#Half the people think she’s engaged in some act of rebellion (because her boyfriend uses a walking stick??)

[emotinalsupportturtle]

Not my mom shaming a guy simply for having a disability that means he has to use a walking stick. (He’s dating an old school friend of mine, and is the same age as her and according to the same gossip networks that informed her about his use of the walking stick, he’s really nice, and they are well matched and get along really well)

it was one of the most tiresome and longest conversations I have had, mostly because for the first half of it I couldn’t see anything wrong (there isn’t) but she clearly did think there was something wrong with it and I wasn’t clocking on to that.

[papermoth-bird-blog]

Ontario: the witches of willow beach

I’ve never been a tobacco smoker, but I do find myself, from time to time, standing still around those who do. It brings me this sense of nostalgia, or latent affections for those close to me that ever have. It’s not something I talk about often- there is a strange sense of shame associated with this subtle fondness. It feels like a rebellion that isn’t mine, but does make me feel free, but sacred in this strange way (which is hard to pin down).

As I through my big yellow pack in the back seat of Morgan’s read truck, I skipped over the the passenger seat & buried myself into the adventure-stained seats. From the moment we said hello to each other, our adventure felt like it had already started. Morgan & I have a way of falling into easy harmony, both being carried off into the wind regularly, but with an ease that feel safe & natural. It’s as if we are 6 again- but with access to motor vehicles & our own money. He turned to me and said “so! where do you want to go!” My mom requested that I wait for her to get home from her night shift before I took off. Within that time, Morgan I brain stormed about a thousand different options. I’m not joking when I say we were legitimately looking up plane tickets to Dublin, among other outland-ish plans. Ultimately we reasoned to stay humble with our adventure. I’d never seen Morgan’s current forest home, or the canoe he had refurbished.

As we drove towards the parkway, we spontaneously turned off the road to climb into ravine. We found a quiet part and whispered under a hawthorn tree. As hawthorn is one of the fae trees, as well as the tree that corresponds with the month of April in the Celtic tree calendar, we thought it only appropriate to gather some thorns from the tree for spells & wishes we would carry-out later on in our adventure time. As we did so, we offered a prayer & some crumbled tobacco back to the land. We wandered deeper into the woods, trying to help a dog walker find her lost Labrador. As we walked, we collected large leaves. nuts & some small bits of healing plants that had stayed in tact over the winter. We laughed as we gave each other the storybook versions of how the last six months had passed for us. I stopped mid sentence, saying “oh look there’s a dog”, only to notice Morgan had stopped short on the path. He stooped low to the ground and said “I don’t think that’s a dog”. At second glance, that proved to be true- it was in fact the tail of a deer. There were three others babies that snuck out behind the full grown female. Morgan & I stood still for a very long time, watching them feed from the forest floor- sometimes pausing to watch us too. One little one looked up to us every once in a while to stamp his foot & bleep his tongue. It felt like magic- in the way that time stood still for us, waiting patiently as the world spun round. After a half hour we all heard an owl hoot from a tree, which broke the spell. The deer skittered out towards the freeway, so we moved our bodies away from the deer, so to make them feel obliged to take that route.

An hour or so later, after wandering down the country roads of southern ontario, we arrived at Clearwater farm. Clearwater farm acts as a centre for youth education; Morgan & his roommates live there, but also act as teachers/caretakers of sorts, engaging children in the stewardship of the land itself. Although there are certainly tensions there, because the management team are not actively living on the land (or really engaging it with any direct way).

Morgan lives there full time and is in charge of the children’s education programme. He has set up in yurt in the patch of woods, a small sanctuary on the otherwise (kind of) crowded farmland. It was imported from Mongolia. Each pole is painted with brilliant little colourful patterns, but mainly in bright orange. In the centre of the yurt is a small wood stove, with a mobile constructed of keep-sakes Morgan has collected from his travels around the world. It’s such a cosy den & I found myself asking a lot of serious questions about yurt ownership. It certainly has its difficulties in a Canadian climate, but does have a splendid way of connecting the dweller with the nature surrounding their home.

After visiting the yurt, we went to check on Megan, who was tending to the maple sap that was boiling in a large pot over a fire. Megan came up to me to give me a big hug. We don’t really know each other in formal terms, but were connected in a wildly witchy way. A way that kind of spooked both of us, but we were rolling with it.

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Around the new year I found myself thinking of Morgan quite often. It wasn’t for some psychic reason, but because I knew his father was passing away & I was thinking up ways I might be able to support him during such a tender time from afar. He is one of the people I feel most energetically connected to in the world, but we don’t often talk too much when we are apart. But best friends, when we are near.

One day in January, I was struck that I needed to reach out to him exactly then, and I turned to my co-worker & told her I’d be right back, sneaking off to send him a message. I got goose bumps when I lifted my phone from the pocket, because I saw that at that exact moment, He had actually messaged me. It was a group message between his friend Megan & I. In it he said something along the lines of “ Hey Zoe, my friend Megan is in Halifax for a short while & I think it would be wonderful if you two met”. He said we were both witches & would undoubtably get along really well. So I sent her a message inviting her for dinner, or tea or an adventure- whatever suited her best; “any friend of Morgan’s is a friend of mine.”

After I sent the message, I looked at her facebook profile & realized I recognized her. We had grown up on the very same street in Riverdale- gone to the same elementary school, and played in the same extra-curricular sports leagues. She was a few years older than me, but I remembered her younger brother & sister vividly. I sent her a follow up message saying “strange question, but did you do to withrow p.s. as a child?” When I realized that connection, I dug further, out of curiosity. On her instagram, I noticed she had just been to Sedona, Arizona- the place that I had just confirmed I would later be living (at the ashram). And then I saw something more strange still. It seemed she had just been in Victoria... with someone I knew quite well. My ex-partner, whom had become an ex relatively recently.

I had already sent the message inviting her over & I wasn’t about to revoke it, but I couldn’t shake the feeling she had come to Halifax following him after meeting him on the other coast. I figured the universe could only be aligning us for a good reason. Although, it was tricky territory.  So I stayed steady, in a time I could have easily been freaked out. I didn’t even mention it to Morgan, only to my closest witch sisters.

Eventually she messaged me back and told me she had had a dream of me the night before walking around on stilts with my father- and yes, she remembered me vividly. The synchronicities were hedged on- our childhood, Sedona, our shared interests, but the shared partner wasn’t. Our meeting wasn’t fated for Halifax clearly. Which was okay, as we both processed this strange occurrence on our own. She did invite me out to the farm “anytime”.

As it were, I was actually already on planning on visiting Morgan in Ontario if the opportunity presented itself. A week later, Morgan & I did have an opportunity to chat for a couple hours. It was clear then, that spending time with him, was important & was part of the quest I was venturing out on.

I did fell worried about the strange dynamic with Megan there, however, and certainly felt cautious of invading her space- especially considering the strangest element of our circumstances had still gone unmentioned. I very much doubted that she was still in the dark in regards to this too, but it didn’t feel good to be working in the shadows like that. So I decided to be brave and reach out to be clear that I knew & that I had no personal weirdness/bias towards her & genuinely felt like a friendship. I was merely spooked by the alignment. In her response, she eachoed the same sentiments- but it seemed she & him had just parted ways in a way that left her in some pain. She asked if I would be open to talk about it. As I had been spent reeling from our respective relationship too, (*And because in strangely similar spooky circumstances I became friends with another ex-boyfriends ex-girlfriend, a thing that had certainly been one of the other most strange/magical parts of my life to date) I agreed.

She changed her mind not long after sending the message, but I told her I was always open to holding space for her if she needed to talk to someone else about it. I decided to let it drop- whatever happened, or will, was bound to happen in whichever way it had to. There were, I suppose, still questions posed at the back of my mind. I have been working to let stories unfold with patience. That was the only way to fully live in peace of mind.

So I told her I would be coming to visit in a couple months. And let the story fall away, to the best of my ability. Although, as my coven knows, it did flash in my mind often enough. It just felt significant in a way I couldn’t pin down.

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Everyone that lives at Clearwater Farm, goes by a nature name- Morgan is Brother Wolf (or brother worm, or brother Winnebago... more jokingly), Megan is Wild Ginger, Annie is called Snapping Turtle (snappy for short). Alex is the newest roommate (she actually moved in when I was visiting) and has yet to receive a name. Megan asked me if I had a nature name, and I said that, yes, I happened to be nicknamed Bird. Morgan asked “which one?!” & I laughed and said it really depended on the day. Of course, most often it is the sparrow, chickadee or the hummingbird.

I could tell that Morgan had itchy feel & was keen for an adventure. Despite the fact that the sun was now sitting low in the sky, he mentioned wanting to go to Killarney- a beautiful national park a 5 hour drive away. I told him I loved that park more than most others (and I love most others), but suggested we go rock hounding a a rock quarry that was halfway between the two locations. So, we set out, still generally unhurried & enjoying the journey (more so than being focused on the destination).

It was a good thing we had that attitude, because there was no way we were going to make it there. We got lost several times, as a by product of us becoming lost in conversation. We spoke of loosing people close to us, and magic, and clowns. In fact, Morgan invited me along with him to co-facilitate a clowning in activism workshop in Montreal the following weekend. Which I laughed at at first- and then realized my life had perhaps given me some experience in this niche field- though perhaps not enough to run a whole workshop with him.

We pulled off the main road a few times so Morgan could smoke cigarettes, and other times, because our whims told us to. When we were leaving for our adventure, Morgan said we could go anywhere “even the moon!”. While on the road past Bobcaygeon, we passed a road called Moon Line, so we obviously followed it. There wasn’t to many exciting sights- but there was a lot of red dogwood springing up from the snow & muck. As casually as we could, we climbed into the ditch & cut as much as we could fit in the bed of the truck & resolved to make baskets later.

Like artists, clown people have a certain way of conducting themselves in the world. Artist look for poetry, and generally see life through romantic lenses. Clown people, see the world as ridiculous & live life in a way to high light those absurdities. It became quite a prominent refrain along our adventures- but we kept coming into contact with (what Morgan called) “Clown Angels.” They are the energies that create strange circumstances & are easily dared into making things magically happen when you think “wouldn’t it be funny if.” And let me tell you we were looked over by many clown angels along the road. I don’t think either of us had laughed that much (or felt so free) in some time.

We were far away from any place we aimed to be by time we got hungry. There was a small corner store filled with some of the most bizarre objects I’ve come in contact with… but more importantly it happened to have a pizza place at the back. We ordered, and waited while reading one of the most non-sensical story about a French rabbit. It perplexed both of us profoundly, as it really had no point to it. So we laughed about it & chalked it up to more clown angels. By time the pizza was ready, we were feeling dileriously silly, but still had hopes of having proper outdoors time. Unfortunately no one in the area could tell us where any trails were. We settled for pulling off into the ditch & wandering aimlessly into the woods with our pizza. We lay out on our winter coats & ate under the canopy of pines.

When we returned to the farm house, we were still quite silly. We tried to sneak in as calmly & quietly as we could manage- but we were like a pair of ten-year-olds that had been about causing mischief all day.

When we walked up the stairs, all we heard was the tail end of a story Megan was telling someone in her room. It was the story that we shared- how she had met that partner, and how we had been connected. Morgan looked at me nervously, and though I was too, I resounded to be okay. He knocked & she invited us in.

Megan had been talking to Heather- a friend that I’d known for several years from Halifax. And she happened to be living on Clearwater, in another funny circumstance.

We all talked for a long while, and then we went down to the kitchen and talked some more. Slowly, Morgan & I drifted off to the yurt, where we continued to talk (even when I fell asleep, curled up in my hammock by the fire).

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While I had been gone from Halifax, seemingly a lot had changed. One of my deer friends had moved to Ontario without telling me- because she said she didn’t want to “take me out of the moment.” I’m glad I found out though, because it meant we were able to meet up for breakfast.

Victoria & Todd asked if I needed to be picked up, or if I was able to meet them in the next town. Apparently Todd warned Vic that “Zoe is like a butterfly, if we are on a time schedule, it might be easier to go catch her.” I laughed, but told her Morgan & I would come meet them. We pulled up to the diner around the same time, and apparently Todd recognized me by the way my bun had been flopping around as I danced to the music we had been listening to in the front seat of the truck.

Todd & Morgan, it seemed, already knew eachother, at least vaguely. Slowly, the story was pieced together; Morgan had lead a “nature people” workshop & todd had been in his group. Anyways, it meant we all fell easily into conversation. After breakfast, we wandered over to a worksite where these giant (6.5ft) men were cutting down a tree in a really risky way. But was asked them If we could have the logs & we all took turns carrying them to the truck. Todd & Vic followed us back to the farm & we walked around the whole property showing them the basic elements- the mushroom forest, the children’s play yard, the chickens, the greenhouses, etc. I could tell by the way Morgan spoke of it, he was changing, growing away from his roll here. It was if, I could see the cogs in his brain turning, and him falling into realization that perhaps, he was ready to move on from the farm. After Todd & Vic left, I asked him about it. It seemed it was true, he had been actively thinking of all those things. He told me then, that he had resolved to decide what he was doing by time his birthday came around… which was the very next day.

He had many avenues he had been exploring- moving to B.C, looking for another job in Ontario, pushing for more change at the farm he was already at, or even moving to Nova Scotia. He told me how much he craved to be surrounded by “our people” & live in community again. Of course, I talk a big Nova Scotia game- but I am genuinely honoured & surprised every time I think of my friends back home. How much everyone cares for one another & pulls together when it’s important & pull off some of the silliest gatherings I’ve ever been to. Sometimes I worry it won’t be the same for others, or that they will be underwhelmed & then I will feel guilty. There aren’t that many jobs & it can be hard to “make it” there. I think Morgan has spent enough time there, however, that he knows what he would be getting into.

We joined Megan around the fire & we talked about our biggest fears. Mine was about not being able to grow to my fullest potential or feeling stuck. Megan’s was going crazy (like actually loosing her grips on reality). Morgan never said what his was. We riddled out where these fears came from.

There is a concept, I was introduced to during my hypnosis session with Mare, that speak of how trauma lives in different areas of your body. And that was can devine the reasons we feel certain aches & pains & illnesses through this form of analysis. When I told the story of my hypnosis- and how I had had illness of the lungs both times, Megan stopped to look it up. According to “Heal your Life” by Louise Hay- that exact feeling of “stuckness” is what is represented in illnessesof the lungs. Both of us, agreed that that was extremely on point, and almost a little spooky.

We paced around the fire, keeping warm & stirring our thoughts. Morgan said he felt bad that we hadn’t really gotten up to much, but I told him, that I quite like the slow pace of farm life. Each moment of calm soothed the anxiety that had built up in my body over the excitement of the last few weeks. I was finding myself in a certain state of unremarkable bliss. Surrounded by people who live open and honestly. Walk with love in their step, hopes for the future, and care in a way that in scare among more scared people.

I suggested, that perhaps we could go bowling, if he really wanted to do something. Morgan said “oh god. I think you just made a best friend”. Megan gasped and told me she always asked Morgan to go, but they never did. So we all got ready to go bowling. Morgan & I leaned on the hood of the car for a good 20 minutes, waiting for Megan. We went into the house, to see what she was up to. There she was, curled up on the living room couch. In the exact opposite stance of a human looking to go anywhere. She said she was feeling sick suddenly. And so, we came over & sat on the couch, and spent the rest of the evening chatting again. We exchanged baby pictures & talked about our childhoods. Megan said she felt bad that we hadn’t gone anywhere. I could sense her shame, and wasn’t about to make her feel bad- after all, I was speaking honestly in saying, it was fine for me to just hang out.

The night slipped by, quicker than we expected. Morgan and I crawled into the yurt- bellies empty. I fell asleep on the bed, only to be woken much later. Morgan had slipped out & picked us up some thai food. So we sat & ate & laughed, much like we did over the rest of our time together.

The following day was his birthday. I wanted to do my best to help him carry out what ever wishes he had for the day. “One wish for each year you’ve been alive” I said. “That’s a lot of wishes. I don’t know if you’ll be able to stay awake for them. ‘Cause I try my best to  be extremely specific for what I wish for. Otherwise they get taken funny.” I laughed, but told him to go on. It’s true, I did fall asleep- not because I didn’t care, but because it was 3 am. I did catch that all he wanted to do was “be among his people”. And before I finally drifted off, we dreamed up ways we could make that happen.

[mikestertz]

The Ten Commandments and God’s Love

Some suggest that the Ten Commandments are harsh and are not really consistent with the message the church should present today.   Recently a well-known megachurch personality even delivered an address titled "Thou Shalt Not Obey the Ten Commandments."  The thought is that the Commandments and the Old Testament Law in whole comes across as judgmental and unattractive to the people who today's church seeks to attract, and besides, the Beatitudes are really more demanding and more consistent with the message for the current age.  We should hold out the Sermon on the Mount and the love of God, not the Old Testament teachings.  Yet, throughout the history of the church, pastors and theologians have upheld the Ten Commandments as well as the whole of the moral and civil requirements enumerated in the Old Testament as an expression of God’s character and of His requirements for humanity.  The church needs to recover the practice of considering and meditating on the Ten Commandments as we grow in understanding the ramifications of the gospel and pursue the life of Christ has for us.  The church needs to present and proclaim the requirements of the moral Law and the Ten Commandments, recognizing that failure to do so is a grievous error.  It is not judgmental to recognize the commandments; rather the Ten Commandments and the moral Law are supremely the expression of God's love.

In the first table of the commandments, the people of God were told to rigidly uphold the centrality, primacy, and holiness of God.  They were to recognize no false deity, have no idols, reverence the true God supremely, and set aside a day each week to consider and meditate upon Him.   The second group of commandments regulates human behavior in family and society.  The family unit was to be upheld, parents to be respected.  The sanctity of human life was to be observed, with murder prohibited.  Honesty and truthfulness were commanded.  Private property rights were advanced with the prohibitions against theft and coveting.  And the prohibition against adultery regulates sexuality in society and upholds the sanctity of marriage.  These principles appear throughout the moral and civil Law in the Old Testament.  Further, they are not replaced or repudiated in the New Testament; rather, they are foundational to the principles of the Sermon on the Mount and the way of life exhorted throughout the New Testament.

It is abundantly clear that the Scriptures present the necessity of salvation from sin, salvation not by works or upholding the Law, but by grace and faith.  One cannot be saved by the Law, by upholding the Ten Commandments, or for that matter by aspiring to live by the high standards of the Sermon on the Mount.  The New Testament, particularly the books of Romans and Galatians (especially chapters 3 and 5), make it absolutely clear that salvation is not obtained by keeping the Old Testament Law, but by grace.  And yet, the Law points us to Christ.  First Corinthians chapter 6 beginning in verse 9 tells us, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived.  Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you.  But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."  Recognizing their sin, repenting of sin, lost people turn to God by faith in Christ and are saved.  That is the only way of salvation.

The Ten Commandments and the Old Testament moral Law demonstrate God's love to us by showing us the folly of sin and rebellion against God, and thus pointing us to the Savior.  In so doing, by pointing us to the great atoning acts of Christ, they direct us to the love of God.  Even in the Old Testament ceremonial Law, God's plan for redemption through the atoning sacrifice of Christ is demonstrated.  Seeing our own sin and unworthiness, we then begin to understand the surpassing greatness of the love of God.  Christ paid the penalty for all sins so that God might be merciful to all sinners.  On the cross Christ satisfied God's justice.  We need not shy away from the Old Testament; we need to embrace it and clearly explain it.

Yet sadly many pastors reference sin (many won't even refer to it as such) as if it’s little more than brokenness, hopelessness, lack of motivation, or an overly negative perspective.  While these things show some of the alienating effects of sin, they obscure its real nature and undermine the reality of true guilt before the Lord.  It’s the language of postmodern culture but not biblical truth.  Unbelievers’ most essential problem is not that they’re ignorant, apathetic, or without purpose or direction, but that they’ve personally, willfully, and happily rebelled against the God who made them. Their real enemy is not merely the challenges and difficulties of life in the world, but themselves and their sin.  If this is true—and the Scriptures say that it is—then what unbelievers must concern themselves with is nothing less than escaping the just judgment of God.  And yet, many supposedly evangelical churches and leaders tell them to merely affirm the person who stares back at them in the mirror and aspire to be the best person they can be, to look to Jesus as their divine life coach or inspiring cosmic boyfriend.  This is nothing less than a redefinition of salvation and of the gospel.

I saw a quote recently that indicated it is a mistake if you think that your "mess-up" is bigger than God's grace.  This is a half-truth.  Sin is far more than just a "mess-up."  As a child, I might have "messed-up" when I carelessly broke my Grandma's favorite vase.  I might have felt a bit of remorse, and certainly a little panic.  She loved me, and, though a bit miffed, would have forgiven me.  But my momentary remorse, and her gracious forgiveness of my mistake, hardly compares to God's grace in the forgiveness of sin.  The poverty of spirit Jesus spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount means recognizing how truly deficient we are apart from God.  It means seeing ourselves as we really are: spiritually lost, hopeless, and helpless.  The "poor in spirit" are people who have recognized their spiritual destitution and their total inability to save themselves and who acknowledge their complete dependence on God.  They know their only hope of salvation is to repent and ask for forgiveness.  No person can enter the kingdom of God until he or she realizes they are unworthy of that kingdom, until he or she realizes the gravity of their sin.  Our sin is not merely a slip-up.  The kind of gospel (so popular today) that omits any need for repentance and mourning because of sin is a false, unscriptural gospel--or, as Paul calls it, "a different gospel" (Gal 1:6).

Churches should speak about sin primarily as personal and willful rebellion against God. They should be clear that Jesus died on the cross as a substitute for sinners (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2, 4:10), not as a guide, inspiration, or rudder for the rudderless.  Jesus didn't come with a controversial, inspiring message and take a risk of rejection that resulted in His martyrdom; He came as the promised sacrifice for sin determined by God before creation and foreshadowed in the Old Testament.  Mercy that ignores sin is false mercy; Christ paid the penalty for sins so that He might be merciful to all sinners.  On the cross Christ satisfied God's justice.  Thus churches should be clear that humans are sinners by nature and by choice, and we need salvation from that reality, and not just salvation from social and indirect problems given to us by others or ourselves.  Of course, sin in the world causes bad things to happen to us.  It isn't hard to convince someone that they sometimes make mistakes or that they’re a victim of others’ sin or have been materially affected by others’ sin.  It doesn't require a work of God to convince people that we live in a flawed world.  It doesn't take much effort to convince most people that they have "issues" that need to be addressed in order for them to become happy and successful and have better relationships.  But it’s quite difficult, certainly so apart from God’s grace, to convince someone that they themselves are guilty of sin against both God and others.

Scripture reveals an overarching narrative played out in the history of mankind - creation, the fall, redemption, and consummation at the end of the age.  God created mankind, and mankind sinned supremely by rebelling against the Creator.  Yet the Creator in love chose not to merely destroy creation, but to provide for the salvation of sinners.  It is the Law that reveals our sin and leads us to the Saviour.  And further the Law reveals for us God's standards both for salvation from sin and the standards by which we should live.  The law reveals our sin and leads us to our Saviour.

Following the commandments of God not only points us to salvation from sin, but  regulates human behavior in a positive manner.  It is no accident that societies that have engaged in the enlightened fulfillment of the Judeo-Christian ethical standards have been demonstrably more prosperous, just, and free.  Individually, following God's wise instruction allows us to escape the consequences that come from choices we later wish we could change and make us freer to enjoy our lives.  The high ethical standards of the Ten Commandments make for happier, more fulfilled lives.  The traditional family enjoined in the Bible is for the benefit of people, not an impediment to their imagined happiness and pleasure. The standard of one man, one woman for life marriage is a bedrock of western civilization, and the ongoing retreat from that standard is leading to societal disaster.

Regrettably, American evangelicals are sometimes known more for their commitment to public displays of the Ten Commandments than to actually obeying them.  But the Ten Commandments are a faithful summary of God’s requirements for humanity.  We need to, in love, remind people of this, both lost people and believers.  God doesn't want to control us with dos and dont's; rather, His guidelines show that He loves us.  Romans 13:8-10 tells us, "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."  This passage doesn't negate the value of the commandments, but tells us that we should observe these principles and present them not in a spirit of judgmentalism or harshness, but with a spirit that shows the love of Christ in us.  God does not give us commandments that are arbitrary or simply designed to prevent our enjoyment of life.  He loves us.  All of God's commands are for His glory and for our good.