Casting Pearls- Do we talk to much?

There is ample warning in the Bible for those who talk all the time, to keep your mouth shut. A wise person does not talk a lot, they let others show how they fail to understand. The Bible states in Proverbs 10:19- In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin; but he that restraineth his lips is wise. 

In the New Testament it is the same. 1 Peter 3:10 states;For  he that love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.Or in James 1:19 the Bible says; Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, and slow to speak, and slow to wrath. 

There are many verses in Proverbs devoted to this topic because the tongue is the only muscle not connected to a bone, that can do such damage. In Proverbs 17:27-28 it states; He that hath knowledge spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of excellent spirit, Even a fool =, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise, and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed of man. So we are told to hold our peace and even if we are not that smart, we will at least appear to be.

In other books we are told not to speak to much too. in Ecclesiastes 5:3 it says; For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words. Back in the New Testament we are exhorted to ‘But shun profane and vain babblings; for they will increase unto more ungodlyness.’ In 2 Timothy 2:16. Then in 1 Timothy 1:6, it states; ‘From which some haveing swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling. 

Jesus Himself said in Matthew 12:36-37, ‘But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgement. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.’ So, even Jesus Himself warns us not to speak too much. Listen and be quiet while you do.  There is ample warning in the Bible for those who talk all the time, to keep your mouth shut. A wise person does not talk a lot, they let others show how they fail to understand. The Bible states in Proverbs 10:19- In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin; but he that restraineth his lips is wise. 

In the New Testament it is the same. 1 Peter 3:10 states;For  he that love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.Or in James 1:19 the Bible says; Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, and slow to speak, and slow to wrath. 

There are many verses in Proverbs devoted to this topic because the tongue is the only muscle not connected to a bone, that can do such damage. In Proverbs 17:27-28 it states; He that hath knowledge spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of excellent spirit, Even a fool =, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise, and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed of man. So we are told to hold our peace and even if we are not that smart, we will at least appear to be.

In other books we are told not to speak to much too. in Ecclesiastes 5:3 it says; For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words. Back in the New Testament we are exhorted to ‘But shun profane and vain babblings; for they will increase unto more ungodlyness.’ In 2 Timothy 2:16. Then in 1 Timothy 1:6, it states; ‘From which some haveing swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling. 

Jesus Himself said in Matthew 12:36-37, ‘But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgement. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.’ So, even Jesus Himself warns us not to speak too much. Listen and be quiet while you do.

Casting Pearls-Do you know the Ten Commandments?

Many people know what the Ten Commandments are but how many really know more than one or two of the actual commandments or can even quote correctly one of them. The answer is, not many, if you have not studied them or studied the Bible, you probably don’t know what they are. This article will discuss each of them, where they can be found, and what God was attempting to tell us in each of them.

The first of the Ten Commandments is found in Exodus 20:3, and states, ‘ Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.’ (KJV) This was especially for the Jewish people since they had just come out of Egypt, where they had gods for almost everything, where they worshipped the god of earth, god of water, god of air, god of fertility, et-cetera, et-cetera. They even fell back into that when waiting for Moses to return with these commandments. The Israelites made a calf and covered it with gold, as they had in Egypt, and worshipped it, as they had when in Egypt. By their own actions, and our actions now, we show that we need too be told ‘have no other gods’. You might say , “ I don’t have a golden calf I pray too”, but we put our job, our children, our spouse, our life, as more important than God. Anything we allow to be more important to us than God is something that is now our god in our life. 

The second commandment of God is ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image’(KJV). This, as previously described with the golden calf was in part for the Israelites. You might say how does that relate to me, I don’t have a golden calf? Well, do you think money is more important than God? Do you think your car is more important than God? Do you think any of your things are more important than God? If God wanted you too give up anything you have for His use, would you gladly give it? Anything you would not give up for God is a graven image, wither it was engraved by you or someone else for you, it is a graven image.

The third commandment is ‘Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them’(KJV). Again this was in part for the Israelites due to the golden calf, but anything that we find more important than God and work to make it better for us then we bow down to it. Maybe we bow down to wash the car, or maybe we bow down to do our jobs, or maybe we metaphorically bow down to our boss, or maybe we bow down to someone we love, or something we love, or something we worship. 

The fourth commandment is ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God’s name in vain’(KJV). the Bible says that the Lord will not find one who does this guiltless. You might say I don’t cuss and take the Lord’s name in vain, and maybe you don’t, but do you ever say “Oh my G**” or “Good G**” without thinking? You are guilty of using the Lord’s name in vain. 

The next one is the Fifth commandment, ‘Remember the sabbath day and keep it Holy; six days shall thou labor and do thy work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God’(KJV). Technically the sabbath day in Bible days before Christ was Saturday, but Jesus was raised from the tomb on the First day of the week and the disciples began to gather together to commemorate that day on Sunday, so we carry on that belief today. We keep our Sundays as the Sabbath day spoken of in this commandment. 

The Sixth Commandment is ‘thou shalt not kill’(KJV). Killing is looked upon as sin by God, but some people might argue that God calls for the Israelite people to kill the people in various places throughout the Old Testament. God had His hands tied by us and our sin nature. Adam brought death into the world with his sin and the killing goes on through history due to the continued sin of man. 

The Seventh Commandment is the one we have a lot of problem with today ‘Thou shalt not commit Adultery’(KJV). The reasoning behind this was the Lord wanted to have people to make a promise to each other and to Him to do this so as to make a difference between us and the animals we had dominion over. God also wanted to keep the marriage Holy because it was to be a shadow or type of Christ and His Church.

The Eighth Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not steal’(KJV). Theft of things is not really important to a true Christian as these are just things, but these things are God’s things and we are only given them for a short time to care for them until He returns, so we are upset at theft since it is like unto stealing from God.

The Ninth Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. This is regularly broken by us as we try to get others to take the blame for our shortcomings. The truth is that no one here on earth can take our place for what we have done or said. We are guilty and even if man doesn’t know God does.

Finally we have the Tenth Commandment, ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s’(KJV). This is the one we have the biggest problem with. Every time we see something that someone else has whither it be a car, or money, or celebrity, or even voice or ability of someone else and want it for ourself then we have coveted. I must admit even I have broken this one. 

All of these are too easy to break in one way or another. we are tempted by this fallen world to do things all the time that will cause us to break these. Luckily for us Jesus came to give Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, past and present and future, so that we can be justified and sanctified before the Lord. All we need do is accept it and begin to profess Jesus to men. Colossians 2:13-14 says ‘And you,  being dead in your sin and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.’(KJV)

Jesus took all our sins and made it as though we never sinned. Jesus made the Ten Commandments no longer condemning to us. He made us free from the burden of our sin and the Holy Spirit which now inhabits us should help us to attempt to keep those commandments, summed up in two commandments by Jesus for us ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.The first part covers the first five

commandments and the second part covers the last five. Jesus didn’t do away with the law, He only made man able to understand it and get closer to living by it.

Casting Pearls-Are YOU the follower that Jesus Loved?

The Apostle John often referred to himself as ‘the apostle (or Disciple) that Jesus loved’ . Why do you think he did so? If I was to go out to eat lunch with John Hagee and Billy Graham, I would refer to it as John Hagee, Billy Graham and the man that Jesus loved went out to eat lunch. So it was not really strange for John to refer to himself in that way. The real meaning behind that phrase is much deeper for us.

Love is what God wants us to show others and what He wants to show us as His love is unfathomable. When a High Priest presented the blood of the sacrifice for their sin to God in the Holy of Holies, God did not judge the people based on their sin or their sacrifice, He judged the High Priest who represented them. The good news for us is that we are being represented by the most perfect and Holiest High Priest it is possible to be represented by; the Lord Jesus Christ. It is His blood and His sacrifice that God judges for us.

This, by no means, is an excuse for us to sin. Jesus has already paid for everything we have done or are going to do, but this is not so that we could go on living our sinful lives, It is so we could have a second chance, a new start to get it closer to right. When we got ‘saved’ we were indwelled by the Holy Spirit that influences us to do what is right in all circumstances. We have to train ourselves to listen to the Holy Spirit and not the world around us, as it says in Romans 12:2, ‘be not conformed to the world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.’ 

Paul tried to explain this to the believers in Galatians 2:17-21 that they were not found to be acceptable before God due to their works in the flesh. You can’t pray, read the Bible, feed enough poor people, or heal enough sick people to make yourself acceptable to God. You have to be DEAD to the flesh and alive in Christ Resurrected with Him and letting the Holy Spirit live inside you. We are dead to being judged under the law, we are made acceptable to God by Jesus.

The Bible, God’s Word, says that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. We have to accept his forgiveness to get that forgiveness. In Luke 15:3-10, Jesus told His followers and those who listened, the parable of the lost sheep, Saying that if there was a shepherd who had a hundred sheep and just One wandered away, would the shepherd not leave the ninety nine alone to go look for the one, and having found it would he not put it on his shoulders and carry it back? The shepherd would then call all his friends together to have a big party to celebrate the one being found and returning to the group. Did the shepherd not go look for it, find it, carry it back, have a party for it’s return? What did the sheep do to get itself back to the flock? All it really did was agree to return. It did not run away from the shepherd when he came up to it. He consented to be picked up and carried back. We are the sheep and Jesus is the Good Shepherd who brings us back, all we have to do is accept that He will take us back to being able to have the relationship we want with God. The Holy Spirit indwelling  us leads us to do the good works and profess Jesus to the world.