God's Precepts

God’s Precepts

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.”
                                                             Psalm 11:10.
Christianity practices correctly offers the world a universal set of precepts that can be summed up in two sayings of Jesus.
Jesus when asked,
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  
This is the first and greatest commandment.  
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 
                                                                                               Matthew 22:36-40. 
Jesus also said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
                         Matthew 5:43-45.
If we truly love God, our fellow man and even our enemy we will not break any of God’s commandments.
The Apostle Paul said of Love,

“Love is patient, love is kind. 

It does not envy, it does not boast, 

it is not proud.  

It is not rude, 

it is not self-seeking, 

it is not easily angered,

 it keeps no record of wrongs. 

Love does not delight in evil

 but rejoices with the truth.  

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

Love never fails....

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. 

But the greatest of these is love.”  

                                                                   1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13
In this day and age when terrorism’s evil head is it seems is all around. It’s time to show love to those around us, as well as to those who are afar off in foreign countries.
Please think about it.

What the world needs

What the world needs.

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole  duty  of man. 
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
     Ecclesiastes 12:13,14.
Abba Hillel Silver wrote,
“Faith in God is the strongest bulwark of a free society.  Human freedom began when men became conscious that over and above society and nature there is a God who created them...who fashioned them in His likeness, and that they are, therefore, possessed of intrinsic and independent significance and are endowed, as individuals, with original and irrevocable rights and authority”.
                                                                                                                                    Abba Hillel Silver
As I look at our society I see an increasingly secular society that is not meeting the spiritual and emotional needs of the individual. They have increasingly turned from God.
Western society seems to me to feed the masses materialism and there is nothing wrong with materialism in balance. The things we want are not evil in themselves.
They however fail to meet man’s real needs, his spiritual need. And man most definitely has a spiritual dimension.
People may deny their need for God or the fact that God exists but it doesn’t eliminate the fact that man has a deep need that only God can fill.
The words of Jesus are as relevant today as they were when he said them. The  Matthew’s gospel recording Jesus as saying,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 
                                                Matthew 11:28-30
I believe our society as a whole is destined to fail if the spiritual dimension in the individual is not met and mankind fails to turn to God.
Please think about it.