"Precept Upon Precept"

Precept #1:   ALL things are spiritual.
Precept #2:   Things are not as they seem to be.
Precept #3:   Inner first, then the outer; the outer without the inner is worthless.
Precept #4:   If you don't make a decision, then the decision is made for you.
Precept #5:   If you wait to see, you've waited too long.
Precept #6:   There is a better way.
Precept #7:   There are no skipped steps; there are no shortcuts.
Precept #8:   Just keep going.
Precept #9:   Not a moment too soon, not a moment too late.
Precept #10: Stay in your own yard.
Precept #11:  Do not add to; do not take away from.
Precept #12:  In order to become a teacher, you must be willing to be taught.

Carrie Nation was a radical member of the temperance movement around the turn of the last century, a group which opposed alcohol at a time before Prohibition became law. She described herself as “a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus barking at what He doesn’t like.” Carrie led groups of women into saloons, smashing them to bits with their hatchets and axes.  Viewed by some as a raving lunatic, she died in a mental facility in 1911.

There is a part of me that can relate to Carrie Nation, a part where I feel so passionately about my beliefs and my convictions that I want to force them upon others.  For me it would be in the form of preaching from my soap box, this blog forum. It is important that the "Carrie Nation" in me backs off and gives each of you the room and space where you can search and think for yourselves.

From the beginning my purpose in writing this blog was to share my life with you and the way I live my life, to open your eyes and your minds to the possibility of living your life in a way differently, perhaps, from the way you are living it now, to challenge you to think. 

You certainly know by now that I believe man was created to have a relationship with our Creator, a working partnership, a friendship. 

We are talking God here—how does one live with Him?  Where do you begin?  I must learn how to live with Him; He does not learn how to live with me.

precept: a rule or principle, especially one governing personal conduct

The first step is the personal desire.  There are many who have no care or concern in learning how to live their lives with God.  It is an individual and personal choice.

For those of you who do want to know, I am going to be sharing precepts which have been given to me along the way.  I am not going to embellish upon any of them.  It is for you to question, to search, to ask, to seek for the understanding and the truth behind each one.  This is a first-hand task, not a second-hand one, with your own personal discoveries to be made.

When a house is built, the base is the most important, and yet it's not visible.  The foundation is then built upon that, building block by building block, the precepts.  And this is where the choice is made—and there are two:  Do I want my life built upon God or man?  Having made that decision the “how to” live with Him becomes the priority.


These precepts I am sharing with you are priceless pearls.  Treasure them.

I told myself I wasn't going to preach.

“Whom will He teach knowledge and to whom will He explain the message?  For it is precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

“So everyone who hears these words of Mine and obeys them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on a rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall.”

“Unless the Lord builds your house, your labor is in vain.”