You can hardly blame them for trying.  It is what they had been taught and in blind faith believing, had lost the purpose of their being from the Garden to now. Never knowing that gifts flow from pastures far greener, rivers far swifter and water far deeper than He can allow us to be part of this side of heaven.

Who creates a tree to drop its flowers in a splendid display of momentary glory to the father as it gives beauty to the life breathing earth below? Who creates a lake to reflect the sun, fire dancing upon the surface of water?  Who takes a black and hardened heart, washes it clean, breathes life giving oxygen through it, and frees it from the boundaries of sin and death?  Who has made all things point to the place and time of redemption and sacrifice, a moment of obedience? Who trusts its creation with the plan of redemption?  Allows a young teenage girl to carry in her arms the glory of the father, on earth? Leaves a group of fishermen to pass on a message to generations upon generations of lost souls to come and understand His grace and love, His discipline and consequences. His desire to be in and through and include us in every aspect of His plan?

You cannot limit the limitless, put reason upon the maker of reason, timed answers to your questions in the one outside of time...

God will not be contained within the pages of a doctrine, confined to the walls of a building, or be bound to the moment you have just lived in.  If true freedom is found through Christ Jesus, God is the keeper of all freedom.  But not bound to any freedoms.  And yet, has restricted himself to us, as milk is restricted to a baby.  He has circumscribed his interactions with us, knowing his created, his creation, and our limits.

You can hardly blame them for trying. For many the path is easier shrouded by rules and check lists. Narrowed by a repayment of debt, and set traditions...  Methodology, and copied plans.  Doing what has worked for others, knowing God will bless their best effort, their best effort of obedience... forgetting that as Christ Jesus lives in us, we are given the infinite wisdom hidden within the heart of the Father.  The same Spirit Jesus left in us searches out the depths of the creator.  Is our best effort really good enough?  It is accepted, but even a non believer can copy the ways and methods of a believer.

This path is not about rules, it is about honor, and trust.  It is based in obedience and giving the best of your time to the one who gives you time. It is following well, even when those close to you wonder what is wrong with you.  It is about not fixing your eyes on what is seen, but on what is unseen. Not trusting in what is temporal, but what is eternal.  Trusting that on earth, we will see only a reflection as in a mirror but one day will see face to face; knowing now in part, but then being fully in the know, as we are now fully known.

Once he speaks to you there is no going back.  Gain ground.  Know who and what is unchanging as the world changes around you.  Love in your first love, give of your first, and surrender what was never yours.

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?  Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them..." Matthew 7:13-20