Iconoclast

Hi, People have called me an iconoclast but I'm not really. I did some research in and on the Bible. Sometimes what the Bible says and what some of the churches say. are different..

The Beginning This all started when I was killing some time in a Goodwill store located in Muskegon, Michigan. My wife was looking for a sweater or something. I like to read and was in the book section when a book title caught my attention. The title was, "From Saturday to Sunday." It was written by Carlyle G. Hayden. I started reading it as I was waiting. It wasn't a big book and I finished reading it that evening.

Although the book was small it presented a concept in a clear and concise manner that inspired me to do some further reading on the subject of going to church on Sunday. What I'm writing about is directed toward those people who call themselves Christians.

Do you call yourself a Christian? If you do then you believe in God, Jesus Christ His son, the Bible and the Ten Commandments. By definition a Christian is one who follows Christ, who believes in the precepts taught and followed by Jesus.. What you are going to read here may change your life because once you know the truth, you won't have any excuse for not doing what God wants you to do.

God will "wink His eye" at those who break His laws because of ignorance but once a person knows the truth, that person has no excuse for NOT following God's commandments and laws. So maybe you shouldn't read any further if you don't want to find out something that will change your life.

Becoming a Christian is not easy. Even the Bible says that it won't be easy. The path seems simple but many people can't or won't make the effort to follow the teachings of the Bible. They leave the "religious thing" up to the church. After all, the church knows what it's doing. Right? Other people just aren't interested enough to make the effort, some people don't believe in the concept of God, Jesus and the Bible. Some people have only a passing interest in Christianity but only as a casual acquaintance with the occasional "socially correct" remark about God and His business.

What is God's Business? He wants all of mankind to take the opportunity to become members of His family.

A Christian is a bit more than being a republican or democrat. Being a republican, democrat or independent doesn't really take much effort. It can be a hit or miss kind of thing. Sometimes you agree with your party, sometimes you don't. Not a big deal. Most of the time you go along with the party line, not really caring what is going on because you have too many other things to do in this busy world of ours.You are usually happy when the election is over so you won't have to listen to the political sound-bites day after day.

Becoming a faithful Christian means that you have to make some changes in your life.First of all, people you know may not be able to believe that you believe, really believe, in God, the Bible and Jesus Christ. They may think or say, "He seemed like such a normal person. Well, those things happen even in the nicest families."

It doesn't matter what caused this transformation in you, what's important is that you have made that decision. Now you have a problem. "What church will I attend?" Most churches teach about the same thing, they're against sin, most sin anyway. A lot of churches have creeds that they live by and expect you as a memaber to live by, kind of like God's creed. God's creed is the The Commandments.

That's right, God expects all Christians to live by His creed, The Ten commandments. No ifs ands or buts. He's in charge and if you want to become a member of His family, you have to follow His rules, His commandments. All ten of them. So right away you find out that not all churches follow the Ten Commandments. "Well darn! Now what do I do? If I want to become a member of a church it would only seem logical that I would want to join a church that believes in God, Jesus Christ and the Bible. That isn't too much to ask, is it? That a Christian church should teach and follow God's word more so than any other kind of church?"

You might say, "But don't all our Christian churches follow the Ten Commandments and teach them?" No. As you read the Bible, God's word, and do some of your own researach you will find more and more things that are taught, or that you heard somewhere, are not really part of the Bible. What you find will probably surprise you.

The apostles of Jesus started churches that were based on the teachings of Jesus. That was true in the beginning. The early churches, by the way, were not the churches that you would recognize today. The services were usually held in the home of someone and were often held outdoors when possible.

One of the things that I became aware of was a monumental change that took place early on in the history of the development of the Christian church. The Ten commandments were changed!

Let's continue this writing tomorrow.

Take care of yourself,

Jim