Respect by Obeying

Respect -What does respect mean to you? The dictionary says respect is defined as:

• A person deserving of Honor
• Think high of
• "Show" honor and concern for
• High regarded person.
• Do right by; Obey

It seems in our lives today we shows respect to those who have some type of title and leadership role - for example Judges, Elected Officials, Reverends, Priests, Pastors, Bishops. We give them the "official" name as the Honorable Judge xyz... Some of us were taught as young children to respect these individuals because they are "important." Yet, today if you ask the same generation if they "respect" these individuals - most would say, no. Because we have seen the guilty be set free because of them and we have seen the holy's sin washed out in public. It is hard to "think highly of" or "show concern for" their actions as most times our hope is let down.

The Bible speaks about Paradise, the Garden of Eden and the Land in which God gives you. If you OBEY (RESPECT) the Lord your God - you become whole and complete. Just imagine for a minute the things we desperately want and strive so hard for would be known to us - for an example:

• You know your purpose in life
• You are wealthy and prosperous in all you do
• Have trust and you can trust others freely
• You could be hopeful
• You could be truthful and others would speak only the truth to you
• You could feel alive inside and out
• You know God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit (and they know you)
• You could be happy and joyful all the time
• Everytime you prayed they were always answered
• You would encourage others and they would encourage you - sincerely
• All you do would grow
• You could be confident with yourself
• You could have peace and calm in everything you do and every where you go
• You could be comfortable
• You could be patient and give patience easily
• You could be blessed in all you do and everywhere you go
• You could feel energetic, have perfect health, and be preserved at your best
• You could be sure about what you do and what you say
• You could have a marriage that is good and beautiful
• You could be accepted and honored
• You could be safe and secured
• You could have justice win every time

There would be no problems you could not solve; you or your household would lack nothing; nothing would be broken. You could be whole and complete in every way.

Deuteronomy 28:1-12 says about the "Blessing" - in the Land the Lord gives you these things and in exchange for your obedience to his commandments and likeness.

"If you fully obey (RESPECT) the Lord your God by keeping all the commands I am giving you today, the Lord your god will exalt you above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey (RESPECT) the Lord your God.

• You will be blessed in your towns and in the country.
• You will be blessed with many children and productive fields
• You will be blessed with fertile herds and flocks.
• You will be blessed with baskets overflowing with fruit, and with kneading bowls filled with bread.
• You will be blessed wherevere you go, both in coming and in going.

The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven! The Lord will bless everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the LAND he is giving you.

If you OBEY (RESPECT) the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people as he solemnly promised to do. Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord, and they will stand in awe of you.

The Lord will give you an abundance of good things in the land he swore to give your ancestors - many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops. The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens to bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God and carefully OBEY (RESPECT) them the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always have the upper hand. You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today to follow after other gods and worship them.

Adam and Eve were once there. They had all of this. They were whole - perfect and where they lived was too. But we all know the story - Eve did the opposite one day - she disobeyed and disrespected God.

I use to wonder why God put the tree in the Garden of Eden. If it was bad for them, "Why?" and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, it's like building a house or a building. There are parts of a house that if you bothered with those things - even touched them it would hurt you or even cause your death. Such as an electrical system or the gas stove and fire.

Just as in the "Garden of Eden" "Paradise" "The Land the Lord gives you" has them too. When and if we decided to "touch" or bother them we put ourselves at great risk with the chance of being hurt or killed and if we do not die from bothering those things in our actions of disrespect- we face a more severe punishment from God.

That is what Adam and Eve did.

Eve listened to and decided to do (DISRESPECT) God's specific instructions as to not eat of the fruit from that specific tree when she clearly knew she was not to do it.

So, I ask you,

What would most parents do when their adult child does something "really" disrespectful in your home - when you specifically told them not to do it because it could cause them harm even death? Most would punish them, and ask them to leave. That is what God did to Adam and Eve. He took away the Best that they had - which was him and the Land he prepared for them.

So the Lord spoke to the serpent and said "Because you have done this, you will be punished. You are singled out from all the domestic and wild animals of the whole earth to be cursed. You will grovel in the dust as long as you live, crawling along on your belly. From now on you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. She will crush your head and you will strike her heel."

Then he said to Eve, "You will bear children with intense pain and suffering. And though your desire will be for your husband, he will be your master."

Then to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to your wife and ate the fruit I told you not to eat, I have placed a curse on the ground. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. All of your life you will sweat to produce food, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from dust, and to the dust you will return."

Then the Lord, said that they have become as we are (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) knowing both Good and Evil. What if they eat of the fruit of the tree of life? Then they would live forever!

So the Lord decided to banished (sent them away as a punishment) Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and sent Adam out to cultivate the ground (work) and stationed mighty Angelic beings to the East of Eden and a flaming sword flashed back and forth, guarding the way to the tree of life.

Adam, Eve and Satan were all punished for being disobedient towards God with severe punishments. All because Satan found a way to convince (with words) Eve to:

• Trust in him and his ways
• Respect him and what he says to do
• Rely on his Truth and not Gods
• Arouse her curiosity in testing what God said

The both disrespected God and his house the Land he gave them and it by it we are all born of this sin today.

• We trust in the way of the World
• We respect what others in the World say about what to do
• We rely on the Worlds information as our Truth and not the Bible
• We are always curious in testing what the Bible says about life

Satan won that day. He had found the "key" to mankind and he used his pathway to put his lies in the minds, bodies and souls of all mankind.

But, God loved us so, he did not want us to live under Satan's rules and lies. He had to find a way to get us back home - where we belonged. He allowed Jesus to come where we were and see with his own eyes to get a better understanding of how to fix this problem. Jesus saw that we all lived just the opposite of how we lived in Paradise with God.

• He saw we lacked direction - we did not know what to do. We stayed confused with ourselves, our families, our lives and our purpose.
• He saw us living in poverty - struggling to make ends meet and living in poverty and extreme lack.
• He saw we did not trust anyone or believe in anything we could not see.
• He saw we gave up on hope.
• He saw we had little or no faith at all in God.
• He saw we were walking dead (spiritually)
• He saw we lacked knowledge about (confused or unsure) if there was a God.
• He saw we did not even recognize him (the Son of God).
• He saw we did not even trust or believe in the Holy Spirit
• He saw we did not pray or worship God anymore we had turned to other Gods for direction
• He saw we had low self-esteem about ourselves
• He saw we were suffering from demon possessed sicknesses and diseases
• He saw we were being tempted and tormented with the decision we did make
• He saw we were weary
• He saw we were worried and we had major problems
• He saw injustices were running rampid in our lives
• He saw hatred in our hearts towards one another (our families, strangers, everyone, even ourselves)
• He saw we were getting "illegal" divorces - not in accordance with God's command
• He saw we were turning to occults, witch craft, astrology, horoscopes.
• He saw we were angry
• He saw we were sad and depressed
• He saw we were afraid and felt threatened
• He saw we lied about everything and had no respect for the truth
• He saw we were deceitful and tricked others just as Satan does
• He saw we were being tricked by illusion of what we thought was real but, was not
• He saw we were being hurt and in pain, anxious and discouraged
• He saw us die before our time
• He saw and felt our frustrations
• He saw our guilt
• He saw we were impatient in everything we did
• He saw us insulting one another - even our families and loved ones
• He saw our jealous hearts
• He saw our loneliness and rejections

He saw and felt it all and he knew it was every kind of evil spirit running wild against mankind. He knew something had to be done to get us back home and out of this miserable hell we were living and growing. He had to find "the key" that unlocked mankind's mind, bodies, and souls. He had to find a way using "words" just as Satan did. He had to find a way to get us to trust him again, respect him, rely on him as the real truth, create a hunger for God's presence again. He needed us to become confident in God's ways and he had to find a way for us to want to (RESPECT and OBEY) God and his commands again so we can re-enter in the Land the Lord created for us and have an opportunity to eat from the tree of life and live forever with God in Paradise.

So, he went around reminding us about the goodness of God. Showing us how God wanted us to be and do. He led by example and gave us a clearer understanding of God's words and commands. He showed us what we were doing that was (DISRESPECTING) God. He reminded us that we could live life to the fullest again, becoming healed and whole again as God intended. He showed his abilities to heal the sick cast our evil spirits among them and we became afraid (FEARED) him because we knew he was no ordinary man - he was the Son of God. We believed and listened to his every word. He chose 12 to teach and carry on his works through the world. Jesus found "the key" to mankind again and he used it to make us want to come back home.

But, this was not his only task. He knew that finding and using "the key" would bring out Satan himself. He knew he had to come face to face with him and defeat him which was no easy task. Jesus knew he had to fight him with unconditional love because Satan was hate and you can not fight hate with hate. He knew he had to be tormented and tortured as that was Satan's only way of fighting. Jesus knew he would fight him to his death. But, Jesus was totally prepared as he was a "Whole Man" nothing missing nothing broken. He was automatically smarter, swifter than Satan could ever be and he did not fear death. He knew all of Satan's tricks and was prepared for them all using the scriptures as his sword. Jesus made the choice to go through it all for us - as he was our only chance to be with God again in our home - Paradise. So he died for us on the cross and his last words to God was "It is finished!"

Then the third day, he arose and showed himself to Mary Magdalene and told her to go tell the disciples that he was alive and she did.

Jesus told his disciples that he was going to send a helper for them to carry on his works - the Holy Spirit and he did and we all have one. The Holy Spirit will teach us, and guide us in all of God's ways so we can continue (if we chose) to walk in God's ways and return home to God once again.

Father God was so happy with Jesus he gave him charge of who enters into Paradise. That is why today we must go through Jesus to get into the Land the Lord created for us. The Holy Spirit prepares us our hearts and he judges our hearts for anything that is not of God's ways or commands.

We must make the effort to follow and live in God's ways and commands everyday. We must teach them to our children so that they will know and follow and grow up (OBEYING and RESPECTING) him in all we do. Amen.