Preston, you wrote:

How can we love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind? From Part I: Get rid of anything or anyone that has taken His place in your heart, the idols. From Part II: Get rid of the distractions, the stuff, the unnecessary, anything that's distracting us from thinking about God and hearing from Him. From Part III: Build up your prayer life with God and be thankful for everything He is doing or is allowing to happen in life. And finally, "believe". Amen?

:-)  There is so much to it, but all is eventually put into place through the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.  He himself is our salvation; in him we are the righteousness of God, in him we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins.  In him are hidden all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom.

When we look at the first commandment we have to keep several things in mind:

1) We have to understand that the Ten Commandments are part of a covenant; that covenant was given to a nation not to the world.  The reason the law was given was to make sin increase not to produce holy living.  The Law [in fact as Romans 7 points out: law, without the definite article] reveals sin by stirring it up within us.  It is a tutor, a sign that points to a solution; the solution is Christ.

2) We really need to understand that we are under a NEW covenant; the new covenant goes far beyond the Ten Commandments.  Not having committed adultery does not come close to "if you even look on a woman to lust for her then you have committed adultery with her already in your heart."  The commandment, written on stone, is the ministry of death because all it can do is to show us that sin dwells within us.  It was never intended to be a means to live a righteous life.

3) We must understand that as a Christian, we are as dead to The Law and law in general [Romans 7], as we are dead to sin!  When we attempt to "do" the law we are walking by the flesh because law is for sinners, not for the righteous [James].  A dead man does not sin and he does not obey rules because the rules have no jurisdiction over him...he's dead.  We were made to die, to law [no definite article in Greek] so that we might live to the One who has been raised from the dead--Christ!

4) Christ, who is our very life, fulfills the law by living for us and through us by the Spirit.  [If we walk by the Spirit we will not carry out the desires of the flesh: so the desires and flesh are still there]  The New Covenant is not forgiveness, the gift of righteousness, and then us living by the Ten Commandments or any other list of rules or external examples.  The New Covenant is a law written on our hearts by the Spirit of God and lived by God causing us to walk in it--He is in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.  Our faith in him is the one essential...we must mix the word with faith or we will not experiencially see him living through us.

As an analogy: if my hand wanted to live for me--because it is a very zealous hand--it may well say to me in the morning "Just tell me what your will is and 'I' will do it!"  I might then give it a list of ten rules about how to be a perfect hand...not to make it successful in its desired to live in independence, but so that it will come to see that apart from me it can do nothing!  That it will never be a true "hand" until it yields itself completely to me to let me live my life through it!  As long as it is trying to live its life for me the only thing it will accomplish is to display its complete inability to accomplish the task!  It will, at best, look like it has some nervous system disorder!

So it is with the Ten Commandments...they were given to drive a people to God and prepare them for the answer: Christ.  It is a mistake to reject the answer and then try to live by the sign that was pointing to it!  It's also a mistake to accept Christ and then try to live by an external law.

We, of course, are not lawless...because Christ does not sin and He lives through us, by our trusting him to do so.  It is admittedly, a learning adventure!  :-)

Best regards,
Craig

Yes Lara, I see it that way too.  The more I think about it, the more I believe that "faith in faith" is really "new age."  It is faith in the supposed power of belief, rather than belief and trust in God.

Craig

I feel like I just got homework, and LOVE it!

I am not at all satisfied with my love walk with Jesus, I want MORE! 

Thanks Preston, I was driving on my hour long drive tonight from work thinking I had not heard from you in awhile. I have books to mail to you, Joey and Carrie Ann this week, just got busy preparing for work and mom's doctor and my own visit. 

Dad had a hard day and they said that they may put him back in the hospital tomorrow, which would be the 4th time since Christmas. 

Believe with me please. God can heal him but if He isn't going to, I want his passing to be peaceful and take him home to life eternal. 

love you

The Church of Ephesus struggled to stay in love with God..."Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first." Revelation 2:4-5. We need to continually remember the height from which we have fallen. Thanks Preston for another thought provoking blog...love you.

Have to de-junk the brain and work very digiligently on the prayer life until it becomes as natural as swallowing water...  continual converstation, thanking Him.   Looking for what He has done, and what He has given to us.. for His glory in all things.  Amen.