Life

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In this physical life that we are living now, the burdens of simply living sometimes bear heavily on our shoulders. There is a precept and a promise that we find in Matthew 11:29 that gives a definite solution to this. Jesus told us “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me,UGG Short Boots 2009, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart,UGG Bailey Button, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.” When we do as He says (His precept,) we are assured of rest and ease to the situations in our lives. He will help us bear under the weight of the burdens in our lives.
There are those who would deny us these rights. There are those who wish to destroy the Christian principles upon which this nation was founded. There are those whose sole purpose is to entrap us,Ugg Shoes, steal our happiness, kill our dreams and destroy our way of life. Our enemy has come to steal, kill and destroy. It is the duty of every American citizen to stand up and resist the movement of our government to a socialist society where individual rights are forsaken for the good of a few.
It seems true to form that the liberal element in our society today would resist the reading of the US Constitution at the opening of the 112th Congress. Is not this the very document that they took an oath to uphold and defend? It seems that this liberal base regards their oath as nothing more than a formality. It must be alright to take an oath, one that you never intend to honor, just to gain political power.
1. Plenty and abundance of the fruits of the earth. Every good and perfect gift must be expected from above, from the Our Holy Father in Heaven.
2. Peace under Divine protection. Those who dwell in safety are those that dwell in God.
3. Victory and success in their wars. It is all one with the Lord to save by many or by few.
4. The increase of their people. The gospel church shall be fruitful.
5. The favor of God,Cheap Ugg, which is the fountain of all that is good.
6. Tokens of his presence in and by his ordinances. The way to have God's ordinances fixed among us is to cleave closely to them.
7. The grace of the covenant. All covenant blessings are summed up in the covenant relation, I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and they are all grounded upon their redemption. Having purchased them, God would own them, and never cast them off till they cast him off. (Lev. 26:14-39)
The USA is a Christian nation (76% of the legal adult population claim to be Christian) founded upon Christian principles. We, as a nation, need to humble ourselves and return our focus to our only source of help, Our Holy Creator.
Life can be defined as the way that we choose to live. The overwhelming majority of legal American citizens have chosen to live and define their way of life as a society based upon the same Christian principles that were considered when this country was founded. Other religious groups who live in the USA are also afforded this same right, the right to live the lifestyle that is mandated by their core religious beliefs. Those who choose to live without acknowledging the existence of God, the Atheists, whether they admit it or not, have chosen a religious a religious belief system based on nothing. Much to the chagrin of those who claim to be Atheists, Atheism is a religious belief system.
What would happen to our country if this tiny minority were to succeed in eliminating God from all governmental reference? This would nullify the Declaration of Independence, The US Constitution and every State Constitution. This would plunge our nation into lawlessness. There would be no right to life as we know it. All rights would have to be granted by men and easily revoked at any time by men. There would not be any “unalienable rights.”
What does the Holy Scripture say about honoring God and including Him in our government? In the 26th Chapter of Leviticus we are told of the blessings that would be bestowed on the nation if the children of God honored Him and kept His laws. We are also told of the punishment that would befall the nation should the people not follow the precepts of God. It is often argued that these words were written about the Hebrew people and do not apply to us. This could not be farther from the truth. These words were written to the people who were chosen by God to be His children. When we, today, accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are adopted into the kingdom of heaven. We become part of the chosen nation and are privileged to all of the benefits but are also bound by the same covenants made between God and His children.
When we as a nation forsake God he will turn His face from us and allow our enemies to reign over us. We as a Christian nation need to return our focus to the One who has given us eternal life through Jesus Christ. We need to live our lives by His precepts and instruction. We must give Him honor and Glory because He is the One who has bestowed the unalienable right of ‘Life’ proclaimed in The Declaration of Independence and protected by The Constitution of The United States of America.
Life. Can we understand life by merely expressing its dictionary definition? Can we state that life is a state of being or the presence of vital signs, respiration, heartbeat, brain activity? Is that unalienable right to life that is endowed by our Creator and guaranteed by The Declaration of Independence and The United States Constitution simply the right to breath, to have a heartbeat and to have the presence of brain activity? Life, as it is expressed in our Declaration of Independence is much more profound.
What then is a definition of life that would give greater meaning to the declarations made in the documents left to us by our founding Fathers? It is evident by the volume of documents found in our nation’s archives that the men who conceived of and implemented our government were deep thinkers who seriously considered the implications and consequences of their words and actions. In our founding Fathers we have a group of individuals who were willing to sacrifice all that they had,UGG Amelie Suede, including their lives, to ensure the God given rights of each citizen of the USA. Their willingness to sacrifice everything for our rights and the core principles of this nation is reason enough to explore the true nature of these rights, these unalienable rights.
Precepts and Promises
How we understand the term ‘life’ depends on our core beliefs. Life is defined by how we choose to live it. For those who choose not to believe in the existence of a Higher Being, of God, life is to be lived for right now without regard to the possibility of a life after this one. There is no moral standard because moral standards are a divinely inspired concept, a spiritual reference. Whatever makes us happy now is right. However, if we choose to disavow the existence of God, our rights must be granted by other men. This renders them vulnerable to the whim and fancy of men and allows them to be revoked, taken away, by men. This was not the intent of our founding fathers. This is evident by their constant reference to God, our Creator.
Often there are many who would argue that the laws of the Old Testament do not apply to us today. We are told that because we have entered into a New Covenant through Christ that the Old Testament laws no longer apply. It is true that we are in a New Covenant relationship with God and that we live in the Grace afforded us by Christ’s sacrifice. We must not forget, however, that Jesus told us, when He was asked by the Jewish lawyers which of the commandments was the greatest, that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul and strength. In essence Jesus combined the first four of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17), which encompass man’s relationship to God. Jesus followed up by stating that the second commandment was like the first, that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves. In this second commandment, Jesus summed up the remaining six commandments. These last six commandments define man’s relationship to man. When Jesus talked to (evangelized to) others who were not His followers He would always use God’s Ten Commandments to make His point. (Reference the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22.)
Jesus of Nazareth was born a Jew and He died a physical death as a Jew. He was always mindful of God’s Commandments. He told us that He had come to fulfill the law and not to destroy it (Matthew 5:17.) We live and are saved from God’s wrath by the Grace of Jesus Christ. We are not expected to live by the man made ‘religious’ laws (religious customs) of the Old Testament (Old Covenant.) We are always to honor God’s Laws, His Ten Commandments, as was the custom and example given to us by Jesus Christ. We are not bound by the Kosherat laws (dietary laws) or the other ‘customs’ of the Jewish people. This is not in dispute of the Old Covenants. We are given the entirety of The Old Testament to learn and gain wisdom and understanding. We are given the Old Testament to study in an effort on our part to understand the nature of God and to learn from the example of man’s relationship to God from the beginning.
Precepts are rules or laws or principles by which we need to live our lives. A promise is defined in the dictionary as: an express assurance on which expectation is to be based. God has given us His precepts and His promises in order that we can live a successful life as His children; not just in the life to come but in this present life.
The first precept and promise made that we will consider is in Proverbs 3:6 (Amplified.) “In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.” The precept or principle is to acknowledge Him, our one and true living God. The promise that follows this is that He (God) will direct our path. All that is asked of us is that we acknowledge God as our God, the Master and the Creator of the Universe and Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son and our Savior. In John 3:16 we are assured that all we have to do is believe in Jesus Christ, given to us through His Love for us, and we are promised life eternal with Him. There is no greater promise than the promise of salvation.
The second precept and promise that we want to consider is found in Psalms 37:4 (Amplified.) “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.” When we say delight yourself,UGG Rainier Boot, what do we mean? Delight means to give or receive or take great pleasure in something or someone. It is easy to understand that when something gives us great pleasure it become the center of our attention. It becomes the object of our affection and something sought after. When we concentrate (focus) our attention on Christ,UGG Ultra Tall, we begin to be filled with His joy. We begin to realize the extent to which He provides immeasurable pleasure and happiness in our lives. The more pleasure (joy) that is Christ that fills our lives the more He delights us. When we delight (find joy immeasurable) in God, He gives us the desire and secret petitions of our heart. This does not mean the fleshy materialistic desires. Those materialistic desires seem to fade away as we realize the essence of our relationship with God. The new car or bigger house or big bank accounts are not as important as our desire to be the conduit of God’s blessings to others. We begin to desire to accomplish His will. The amazing part of this is that when we put aside the desire for things the more He blesses us with greater things.
This brings us to a similar precept and promise that assures us that life can be dealt with in a manner that will be rewarding and bring us great satisfaction. The precept is to seek and the promise is a promise of fulfillment. We read in Matthew 6:33 “But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.” When we seek first the Kingdom of Heaven,uggs shoes, God’s Holiness, everything that we need and want is added to us. This is such good news. We are to keep Christ as our focus, not wealth nor property nor things nor lack of things. When we focus on the Creator, all of creation is at our fingertips, without having to divert our attention to it.
Another principle that carries a magnificent promise is found in Malachi 3:10. “Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” God promises us that He will open the windows of Heaven and shower us with blessing so great that we will not have room to contain them. All we have to do is give back to Him 1/10 th of what He has already given us. Everything that we will ever have already belongs to God. He wants to test our willingness to follow His precepts. He wants us to prove Him.
Ezekiel 11:20 gives us a glimpse into the world that God has planned for us. “That they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God.” When we follow all of God’s precepts, live by all of His Laws,UGG New Arrivals, we will be His people and He will be our God. What a wonderful state of affairs. When we are God’s people, we are in God’s favor. When He is our God, all of His bounty is laid before us. True and lasting success can only be found when God, The Almighty Creator of the Universe, is our God.
Promises based upon keeping the precepts.
This chapter contains a general enforcement of all the laws given by Moses; by promises of reward in case of obedience on the one hand and punishment for disobedience on the other. While Israel maintained a national regard to God's worship, Sabbaths, and sanctuary and did not turn aside to idolatry,ugg uk sale, the Lord engaged to continue to them temporal mercies and religious advantages. These great and precious promises, though they relate chiefly to the life which now is, were typical of the spiritual blessings made sure by the covenant of grace to all believers through Christ.
Galatians 2:20 (New King James Version)
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
This, in effect, leads to our third precept and promise that we find in the Holy Scripture. When we are obedient we realize the satisfaction of accomplishing our part in the plan of God. Isaiah 1:19 tells us that “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.” If we are willing to obey God’s Laws and to do the work that God has purposed us for, our rewards are unbelievable. He also tells us that obedience is better than sacrifice. By obeying God’s Commandments we demonstrate our willingness to be His children. When we obey God’s precepts, we honor Him. When we obey God’s Laws, we bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. If we are willing to do this and to obey God, He will bless us beyond our imagining.
We often hear of God’s promises to mankind. Too often, however, we concentrate on the promises and ignore the precepts upon which the promises are conditioned. Let’s take a look at a few of these.