The Commands of Christ

I am the little boy who gave his loaves and fishes to Jesus, who in turn, fed a multitude with the young man's gift (John 6:9). In 2002, while studying "The Great Commission" passage in Matthew 28:18-20, the part where Jesus said, "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you" got my attention. I began to wonder, "How can we teach the nations to observe all things that Christ has commanded us unless we know how many things He has commanded us?" A prayerful search of the scriptures revealed twenty main commands of Christ. I then preached a series of messages based on those commands to my congregation in Oklahoma. Later, I taught these commands in conferences at Shillong and Kolkata, India in 2004 and in Manila, Philippines in 2005. In January of 2011, God laid Jeremiah 33:3 on my heart: "Call to Me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." For two years, I faithfully prayed that prayer daily, not knowing what the Lord had in mind. In January of 2013, I made a mission trip where I taught "The Commands of Christ" at a pastor's conference at Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, and at Nasik, India. One of the most important things that came out of this trip was a vision that the Lord wants "The Commands of Christ" made available on an international basis. My vision is for every pastor, in every nation, and in every language to have a copy of these commands. I believe God's church is doing a good job of winning the lost and baptizing them, but we're not doing as good a job of making disciples of them. I believe knowing and teaching "The Commands of Christ" will help fulfill the discipleship part of "The Great Commission."