I can't help it I love a good cheeseburger. I've tried cheeseburgers from a wide variety of places, and if I find a good one I do like to go and revisit because I love cheeseburgers that much. Because I love cheeseburgers so much, I have tried to find a great cheeseburger, or at least a very good one at a chain restaurant. That way no matter where I go in my limited travels I can experience the bliss of a really good cheeseburger. As people, we love things that we know, things that we know are pleasing. Relationships I find thrive when things are consistent and true. My wife loves me in a certain way. She cares for my children in a certain way, she cooks in a certain, way she keeps house in a certain way, she's very consistent and that's satisfying and builds a sense of security. In the same way I love my wife. I love her through my actions and I am very consistent in how I do so. When either herself or I realize that something needs to change we talk about it so said change doesn't come out of the blue. This way our family and our relationship can grow and mature, not stagnate, and we still maintain that consistency which a great relationship is built upon. That's the thing I like most about my God and my Church they are consistent.
God knows more than anyone else, that people do not like to get jerked around. Because he made us and because he loves us, God remains consistent day in day out, month in and month out, year after year. God even formed covenants in the Old Testament with his people," You love me and let me be your God I will love and protect you." Time and time again in the Old Testament when you see the Israelites betray their covenant with God, enemies would invade and conquer them. The Israelites would then repent and God would come to their aid. God's rules are simple it's all about love. I have talked with many that don't see that.
God wants to be your only God. He loves you and wants to have a relationship with just you. Imagine telling your wife or husband, "hey yes I love you but I want to bring in somebody else."
God does not want you to use his name in vain. I can only imagine the strain my relationship would have if I walked around the house in anger cursing things in my wife's name, trust me it wouldn't go over well.
Your God who created you, made you what you are, gave you all your talents, gave you all the blessings, all the good things that you have in your life, wants to spend one special day week with you at least. I can tell you that if I don't spend some quality time with my wife each week our relationship doesn't work that well.
I could go on, but basically all of the 10 Commandments are there to build a loving relationship with God and with everyone you will meet on this earth. God is about love. God knows that love is the most important thing. He wants us to focus our lives in a loving manner. After the 10 Commandments were established, the Jewish people wrote even more "laws". In their zeal to serve God correctly they made things too complicated (as often men do). So to try and reset his relationship with the Jews and the entire world, God sent his son. He sent Jesus his son, a part of himself, down to teach us personally face-to-face. Jesus boiled the 10 Commandments down to two rules. One, love your God with all your mind body and soul. Two, love everyone you meet as you love yourself. Jesus came to fulfill the promises made in the Old Testament. Like Adam ruined paradise in Genesis by disobeying God, Jesus conversely came to mend that and to save all people. Jesus did not come to radically change what God wanted or expected, but rather he came to fulfill the promises of the old testament clarify things and to teach about love and how to love with compassion and mercy.
As a Christian and as a father I take my responsibilities very seriously. Not only am I charged to act and have a certain relationship with my God, but I am also charged to teach my wife and my children the proper way to love not only God but everyone they meet. Anyone who chooses to be a Christian is charged with these responsibilities. As a Christian, God even asks that I share his word, that I share the teachings of Jesus with others that I meet, even those that I am not related to. God wants me to learn and to come to realize how beautiful he is, his son is and the Holy Spirit is. On top of that, he doesn't want me to hoard his beautiful gifts or beautiful knowledge. As a Christian I am called to share my faith and my knowledge of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit with everyone that I meet.
If I see a fellow Christian who seems to be falling away I am called to compassionately and mercifully help them get back on track. I am called to do all these things out of love, for as God loves me he wants me put love in this world. By fulfilling this and the other requirements of Christianity, God will allow me into heaven for eternity. However if I choose to knowingly teach his covenant wrong, to not spread love in this world, to spread hate, fear, anxiety and distrust in this world, let's just say it would not be good for me.
So that's basically it, God wants us to love consistently just as he does. I know many who is cracked open the Bible, especially the Old Testament, and read some of the stories of old and have been perplexed because God comes off as a mean angry tyrant. Please know that this is not true. When you hit one of those one of those stories I highly recommend talking to someone who has a lot of experience studying the Bible and who is studied theology. For me I am Catholic and one of the reasons I love my Catholicism is because the Catholic Church has been there since the beginning. Peter was our first pope. Not only did we largely form the Bible as it is today, but our forefathers have been studying it for nearly 2000 years. But no matter what your denomination or preference, I would highly recommend consulting someone who has studied the Bible and theology to great extent if you have if you ever have questions about God's love and why he has done the things he is done.
Just remember this, God is there for you now no matter what you do or who you become, no matter if you're rich or if you were poor, no matter if you are from a First World or a Third World country. God loves all, he does not discriminate. God wishes for you to love all and to not discriminate. God's love is consistent and it is true. Though this world is rife with sin, God is still there waiting with open arms to love you. There is no such thing as a perfect Christian. Every Christian is just is able to sin is a nonbeliever. So yes, even as Christians have to humbly appear before God on a regular basis and asked for forgiveness. God doesn't expect you to be perfect. God just wants you to love.
How about a cheeseburger? I think I'm in the mood for a cheeseburger right now.
Mmm Cheese-burg-er!
MT 5:17-19
Jesus said to his disciples:“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
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