To Obey: To Live

[Sparrowhawk]

This is a testimony
God has taught me something today: to live, is to obey Him. Jesus said he was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Bible also says God is love. Jesus said to love Him we should obey his His commands. Adam and Eve were given many commands. However, all of them had to do with how to nurture what we normally call life and to cause more life: save seemingly one, not to eat of the tree.

Why? quite simply to show Him love, the love of obeying Him. If they ate, they would die. Why? They would have chosen to love Him, and He is the Way the Truth and the Life. To reject that is to embrace death. After we chose death, out of love He sent Jesus, God made man, to redeem us. Why?

We are born with a sinful nature that we alone cannot overcome. However, He came that might believe in Him, to have a chance to love Him again, to have life again. And our obedience to obey that call and receive that gift He gives us. So we are one again given the choice: to love and obey him and dwell with him in life, or to reject him and die. When we choose to love Him and leave our sinful nature we are putting faith in Him that he is life and we cannot support ourselves. Therefore our faith in Him saves us becaue we allow Him to give us life. I believe that is what God has taught me today so i wanted to share it with you.

Edit: Basically, I now understand God's statement if you love Him, you will obey Him and also why He told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate of the tree. They would be rejecting Him, doing so causes death, just as we now have a choice to accept or reject Jesus. In other words, i now understand another way the Old Testament and The New Testament are united to help us understand Him through His word. I have always known this, but now i undertand it. Just like you may learn a math formula well enough to pass a test, you may later on understand how it really works. I always knew this, but God today basically gave me understanding of what i already knew.

So really this post is more of, "Hey I now understand and I'm so happy i got to say something". I'm sorry if i annoyed anyone or pointed out something so obvious. I just had such a rush of excititment that i had to post. Kind of like a kid who keeps telling someone "Ice Cream really tastes good!" He might have known it before, but did not understand it until he had some. That was what this was like for me. I finally understood what someone had always told me so i'm now saying it because i understand it instead of just knowing it, if that makes any sense.

[martinloyola]

hey man, its should never be annoying to hear the truth!! Even if its for the gazillionth time!!! In our push for "religious freedom" and our personal "right" to believe what we wish, we often loose sight of the fact that "there is no spiritual authority outside obedience to God", in essence our faith is not our own and our only "right" to anything is our free will to choose to obey or to rebel against God's will.

[Sparrowhawk]

Thanks, martinloyola.

[bbboy21]

hey man, its should never be annoying to hear the truth!! Even if its for the gazillionth time!!! In our push for "religious freedom" and our personal "right" to believe what we wish, we often loose sight of the fact that "there is no spiritual authority outside obedience to God", in essence our faith is not our own and our only "right" to anything is our free will to choose to obey or to rebel against God's will.