7 Reasons Why Obedience to God Is Important.

1. Jesus Calls Us to Obedience

“If you love me, keep my commands.
John 14:15 NIV

2. Obedience Is an Act of Worship

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Romans 12:1 NIV

3. God Rewards Obedience

and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Genesis 22:18 NIV

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,
Exodus 19:5 NIV

He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Luke 11:28 NIV

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror

and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
James 1:22‭-‬25 NIV

4. Obedience to God Proves Our Love

This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.

In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
1 John 5:2‭-‬3 NIV

Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning. (2 John 6)

5. Obedience to God Demonstrates Our Faith

We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.

Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.

But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:

Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
1 John 2:3‭-‬6 NIV

6. Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice

But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord ? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 

For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord , he has rejected you as king.”
1 Samuel 15:22‭-‬23 NIV

7. Disobedience Leads to Sin and Death

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:19 NIV

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:22 NIV

 

Jesus hates sin

1. Matthew 1: 21 (4 BC)

God promised that he will save his people from sin through Jesus.

2. Mark 1: 14-18 (27 AD)

Jesus preaches against sin and warning the people repent and believe the good news. He also selects few individuals to train and send them to save people from sin by making them disciples.

3. Matthew 10:5 (29 AD)

Jesus sent out his disciples on a trial to preach and warm the sinners to stop sinning and turn to God. Jesus also told them if they do not listen to them, they will have worst punishment than Sodom and Gomorrah.

4. Luke 23: 46 (30 AD)

Jesus gave his life as a sin offering for our sins. All our sins are forgiven. We need to understand one important thing over here that “Jesus died on the cross to gain forgiveness for our sins not to gain licence to sin”. 1 Corinthians 5:14,15 says that we need to live only for Jesus as he died for us. If we keep sinning after baptism, we are not living for Christ but living for satisfying our sinful desires.

5 Matthew 28: 19-20 (30 AD)

Jesus gave the responsibility of saving the world from sin into the hands of his disciples by commanding them to go make disciples of all Nations and baptise them and teach the newly baptised disciples to obey all commands of Jesus. After this Jesus left the earth. Some of his commandments;
* Do not commit adultery
* Do not lie
* Do not steal
* Do not worry
&
* Go make disciples
* Be a light of the world
* Stop false teaching

And many more commands. So any disciple who is making a new disciple should teach the new disciple to obey the above. Or else the new disciples can’t stop sinning.

Revelation 21: 8 (95 AD)

Jesus is warning the world through John, the apostle that if anybody still desires to be in sins such as being coward, unbelieving, being vile, murder, sexually immoral, doing magic, idol worship and liying. These people will be thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur which is hell.

Note this 65 years after Jesus died on the cross he again warned us to stop sinning like mentioned in Revelation 21:8. Today we hear people saying that the blood of Jesus washes our sins everyday. Then why did Jesus warn after 65 years?

Jesus, who is God never encouraged sin. He will never encourage sin. God hated sin. He gave us an opportunity to escape from the judgement against sin through his death. He will punish the sinners for sure.

What gives you confidence to sin?

Amen

 

How to Control Spending ..

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 THE CHALLENGE

A look at your bank statements and bills reveals that your money is slipping away like sand that slips through your fingers. You have been married for only a short time, and your spending is out of control. Is your spouse to blame? Not so fast! Think as a team, and consider some factors that may have caused both of you to get into some difficult situation.

WHY IT HAPPENS

Adjustment. If you were living at home before you got married, you may be new to the world of paying bills and sharing expenses. It could also be that you and your spouse have different approaches to money. For example, one might be more inclined to spend while the other is more inclined to save. It takes time for a couple to adjust and develop an agreed-upon method of handling money. 

Real time : Vinoth, now a businessman, admits that when he was a newlywed, his poor organizational skills cost him dearly. “Because he delayed paying bills,” he says, “my wife and I ended up spending thousands of rupees in late fees. We ran out of money!” 

The “invisible money” trap. It is easy to overspend when you cannot see the money leaving your wallet or purse. That may be the case if you handle most of your transactions by credit or debit card, Internet purchasing, and electronic banking. The lure of easy credit can also make it easy for newlyweds to overspend.Whatever the cause, money issues can tear at the seams of your marriage. “Most couples report money as a top problem, no matter how much they have,” says the book Fighting for Your Marriage. “Money is a ripe area for conflict.”

 YOU CAN DO

Bible principle:  Instead of blaming each other, work as a team to bring spending under control. Decide at the outset that you will not allow this issue to drive a wedge between you.—Ephesians 4:32.

Set up a budget. Write down all of your expenses, no matter how small or big, for a month. That will help you to figure out where your money is going and to identify any unnecessary expenditures. “You have to stop the bleeding,” says Kannan my close friend, quoted earlier. “That’s a saying in medicine and in business.”Make a list of your necessary expenses, including food, clothing, rent or mortgage, car payments, and the like. Put a ‘price tag’ next to each category, projecting how much it will cost you within a given time, perhaps a month.

Bible principle :  “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?  For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you,  saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish. Luke 14:28‭-‬30.

Allocate funds each month for separate expenses (food, rent, fuel, and so forth). Some do this by putting cash in envelopes, one for each expense category. If an envelope becomes depleted, they will either stop spending in that category or transfer money from another envelope.Rethink your view of possessions. Happiness does not depend on having the latest things. After all, Jesus said: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.  And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’   “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16‭-‬21 

Often, your spending habits indicate whether you believe those words.—Bible principle: 1 Timothy 6:8.Make adjustments. “But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

 “Things like buy luxury items and going out to eat may sound affordable at first, but they can hurt financially in the long run,” “We had to learn to say no to some things in order to live within our means.”Although this article is directed to newlyweds, the principles discussed apply to all married couples. If you pay electronically or by credit card, keep a written record in each envelope, rather than cash.