LOVE YOURSELF FIRST

LOVE will have to start intrapersonal, with yourself.

Before you sow LOVE, fill your own cup with it. Soak yourself in “LOVE which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5).

Many love and fail simply because they try to give away something they do not have. They are running on empty. No one can drink coffee from an empty cup. No one can give what he does not have. Run a car on an empty gas tank and it will sputter and come to a full stop.   

Fill your cup with uncontaminated LOVE. Be sure to empty your cup of erroneous love before filling it. Erroneous love is of Lucifer. Just as nobody gets to his destination by stepping on the gas and the brake at the same time, so you will not rise to heaven by letting the devil pull your leg.

¹¹ Go now and leave your life of sin. JOHN 8 

Draw and drink from the well of God (Acts 2:38 tlb). Soak your heart 100%, your soul 100%, your mind 100%, your strength 100%...

¹² Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the right time to seek the Lord, that He may come and shower righteousness upon you. HOSEA 10 nlt

²⁰ Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me. REVELATION 3

Soaking is a continuing process. Just as walking in the rain can saturate you with wetness, so you must keep on returning to God. What do we call the driver who waits for his gas tank to empty before he looks for a refilling station? In the spiritual realm we call them wise who refill themselves with LOVE before they run dry. 

Make God your constant companion, wherever you are, whatever your situation. After all every child needs a loving and caring Father to nourish and enlighten him, to strengthen and protect him.

¹⁴ Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ROMANS 8

One of the disciples asked Y’shua, “Rabbi, you said constant companion. How can we at every moment have God in our mind? It seems impossible.”

Y’shua replied, “Barnabas, have you seen the men at the quarry? How by constant practice, they talk to each other and at the same time, without looking, strike the moil without injuring their hands? Make a conscious effort to be mindful of God until it becomes a constant practice. Water cleaves the hardest of rocks with single drops over a period of time.” (Gospel of Barnabas, chapters 109 and 75)

⁶ And now just as you trusted in the Messiah to save you, trust Him, too, for each day’s problems; live in vital union with Him. ⁷ Let your roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Him. See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all He has done. COLOSSIANS 2 tlb  

Soaking should visibly result in new birth. E. W. Kenyon said, “LOVE is proof of New Birth.” (Advance Bible Course, p. 18)  

³ How can we be sure that we belong to Him? By looking within ourselves: are we really trying to do what He wants us to do? ⁴ Someone may say, “I am a Christian; I am on my way to heaven; I belong to the Messiah.” But if he doesn’t do what the Messiah tells him to, he is a liar. ⁵ But those who do what the Messiah tells them to will learn to love God more and more. This is the way to know whether or not you are a Christian. ⁶ Anyone who says he is a Christian should live as the Messiah did. 1 JOHN 2 tlb

LOVE is an action word. It should stir you into action. Make it a personal habit. The more you walk in LOVE, the more you shall smell like Y’shua, an aroma pleasing to God.   

² Let love and faithfulness never leave you. PROVERBS 3

¹ Let love be your highest goal! 1 CORINTHIANS 14 nlt

¹⁶ Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 1 JOHN 4 

¹⁶ [But] anyone who does not love remains in death. 1 JOHN 3

SOW LOVE

How to win souls?

Sow LOVE whether you feel like doing it or not. Sow whether the recipient is worthy of it or not. Sow whether it is convenient to you or not. Sow even when it means losing something. Sow even when Lucifer comes to block your way. Sow irrespective of whether you will succeed or fail. Sow in season and out of season.

Teach everyone to conform to the kingdom way and be kingdom-fit.

Desire LOVE, think LOVE, embrace LOVE, eat LOVE, speak LOVE, breathe LOVE, exude LOVE...

God said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as the Messiah loved us…” says Ephesians 5:1-2.

Focusing on saving the rich or raising funds, or proselytizing, or reformatting the personality of your target souls is not soul-winning.

The task is to be fruitful in love (Isaiah 27:6). Sow LOVE so that your target souls may receive it in full measure from you, be affected by it, and be moved to open their hearts to the Holy Spirit.

If they ask why you are doing it, say: that you may magnify your God and Savior, who created you to love and be loved. And say: “All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. For we who are alive are always given over to death for Y’shua’s sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.” (2 Corinthians 4:15, 11-12)

¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through the Messiah and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to Himself in the Messiah, not counting men’s sins against them. 2 CORINTHIANS 5

⁶ He has enabled us to be ministers of His New Covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the New Covenant, the Spirit gives life. 2 CORINTHIANS 3 nlt

The task does not include criticizing, accusing or condemning anyone for his infirmity, weakness, fault or wrongdoing. So do not put down anyone or call him names, or worse, tear him down. Do not nag or scold or embarrass him, moreso subject him to fists of steel. None of it will solve his problem. Strictly speaking you are not after his person or soul but after his spirit. Open his spirit for indwelling, for it to be born again, because only through Spirit-empowerment can his infirmities, weaknesses, faults and wrongdoings be licked.

Our Christian responsibility is to edify (build up in LOVE) everyone within our sphere of influence.

We sow LOVE as much as we can, in as many fields as possible. We sow it hand in hand with the truth. We spare our neighbors from spiritual disinformation and conflict.

¹⁴ Cultivate your neighbors as far as you can. ECCLESIASTICUS 10

We focus on the harvest, not on the cost.

⁶ Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 2 CORINTHIANS 9

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ROMANS 8

We don’t have to perform spectacular feats. In most situations, little acts of love will do. A gentle pat, a sincere handshake, a warm greeting or embrace here and there, a short pause for fellowship, an attentive, sympathetic ear... an intercessory prayer, a Word of God aptly said… might be all that is necessary.

⁸ Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 PETER 4 

²² Love one another deeply, from the heart. 1 PETER 1

⁸ Do not owe anyone anything, except [the continuing debt] to love one another. ROMANS 13 cjb

In doing rescue work, people and churches might praise us and idolize us. We should not bask in it or allow it. The honor and glory that belongs to God must never be misappropriated.

⁵ For we do not preach ourselves, but Y’shua the Messiah as Lord… ⁷ We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 CORINTHIANS 4

²⁴ Remember that… the Master you are serving is the Messiah. COLOSSIANS 3 nlt

¹⁷ Whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Y’shua. COLOSSIANS 3 tlb

The Faithful Bondslave

⁴⁵ Are you a wise and faithful servant? Have I given you the task of managing My household, to feed My children day by day? ⁴⁶ Blessings on you if I return and find you faithfully doing your work. ⁴⁷ I will put such faithful ones in charge of everything I own!  ⁴⁸ But if you are evil and say to yourself, “My Lord won’t be coming for a while,” ⁴⁹ and begin oppressing your fellow servants, partying and getting drunk, ⁵⁰ your Lord will arrive unannounced and unexpected, ⁵¹ and severely whip you and send you off to the Judgment of the hypocrites; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. MATTHEW 24 tlb 

THE GREAT COMMISSION

In relation to the encouragement of the Sabbath called Feast of Firstfruits for the New Covenanters to mirror the LOVE of Y’shua and help complete His ministry, this is how: By rescuing as many as we can of the souls being herded to the slaughterhouse (Proverbs 24:11).

¹⁹ Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. MATTHEW 28  

¹³ Dear friends, rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of the Messiah. 1 PETER 4

⁸ The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. GALATIANS 6

St. Paul did his part. This is his testimony to the church in Colossus:  

²⁴ But part of my work is to suffer for you; and I am glad, for I am helping to finish up the remainder of the Messiah’s sufferings for His Body, the Church. ²⁵ God has sent me to help His Church and to tell His secret plan to you Gentiles. ^26-27 He has kept this secret for centuries and generations past, but now at last it has pleased Him to tell it to those who love Him and live for Him. COLOSSIANS 1 tlb

God’s Mandate to New Covenanters

¹⁸ When I say to a wicked man “You will surely die!” and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin and I will hold you accountable for his blood. ¹⁹ But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself. ²⁰ Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered and I will hold you accountable for his blood. ²¹ But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself. EZEKIEL 3

LOVE finds no pleasure in the death of anyone (Ezekiel 18:23, 32 and 1 Timothy 2:3) but rejoices when a sinner is raised from the dead. Read the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Lost Coin and the Parable of the Lost Son in Luke 15:1-32 to better understand this.

³⁴ There are some who are ignorant of God. 1 CORINTHIANS 15

¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? How can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 17 …Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of the Messiah. ROMANS 10

³ God our Savior …wants everyone to be saved and to come to know the truth. 1 TIMOTHY 2 

⁶⁰ Go and proclaim the kingdom of God. LUKE 9

⁷ Go to the lost sheep of Isra’el. As you go, preach this message: “The kingdom of heaven is near.” ⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead [back to life], cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. MATTHEW 10

¹⁵ Go into all the world and preach the Good News to all creation. ¹⁶ Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. MARK 16

¹⁹ Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. MATTHEW 28 

God died for souls. No offering to Him is sweeter than won-souls.

⁸ This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples. ¹⁶ …I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. JOHN 15

³⁰ The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. PROVERBS 11

 God’s Call to the Lost

²⁶ I am the Lord, the God of all people. JEREMIAH 32 

²² Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. ISAIAH 45 

¹ Walk before Me and be perfect. GENESIS 17

³⁰ I will judge you, each one according to his ways… Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. ³¹ Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. ³² For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live! ²¹ If a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all My decrees and does what is right and just, he will surely live; he will not die. ²² None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. [All will be forgiven.] Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live. ²³ Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? ²⁴ But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die. EZEKIEL 18

THE SABBATH CALLED FEAST OF FIRSTFRUITS

Its Old Covenant Significance

¹⁹ Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. EXODUS 23

Isra’el has two grain harvests each year. The Feast of Firstfruits celebrates the first grain harvest, which is barley. The Feast of Harvest celebrates the second, which is wheat.

¹⁰ Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. ¹¹ He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. ¹² On the day the sheaf is waved, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect, ¹³ together with a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil—an offering made to the Lord by fire, a pleasing aroma—and a drink offering of a fourth of a hin of wine. ¹⁴ You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. LEVITICUS 23

Its New Covenant Significance

The Feast of Firstfruits reminds of our need to be resurrected just as the Son of Man was. 

He was the first “born of a woman, born under law” to rise from the realm of the dead (Galatians 4:4). He rightfully ascended unto heaven after emerging triumphant from His baptism of fire. He is now the “sheaf of the first grain” to be waved on Nisan 16.   

²⁰ The Messiah has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1 CORINTHIANS 15

⁴ He was buried, and… three days after He arose from the grave just as the prophets foretold. ⁵ He was seen by Peter and later by the rest of the Twelve. ⁶ After that He was seen by more than five hundred of Christian brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died by now. ⁷ Then James [the Just] saw Him and later all the apostles. Last of all [Paul] saw Him too. 1 CORINTHIANS 15 tlb   

His disciples were scared and confounded, thinking that He was a ghost. He had to ask for food and eat before them to convince them that he was really flesh and blood, fully resurrected.

In one incident, according to the Gospel of the Hebrews, Y'shua to James the Just for he had sworn not to eat bread from that hour in which he had drunk the Lord's cup until he should see Him risen from among the dead. “Bring a table and bread," said the Lord. He took bread and blessed and broke and gave it to James and said to him, "My brother, eat your bread, for the Son of Man is risen from among them that sleep."

³² [Peter said,] “God has raised this very Y’shua from death, and we are witnesses to this fact.” ACTS 2 tev

³ For forty days after His death He appeared to them many times in ways that proved beyond doubt that He was alive. They saw Him and He talked with them about the Kingdom of God. ACTS 1 tev

⁵⁰ Then He led them out of the city as far as Bethany, where He raised His hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ As He was blessing them, He departed from them and was taken up into heaven. LUKE 24 tev

³³ He has been raised to the right side of God, His Father. ACTS 2 tev

History has this record of the resurrection: “Now there was about this time Y’shua, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works; a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Messiah, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him: for he appeared to them alive again the third day: as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.”—Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Bk. XVIII, Chap. III, Section 3 (Signature of God, pp. 91-92).

³¹ David saw what God was going to do in the future, and so he spoke about the resurrection of the Messiah, when he said, He was not abandoned in the world of the dead; His body did not rot in the grave. ACTS 2 tev

³⁴ David did not ascend to heaven and yet he said, The Lord [God] said to my Lord [the Son of Man]: Sit at My right hand ³⁵ until I make your enemies a footstool for Your feet. ACTS 2

David was so sure of his vision that he almost proclaimed the Most Holy Name: 

⁴⁶ The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior! PSALM 18

Why the Resurrection

THE RESURRECTION PROVES LUCIFER WRONG.

He was saying, “Today let us eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" (1 Corinthians 15:32). The resurrection demonstrated life after death. 

¹² How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even the Messiah has been raised… ²⁰ But the Messiah has indeed been raised from the dead. 1 CORINTHIANS 15

²⁵ For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is Death. ²⁷ For He has put everything under His feet. ²⁸ When He has done this, then the Son Himself will be made subject to [God] who put everything under Him, so that God may be all in all. 1 CORINTHIANS 15

THE RESURRECTION IMPRESSES IN OUR MINDS THAT LIFE COMES ONLY FROM GOD.

²⁵ I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after dying. ²⁶ Everyone who lives in Me and believes in Me will never ever die. JOHN 11 nlt

²⁴ I tell you the truth, whoever hears My Word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵ I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. JOHN 5

²¹ For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. ²² For as in Adam all die, so in the Messiah all will be made alive. ²³ But each in his own turn: the Messiah, the firstfruits; then when He comes [back], those who belong to Him. 1 CORINTHIANS 15

¹⁰ Messiah Y’shua… has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel... 2 TIMOTHY 1

¹⁷ Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever. And I hold the keys of Death and Hades. REVELATION 1

¹⁵ Repent and believe the Good News! MARK 1

THE RESURRECTION ENCOURAGES ALL OF US TO MIRROR THE LOVE OF Y’SHUA AND HELP COMPLETE HIS MINISTRY.

He could have finished it by Himself, at the wink of an eye, but He did not. Why? Because it has to be tested how much we have grown in LOVE and faithfulness. It has to be determined who will rise as firstfruits after Him.   

¹⁸ He chose to give us birth through the Word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all He created. JAMES 1

²⁹ For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. ROMANS 8

¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. JOHN 13

¹⁹ The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. ROMANS 8

HOW TO STAY PURE AFTER WATER BAPTISM

Keep on INCREASING YOUR FAITH-KNOWLEDGE. 

Whether you like it or not, you will have to deal with the demonic spirits. They will isolate you. They will afflict your flesh. They will plague you with intrigues, conflicts, persecutions, anxiety, failures, and disappointments. Either to make you give up on the fight or to make you turn to Lucifer for help. So stay immersed in the Word. It will help you to stay focused and alert; also, to think correctly, act correctly and speak correctly.

Read about the heroes of our faith too. Be extra-sensitive to the Divine Voice in you; it is soft and gentle amidst the noise and agitation of this world. And bond with those who love God. David said, “As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight” (Psalm 16:3).

¹⁴ Consult with wise men. ECCLESIASTICUS 10

⁵ God is present in the company of the righteous. PSALM 14

²² Pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 TIMOTHY 2

¹² Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. HEBREWS 6

¹² But constantly have recourse to a devout man, whom you know to be a keeper of the commandments, whose soul matches your own, and whom if you go wrong, will be sympathetic. ¹³ Finally, stick to the advice your own heart gives you; no one can be truer to you than that; ¹⁴ since a man’s soul often forewarns him better than seven watchmen perched on a watchtower. ¹⁵ And besides all this beg the Most High to guide your steps in the truth. ECCLESIASTICUS 37

Take advantage of church fellowships. Billy Graham wrote in The Journey:

Fellowship on a personal level isn’t a substitute for congregational fellowship. If you are in a church where Christ is preached and the Bible is taught, thank God for it, and take advantage of every opportunity it offers to nourish you spiritually. If you don’t have a church home (or you aren’t growing spiritually in your present church), ask God to lead you to the church He has for you.

Make a habit of living by God’s instructions. No ONE can be pure just by thinking about it.

Y’shua asked His disciples, “My teaching, is it imparted to you for knowing or for doing?” (Gospel of Barnabas) To God it is not what you know that counts but what you do. It's one thing to know what's right and another thing entirely to do it.

⁸ The Lord has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. MICAH 6

⁷ Train yourself to be godly… ¹² Set an example… in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. ¹³ …Devote yourself to the public reading of the Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 1 TIMOTHY 4 

¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. JOHN 13

The great philosopher Aristotle said, “Perfection is not an act but a habit. We are what we repeatedly do. Perfection is won by training and habituation.”

²² Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. JAMES 1

²⁷ Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of the Messiah. PHILIPPIANS 1

¹⁶ Live as God’s [bond]slaves. 1 PETER 2 tev

A bondslave or bondservant is a freeman that voluntarily submits himself to become a slave or servant of God.

¹⁵ In your hearts set apart the Messiah as Lord. 1 PETER 3

⁵ Offer to God those things that please Him. 1 PETER 2 tlb

⁹ We make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 2 CORINTHIANS 5

Let the Spirit help.

Can’t lick a sinful desire or thought in you? Take cue.  

One summer night I prayed, “Lord God, my smoking is killing me but I can’t lick it. Free me of this addiction. Tomorrow I will try to stop anew. If ever I puff a stick again, take away my life. I mean it.” 

The next day I woke up but did not reach for a stick. Sipped my coffee but did not reach for a stick. My brothers puffed before me but I did not reach for a stick.

My addiction was removed! No more urge to smoke. The incident happened in 1987. I have not puffed a stick since.

Do prayer and fasting regularly AND PROGRESSIVELY.

Your baptism of fire will intensify. Lucifer will be your final opponent. In Mark 9:29, when the apostles could not overcome a demon, the Son of Man suggested that they do prayer and fasting. He did 40 days before He dealt with Lucifer.

Fasting will mortify your flesh and prayer will fortify your soul. Fasting will lessen the burden of the soul; prayer will add power and authority to its arsenal.

People nowadays shudder at the thought of experiencing hunger and thirst, fearful of hurting and dying. They also shun the “monotony” of being shut from the ways of the world and doing nothing else but immersion and praying. Moreover, they are afraid of being confronted by Lucifer and his demons. And yet the only way to cross to the realm of life is by overcoming Lucifer and his demons; and overcoming them is not possible without detachment from the world and without doing prayer and fasting.

Be careful of what you see and hear.

The mind is like a sponge; it absorbs anything it comes in contact with. Filter the transmissions to your mind, for they determine largely what you desire. What is not presented to your physical senses cannot be sensed by them. Check your inclinations; starve it of inputs that may develop your sinful inclinations into sinful desires. Invoke the Most Holy Name, bind the demons that are prompting you to sin, and throw them to the fires of hell. A clear and specific program on this matter will be thoroughly discussed in Commandment No. 10.

Avoid every kind of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives (Titus 2:11-12).

There are such things as “demon-incarnates” and such a thing as “bad company”. Do your best to identify who they are in your family, school, workplace, church and neighborhood; and keep a safe distance from them if you are not strong enough to resist their temptations. Chinese proverb says, “When the moth flies around the flame, it burns itself to death.”

⁸ [God] has called you to freedom in the Messiah. But it takes only one wrong person among you to infect all the others. GALATIANS 5 tlb

³³ Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. ³⁴ Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning. 1 CORINTHIANS 15  

¹⁴ Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony is there between the Messiah and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will live with them, and walk among them, and I will be their God. ¹⁷ Therefore, come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. ¹⁸ I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. 2 CORINTHIANS 6

⁵¹ Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, I came to bring division. ⁵² From now on there will be five in the family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. LUKE 12

¹ Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. PSALM 1

King David, although he was strong enough to resist temptation, kept a safe distance from bad company.   

⁴ I do not spend time with liars or go along with hypocrites. ⁵ I hate the gatherings of those who do evil, and I refuse to join in with the wicked. ⁶ I wash my hands to declare my innocence. I come to Your altar, O Lord, ⁷ singing a song of thanksgiving and telling of all your wonders. ⁸ I love your Sanctuary, Lord, the place where your glorious presence dwells. PSALM 26 nlt

If you cannot avoid dealing with bad company:

¹⁷ Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 2 PETER 3

¹ Watch yourself or you also may be tempted. GALATIANS 6

Check yourself constantly for enemy stronghold.

⁴ When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. PSALM 4

Should you find any enemy stronghold in you, detoxify it at once. Do not wait until you get calloused and insensitive to it. Do not wait for Divine Justice to come and repay you for it. Leave the evil empire without any strap to rein you.

⁵ Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming! ⁷ You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must rid yourselves of all things such as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.  ¹² …As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. COLOSSIANS 3

¹¹ Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. EPHESIANS 5 

King David diligently checked himself for enemy strongholds. He prayed several times a day for God to show him his hidden faults.

¹² How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from hidden faults. ¹³ Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. PSALM 19 nlt

³ Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart… ⁹ Don’t let me suffer the fate of sinners. PSALM 26 nlt

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. ²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. PSALM 139

Trumpet Call

¹⁴ The Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that He will not see anything indecent and turn away from you. DEUTERONOMY 23

²² [God] has reconciled you by the Messiah’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation. COLOSSIANS 1

¹ As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. ² For He says, In the time of My favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. 2 CORINTHIANS 6

Essentially this is what the Feast of Unleavened Bread is saying to us: “God redeemed us from the pledge so that the stains of sin in our souls might be washed and removed. Do not waste the Most Holy Sacrifice. Keep yourselves as the Messiah Y’shua’s lambs should be—without blemish or defect in His sight.”

²⁵ The Messiah loved the Church and gave Himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, ²⁷ and to present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. EPHESIANS 5

⁷ Our Pesach lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. ⁸ So, let us celebrate the Seder not with leftover hametz, the hametz of wickedness and evil, but with the matzah of purity and truth. 1 CORINTHIANS 5 cjb

²⁷ Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 1 CORINTHIANS 11

²³ May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept [pure] blameless at the [Second] Coming of our Lord Y’shua the Messiah. 1 THESSALONIANS 5