It’s important for all who read my posts to know that I do not write
posts like today’s because I think that I “know it all”.  You can fill
all the canyons on earth with what I do not know. It is vast! I write
them because I have been on a journey in recent years and I want
everybody to know what I do know, and hopefully experience the joy
that I have felt. I also do this because I believe we are called to do
so. It is our duty.

There are almost countless denominations of Christianity, countless
churches, and a myriad of different teachings. I can only share what I
know to be true. It is for each to decide for themselves what the
truth is. We have free will.

The Nature of Sin

All of us, both those who have accepted Christ, and those who have
not, are plagued by what the Bible calls, a “sin nature”. It is a
curse of sorts. It came to mankind via the original sin committed by
Adam and Eve. They only had one commandment or sin to worry about, but
they ate from that tree anyway and brought sin upon the world.
Accepting Jesus and what He gives us, and confessing our inequities,
will wash our sin away with His blood and bring us joy. We are still
however, burdened with a nature towards sin.

Are All Sins Equal?

I think that the question of equity within sin, is something everybody
has thought about.

The answer is yes…..and no.

We cannot enter the Kingdom of God, with any, I repeat any, sin
infecting us. God is Perfectly Righteous and He will not coexist with
sin. He is also  completely true to His Godly’ nature. He will never
tolerate sin in His presence.

All sin is sin! The answer of course, is in having our sin washed away
with the blood of Jesus, and by our asking of forgiveness. Your sin
does not exist to God, once it is hidden by the blood of Jesus.

With all of that having been said, it is difficult to read the Bible,
and not realize that there are gradations of sin within sin. In other
words, the Biblical tone of anger is louder with some sin than with
other.

It is a sin for us  to lose our temper and slap someone. It is a
larger sin to lose our temper and murder them.

When I am angered, I occasionally have been know to swear. Cuss if you
will.  I have never sworn a lot, but I am still plagued with
occasional thoughtless swearing.  I could rationalize it in my brain
and say well, words change, who knows whether that’s a swear word or
not. Words do change and some former swear words do not carry the same
meaning as they once did and other “new words” have come up as
replacements, but come on now! I know full well when I am swearing
regardless of any word I might use. I can make up a new word and use
it with a sinful heart and I am swearing.

Is all swearing the same?

One form of swearing that I do not take part in, is taking the Lord’s
name in vain. It is obviously even worse than other swearing. The very
first list of sins if you will, was given to Moses, it is called the
Ten Commandments and it contained within it, the phrase “do not take
the name of thy Lord thy God in vain”.

Speaking of the Ten Commandments, what about the Sabbath?  Keeping the Sabbath.

There are Christians of varying beliefs today who will either tell us
that the Sabbath is now on Sunday, or the Sabbath is still a day of
Saturday worship, or more likely that I don’t know I have never
thought about it.

The Sabbath as it was meant to exist in the Ten Commandments, does
still exist, it is just applied a little differently.

Firstly, we are not living under old Hebrew law anymore. There are no
food laws (no pork, shrimp, etc.). You don’t sacrifice animals anymore
do you? Paul told us after Jesus came, that God has given us a “better
Covenant“, use it. The Sabbath of the Old Testament was never a day of
church (temple) but of course you can certainly worship on the
Sabbath. It was a day of rest. In fact, if you lived any distance away
from where you worshiped, you were not allowed to travel there. In
fact, you were told to rest your animals as well. It was symbolic of
the rest God took, on the seventh day of creation.

We are now (New Covenant) told to seek our rest (Sabbath) in Jesus. We
are also told that we are to return to the cross daily. The Sabbath is
in a sense, a daily ritual of seeking rest through our Savior.

If you are anything like me, and I pray you are not, you have
countless questions about the Bible and faith, and every time you
think you are finally getting there, you question where you actually
are. I can tell you from my personal journey, it will get better. If
you are in any way like me, you will always quest for more
edification, but you will reach a point where you will know you are
following the correct path. The Holy Spirit of God, will become your
teacher. He will let you know.

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It always pays to remember, we are given free will. It is our decision
whether to believe or not to believe.  God does want us to be his
servant, but only if willing. Would you want to force someone to be
your friend? If you needed to hire somebody to work for you, do you
want that person to grudgingly join you, or joyfully?

Throughout the Bible and still today, the Lord uses people to carry
out His work. He uses and has used both the wealthy and the poor,
people of differing tribes (races), honest people and criminals, and
certainly both men and women. He has used everybody from kings and
prostitutes.

In the Bible, different tribes (Hebrews etc.), people with and without
various knowledge, often served specific purposes. He often used men
and women differently. It is important to know, that those differing
assignments does not mean He puts any one group above any other. The
verse below is one of the most important in the Bible. It is meant to
cover every group in existence.  It says essentially, when it is all
said and done, everyone is equal in God.

One of God’s greatest servants, Paul wrote Galatians. He used what he
knew at the time for examples of God’s unifying Grace for everybody.

Galatians 3:28(KJV) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in
Christ Jesus.

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John 1:1 (KJV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Same verse with explanations.

In the beginning (the beginning of creation not of time. God as the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit is eternal and has always been here.) was
the Word (the Son of God is the Word), and the Word was with God (the
Trinity (God) is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit together),
and the Word was God.  (Christ remained God when he walked the earth,
but did so as a man and did not call upon his deity.)

John 14:6 (KJV) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the
life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

God Bless,
Wayne