The Sixth Commandment – Part 5

Wow! The summer is just about over, and we are just a few months from the nearing of 2019. Where does the time fly?

I do this day finds each of you well and enjoying your day. Here, in the USA, we have the Labor Day Holiday to enjoy and a long weekend to refresh. Many of us, in the southern part of the USA are preparing for the intensity of Hurricane Dorian and the location along the southern coastline.

To our brethren in Florida, I do hope they have listened and have evacuated from this category 5 storm to safety. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as well as those effected in Georgia and the Carolinas.

Before we get into the lesson, here are a few thoughts—Look at Matthew 21: 21-22 (FF) “ I tell you truly,” Jesus answered them, “ if you possessed faith, and never doubted, you could do not only what has been done to the fig-tree, but more; were you to say this hill, Remove, and be flung into the sea! It would be done; and all that you ask believingly in prayer, you shall receive. Jesus provides more on faith and the lack of on Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6 and James 1:6.

Let me pose the following to you, if you were to ask and believing in prayer that the Hurricane would make a turn east and go out to sea, would this not happen? Yes, since our requests would be filled if they are in harmony with the principles of God’s kingdom. The stronger our belief, the more likely our prayers will be in line with God’s will, and then God will be happy to grant them.

Have you noticed, when eating out in restaurants, the amount of people who don’t say grace before they receive their food? They never forget their cell phones, but they forget to say grace? I must wonder why? Are they ashamed? Too busy? Too many distractions? All thru the Bible, one reads that blessings were given before the food was consumed. Let us never forget to bless this food before each meal!

How about a few “Christian One-Liners”:

• Prayer: Don’t give God instructions—just report for duty!
• God grades on the cross and not on the curve
• Forbidden fruits create many jams
• We were to be called witnesses, not lawyers or judges.
• A lot of church members who are singing “Standing on the Promises” are just sitting on the premises.
• If the church wants a better preacher, it only needs to pray for the one it has.
• Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisors.
• God himself doesn’t propose to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you?
• The good Lord didn’t create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come close.
• And finally, don’t let worries get the best of you, remember, Moses started out as a basket case.

We have been discussing abortion as a topic and its relationship to the sixth commandment—I want to tie in what Jesus said about children—Turn to Matthew 18: 1-6 (FF) About that time, the disciples approached Jesus, inquiring, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Then Jesus, calling a child to Him, placed him in the midst of them, and said: “I tell you indeed, that if you do not turn back, and become like those children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever therefore may humble himself like this child, he is the most exalted in the Kingdom of Heaven. And if any accepts one such child for My Name’s sake, he accepts me; but if he cause to sin one of the least of such, who believe in me, it would be better for him that a great millstone should be hung around his neck, and be sunk into the depth of the sea.

Turn to Matthew 19: 13-14 (FF) Then children were brought to Him, in order that He might lay His hands upon them and pray; but the disciples forbade them. Jesus, however, said, “Allow, the little ones, and do not prevent their coming to Me; for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Now look at Mark 10:13-16 (NIV) Please read all the verses but look closely at verse 16—And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

Take a moment and let that sink in—Children, in order to feel secure, need that loving look, gracious smile and gentle touch from you, parents or caregivers. Jesus held children and embraced each of them, making them secure and trusting with a child’s simplicity and receptivity.

Abortion would take all that away and never would the parent have the chance to put their arms around that child and embrace them. To those who may disagree, I will only ask that who gave you life and breathes life into you each moment? Who, are you, to take that away?

Now I ask you to go back to Matthew 18: 6 (FF) And if any accepts one such child for My Name’s sake, he accepts me; but if he cause to sin one of the least of such, who believe in me, it would be better for him that a great millstone should be hung around his neck, and be sunk into the depth of the sea.

I was reading an article in the Philadelphia Trumpet: Thy Kingdom Come—September 2019—But far more disgusting: A Washington Times article titled “Portland’s Dark World of Child Sex Trafficking” reveals that many of these outfits (strip clubs) are also “fronts for underage exploitation.” A combination of ugly factors has turned this city into a mecca for perverts who want to use children for sex. This type of thing makes me sick of this wretched world.

Many young teens—boys and girls alike—are sold by their own parents for a few thousand dollars to become personal sex slaves. The State Department’s 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report says the majority of victims of child sex trafficking in the U.S. are exploited from the foster care system.

The FBI figures 300,000 minors in America are employed as prostitutes each year. Staggering. One for every thousand people. An advocacy group called Shared Hope International estimates their average age is 13.

Thirteen years old. On average.

Try to wrap your mind around this. The Department of Justice says there are pimps in America earning money off girls as young as 5 and 6.

The slave trade, the UN’s International Labor Organization (ILO) believes, is a 150 BILLION business, saturated in unchecked greed, sleaze and abuse. And shamefully, it is the fastest growing industry in the world.

As we conclude this lesson, turn with me to 2 Timothy 3: 1-5(NIV) But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

Here is the remedy for sex trafficking: but if he cause to sin one of the least of such, who believe in me, it would be better for him that a great millstone should be hung around his neck and be sunk into the depth of the sea.

Until next time, may God keep you safe and protected.

I look forward to your thoughts.

Jeff