Creation

In the “beginning” God created the heavens and the earth.

It all started in Genesis 1:2….

The earth was without form, darkness covered the deep waters.

The spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Then God said, “Let there be “light”.

God divided the light from the darkness; called light “day” and darkness “night.”

Let there be space to separate the waters of the heavens and the waters of the earth.

God called the space “sky”.

God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry land may appear; called the ground “land” and the waters “seas”.

God saw that it was good.

God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass and vegetation, every sort of seed-bearing plant from which they came”.

God said, “Let there be all sorts of seed-bearing fruit trees and plants of the same kind”. And God saw that it was good.

God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days and years”.

God said, “Let these lights in the sky shine down on earth”.

God made two great lights; the larger one to govern the day and the smaller one to govern the night.

God also made the stars.

He knows the number of the stars. He gives names to all of them.(Psalm 147:4)

Lift up your eyes and see. Who has made these stars? It is the One God who leads them out by number. He calls them all by name. Because of the greatness of His strength, and because He is strong in power, not one of them is missing. (Isaiah 40:26)

Don’t you yet understand? Don’t you know by now that the everlasting God, the Creator of the farthest parts of the earth, never grows faint or weary? No one can fathom the depths of his understanding. His understanding is too great for us to begin to know. (Isaiah 40:28)

Lord God, you stretched out your mighty arm and made the sky and the earth. You can do anything. (Jeremiah 32:17)

God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning.

God said, ” Let the waters be filled with an abundance of fish and living creatures, and let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” So God created great sea creatures. And God saw that it was good.

God said, “Let the birds fly above the earth”.

Then God blessed them saying, “Multiply, let the fish fill the seas and the birds multiply on earth.”

God made every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind, livestock and small animals and any creeping thing that scurries along the earth. And it was so.

God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw it was good.

And God said, “Let us make man in our image to be like us. Let them reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the animals including small animals that scurry along the ground.”

God had now created a man and named him Adam.

So God created human beings in his own image. (Genesis 1:27)

(This verse is often cited as the foundation for understanding the human purpose within creation, as being created “in the image of God” signifies our unique role in managing and caring for the world and that humans are in the image of God and are to love one another in their moral, spiritual, and intellectual nature.)

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Then God saw everything that He made and indeed it was very good. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished. And God saw that it was very good.

In general,  Scripture teaches that God brought the world into existence as His crowning achievement of His good work and for His own glory and to provide a place for his sons and daughters to dwell here in morality.  He created people in His image so they can share in his overflowing love, grace and goodness through their relationship with Him. People were created to love God and each other.

The Lord God planted a garden, an earthly paradise in the East, in Eden and there he put the man he had formed and had named Adam. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, the name of the second river is the Gihon, the name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur and the fourth river is the Euphrates.

In the Garden of Eden, the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground-trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food and nourishment.

God wanted to show Adam His goodness and His love for him in providing Adam with a beautiful place to live, all of Adam’s needs were met. God’s plan and purpose for Adam was to live there and take care of  The Garden of Eden; caring for the plants and trees that were nutritional ensuring their growth and vitality and maintaining the overall beauty. He was also in charge of naming all of the animals that God had now created. (One of the most enjoyable responsibilities ever!)

In the middle of the garden was the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you eat from it *you will certainly die.” 

It is accepted by Christians when God said: * “you will certainly die” means that if you are disobedient to God you have sinned against him and will now experience a spiritual death and be separated from him.

Not a physical death as we know it but that God will turn his back to you. Adam was actually living in the literal presence of God and had never been separated from him.

And if Adam obeys God’s command and does not eat from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and eats only from the Tree of Life and the other plants and trees in The Garden he will live forever. 

Adam did not know of spiritual or physical death or what sin was as there had never been a reason to.

God warned Adam that if he ate from that one tree that he  would essentially experience a death and  would lose his perfect relationship with God.  

God asked Adam to name all of the animals, birds and fish but none proved to be a helper suited to him. God then caused a deep sleep upon Adam, took one of his ribs and made a woman and brought her to Adam. Adam then said. “She shall be called a Woman because she was taken out of man.”

Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living.                    Genesis 3:30

Every person to this day is related to Eve and Adam.

Eve’s purpose:  God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth…. Genesis 1:28

Adam and his helper Eve then lived in The Garden of Eden. (Interesting thought: Adam and Eve did not have belly buttons since they were not born of a woman.)

The Garden of Eden would have been the perfect temperature, the perfect humidity, without pests or diseases, roses did not have thorns and there was nothing that would detract from their enjoyment of knowing God in a perfect and pure way.
Adam and Eve lived a life of blissful innocence.  They had never sinned; therefore, they had no guilt or shame and had never experienced temptation before.  They were original, untouched and new. They needed no clothing because they did not know what being naked was.  There would not be pain for the woman when she gave birth and there was no thorns on roses.  This was life as God intended it to be.

Adam and Eve enjoyed a relationship with God, and with each other, that was able to continue without being stopped or made difficult by the power of sin because sin did not yet exist. Adam and Eve were the only two people on earth…and they were privileged in a way that no one since has been.  They met and intimately communicated regularly with the God. It was perfect.

And then everything changed within seconds…

In the Garden of Eden a serpent approached Eve by surprise. This serpent was more devious than any living creature which the Lord God made. The serpent asked Eve, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

Eve replied, “We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, but not the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it, nor touch it, you will certainly die.”

The serpent then said to Eve, “You will not certainly die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

(And now for the first time ever Adam and Eve are being tempted.

Tempted by this serpent to question what God had told them which was to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge and Evil. This serpent is also referred to as Satan or the Devil and is the embodiment of evil and rebelled against God and is God’s enemy) .

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her and he ate it.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

God asked, “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

And now sin was born due to the first immoral behavior (disobeyed God) which was catastrophic and ultimately separated them from God, just as God warned them.

Not only are they separated from God, they will  eventually experience a physical death and not live forever. Remember that God warned Adam that if he ate from that one tree that he  would  lose his perfect relationship with God. 

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked (Genesis 3:7)  The Lord God then made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)

This implies God murdered and sacrificed an innocent animal.

He killed an innocent animal to cover their guilty sin and naked bodies. 

(Many interpret sacrificial system as a foreshadowing and indicating Jesus Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on the cross)   

The animal did nothing wrong, yet God chose to use the blood of this innocent animal to cover the two who sinned against him and to show Adam and Eve that sin has consequences.

Adam and Eve are the first parents of the human race and now sin is in their nature.

And because of this there is now a fracture in humanity and this is known as “The Fall” of Humanity because

we have ALL inherited this sinful nature, whether we are white, black or brown. We have all been affected by sin. It is the source of all of our relational tensions, our insecurities,  our shame, our failures, It is the source of sickness, disease and wars and  poverty. It has affected all of creation. There are no exceptions and this is why Christians believe we are all sinners and say we need to be “saved”.  Saved from what?

Saved from separation from God and actual death as we know it. 

“Getting saved” means the need of rescue from the consequences of sin, primarily death and separation from God. 

So why did God create this serpent who tempted Eve and Adam?

According to the Bible God created the serpent in the Garden of Eden to give Adam and Eve the free will to continue to be in relationship with him or not to be

just as he does with all of us.

Adam and Eve had the free will to choose to do what God commanded them to do but they failed.  Eve was tempted and deceived by a serpent who is known as the Satan and Satan tempted her to eat the forbidden fruit. She should have not taken the fruit and ate it. Adam knew full well the consequences of eating that fruit and did so anyhow which is a direct rejection of God. This was the first time Adam or Eve had ever disobeyed God and because of the choice they made sin was now part of their nature.

Adam was commanded by God to do just one thing; to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, just one thing and Adam failed.

It is Biblical fact that Satan’s only purpose was to tempt Adam and Eve into sin which would keep them from knowing and loving God and to separate them from him. (read John 10:10). And Satan succeeded.

Satan is a symbol of evil, temptation and deceit.  He introduced Adam and Eve to lying, fear and guilt and does the same to you including violence, pride, rage, greed, lust, temptation,  theft, adultery, vanity and more.

(Beware that according to the Bible Satan is a created being who currently roams the earth tempting people to sin which separates them from God. Every day, whether we realize it or not, we are in a spiritual battle.

The Bible tells us that Satan is a deceiver, an accuser, and an enemy of our souls.  Satan’s goal is to weaken our faith, fill us with fear, and tempt us in any way he knows to turn us away from God. That is Satan’s purpose.

Unfortunately Satan has completed his goal by tempting Eve and Adam to disobey God. Beware because Satan’s job is to separate all people from God.  “The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy… (John 10:10)

The way is through his son Jesus.

God has a plan…..

This is known as “The Greatest Story Ever Told” because it is.

Approximately 4000 years after God had created Adam and Eve the population had grown from 2 people; from Adam and Eve to 200 to 300 million people and all were sinners because every person was related to Adam and Eve and had inherited their sinful nature.  And this is why  those 4000 years are filled with stories of horrific violence, prideful people, murder, people killing just for power over others and doing anything to get it and complete debauchery; fulfilling a person’s carnal desires.

The Lord doesn’t like anyone who is conceited—you can be sure they will be punished. Proverbs 16:5

God seemingly had turned his back on humanity because in God’s eyes every single person was a sinner.

God is Holy which means that He is utterly pure, righteous, and morally perfect, completely separate from sin and evil, and worthy of worship and reverence.

And God hates sin because it is contrary to his holy nature and disrupts the relationship between humanity and God. While he hates sin, he also loves sinners more and desires their repentance so he gave everyone a way  to get back into relationship with him, transform their hearts to love others and live forever.

During those years God used a sacrificial system  as a ritualistic act of worship and atonement and

used blood as a payment for sin because the shedding of blood from an innocent animal, a lamb represented the sacrifice of an innocent life in exchange for the guilty life. This symbolizes that actual death is the consequence of sin but instead of you having to die, an innocent lamb is killed in place of you. 

Remember that the first animal sacrificed/killed by God was shed and it’s blood was symbolically used to cover the guilty sin of Adam and Eve.

“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins”.  Hebrews 9:22

This verse emphasizes the universal principle in God’s law that the shedding of blood is a necessary condition for sin to be forgiven, blood sacrifice is essential for purification and forgiveness.   

Animal sacrifices were mandated to be performed at the designated place of worship, either in the Tabernacle or at the Temple in Jerusalem. Gods payment for sin is shedding of blood so for thousands of years innocent animals were killed and sacrificed to temporarily get God to forgive them.  To receive  God’s atonement  blood must be shed. One can assume that it was painful and emotional to sacrifice innocent lambs and animals over the years because they found  it impossible to not sin. God made sure you acknowledged and were accountable for your sins and so there were consequences for sinners. Sin was generally understood as violating God’s laws, failing to fulfill one’s obligations to God,  failing to love God and others and specific acts considered sins included idolatry, murder, adultery, stealing, lying, blasphemy, and failing to keep the Sabbath. 

There were many respected sacrificial system rituals through out the years for people to receive atonement and forgiveness from God. There was a lot of sin and a lot of lambs and other animals blood shed. Animal sacrifices for atonement were primarily offered by priests but ordinary individuals could offer animal sacrifices as well. The specific types of animals and procedures depended on the nature of the offense and the social status of the individual. For example, the high priest performed special sacrifices on the Day of Atonement, while ordinary individuals could offer various sin offerings for atonement  as a way to seek forgiveness from God for breaking His laws.

These sacrifices symbolized the consequences of sin and acted as a substitute, with the animal’s death representing a payment for when they broke God’s law or codes of conduct. Leviticus 4 and and 6

In order to receive  atonement and forgiveness from you needed to:

1. Repent with a sincere heart, acknowledge wrongdoing and resolving to do better and a heartfelt desire to get back into relationship with God.
2. Demonstrate your remorse and commitment to following God’s laws. seek forgiveness and express gratitude to God.
3. In the Tabernacle or at the Temple sacrifice (kill) an innocent animal so it’s blood was shed to cover their guilty sins.

(Many interpret this sacrificial system as a foreshadowing providing hints of what happens in the future with Jesus Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on the cross.

So for thousands of years God’s people continued shedding the blood of lambs/animals as a temporary atonement for sin in order to be in relationship with God. This was the law that God’s people were commanded to follow.

Then God changed this law to continued with His plan….

Before Jesus left to go back where he had come from 33 years previously he said to his friends/disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; I do not give it to you as the world does. You have heard me say to you, “I am going away and coming back to you.” If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said, “I am going to the Father,” for My Father is greater than I.

And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.”

Jesus continued to say: “If you love me, you will do as I command, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you. The Spirit will show you what is true. When the Spirit of truth comes, The Holy Spirit, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears (from God) he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, “The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.”
_{(John 14:15-17 & 27-29, John 16:13-15)}

Begin to pay attention to the Holy Spirit’s voice, the voice that you hear in your mind because He will guide you and will correctly interpret the word of God to you so you can reach new levels of understanding. Since He knows you perfectly and knows that everyone thinks differently He then transfers information to you in ways that you will comprehend it.

A woman named Mary was living in Nazareth with her parents and engaged to a man named Joseph who was a carpenter. She is described as a virgin in the Gospels, who was chosen by God to conceive Jesus through the Holy Spirit; her conception of Jesus was not a natural biological process involving a man making it a supernatural event. God can do ANYTHING.

This is central to Christian beliefs about the virgin birth of Jesus. Jesus would not inherit a sinful nature because he was and always would be sinless, free of any sin.

The passages in the Gospel of Luke 1:35 and Matthew 1:35 describe Jesus’ conception as a miraculous event through the Holy Spirit, without sexual union between Mary and Joseph. These verses highlight that Jesus was divinely conceived in Mary’s womb by the power of God and this divine conception is understood as the means by which Jesus did not inherit the sinful nature passed down from Adam, ensuring his perfect holiness and ability to atone for humanity’s sin.

Matthew who was one of Jesus’s Apostles and knew him well and Luke another author in The Bible both knew Jesus’s mother Mary.

In Matthew 1:20-23 says, ” The Angel of the Lord said to Joseph (Mary’s husband) do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS. The virgin (Mary) will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel which means “GOD WITH US.”

The name “Immanuel” is characterized by Christ’s essence meaning chosen by divine authority. He was called Jesus which means “God Saves” because it expresses both his identity and his mission.

In The Bible John (John 1:14) wrote Jesus is “God wrapped in flesh”. Essentially meaning that God took on human form by becoming physically embodied in Jesus; signifying that Jesus was fully God while also being fully human. According to the Bible, Jesus is both God and the Son of God, and is referred to as “God in the flesh.” (Open your mind and believe, why not?)

After working with his earthly Father as a carpenter  (his Heavenly Father is God, yes we all have both as well) and living in Nazareth for approximately 30 years, Jesus then began his purpose, his public ministry. which is detailed in the New Testament. He was baptized by his cousin John who called him

“The lamb of God”  

The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said: Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29

(No more lambs/animals will need to be sacrificed for atonement and forgiveness because Jesus will be sacrificed for all of our sins….)

At age 30 Jesus began to preach, teach, and perform over 40  miracles that were witnessed by thousands of people including his own Apostles who wrote and recorded them  in the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) but it is to be believed that there  were  many more that were not written about but witnessed by thousands.  The verse in John 21:25 suggests that if every miracle and event in Jesus’ life were to be written down, it would be an impossible task, implying an infinite number of books. 

After a period of about three and a half years of ministry, Jesus was crucified, and according to Christian belief, resurrected three days late

Isaiah who was one of the most widely respected prophets and authors in the Bible wrote over 100 propehcies about Jesus 700 years before Jesus was born. Read Isaiah 53 as it describes Jesus as the lamb to be sacrificed and uses imagery associated with the traditional sacrificial system to portray Jesus’ death as a substitute for all of our sins, not just one person or priest. It essentially means acting as a replacement or substitute. substitutionary atonement for sin.

For atonement to God  for being a sinner you no longer needed to sacrifice an animals to receive forgiveness from him as this was only temporary. God’s plan was to use his animal sacrificial system only temporarily for all to understand what is necessary for people to get back into relationship with him.

^{john 1:29} The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said:

Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Yes, according to Christian theology, God fulfilled the requirement for animal sacrifices through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Animal sacrifices in the Old Testament were a temporary and symbolic act, pointing forward to Jesus’ ultimate and perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of sinsFor the Christian, we know that animal sacrifices ended at the moment of Jesus’ death, when the temple curtain was torn in two.

To get “saved” from being eternally separated from God is now your own choice. You can use  YOUR OWN free will to believe that Jesus is the son of God. Because if you do you will not be separated from him anymore.

This is why Jesus came to earth. Thank you Jesus!

Jesus came to put an end to our past, our sinful nature that we inherited from Adam and Eve and give us a new future with our Father God, NO MATTER OUR SIN.

 “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10

Jesus said that if you belief that He is the Son of God, accept that you are a sinner because you inherited a sinful nature and have sinned on your own,  ask God for forgiveness with honesty and sincerity in your heart, this gives you the opportunity to have a intimate and direct relationship with Father God no matter your sins;  murderer, adulterer, liar, women who have had an abortion, etc.

It is up to you and only you. God knows your heart.  Remember He created you, knows everything about you and knew of all sins you would commit and is willing to forgive and not remember your sins as if they never happened because His never ending love for you surpasses his immeasurable hatred of sin.

God is the God of second, third and fourth and unlimited chances for His children who confess their sins, repent and come to Him for help.

Here is proof:

• Psalm 25:7: “Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to Your mercy remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O LORD”
• Isaiah 43:25: “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins”
• Hebrews 8:12: “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more”
• Jeremiah 31:34: “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        If you believe the words written below your belief and faith in Jesus begins right now:

“Dear Father God, I know I’m a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness.
I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son. I believe that He died
for my sin and that you raised Him to life.
I want to trust Him as my Savior and follow Him as Lord, from this day forward. Guide my life and help me to do your will.  

I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

If you believe in the above words not only are you back in relationship with God you are also being given eternal life and will live forever in heaven with God.

Paul writes in The Bible, “For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
John writes, “My sheep (people of God) hear My voice and I know them. They follow me. I give them life that lasts forever.” (John 10:27-28)

Thank you Jesus for going through that horror when you were crucified and murdered.  3 days later our Father God raised you from the dead and with your own commandment you were made alive again. And by doing so you have forgiven us and give us all the opportunity to spend eternity with you through your unmerited grace and mercy no matter our sin and no matter what we wrongfully did. And thank you for giving all of us access to our Father God so we may have a relationship with him and no longer be separated from him because of our faith in you.

Because of Jesus and our chosen faith in him we now have a new nature, no longer a sinful nature and our relationship with God can be restored because Jesus removed our sins from the record so God is oblivious and looks the other way and does not see them. And because of this, we receive forgiveness from God for our sins we have committed and we can, once again receive eternal life and live for eternity with you in Heaven. Thank you Jesus.

Choose to believe in Jesus and be curious about this. As they say “This Is The Greatest Story Ever Told.”

Once a believer in Jesus you are no longer separated from God. Thank you Jesus, In your name, Amen.

that was a foreshadow of what Christ would do so Christ who has always existed let’s make sure that’s clear let’s always existed he is not a created being he’s part of the Godhead the father son the Holy Spirit right a spirit cannot shed blood so Christ was always existed had to take on a physical human body borrowed a womb of a virgin and now that he has a physical body now that body could be mutilated and the blood from that body can be shed so that atonement can be made for the sins of the whole world in which you and I who are saved now we reap the righteousness of that atonement so Christ could not come as God he had to come as a physical man because blood had to be shed to pay the price for sin amen and just so why did Jesus have to come as the son of God

They also served as a reminder of God’s grace and his desire to be in relationship with his people. 

Jesus the son of God was born here on earth as a human specifically to restore the relationship between people and God even with his knowing that we are all sinners. This is Jesus’s purpose.

Words to think about: An egg has 3 parts: the shell, the yolk, the white each having their own purpose and is still considered an egg. God also has 3 “parts”: God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit each having their own purpose and is still considered God. You pray to God and he then informs Jesus who then translates what God told him directly to the Holy Spirit who then interprets it directly and specifically to you. These are known as “aha” moments or coincidences in your life but they are actually revelations sent to you from God. Pay attention and open your mind (why not?) because through your faith in Jesus you are being guided and directed by your Father God. (read Proverbs 3:5&6)

Jesus said: “When the Spirit of truth comes, *The Holy Spirit, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears (from God)  he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 16:13)

*One definition of the Holy Spirit: “In Christianity the Holy Spirit is the One who guides a person to correctly interpret the word of God and he helps each person reach new levels of understanding. Since he knows each person perfectly and it is understood that people think differently, he can transfer information to people in ways that they would comprehend it.”

God says: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.” (Isaiah 48:17)

FYI: Before Jesus left and ascended back to Heaven to be with his Father he gave us 2 commandments, not suggestions.

Jesus was asked, “Sir, which is the most important commandment in the laws of Moses?”

1) Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.

2)The second most important is similar:
‘Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.’

All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that you are obeying all the others.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

Bottom line:

On the last day I worked on this project, I looked up, grabbed my camera as I saw an angel with praying hands.