For many people life is easier if they just have to ‘tick boxes’ i.e. they just want somebody, or a set of rules, to tell them what to do, so they can do it, ‘tick the box’ and move on. There are also those who like ‘ticking boxes’ in terms of their Christianity e.g. went to church – tick; went to Bible study – tick; gave an offering – tick; helped out at a church event – tick. Then there are those who still believe that being a Christian is about ticking the ‘10 Commandments’ boxes in terms of a measure of their acceptability to God. Well, for those who like Christianity to be about ‘ticking boxes’ here are a New 10 Commandments from Jesus.
• You shall invite ‘odd bods’ and social outcasts to your BBQ (Luke 14:12-14)
• You shall not let family entanglements hold you back from following Jesus where he wants you to go (even if the family think they are the priority – Luke 9:59-62, Matthew 10:29)
• You shall not spend most of your resources on the ‘saved’(church people)but on finding the ‘lost’
(Luke 15:3,4)
• You shall go (keep on going) and make disciples, (and that means you may well have to move out of town to do it – Matthew 28:19,20, Acts 1:8)
• You shall produce a mega crop for God’s Kingdom (Luke 8:8,15)
• You shall not be a fool (It’s the ‘money’ thing – Luke 12:15-21)
• You shall make your first priority in life building the Kingdom of
God (Luke 12:31)
• You shall not put limits on what God might demand of you (Luke 12:48)
• You shall repent of your sins or perish (Luke 13:5)
• You shall eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood (if you want Eternal Life – John 6:53-5)
How did you go? Of course trying to keep all of these won’t save us, because we can’t keep them perfectly. However, an increasing internal drive to keep them is a sign that the Holy Spirit has made His home in us, and this is the guarantee that we ARE actually saved. That is God has given us a tick! (Ephesians 1:13(b), 14).
unbounded church 