Obedience

Dear friends,

regardless of the details we may believe as in where this virus came from, if it is a virus at all or a bio-weapon or even a hoax to scare us and give the world governments an opportunity to introduce and enforce martial law, or install 5G everywhere which some believe is the real source of the symptoms and of people dying – regardless of all this and we may differ greatly in which of those we believe, but I am quite sure that we will ALL agree that this crisis shows that we now need GOD more than ever.

Don’t you think?

I mean, regardless of where this came from or what it truly is and what its consequences will be, none of us can do anything about it, now, can we?

Don’t we all then more than ever before depend on GOD?

Not that we didn’t depend on HIM before, but I think we had a lot more reasons or opportunities to not be aware of how dependent we truly are on HIM – 100% completely.

HE is the only source of help, of provision, of health, of knowledge, of wisdom, of love and of life itself.

Now and before this worldwide crisis, but now, being locked in our homes, unable to go where we want to, perhaps even unable to work what we would like to or to work at all, some of us or someone we know may have even become sick or there may even be losses of loved ones in our families or circles of friends or among our colleagues or in our church…

This is a very humbling time, I think.

Never have we been (at least not our generation) so exposed to our helplessness and all our vulnerabilities staring at us, right in the middle of our faces.

I don’t know what you are going through, if you are alone and lonely or depressed or if you are locked up together with your family and they are getting on your nerves big time (Domestic Violence Cases are on the rise now during lock down) – or if you are scared or ill or sad – I have not spoken to one person who is happy at the moment and not challenged to some degree – ok, fair enough, some of us cope better than others, but even that depends on GOD in my opinion… only faith can help us at this time, only GOD’s peace can calm us down…

Many Christians out there even believe that this all means HE is coming back NOW.

I don’t know what you believe, but if you agree with me that this time is the time when we need HIM, perhaps like never before in our lives, did you ever think about getting right with HIM?

Me, I did – a lot – not only recently, but especially recently.

And I have been wondering if HE is pleased with me, been pondering about what HE would say if I stood before HIM NOW, what HE would approve of about me and my life and what HE would not…

Have you?

And I have screened myself and my life to detect sin, to detect unforgiveness I may still have towards someone or if I needed to ask someone’s forgiveness, most of all, GOD’s for something…

I have been wondering how to know if HE would be pleased with me?

Have you?

The increased dependency I feel at the moment, the more I feel I need GOD and of course, I want HIM to be close to me, want to be sure HE remembers me, looks after me day and night, guides me in regards to all the circumstances of all this, gives me wisdom and clear instructions about what to do, where to go, what to buy, how to stay safe – everything really, not that I didn’t ask HIM about all these before, but it is more imminent now, don’t you think?
I even consider this a GOOD side effect of the crisis:
me and I believe many others, we want to be as close to GOD as never before!

And I remembered what HE said:

 

James 4:8
⁸ Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

So then, I was wondering, how can I draw closer to HIM (the part about the sin and cleansing is clear)?

As usual, I have been praying about it and have been looking for answers in the bible and what stood out were 2 things or themes:

 # 1 Obedience

Obedience appears numerous times in the bible and it is emphasized how important our obedience is to GOD.
He has even preferred it over sacrifices since the days of the Old Testament:

 

1 Samuel 15:22-24
²² And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
²³ For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

And this also makes is clear – together with so many other scriptures where we are even warned of the curses which will come upon us for disobedience, that rebellion is what GOD truly hates!

Now you may say, that everything is different in the New Testament.
Let’s look at some scriptures about obedience there then:

 

Romans 1:5
By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

Romans 5:19

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Ephesians 5:6
Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

 

Hm…. doesn’t look like GOD has changed HIS mind here, now, does it?

In fact, even JESUS had to obey GOD when HE was in a human body!

Hebrews 5:8
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

 

So that is crystal clear.

But how does it actually play out?

DO we still have to follow the commandments?

Again, so many scholars and teachers say that we are now under grace and not under the law any longer, but does that mean that we can do what we want?

John 14:15
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

Yes, I know, HE also said that the greatest commandment is to love THE LORD and then to love thy neighbour.
But did HE say that we don’t need to keep the other commandments any longer?

Not in my bible HE didn’t.

So I had a look at the ten commandments once again and I was convicted, friends!

About the Sabbath… and some other things… and I will have to look into this more deeply.

Why do we believe we can disobey this commandment?
Is there anything in the New Testament which would say so?
What did JESUS do?
HE honored the Sabbath, did HE not?
Yes, HE healed on the Sabbath, but HE never said that the Sabbath was abolished or replaced by Sunday!

A few months ago, I did visit a Sabbath keeping church and I concluded that those people there were lovely people, but they were legalists – you can read about it here Obedience versus legalism – but I think I need to think and pray about it again.

It kept coming back to my mind, and I am not sure that I am at peace with worshipping on a Sunday, especially not since I saw a video today about the Mark of the Beast and Revelation and about the Catholic Church, which is according to many THE ANTICHRIST (I agree to this!) and in this video, it was repeated – I had heard it before, that it was the Catholic Church which had changed the Sabbath to Sunday Worship to demonstrate her power OVER the bible and there is no scriptural justification for NOT keeping the Sabbath and worship GOD on a Sunday instead!

I have been doing that for many years, I know many of us have, but the last thing I WANT to do is to obey the Catholic Church rather than to obey GOD!!!

So this church I have visited may not have been the right church for me, but I believe in this aspect, they actually were right.

And in case you are interested in the video I saw, I found it very interesting, you can watch it here: