Dear Friends

The Bible is full of rules..........you've probably noticed that by now. However not all of the rules in the Bible apply to believers today. Its not an easy subject to understand but once you do understand it, you will be able to live for Jesus with a clean conscience and that will certainly be helpful for you.

The Old Testament has a lot of rules that cover about everything you can think of. There are rules about what kind of food you can eat, what to do with diseases, what pets you can and can't have and even when you can and can't have intimate times with your husband or wife. We refer to all these rules as "The Law" and God had many reasons for making these rules in the Old Testament. One of these reasons was to show how futile it is to try to be perfect...........it is impossible to please God through our human effort. A lot of people can't even do something simple like lose weight or give up smoking on their own.........how can humans possibly be perfect and do all the things God has asked. The truth is it would be impossible to be perfect.

The Bible says in Ephesians 2:8-10 that if we believe that "we are saved by grace, not by works (our human effort) so that no one can boast." In other words, God is not expecting us to be perfect because if we had to be, no-one could be saved. We are saved by grace and faith.......by trusting in God and by his kindness to us. This is great news because it means we can be forgiven for the wrong things we have done.

Does this mean we can do whatever we want however?

No actually it doesn't. We are saved by grace, but God is still expecting us to live the way that He wants. The Bible tells us that we are to live according to God's love. The Bible also says that if we love God we will obey Him. So if we really care about God we won't go off and kill people, or lie or steal or commit adultery. These things are displeasing to God and that is the reason why we don't do them.

So basically we are now in a relationship with God............he overlooks our faults but he expects us to give him our hearts. A husband will forgive his wife for many mistakes if he knows she deeply loves him and is devoted to Him only. In the same way God knows we can't be perfect and as we trust Him we are forgiven, but He wants our hearts.

It really is all about love and not about rules.

Bless you
Cheers
David