Commandments For Abundant Life

Does an alternative to the “ School of Hard Knocks ” really exist and if so, what is it?   One of Jesus’ stated purposes was to help us satisfy our basic need to BE MORE and to experience the abundant life, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.“ - John 10:10 .   With a declaration of purpose as clear as that, surely Jesus must have left us guidelines and directions to show us HOW to become MORE of who we are, MORE of children of God; and in doing so have life, and have it more abundantly.

If the kingdom of God is within us, then whatever is blocking our access to that kingdom is also within us; therefore removing the blocks must require internal personal changes.   Perhaps you may doubt that this is really the truth.   If you do, you should resolve that doubt right now.

Why are people interested in religion, in spirituality, in God?   A good number are probably interested out of concern for what may happen in the next life...but what about this life? Can the Commandments of Christ help us to find a happier more fulfilling life right here, right now?

Love others like Jesus loves us?   This seems like Mission Impossible .   How can we "mere mortals" – we helpless, wretched sinners EVER comply with Jesus’ commandment to love others as he loves us?   Our love is conditional – we only love people who love us back or people who we think can provide something to us that we need, and when they don’t love us back or give us what we need we tend to withhold our love from them.   What about loving our enemies?   Who among us loves our enemies as Jesus commanded us?   It seems impossible.   Our love is just so far from being divine.   Instead of divine, our love is indeed very human and entangled with all of our human weaknesses like pride, fear, jealousy, envy, etc.  

If I believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then it should be an undeniable, unarguable fact that contained within the Gospels are divine commandments.   All I have to do is look for anything that Jesus commanded me to be, to do, or not do.   The question is, how do I make sense of these commandments and “ put them into practice ”?

"A New Commandment I give unto you"  Are inner peace and an abundant, fulfilling life of interest to you?    Do you love Jesus?    Is it your wish to be loved by Jesus and the Father?    Is it your desire that Jesus and our Father make their “abode” in you?    Are you abiding by the commandments of Christ?    After reading those ten clear teachings of Christ, can there be any doubt in your mind of the importance of doing so?    But what are the Commandments of Christ?    Do Jesus’ commandments exist in scriptures today?    Is it possible that the Gospel writers could have omitted something as essential as the commandments of Christ? The majority of Christians could probably recite at least most of the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament, but how many of us could recite even one of the “Commandments of Christ”? We might be inclined to say, “Well I don’t really think Jesus literally gave us any specific commandments which he actually expected us to put into practice