Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in God
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
1 John 4:16
God is LOVE
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
John 12:37-50
Belief and Unbelief among the Jews
37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.
44 Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
47 “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. 49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Corinthians Divided Over Their Leaders
10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Matthew 22:34-40
The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Acts 17:29-31
God Has Appointed Jesus as Judge
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Trust in LORD with all your heart...What does that mean, to trust Someone with all your heart?...I think it actually means many things...I believe the verse is about Love, because God is LOVE...So we can Trust LOVE...If one cannot trust love and the one's one does love, who really can you trust?...So, we need to have a loving relationship with our Father...And the love we have for our Father, comes from our heart...But trusting in God with all your heart may also be about morality and include your morality beliefs of this earthly world...
Jesus forever linked God and man, when He says that the Two Greatest Commandments are love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself...So isn't a life of love with both a love for God and neighbor of great importance as well as how we treat our neighbors?...Isn't this morality -in loving God and our neighbors?...I believe, that morality and love are linked as we look at these Two Great Commandments...Isn't morality and treating others properly included in the statement of trusting in God...Loving your neighbor is right after loving God Jesus says...Trusting in God is about Trusting in God, who is a Moral God...Many years ago, He gave us the Ten Commandments to show us that He is a Moral God...And, it makes sense to me, that Someone who is Absolutely Moral is Absolute LOVE...And God is LOVE...
And I think everyone believes that there is good in this world and that there is evil in this world...So does these two entities of Good and evil actually have a Source?...Does Good and evil have a beginning?...Non-believers believe in the majesty of man...They believe that we can be our own moral judge...But my morals maybe quite different or a little different from yours...The moral compasses of many people maybe close to yours , but still they differ in the end...I see that the church has many denominations, many with very good moral and similar beliefs, yet there is this underlying fact that we still do have many church denominations and not one single agreement in each of their bylaws or their moral laws...I might think if each of us had the same and exact moral law belief, there would be only need for one church and one denomination...But each of us are different and who is to say, that we could even agree on the one world church idea, even if we agreed on every single one of the moral laws ever to exist...
I think St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians in trying to find that one person to follow and who they best believe is true still today... Paul appealed to the followers of Jesus, in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought...That would be nice...St. Paul said they were even quarreling...What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”...
Man seems to have a problem with complete agreement...If there was one world denominational church and that one church were to judge and say these are the morals that are now to be lived by and now follow these morals that we have and need to be followed, which denomination would it be?...Would it matter?...And here again, we are left with men and women choosing which morals everyone are to follow...Paul ask is Christ divided?...Jesus is not, but we are...I think we can see with this type of choosing of who picks our morals and values, tell us that we are in need of a Higher Moral Standard...We need a Source for our Morals...For me, man is not enough to decide...Would everyone in the world be comfortable with just one group of people telling us what is moral and ethical?...Would we trust their interpretations?...It seems that we will never have one man or one group telling us how to live on earth...Even the wisest Man ever to live tried to teach us what was right and what was wrong and He had people fall out of His discipleship when things got difficult and hard to understand...And Jesus is the wisest Man to ever live and die and walk the earth, if it is fair to even call Him a Man...
So in choosing a Moral Judge seems to lead us back to God and Jesus...They seem like the Two Most Likely Candidates for why we have morality...They were around in the beginning...They have been forever in existence...Man or human nature has only been around a few thousand years, and when, if ever, did the totality of all human nature become moral...We struggled in the third chapter of Genesis...But God and Jesus had to give us a Moral Standard, because of how the Bible is written...However, there are many non-believers, who do not believe in the Bible and the way one person interprets what he reads and the way the next person reads the Bible, can be a little bit different, even though it is the exact same words, verses, and the same Holy Book...But without God and Jesus we have man only judging what our morals are to be...And what atheist wants a believer telling him what their morals are, and what believer wants an atheist telling him what his morals are to be...I believe that Fyodor Dostoyevsky said it right, "If there is no God, everything is permitted."...If man is allowed to choose someone else's specific morals as the right morals or their own, then everything, including evil is permitted for those who have chosen the evil path...And here we are back to where we were in the first place, a world where the majesty is man...
Trust in God, what does that mean -well it means in part to me that God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the Moral Judges of all the world's morality...They are the Ones that we know we can trust...For God has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man he has appointed...He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead...Jesus will be Morality's Judge...