the name of COVID-19, Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion spending spree gave workers collecting unemployment a $300 weekly bonus. That surplus gave approximately one in four workers more money than they could earn by working. One study showed that policy alone depressed employment by approximately 14%.
The report also shows the problems presented by counterproductive economic interventionist policies that destroy jobs and opportunity. Politicians promote tax hikes that raise prices, massive spending that fuels inflation, and subsidies for unpopular products such as electric vehicles — all of which distort the market — for short-term political gain. For example, a minimum wage, when raised too high, prices out the poorest and neediest from the job market. The CBO estimated a proposed minimum wage hike would give workers an average of $50 a week — and throw 1.3 million people out of the workforce, reducing GDP by $9 billion.
During the last four years of the Biden-Harris administration, all net job growth has gone to immigrants. Between 2019 and late 2023, 2.9 million immigrants took U.S. jobs, while 183,000 American citizens left the workforce. Mass immigration—illegal and legal—reduces wages, making a welfare check seem far more inviting than 40 hours of toil.
Churches alone stand in the position to address the underlying issues that keep sidelined Americans out of the workforce — addiction, depression, lack of motivation, family commitments, lack of child care, etc. — and to elevate even seemingly mundane work to its true spiritual significance.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY: SATAN PERVERTS WHAT GOD HAS ORDAINED
The devil takes whatever God has ordained and perverts it so that it is totally corrupted from what was first intended. He perverts
- Marriage—corrupting this from the true marriage of one man and woman to two men or two women or other perversions.
- Sexuality—corrupting the created rightful place for sex within marriage for one man and one woman to whatever is right in one’s own eyes.
- Gender—corrupting this from the created two genders, male and female, to however one wants to define gender.
- Dominion—corrupting man’s created dominion over the creation to the creation having dominion over man, as seen in the modern climate-change religion.
- Rainbow—corrupting this from the meaning of the rainbow given by God after the flood to instead be associated with the anti-biblical LGBTQ worldview and other perversions. The ultimate perversion is in the USA where June is celebrated as PRIDE month.
- Church – churches and church leaders have adopted the devil’s perversion of the rainbow and support the sinful lifestyles of those who reject true marriage as God-created (one man and one woman) and reject God’s created genders for humans (only two: male and female).
Jesus told us in the Olivet Discourse what the end times will be like before He returns to restore righteousness. His laws and commandments will be rejected, and lawlessness will abound. The USA now celebrates that they are proud of their sin. They are already under God’s judgement and it will only escalate.
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away, betray and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:9-12
GOD ESTABLISHED THE ROLES FOR MEN & WOMEN
A great article appeared in The Washington Stand by Joshua Arnold: Lead, Provide, Protect: An Urgent Call for Godly Men. I have taken excerpts from it
Lead, provide, protect. That’s what God created men to do. Our society has other ideas, to its own disadvantage and disgrace. But the best counter to the culture is for men to step up and embrace their God-given identity and role.
Today, “boys are penalized … for being boys,” Owen Strachan, senior fellow for Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview, declared on “Washington Watch” last week. “Boys hear, ‘Don’t be strong’ and ‘Don’t want to be … a traditional man. … You’re not really good the way you are as a boy. You should be more like a girl.’ … Nothing could be worse for boys than that.”
This propaganda — blasted out by every mainstream institution from schools to Hollywood — applies half a century of radical feminist ideology. Radical feminists of the late 20th century argued for abolishing all differences between men and women. They demanded absolute equality in the academy and the workplace. They demanded utter sexual libertinism, endorsing promiscuity, childlessness, and the dissolution of the marriage bond, in imitation of their mistaken caricature of masculinity. They demanded freedom from their own reproductive biology (through birth control and abortion), again in an attempt to reproduce a false version of masculinity.
Ironically, as radical feminists tried to become like men in every way, they also insisted that men become more like women. “There are all sorts of traits associated with good things in Scripture that in today’s culture — among woke, leftist, pagan thought — are very bad things,” said Strachan. “So, if you take risks today if you’re assertive if you speak up in groups if you might dare to ever correct a woman in public … if you like competitive sports, if you like watching World War II movies, you better get out your blanket and hide in the closet because they’re coming for you.” This attitude nurtures men “against their nature,” he added, “against their wiring, because now they’re being told, ‘Don’t be what you naturally want to be.”
Because of his death on the cross, we who believe in him are redeemed from the futility of our dead works and restored to a right relationship with God. In his sacrificial example, we have a model to imitate (1 Corinthians 11:1), especially those of us who are husbands (Ephesians 5:25). “Our ability to fulfill our God-given responsibilities as men is not because of virtue within us,” said Strachan, but “because of God’s grace in us that summons us to wake up and to be not just a man for ourselves, not just an adult in terms of age, but to be a man who lays down his life for others to whatever extent is necessary.”
Lead, provide, protect. This is what God designed me to do, and it’s more necessary than ever in our fallen, messed-up world. It’s especially important for families, the building blocks of society. “If you build fathers, you build the family and you build the society,” Strachan stated. “If you break fathers, you break the family. If you break the family, you break the society.”
Lead, provide, protect. That’s the role of a godly man. The world has always sought to tear down, trip up, or otherwise neutralize godly leaders, and that’s especially true of our culture, which has embraced an anti-biblical, anti-masculine ideology. “Of course, a Christian is going to say, ‘You’re only going to be truly strong when you recognize your weakness and your need for Jesus Christ,’” Strachan granted. “Nonetheless, in Scripture, in case after case, (David to Solomon or the Lord God to Joshua), there’s a call to courage, and there’s a call to strength, and that is what boys need.”
We need men who, in the face of worldly opposition and devilish temptation, will heed this call:
“Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God” 1 Kings 2:2-3
ONLY GOD DEFINES WHAT IS GOOD AND EVIL
God gave us His commandments to define what is lawful. God’s law is Holy. His commandments are Holy, righteous, and good. God defines what is sinful. Moreover, God gave each of us a conscience, an inner sense of right and wrong. One reason is because He loves us, and He doesn’t want us to destroy our lives and the lives of others through our evil deeds. But He also gave it to us to show us our need for Christ. He alone can forgive our sins, change our hearts, and then help us live the way we should.
The conscience is defined as that part of the human psyche that induces mental anguish and feelings of guilt when we violate it and feelings of pleasure and well-being when our actions, thoughts, and words are in conformity with our value systems. The Greek word translated “conscience” in all New Testament references is suneidēsis, meaning “moral awareness” or “moral consciousness.” The conscience reacts when one’s actions, thoughts, and words conform to or are contrary to God’s standard of right and wrong.
When King Solomon rebuked someone who had wronged his father, he said, “You know in your heart all the wrong you did” 1 Kings 2:44
Tragically, our conscience—this inner moral compass that ought to point us to right and wrong—can become dulled and suppressed, and we may not even be able to hear its warnings. Instead, we deliberately choose to do wrong—and the more we do this, the more calloused or hardened our conscience becomes. Some people, the Bible says, “suppress the truth by their wickedness” Romans 1:18
The world is increasingly suppressing God’s truth and is now openly opposed to it. It has embraced evolution and naturalism so that Man can make up His own rules. Christians who hold to God’s values are being treated as bigots and haters. Jesus said that in the last days before He returns this would be the case and we need to prepare for it.
“”Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:9-12
As Christians, we are to keep our consciences clear by obeying God and keeping our relationship with Him in good standing. We do this by the application of His Word and submitting to the indwelling Holy Spirit’s leading. We need to help those whose consciences are weak, treating them with Christian love and compassion. Don’t give in to cynicism or despair but ask God to help you point others to Christ’s transforming power.
WHOM DO YOU WORSHIP?
Everyone worships something . . . that is just how God made us. But in a world that is corrupted by sin and in constant rebellion to its Creator, that worship gets distorted and twisted in ways that dishonor God. We can understand how that would happen in a jungle tribe where there is no direct access to what God has revealed about the right way to offer worship, but what about in America today? There is access to the Bible on everyone’s phone or laptop, and the instructions are clear.
But That’s the Problem
Many people claim that the problem is just that—the God of the Bible is much too demanding. He expects people to only worship him, follow a list of rules, act a certain way, hang out with certain people, and avoid certain people. So many expectations and such harsh judgment! They would prefer a loving god who accepts them for who they are and validates their choices. If they could find that god, they would probably worship him . . . or her.
A recent commercial from Apple has a ‘Mother Nature’ Figure and the Divine Feminine. It presents several illogical aspects, as we would expect from any worldview that doesn’t begin with God’s Word as its foundation. The key point comes in replacing God with a goddess and attributing his attributes to her. This goddess claims the weather was “however I wanted it to be”, then why doesn’t she just fix climate change? People accuse God of being a capricious, malevolent bully who could exercise his omnipotence to end suffering if he wanted (an oversimplified view that divides God’s character rather than acknowledging his whole being), but this seems to be overlooked in this Mother Earth character. She is claiming to have all-powerful control over the weather, the same ability as the true God. If she can make the weather however she wants it, then why doesn’t she do something about famines and wildlife population devastation through habitat loss (from wildfires, flooding, etc.)? It sounds like she really doesn’t care about these things. And it sounds like she is capricious and malevolent. Yet these technocratic overlords are willing to worship this goddess and demand everyone do the same while telling Christians that our God is evil for not preventing hurricanes, droughts, and melting ice caps. It seems there is a double standard at play.
Dr. Owen Strachan addresses many of these aspects in his Grace & Truth podcast episode “Apple’s ‘Mother Nature’ Figure and the Divine Feminine.” As Dr. Strachan notes, it is not a rejection of any divine being, but the embrace of a divine image that condemns people for their actions and requires sacrifices for those sins. She doesn’t offer up herself, but her gospel is a message of work harder and do more to prove you are worthy of my affection—that is a capricious and malevolent god. The gospel of our technocrat overlords, as Dr. Strachan calls them, is not a gospel of grace, but a gospel of works, which demands acts of sacrifice before love is extended.
GOD’S INTENT FOR THE CHURCH
God’s intent for the Church has always been that it be a place where lost people get found and the broken get put back together — a place filled with “weres” who are learning to build new lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.
It’s time for surveys to tell us that churches are breaking new ground and being filled with those from broken families, broken relationships, and broken lives. But they should also tell us churches are doing all they can to break the downward cycle of family dysfunction and restore health to marriage and fatherhood. Only then can people step into the life God has for them, and only then can they be part of God’s heart for breaking new ground through the power of the Gospel.
“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes …” (Romans 1:16).
In Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica, he reminded them they had “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God …” (I Thessalonians 1:9). When he took the Gospel to the city of Ephesus, many who engaged in sorcery and pagan worship left their ways to follow Jesus (Acts 19: 19, 23-27). The survey question, “How many of you came from families that practiced sorcery and idolatry?” Would have had embarrassing results. Yet Heaven was smiling as new ground was being broken.
But the city of Corinth tops them all: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the Kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:9-11). That must have been quite a congregation! New ground was being broken.
“Churches must work to restore healthy marriages and fatherhood to combat a growing decline in Christianity, according to a survey released by a faith-based group.” The article went on to detail how the decline in resident fatherhood and the collapse of marriage are likely explanations for the increase in religious non-affiliation throughout the United States.
God’s roles for males and females need to be restored. Male leadership in the home and church is clearly laid out in God’s Word but it like most of God’s commandments has been jettisoned by an unbelieving world. Fortunately, God tells us in His Word that this would be the case and the only solution is for Jesus to return and restore righteousness by ruling and reigning the nations with a rod of iron, and this He will do for 1000 years with the resurrected Saints. Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom is a transition period prior to God establishing a new Heaven and new Earth where only the righteous dwell. Whilst Satan is bound for most of the thousand years. In the end, God allows him to be released and astoundingly he is still able to raise an army of rebellious people like the sand of the sea to come against Jesus and the Saints. The rebellion is promptly put down and this earth and heaven are destroyed. A second resurrection occurs of those unbelievers who were not raised at the first resurrection and all those who died during the Millennium. Jesus White Throne judgement follows. Only then does John see a new Heaven and a new Earth and a magnificent New Jerusalem descending from Heaven onto the new Earth.
A GOOD REASON TO MARRY
The decline of marriage over the last several decades is causing the decline in happiness or at least most of it. As Sam Peltzman, lead researcher behind the University of Chicago paper told The Atlantic in statistical hyperbole: “The only happy people for 50 years have been married people.”
After all, marriage is God’s design for man, woman, and family.
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24
Olga Khazan, who wrote the Atlantic piece and has been cohabiting with her partner for 15 years, says these stats also struck her as counterintuitive. However, she then admits that “this is a fairly consistent finding dating back decades in social-science research: Married people are happier. Period.”
Of course, happiness isn’t the sole or even the best reason to get married. Many things in life carry deep meaning and significance that don’t necessarily make us happy. A life lived only for happiness is a futile “chasing after the wind.” Enduring suffering, overcoming trials and tragedy, or sacrificing time, energy, or even our lives for others are all richly worthwhile pursuits that yield rewards in eternity. Certainly, loving someone and raising godly children is worth it, even if it’s not always fun.
And we should note, that “happiness” is a malleable word. When survey participants say being married or having children made them “happy,” they may often mean that these permanent connections give them lasting joy, something more profound than fleeting happiness, which surveys seldom quantify.
Still, these consistently stark results are unmistakable. They should challenge the entire way of thinking in sitcoms, movies, and editorials. Marriage is one of the chief sources of well-being and satisfaction in life. The fact that marriage rates have declined so dramatically over the last 50 years has had real, population-wide consequences.
Because the reasons people are not marrying at the same rates are so complex, different solutions will be required to raise the marriage rate. According to Wilcox and Bass, one of the most important reasons is the fact that, for many Americans who are living together and may already have children, getting married incurs a tax “penalty.” The federal government needs to, in their words, stop “making marriage a bad financial bet for lower-income families.”
That would be a good start. Ultimately, however, our bad laws are reinforced by a low view of marriage that has infected hearts and minds via entertainment, media, culture, and individual choices. We have a worldview problem, which has led to a conflict between the values and priorities of millions of people and the way they were actually created to live.
Marriage is part of God’s plan for humanity and for His creation. No other human institution forges such lasting and consequential bonds. So, it should surprise no one — least of all Christians — that our nation’s 50-year experiment with alternatives to marriage has left huge numbers of people deeply unhappy. Repent and get back into a relationship with your Heavenly Father through the sacrifice Jesus made our your behalf.
” Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.“ John 14:6
GREAT TO SEE A LOT OF YOUNG PEOPLE SUPPORTING GOD’S COMMANDMENTS
PRO-LIFE ADVOCATES ATTEND THE ANNUAL MARCH FOR LIFE IN WASHINGTON ON JAN. 21, 2022
Nearly seven months since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and returned the issue of abortion to the individual state legislatures, tens of thousands of anti-abortion activists will descend on Washington, D.C., for the 50th annual March for Life on Jan. 21.
Since Roe‘s overturning, 24 states have banned abortion or are likely to do so, according to a January 2023 report by the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank that supports abortion rights. Legal challenges are pending in several of those states.
On Jan. 11, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a pair of symbolic anti-abortion bills that are not expected to be acted upon in the Democratic-controlled Senate. One of the bills, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, would require health care providers to care for infants born after an attempted abortion. A 2002 federal law already mandates that health care professionals provide medical care to infants born at any gestational age.
Mancini called the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act “commonsense and compassionate.”
In October, she also described as “sensible and compassionate” a bill that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, sponsored to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Other antiabortion leaders supported the legislation even though congressional Republicans distanced themselves from it.
Democrats seized upon Graham’s bill to portray the GOP as extremist on the issue, a strategy that seemed to resonate with voters. The Democrats increased their majority in the U.S. Senate while Republicans underperformed in securing the House with a slim majority.
Meanwhile, voters in Michigan, California and Vermont in November chose to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions. In Kentucky and Kansas, voters rejected constitutional amendments that would have said residents in those states had no right to an abortion.
“It seems to me we’re discovering that voters are generally in the middle” on abortion, said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California Davis School of Law who is a leading historian on the abortion debate in the United States. In the middle? Sadly, what our Creator says on the issue is no longer relevant and therefore not a consideration. It is another sure “end times” sign.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 