The Murderous Heart

The murderous heart

Murder is not much an action but our attitude (based on Matthew 5:21-22)

May 19 2019

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Introduction

On May 9 this year, 3-year-old Zoey Pereira died a suffering death, incinerated in her father’s 2008 Audi A6 car, strapped to a baby seat in Queens, New York City. She was found in the locked car that was set ablaze covered in gasoline. In other words, she was burned alive. She was murdered.

In a World of Deception, How Should We Behave?

Commentary on the Ninth Commandment

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By Khen Lim

Here’s a story you may be familiar with. It concerns two young Christians who were out evangelising on a house-to-house basis. For the purpose of the story, let’s call them Tim and Bailey.

Tim and Bailey came across a home belonging to a middle-aged woman who happened to speak English. And so they chatted about things. They introduced themselves to the woman, giving her their names and saying they were Christians and they came from a certain church downtown. They were up front in telling her that they wish to share the Good News with her with an amazing time-honoured promise. Having considered that they were trustworthy enough, she invited them to come in and have a cold drink to escape the sweltering afternoon sun.

Stealing Leads to Murder

By Khen Lim

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Significant voices of academic theologians including examples like the German Old Testament scholar Albrecht Alt who wrote Das Verbot des Diebstahls im Dekalog in 1953 would testify that the Eighth Commandment was originally meant to be an express demand against the stealing of people; in other words, it better refers to abductions and slaveries and therefore, would be more in line with the Talmudic interpretations found in Sanhedrin 86a, which says, “you shall not kidnap.”

The Eighth Commandment Conquers All

By Khen Lim

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We tell ourselves we know exactly what the Eighth Commandment is about but what we don’t know is how deep and wide we fail to look to gain a more profound view of how important and far reaching it is in our lives. In fact there are two very good cases that can be made of the Eighth Commandment, both of which are startling in their dynamic. One is unique by comparison with the others while the other is breathtaking in how far and wide its tentacles of influence are.

Man Defiles What God Insists

The brazen modern-day desecration of the Sixth Commandment

By Khen Lim



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Of all of God’s Commandments, the one that man has persistently defied and defiled is the Sixth. And it has done so in the most abominable fashion. In this study of the Sixth Commandment, we look at the acts of modern society in its attempt at destroying man’s relationship with God, the creation link, the right of the individual against the divine right.

Is There Value in the Sabbath?

An overview of the Fourth Commandment

By Khen Lim



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When Sabbath is the topic, it’s either going to be nothing to talk or too much to cover. On the one end, people maintain that Sabbath is Sabbath. There is nothing to read into it. It’s an old routine and it doesn’t mean much today. It’s merely a word but it’s not practical for today’s lifestyle. On the other end, people are saying that Sabbath defines who we are and the more we lose touch of it, the more we fail to understand its purpose in our lives.

So who is right and who is wrong? Or is it a matter of how one sees things in life? Maybe it’s a case of where one’s preferences lie in terms of what we gain out of life. To properly understand the Sabbath is to go beyond just skimming the surface. The Old Testament alone has enough to bury us in a pile and adding the New Testament reveals how much there is that we need to dig into.

A Christian Standpoint to Chinese New Year (Part One)

By Khen Lim



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Chinese New Year is that one time in the world when the Chinese diaspora celebrate in unison. It’s that one event that unites them as a single race with a common reason to celebrate. Chinese New Year has endured over four thousand years and remain the most celebrated of all annual festivities in the world.  

For the Chinese, New Year is a time-honoured tradition steeped in thousands of years of understanding and acceptance but for Christians, the complications are punctuated by the turn of paganism that transformed its origins.

There is Honour in God's Praiseworthy Name

A Perspective of the Third Commandment

By Khen Lim



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When the disciples returned home, Mary remained behind, standing outside and weeping gently but quietly while she bent low to peer into Jesus’ emptied tomb. She saw nothing but two angels, seated where Jesus’ head and feet would have been had His body been there.

False Gods in the Context of Contemporary Lifestyles

By Khen Lim



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Exodus 20:4 (NASB) says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.”

While that is the core of the Second Commandment, there is more if we read on (vv.5-6):

“You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

Some Things You Might Not Know About the Ten Commandments

By Khen Lim



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1. Ten Words

The Torah does not call them the Ten Commandments. “Aseret had’varim” means “the ten words” (Ex 34:28, Dt 4:13, 10:40 or “aseret hadibrot,” which is “the ten sayings.” That is why the Jewish Talmud begins with Ex 20:2, with God’s declaration that is decidedly more of a statement than a commandment: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

How Relevant are the Ten Commandments?

By Khen Lim



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Many feel that God’s Ten Commandments are so outdated and therefore they are unrealistic and inapplicable to current society. They view them as archaic and full of inflammatory language that doesn’t sit well with today’s obligatory political correctness. Even Christians wrongly believe that the Ten Commandments have already been abolished by the Son of God when He made a new covenant between us and the Father with His own death and resurrection.

The problem in thinking that Jesus came to abolish the Ten Commandments is that He never claimed to want to do so. Instead Matthew 5:17-18 (NASB) records Jesus as saying, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish them but to fulfil. For I truly say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

In these two verses, Jesus offers a distinct view that the Ten Commandments are to be followed for every generation including today and until He returns for the second time.

So what does all this mean to us and how do we apply the Ten Commandments today?

God’s Ten Commandments remain valid and realistic because Jesus said so. We are still called by God to honour them and obey what they call us to fulfil. Jesus also said that by obeying the Law or the Ten Commandments is not just a superficial act but one that upholds the essence of the law into our thoughts and hearts.

Jesus proclaimed that if we think something that is contrary to any of the Ten Commandments, we are deemed to have carried out the act as if physically. If we think there’s nothing wrong to slandering or gossiping about our neighbours, it would be no different to breaking the Ninth Commandment. And if we’re married but lust after someone else’s spouse in our thoughts, that’s as good as flouting the Seventh Commandment.

As Christians, we should not think that since Paul had said, “we are set free from the law,” that the Ten Commandments no longer are applicable. Rather Paul is telling us that because we are now in a relationship with Christ, we are forgiven of our indiscretions when it comes to adhering to the Ten Commandments. We are, however, still called in the New Testament to obey all of them.

The Ten Commandments are also no less applicable to unbelievers because in the very end, they too will be judged by the essence of the law including these moral codes. In other words it means that if they are guilty of breaking even just one of the commandments, if they were disrespectful or irreverent towards God, they will be considered guilty of breaking all the commandments.

Today God’s Ten Commandments remain the gold standard by which each and every one of us strive to live our lives. They are not some outdated laws that require upgrading and neither are they only meant for that time and place by that one person whose name is Moses.

God meant the Ten Commandments to be a permanent reference by which we are still to follow in order to have a more meaningful relationship with God and with one another as long as we live.

Starting the Ten Commandments Project

By Administration



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As of last week, Hosanna EFC has begun a twelve-week series on the Ten Commandments with the first two sermons dedicated to its introduction provided by Pastor Simon Tham and Khen Lim. Even as there is much to be learned from the introduction, the following ten Sundays will be even more eye-opening.

The Ten Commandments - A Concise Introduction

By Khen Lim



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For all the years that man has roamed and ruled the world, we never really realise the goodness of humanity that underpins life for 3,000 years. We’ve never had it this good before but we did have the basis from which to set our standards, our discipline, our benchmarks and/or our reference points if you must. 

We commonly know them as the Ten Commandments. Many think they’re out of date and impractical but they’ve never been more relevant than in today’s climes. It remains the best and most vindicated moral code the world has ever been gifted and yet people have not been treating it seriously.

Ten Commandments Unplugged - Exodus 20

By Khen Lim

Humanity’s foundation in morality is pre-established by God. The bedrock is what we call the Ten Commandments and it is these precepts that unveil the qualities that the Lord expects us to adopt for our lives. We take a look at them in gist here.