Introduction The more people want to accomplish together, the more they need rules to govern their communication, whether they number 200 million or 2. Where rules are not articulated, but are assumed by some while assumed differently by others, or are not thought about until divisions grow, relationships flounder. Idealistic hope and good intentions are crushed into disappointment, resentment, and even hostility. Young couples imagine strong happy marriages require no more mental preparation than a love emotion barely distinguishable from sexual attraction. The Beatles' movie, "Yellow Submarine", imagines healing all society's sickness with love balloons. Humans are more complicated than that. People act as if they have never heard of a handbook of relationship rules for marriage, friendship, and politics. But a Book in most homes has enough wisdom and love to save our marriages, friendships, nation, world, and churches."Friends" is what we call relationships whose assumed unwritten rules turn out to be compatible. But whole groups of people can work together as harmoniously as friends, to the extent they discuss, think about, understand, and agree upon which rules they want to govern their interaction. Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?Group rules are no new idea. Robert's Rules of Order can keep medium sized meetings orderly and democratic even with ornery people present. God's relationship principles aim beyond orderly and democratic, all the way to respectful, productive, wise, successful, and bathed in love and humility - even when people disagree And disagree about God God's Relationship Primer is not a complete list of God's rules for relationships. The whole 1200 page Bible is about human relationships with each other and with God; 150 pages is a little short to expect a complete list. But human discussion can draw attention to verses about discussion that haven't been applied to discussion for generations, and to how examples given in the Bible of topics of discussion which were common then logically apply to topics common today.God's principles are worth discussing. This book's goal is to spread the discussion. It is posted on a wiki website where you can improve it with corrections, clarifications, relevant Scripture, and ideas. (See link on first page.)The emphasis of this bookAlthough God's principles are designed to heal all human relationships, this study began as a search for rules to help medium size groups strategizing which mountains of evil they are ready to pull down together. The concept is simple: when people meet, they should collaborate about how they are going to accomplish "good works" together, Titus 3:8-9, and not squander time on talk that produces only words. Proverbs 14:23. When disagreement hinders cooperation, people need to reason with each other to resolve differences, while practicing love and mutual respect. Doing this will turn meetings into not only beacons of Light in the deepest Darkness, but into laboratories of relationship skills able to heal other human relationships.Meetings with these goals will have some of the features of secular meetings and some of churches. They will be like churches in that to the extent they are serious about succeeding, they will acknowledge God as the source of wisdom and success - which secular groups avoid. They will be like secular meetings in that their goal of shining as beacons of Light in the deepest Darkness is not generally welcome in church, since "politics" is suppressed in most churches because it is "controversial", even though the deepest Darkness is generally entangled with government. (For example, which is darker, saying the wrong words during baptism, or killing your baby? Holding your primary worship service on the wrong day of the week Saturday v. Sunday], or voting to let men into your daughters' public restrooms?)As for strategizing (cont'd in introduction)
ThriftBooks sells millions of used books at the lowest
everyday prices. We personally assess every book's quality and offer rare, out-of-print treasures. We
deliver the joy of reading in recyclable packaging with free standard shipping on US orders over $15.
ThriftBooks.com. Read more. Spend less.