ONE OF THE GREATEST VIDEOS EVER

This is one of the greatest videos ever made.  Even if you have already seen it, it is worth another look.  Thank you, Jeff!

If you are a Christian, it is always good to be reminded what the first six letters in that title spell.

To True Love,

Scotty b.

THREE WORDS: “I AM RESPONSIBLE” IMMEDIATELY OVERCOME ALL NEGATIVE EMOTIONS

Note: this is Part IV of this series.  We recommend reading Part I, Part II and Part III first.

We ended Part III looking at the difference between ‘niceness’ and ‘kindness.’  A few more thoughts follow before we discuss the three words that could make you happy virtually all the time.

Dr. King was very kind, and he definitely was not NICE!

The Difference Between Niceness and Kindness

Perhaps the most distinct difference is that a nice person is concerned with others’ feelings, while a kind person is concerned with others’ well-being.  The kind person will remain concerned and kind – and outspoken — even at the expense of others’ feelings.  In many cases, kindness on a grand scale costs the kind person dearly – sometime it even costs the kind person their life (Jesus and Dr. King, come to mind).  Kind people are kind anyways.  It is part of their character.

Being empathetic and compassionate is good.  Being hyper-empathetic and hyper-compassionate is not.  Don’t be the hypersensitive, nice person, who never changes or takes risks.  Don’t be nice or comply with others’ requests just so you don’t rock the boat.  Doing so does not make you kind.  It makes you nice: a sucker, and a fraud, and it hides the True You – the person we all wish we could get to know.

If you make a commitment to quit being hypersensitive and nice, complaining and blaming, rationalizing and justifying – you will, by definition, be happy almost all of the time.

That is worth another read:  If you make a commitment to quit being hypersensitive and nice, complaining and blaming, rationalizing and justifying – you will, by definition, be happy almost all of the time.

OK, super lame of me to do it yet again; put try to punch a hole in this logic.  If you cannot find the fallacy in the logic, then we should all get busy eliminating these few behaviors and living lives where we are happy most of the time!  If you make a commitment to quit being hypersensitive and nice, complaining and blaming, rationalizing and justifying – you will, by definition, be happy almost all of the time.

If you make a commitment to quit being hypersensitive and nice, complaining and blaming, rationalizing and justifying – you will, by definition, be happy almost all of the time.

Time to be Happy!

So how do we do it? If we could truly be happy most of the time by simply eliminating justification, rationalization, and blame – plus being hypersensitive and nice – why doesn’t everyone do it?  What are the magic words guaranteed to instantly evict the unwelcome negative squatter  . . . leaving us only feeling our baseline of happiness?

Accepting 100% Responsibility

Say “I am responsible.”

Did you feel the power?

No.  This isn’t hokey.  If you didn’t feel it, try it again.  “I am responsible.”

The moment you claim 100% responsibility for your life and each event in your life, you immediately get your life back.

The moment you claim 100% responsibility for your life and each event in your life, you immediately get your life back. 

Accepting 100% responsibility instantly stops the bad feelings and immediately forces your mind to begin working on a solution to the issues upon which the negative emotions Trojan Horsed their way inside your psyche.

Abundance: Living in Joy, Truth and Love!

It is not the issue, the event, the situation, or the other person that causes our negative feelings.  The scapegoat we tend to blame, complaint about, and use as a means to justify and rationalize our negative feelings is NOT the cause of those feelings.

It is not the issue, the event, the situation, or the other person that causes our negative feelings.

The cause of negative emotions is being unclear about how we are going to respond.

The cause of negative emotions is being unclear about how we are going to respond.

That’s it.

Lack of clarity is the root of negative emotions.

So, if negative emotions are the disease; purpose and clarity are the cure.

The moment we accept 100% responsibility – we might not even be clear on the solution, yet – we allow our mind to immediately begin searching for the perfect solution to the problem — instead of employing our mind’s vast capabilities trying to designate a scapegoat and concoct a number of way to blame that person or event for everything that is wrong in our life.

The final installment of this series: “I AM RESPONSIBLE!”  will follow tomorrow.  Bookmark your browser or click the follow button on the right at the top to ensure you don’t miss it.

Because, as you know, if you miss it – you are responsible.

From my heart to yours,

Scotty b.

Dawnmarie Presley, C.Ht., thank you for you review and editing of these posts.  Your depth and knowledge on this complex topic has proven priceless.

Ms. Presley is a terrific hypnotherapist.  Her clients rave about her. If you want to make lasting changes but haven’t had the success you desire – or in the time frame you want – contact Dawnmarie now at 818.217.6176 or HypnoticOffice@gmail. Go to her office in Los Angeles County and  you will usually leave having already made permanent changes  Don’t live in Los Angeles?  No worries. Ms. Presley provides telephone sessions that are just as effective.  Call Dawnmarie now and get your life on track today!  You may review her website at dreamconversions.net.

MAKING PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT FUN!

This post is a continuation.  You may want to read the initial post, HAVE FUN IMPROVING YOURSELF!, first.  Today’s fun personal development ideas will be people focused.

More Fun Personal Development Ideas

Enlist a Mentor.  As many of the pioneers of personal development often said:  “The easiest road to success is to find someone who has accomplished what you want to accomplish, and do what they have done.   Think about the people in your life who you look up to. What qualities and characteristics do they possess that you would like to learn?  Decide that you will approach them, and let them know what you admire about them — and ask for their help in adopting some of the characteristics you admire.  There are very few people in this world who will turn down such a request.  As an added bonus, you might find them opening doors for your future that you could never have foreseen or imagined.

Pick Great Friends!

Take a Closer Look at Your Friends. Now that you have networked with someone on the outer perimeter of your social circle, look at those closest to you.  We all have amazing qualities.  Demand of yourself the discipline to start really paying attention to the awesome qualities of your family and closest friends.  Let them know about those qualities and ask them to teach you how to acquire those characteristics you admire.

Eliminate Hatred in Your Life.   Only in the last few years has science really begun to understand how damaging it is for us, as humans, to carry around hatred.  It does nothing to punish the object of our hate.  Instead, it wrecks our life, saps our vitality, and crushes our dreams.  We devastate ourselves and our future — and usually the other person doesn’t have a clue how we feel.  Decide now that you are not going to let ‘hate’ zap any more of your vital energy or destroy your peace of mind.  Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to destroy an enemy . . . is to make him a friend.”

 “The best way to destroy an enemy . . . is to make him a friend.” – Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President

Abundance: Living in Joy, Truth and Love!

If you do anything of importance with your life, there will be people who oppose you and say mean things about you.  It is so seductively easy to hate them back.  It is also toxic quicksand.  It not only damages you, but it is probably a more difficult habit to break than heroin.  It seems incredibly hard to love these folks in return for their hate.  But it is rewarding on a scale like almost nothing else in life.  Being able to forgive and show love to those who despise you reminds you that you are 100% responsible for your life and fills you with peace.  Who most hates you?  Take actions, right now and send them an email or text.  Apologize if you have been wrong.  Humble yourself to them.  Show them love. See if you can find closure on past arguments.  If they refuse, make the decision to love them all the harder.  Why?  Because it is now they who are suffering…and that sucks as you know.  But being free of your attachment to hatred is liberating and infuses you with peace, joy, truth, and love.

With love,

Scotty b.

Click here to read Part III in this series, Fun Personal Development Done Write

HOW IMPORTANT IS MY LOVE LIFE?

In his 21 Suggestions for Success, H. Jackson Brown, Jr. declares number one:  “Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.”

“Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

The above quote should be required to be memorized in school.  We should repeat it daily.  The law should require it to be printed in large letters at any facility where one might go on a date.  It probably should be read to us repeatedly in the womb.

90%!  Must of us would work incredibly hard at something that we knew would determine 50% of our happiness . . . yet most of us approach our relationships with a luck-of-the-draw, laissez-faire attitude.

Why?

The answer is for most of us is that we don’t understand Love or comprehend how the Process of Attraction works.  We think it is this mysterious “feeling” that just happens.  We believe it is uncontrollable…it just happens.  We don’t know how to intensify it or reduce it.  Love has become our master.  That should never be.  Humans are capable of complete emotional mastery.  Emotions are supposed to help us.  They should never hinder us.  Love most of all.

Love and Attraction are not magical or mysterious, and both can be mastered to a very high level without any advance college degree.  They are both founded on easily-learned scientific principles.  If you worry that “learning” love or attraction will make dating less romantic or suck the joy out of your love life . . . you would be completely wrong!

Like everything else, as you increase your knowledge of how attraction works, you appreciate it even more, and you will become better at it.  This, in turn, will enable you to attract higher-quality partners, and you will find that you can use love and attraction consciously to improve every other area of your life.

Without learning the fundamental principles of love and attraction, you all but assure yourself that 90% of your life will be misery instead of happiness.

Is that really what you want? 

Good.  You will find the principles of love and attraction throughout this blog.  For additional resources click on the Goodness tab on the main menu above.  We will be adding additional links below as we more posts on this critical topic.

Good Love!

Scotty b.
about.me/AttorneyBlackburn

GOD’S LAWS ARE DESIGNED SOLELY FOR THE BENEFIT OF HUMANS

God’s laws are designed 100% for humans.  It is crucial to understand and believe that if we are to observe God’s law in the fashion God intended.  In the first post of this series we postulated that God’s Laws are designed for us, that God’s ego is not deflated when we inevitably fail and fall short, and we don’t hurt God’s feelings when we transgress His Law.  In part two, we did a case study on the Fourth Commandment which appears to buttress that conclusion.  We conclude here in part three by looking at the practical application of these principles in the world around us.

Let’s start by considering rule-making and enforcement by human parents with regard to their children.  For whose benefit do parents make rules such as “don’t push coins into electrical sockets,” “look both ways before crossing a street,” or “don’t eat cookies without asking me first.”  Are parents making these rules just to show off their power or to remind their kids who is in charge?  Or because they Love their children and want the best for them?

Yet, we often treat our Heavenly Father like a dictator who has nothing better to do (like, say, run a Universe) than sit around all day coming up with rules and regulations to tyrannically impose on humans.  Are we ever going to grow out of this stage and finally realize God isn’t trying to control us?  Can we accept that God makes laws for our benefit?  God is All-Powerful.  He doesn’t need to “flex His heavenly muscles” to make us comply.  He could have easily made us without the power to choose.  He wants the best for us and does not want us to get shocked by electricity, or run over by a car, or to begin eating habits that may lead to us being unhealthy or obese.

God did not create us because He had some laws on the books that no one was following . . . He designed the Law to bless humans and bring us abundance.  He designed the law because He Loves us.  Period.  Anytime we search the Bible to find a verse or two, for or against some proposition, without any consideration to the peace, Joy, Truth, or Love it will add or subtract to human Life – we can be confident we are neither analyzing the law as God intended nor applying it the way Jesus would.

The Pharisees, because they were unable to perfectly keep the law, instituted a complex and confusing system of Sabbath regulations that was oppressive, legalistic, and sucked all the Joy and Blessing out of the Sabbath. Their strict and merciless interpretations of the Sabbath included 613 specific injunctions amongst 39 categories of forbidden activities. The Pharisees had unwittingly elevated “The Law” to a position as high, or higher than “The Lawgiver.”

Jesus consistently criticized the Pharisees legalistic interpretations of God’s law which glorified judgmental behavior and cheapened Love and mercy.  Jesus called Himself the “Lord of the Sabbath” because He created the Sabbath.  The Creator is ALWAYS greater than the Creation.  Rigidly following the Commandments neither upholds the ‘Greatest Commandment’ nor acknowledges that God reigns above His Creation, which includes His laws.  You might say that elevating the law to the same level as the Author of Law is a risky proposition which comes perilously close to blasphemy.

We might say it was just silly religious leaders some 2,000 years ago who did this.  But what if we do, too?  Is it possible that we have taken “The Ten Blessings” and turned them into “The Ten Commandments” by our joyless and unloving interpretations and applications.  Have we sucked all the peace, Joy, Truth, and Love out of God’s law?  Do we correctly view God’s commandments as a benevolent blessing of freedom and abundance?  Or do we on occasion employ the Decalogue as a platform of judgment and condemnation? Is it possible that if we decided to embrace and observe God’s law as intended that “The Ten Blessings” would bring us Peace of Mind, Joy, Truth, Love and abundance?

Choose today to begin living the Abundant Life Jesus promised us.  Choose today to begin observing the Commandments, instead of merely ‘following’ them.

To your peace, joy, truth and love,

Scotty b.
about.me/AttorneyBlackburn

SALVATION CAN ONLY BE FOUND IN LOVE

“[No one is a child of God] who does not Love their brother and sister…this is the message…We should Love one another…We know that we have passed from death to life, because we Love each other. Anyone who does not Love remains in death… If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the Love of God be in that person? [L]et us not Love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” – I John 3:10-18

Jesus’ message (and of every Great Religious Teacher) was NOT that we must perfectly follow commandments to be Saved.  In fact, that is the OPPOSITE of the Christian Gospel!  The Christian Message is that we are incapable of reaching a place of ‘sinlessness’ while we still wear human flesh, and Jesus died for those shortcomings.  Note the Beloved Apostle’s words:

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us…If we claim we have not sinned, we make [God] out to be a liar and His word is not in us.” – I John 8-10

We will sin.  It is part of being human.  And the Gospel is the Story of the outrageously scandalous Love that God the Creator showed to us humans.  Can you picture God planning Salvation?  Maybe He said,

I don’t care if none of My children accept My free gift…I Love them and can’t bear to see them flounder around in their poor choices without any chance of a better Life.  So I, God, will go to their crappy little planet, Myself, and absorb their punishment, their sin, and their shame in hopes some of them will accept My Free Gift of Love.

What if Jesus would have adopted the Major Purpose of many Christians — “to follow commandments”?  Jesus could have followed the commandments perfectly . . . without ever crawling up on that cross to Save you and me.

A Christian is NOT known by his or her refraining from breaking commandments.  It is the Love he or she Lives.

What saved us was not Jesus’ Commandment-keeping.  What Saved us is Jesus’ Love for us!

And that is exactly how WE are Saved — By showing Love to Others.

Every human will break commandments in their Life.  Many times.  But even if we could keep them all, of what profit would that be to others?  Think of a few great people in history.  What makes their Life extraordinary?

Do you remember them for NOT doing things?  I have never heard someone say they admired President Lincoln for NOT raising taxes.  Do we speak reverently of Martin Luther King, Jr. because he DIDN’T wear mis-matched clothing?  Winston Churchill is not remembered for NOT taking God’s Name in vain.

No!  Every great person — whether that Greatness is on the stage of World History or ‘merely’ being a great Mom, neighbor or co-worker — is measured by their Love expressed in action and in Truth (although Words of Love are good, too.).  Greatness is not measured, EVER, by what we DON’T DO!

It that always easy?  Hell no!  There are times when Love is incredibly painful…and sometimes in return you will receive no fanfare . . . or even gratitude.  On occasion, your ‘thanks’ will be disdain, vile hatred, and the person you are trying to help may spit in your face.

Love is much more difficult than merely following commandments.  But that is what Real Christians, in fact True Followers of all Great Faiths, are called upon to do.  In fact, you might say:  Love is NOT what Believers do. . .

Love is what True Believers ARE!

Love is what True Believers ARE!

You could say, ‘Yeah, but God does not break Commandments.’  And you may be correct.

But THAT is NOT WHY He is God.

He is God because He LOVES.

God is Love.  And if we want to truly be our Heavenly ‘Father’s’ children, we should become like Him.

No one has ever seen God; but if we Love one another, God lives in us and his Love is made complete in us. . . God is Love. Whoever lives in Love lives in God, and God in them.  I John 4:12-16

From my heart to yours,

Scotty b.
about.me/AttorneyBlackburn

DOES GOD JUDGE ME . . . OR DOES HE LOVE ME?

I was raised a “Christian” with certain values, beliefs . . . and an arrogant and judgmental mindset.  Not consciously.  I don’t believe my parents, teachers, or most of the members of my religion intended to be arrogant and judgmental hypocrites.  We did not know better.

As I reflect back, it seems silly that I was unable to recognize that I thought my religion was the exclusive keeper of “The Real Truth,” and – by the exercise of simple logic – that everyone else must  possess less of the truth (or perhaps none at all).  No one in my religion ever explicitly said that.  Perhaps like me, they never really thought about it in those terms.

How Does God Feel About Me?

It seems so obvious now. I don’t know how I missed the realization that a Loving and Just God would not, and could not, “Save” some tiny fraction of Earth’s population and damn the rest of the people who ever lived on Earth.

People He Created.  People He Loves!

And why?  Because they didn’t join (or, in many cases, ever even hear about) His preferred religion.  So they fail.  They don’t receive an “A” in Life.  So God sentences all of them to eternal damnation.

Hellfire for the losers.

Even scarier is the fact that most religions teach that “The Losers” in the Game of Salvation includes the members of every other religion.

So the reward from a Loving God for everybody who is sincerely seeking Him, but chooses one of the hundreds of ‘fake’ religions instead of ‘His Preferred Religion’?

GO TO HELL!

DO NOT PASS HEAVEN.  DO NOT COLLECT $200.

No “Get Out of Hell Free” Cards.

Just Hell for the humans He claims to Love so much.

Heaven’s public relations staff doesn’t even spin it as “A very long, all-expenses paid vacation to a tropical destination ‘down under’!”

Nope.

Just Hell.

Not even a half-hearted, “Sorry, Losers, but we have some excellent consolation prizes for you backstage.”

Just eternal separation from God.

WHAT?!?! 

Fear is the opposite of Love (See, e.g., 1 John 4.18)

That doesn’t sound like Love.  It actually sounds like the opposite of Love — Fear.

Either the Apostle John had a pretty jacked-up vision of what “Love” looks like.  Or Beloved Johnny was having a brain seizure when he penned … well, almost every single thing  he ever wrote.

But wait a minute…

Is there, perhaps, another possible explanation?

Just perhaps, the problem is not on God’s end.  Perhaps I have it wrong.  Perhaps I have attributed God with possessing an emotion and employing a tactic that He is incapable of being or using.  In fact, now that I think about it — I don’t believe God ever employs ‘fear’ as a motivational tool or a strategy to win souls.  He is God, after all.  If He wanted to ensure victory, He could have just designed every one of us sans Freedom of Choice.

No, upon reflection, I think ‘fear’ is the prime and exclusive operational tactic employed by those who wish to deceive us.  Not those who Love us.

Perhaps Big John’s moniker, “The Beloved” was indeed deserved.  And perhaps three of the Youngest Disciple’s words are actually three of the most important words to be found in the Bible:

God is Love.

God is Love.

God IS Love.

GOD is Love.

God is LOVE.

God = Love.

It really is not crucial where you place the emphasis in the above sentences.

What matters is the emphasis you place on the thought it conveys.

A more crucial concept does not exist.

Believing and accepting the proposition that God is Love will change the emphasis you place on the meaning to just about everything you read in scripture; it has the power to change the very essence of the way you relate to God; it can and will change the way you relate to your friends, co-workers, members of other religions, atheists . . . and your enemies.

Embracing those three words will exponentially increase the Joy you experience in your House of Worship.

Ultimately, the proposition contained in those three words has the power to transform an aimless and hopeless Life of fear and depression . . .

Into a Life of Meaning.

A Fulfilling Life.

A Life of Abundance.

I am living proof of that fact.

 

A Life of Abundance

The Abundant Life, the Life Jesus came here to give us, the Life Jesus is Dying for us to accept; that Life begins the instant we initially embrace those three words.

I suspect that we will spend all of eternity learning to fully comprehend the depth, and the breadth, and the beauty, and the Truth, and the Joy expressed in those nine letters.

And one little eternity may not be nearly long enough.

But it all begins with deciding if we believe those three words.

God is Love!

For me, that journey started when I considered that my Mom would Love me every speck as much as she does now if I announced I was converting to a new religion.

Every speck as much.

I know, without question, that my Mom Loves me the same when I do every single thing she expects me to do . . . and when I screw up in the most public, offensive, and despicable ways possible.

Every speck as much.

Her Love does not wane when I ‘transgress her rules.’  It is not diminished when I refuse to follow “her will” for my Life and elect to do what I want with my Life.  Her Love for me would not even be affected if I chose to call some other woman “My Mom” and refused to acknowledge her as Mom.

She would still Love me every speck as much.

Even if I chose to become a mass-murderer and serial rapist, her Love for me would not falter.  I seriously doubt my Mother’s Love is capable of faltering.

She created me.  So Mom Loves me.

She created me.  So Mom Loves me.

Why would I think any less of the Love my Heavenly “Father” has for me?!?!

Let me say that again:  Why would I think that the Dude that Self-styled Himself as “my heavenly Father” would (or could) Love me any less than my Mom?!?!?

HE IS LOVE!

He created me.  So He Loves me.

That is clearly what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he summed up everything he felt was important in being a Christian in a single sentence (notice the word ‘ONLY’ chosen by the man who wrote most of the New Testament):

“The ONLY thing that matters is Faith, which is expressed by the Way we Love.” (Galatians 6.5)

“The ONLY thing that matters is Faith, which is expressed by the Way we Love.” (Galatians 6.5)

Perhaps that is why in the most circulated book and the most popular musical group in history, John and Paul proclaim the same timeless message of Joy and Truth:

“All you need is Love.”

Whether it’s the Apostles…or the Beatles… John and Paul got it right:

“All you need is Love.”

“All you need is Love.”

From my heart to yours,

 

Scotty b.

LOVE IS . . .

Christmas brought LOVE like this world had never seen before.

On Christmas Day I think it appropriate to dwell for a few minutes on love. Love brought the Master of the universe to this measly planet for me. If that doesn’t scream “love is a CHOICE”, I don’t know what does.

Someone once said, love is “giving someone the ability to hurt you, but trusting them not to.”  Jesus knew that we would hurt Him, not just while He was here but probably every day that we live! He chose to come anyway….and chooses to love us anyway…everyday…

So that says to me that I am called to love those around me – even if I know that sometimes it’s gonna hurt.

Here’s to loving like Jesus,

Karen b.

FOUR KINDS OF LOVE ACCORDING TO C.S. LEWIS

Whether I choose to acknowledge the Truth or not, most of the ‘love’ that I experience will die quickly when I realize the object of my Love is not returning the amount of Love to which I believe I am entitled.

The amazing thinker, visionary, and writer, C.S. Lewis wrote of four kinds of Love.  Interestingly, all but one of them is predominantly “self-sinnered.”

1)  Affection:  which is a ‘love’ directed towards something non-human; such as my love for my job, or my home, or my bank account.  I believe C.S. Lewis would have placed pets in this category, but I would respectfully disagree on that account.  Seeing the way my friends care for and Love their dog or cat, I am convinced that is often Agape Love.

2)  Friendship:  this one is so familiar, I am not sure I can define it.  But if I think about my Life there have been a host of friends that have come into my Life, and with whom I am no longer in touch.  This leads me to believe that the ‘love of friendship’ is also primarily self-sinnered.

3)  Erotic:  this is the sexual attraction one feels for another that makes that often makes one feel more alive than they have ever been.  This kind of Love not only dies when not returned as we expect, it often dies fairly quickly after two people mutually utter the phrase, ‘I do.’

4)  Agape:  this is Love of the highest order.  C.S. Lewis referred to it as “Divine Gift-Love”  When we Love with Agape Love we want the very best for the object of our Love – even if that means letting them go.  This is the kind of Love God has for each of us.  God does not direct the rain to fall only on His believers, and others don’t have their crops watered.  When believers “Jonah” God and run from Him, He still Loves us just the same.  God does not Save us because we merit Salvation by following His rules (see, e.g., Thief on the Cross, the “Rock” (not the modern wrestler/actor – the original one, Apostle Peter), Zacchaeus, and the list includes EVERY SINGLE person to have ever walked this planet), God wants to Save each of us for one reason alone:  He Loves us. 

He Created Us; so He Loves us.

Anything else is less than the Truth.

And the Truth of our human Love is that Love is not something that “happens to me” as I often consider it.  Love is not a roller coaster of emotion which we cannot control.  Love can, and should be, subjected to our will.

And no, that does not cheapen it or make it less powerful.

Love directed by our conscious thinking is vastly more powerful than anything I experience randomly.

Try it and see.

Love,

Scotty b.

WHO IS GOD? (PART 2)

In Who is God? Part 1, we touched on a basic understanding of God’s Nature.  Although there is a ton left to discuss, one thing is immediately of critical concern.

Relationship with God and Keeping Commandments

The Commandments are designed to improve our Lives, not limit our freedom…but they are NOT designed to create a relationship with God.

We often forget that God told the Israelites that He would deliver them from Egypt.  And then time-and-time again God worked gigantic plagues to convince ole boy Pharaoh that the Son of Ra might want to let the Sons and Daughters of God have some freedom.

And then, God parted the Red Sea for His peeps.  And made this awesome hovering light show that went with them everywhere.  And gave them plans such that a city of about 2 million people traveled from Egypt to Canaan (even though it took human technology more than fourteen centuries to witness more than a handful of cities with over one million people.)

(Oh, and we are talking about FIXED cities.  You know, the kinds with farming land and foundations, aqueducts and grazing pastures, hospitals and workshops, and other seemingly important things for any civilization to thrive).

Yet God moved a city of two million people in a proficient, orderly, and awesome manner.

Yep, braggin’ a little ‘bout da Lord. (See Who Is God?, Part 1) He is good!

But here’s the thing we often forget about the Journey from Egypt to the Promised Land:  God came to Moses and the Israelites and said, “Hey, Trust Me – I AM going to get you outta this slavery gig.”

And He did.

And when Egypt forgot how ravaged they were by the plagues and decided to pursue Israel:  God Red them the Riot Act (never mind; it’s a Sea joke.)

God asked for their Trust, proved He was worthy of their Trust and Love, and cared for them and provided for them . . . and only much, much, much later did God lead them to Sinai where He gave them the Ten Commandments.

See, whether it’s God or People:  When we Trust, we begin to Love.  And when we Love, we want to make sure we don’t offend the object of our affection…so we want to know their boundaries . . . or their ‘rules.’

Another words, Trust leads to Love, which leads to WANTING to follow the Others’ rules.

BUT IT DOES NOT WORK IN REVERSE!  When someone we don’t Love or Respect (or know) tries to slap rules on us, how does it make you feel?  Say, like that annoying guy in the cubicle next to you.  Or, perhaps your boss trying to enforce a no texting at work policy.  Maybe your Mother-in-law.  Whether we agree with the rules or not, what do we do? Yep, me too.

If God would have just laid out a bunch of arbitrary and capricious rules, Israel would not have Trusted Him.  Or Loved Him.  Or even desired to come to Know Him.

Rules can never lead to a relationship.  And we can ONLY be Saved by a Relationship with Jesus!

So, a Relationship with Jesus ALWAYS leads to us WANTING to follow His commandments.  But when we dump a bunch of rules on New Believers, we only ensure that we are pushing them away from a Relationship with the One Who SAVES.

I like how the Apostle Paul puts it:

2 For athe law of the Spirit of life 1in bChrist Jesus chas set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For awhat the Law could not do, 1bweak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in cthe likeness of 2sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the arequirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who bdo not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  Romans 8:2-4 NAS

Requiring Someone to Follow Rules NEVER leads to Love or Trust.  Following Commandments does NOT result in a relationship (except for the relationship of dictator/oppressed, perhaps).  But Trusting and Loving ALWAYS lead to someone wanting to be part of your Life.

Or, another way to say it:

“NO ONE WILL CARE WHAT YOU KNOW, UNTIL THEY KNOW YOU CARE.”

God knows this principle and works this principle when dealing with humans.

Do we?

From my heart to yours,

Scotty b.