I was quite a good student of the bible that could stand on my own against Jehovah's Witnesses and a Seventh Day Adventist roommate. But by the time I went to college I had relapsed in bible studies with the conclusion that only the great commandment mattered or was essential for my wellbeing. Matt 22:36-40. "Teacher which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." If the Lord says that the law and prophets are based on these two commandments why do I have to bother with the finer points of the law and prophets instead of striving to love the Lord and my neighbor. When my life unraveled after college I conflated two bible passages into one. Matt 6:33 "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Luke 17:21 "Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." I was skeptical but had no recourse with my back against the wall than seek for the kingdom of God within me according to the Holy Bible. I concluded or realized in the end that one does not have to be a person of faith or believer in the existence of God to find God within according to the bible. But once you find the kingdom of God within, you will never be the same again. This is the result of my search for the kingdom of God within me, it changed me, and I have never been the same again since I touched the kingdom of God within me in mid-seventies.
