He doesn't want rules, He wants you!

Many peoples idea of Christianity is a rather long set of rules and rituals which must be obeyed. If you manage to obey these rules, you get to count yourself in the category of 'good people' and you go to heaven when you die. Very few things could be further from what God intended for us.

Obeying rules is the lowest form of relationship that exists - I do what you say to avoid unpleasant consequences - in fact it stretches the term relationship to extremes. In normal human relationships we adjust our behaviour out of respect or affection for another person and their sensibilities. When I first met my wife, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I'd made a bed in my life, but becasue she is a tidy person, I have adjusted my behaviour to such an extent, that I now even make the bed when she is away. She didn't stipulate that I had to do this, I just learned what made her happy and changed.

It works fairly similarly with God. If you get to know the Person first, fall in love with the Person, then lifestyle changes don't seem such a big deal, in fact they seem obvious. Try and make those same changes before you know the Person and you will just end up resenting it. It's called religion and it stinks. Relationship is not about what you do or don't do, it's about who your with.

The amazing thing is that God, the perfect Father was so deteremined to make it possible for you and me to get to know Him, that He took it on Himself to remove the obstacles between us.

People often question some of the rules and practises in the Old Testament and struggle to reconcile them with the loving Father I am describing now. All those strange rules about food and clothing, all those strange practises of segregating people, all that destruction of people, cities and nations are all designed to show how serious our rebellion against God is. God is prefectly holy, which means He is 100% perfect in every way, not that He is a prude who never does anything wrong (or fun). Every rebellion against His perfection is an absolute affront to His perfection and so He commanded the things we see in the Old Testament to show just how serious this is. But amazingly, God then sent His own son as the ultimate substitute for us.

All of God's correct fury and anger against us, all the fury and anger that wiped out cities with fire and brimstone, all the fury and anger than wiped out the world in a flood, all the fury and anger that wiped out whole people groups was poured out on Jesus. Is it any wonder that it says Jesus became deeply distressed and said "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death" as He prayed in the garden anticipating His death. His apprehension related more to the anticipation of God's fury more than the physical agony! As Jesus died on the cross it is recorded that he cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me". This was not a question but a cry of anguish as the full weight of God's anger vented against him and he died.

The point of all this is that becasue Jesus did this, God's anger against all rebellion is now fully satisfied. The penalty has been paid in full, the 'time has been served', justice has been done and been seen to be done. In fact God would be unjust if He was still angry. The only things left for us to do is to accept this free offer and to begin to rebuild the relationship.