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

"What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of..".
                                                          Words by Hal David (1965).
There’s a lot of truth in popular music and the above words by Hal David are a good example.
In 1965 the world did need love. There were civil rights demonstrations in the United States, the Viet Nam was going on and in the world generally there was civil unrest. Sounds like today.
Today we have war and strife around the world. Western society perhaps is a little more settled but there are still young men getting killed on the streets of America. Crime is rampant throughout western society.
Terrorism is a problem not only in the middle east and Africa but globally.
Love just seems to be absent.
I firmly believe as our society becomes more secular and turning from God, the lack of absolute moral values begins to percolate to the surface brining with it violence and social decay.
Whether you are a Christian, Jew, Muslim or someone of any other faith. Or for that matter an Atheist. I think at the very least the moral teachings of Jesus have to ring true.
It was Jesus who 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 went one step further saying,
“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
The apostle Paul in my mind penned the quintessential definition of love saying,
“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....” 
                    1 Corinthians 13:4-8a.
Anne Frank a young Jewish girl in world war two knew what it was like to experience hate. She and her family hid from the Nazis but were later captured and died in concentration camp.
While in hiding Anne wrote,
“Give of yourself, give as much as you can?  And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!  If everyone were to do this and not be as mean with a kindly word, then there would be much more justice and love in the world.  Give and you shall receive, much more than you would have ever thought possible.  Give, give again and again, don’t lose courage, keep it up and go on giving!  No one has ever become poor from giving!”                                                                                                                                                Anne Frank.
We as individuals and collectively as a society need to show more love. We need to stand up to hate in all its forms. Be it terrorist who threaten world peace or someone promoting hatred in the media or on our streets.
What the world does need now in 2015 is more love. And to my way of thinking people need to be turning to the teachings of Christ.
Please think about it.