Mark 12.30-31 commands, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. No other
commandment is greater than these.
How can we practically love God? (more…)
John 5.41-42 states, your approval means nothing to Me, because I know you don’t have God’s love
within you.
Having this attitude would certainly go a long way in helping the Church live more like Jesus. God as Man, Jesus, sought the approval of One, God the Father, but He called all those who love God and seek to obey His commands His brothers and sisters and mothers. (more…)
1 Peter 3.12 promises, the eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to
their prayers. But the LORD turns his face against those who do evil.
This promise is what we would expect from a God Who is good. It makes sense to us that a good God would watch over those who do good and hear their prayers. It also makes sense to us that God would oppose those who do evil in the world.
There is a disconnect however from this logic and some of our experiences. Evil in the world is a problem for people. (more…)
James 4.3-4 claims, you want only what will give you pleasure. You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the
world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
What do you think, is what we really want only what gives us pleasure? I’m thinking that God is correct, what I want most and most often is what will bring me pleasure.
God’s description of this malady? Adultery! (more…)
James 3.13 observes, if you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life,
doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.
Everyone wants wisdom, or at least we always want to make the right decision. Always making the right decision is not really wisdom from God’s perspective. (more…)
Isaiah 7.9 warns, unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm.
When God says He cant, He means He wont. God cant do something because it violates either His character or His commands.
Without faith God warns, it is impossible to please Him therefore those who come to Him must believe He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Our faith is integral to God’s work and presence in and through our lives. (more…)
Hebrews 2.1 commands, we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away
from it.
Since the 1960’s there has been an assault on truth. Not the truth espoused by those 60’s hippies who are now the university professors, newspaper editors and hollywood film producers, no they always tell the truth.
At least they tell their version of truth which is that there is no truth except their truth which is why there is so much intolerance toward truth spoken against their truth. (more…)
Ecclesiastes 12.13 summarizes the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.
Biblically speaking the wisest person to ever live was king Solomon. He was made wise by God in response to his request of God for ruling over the people of God.
The book of Ecclesiastes is king Solomon’s observations from a long life guided by wisdom. His conclusion is the summary verse for today: fear God and obey His commands. (more…)
Leviticus 18.3-4 commands, do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. You must obey all My
regulations and be careful to obey My decrees, for I am the LORD your God.
The other day I was accused of not being very Christian. The accusation was from a person who did not claim to be a Christian. This person, who didn’t use the ‘product’ seemed to know how the ‘product’ was to be used and according to him, I was doing it wrong.
While I wont get into the details the point is that people, in addition to God, expect Christians to live differently. Christians too believe this but struggle to differentiate their words, behaviors or habits from the rest of their culture. (more…)
Mark 12.34 observes, realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, You are not far from
the Kingdom of God.
Knowing and doing are not the same. We inherently know this in our dealings with people, especially family. We know our spouse loves us but sometimes their actions are hurtful. We know our children know what they are to do but they often fail to do what they have been made responsible to do.
On and on it goes in our experience of the gap between knowing and doing, both in our own lives as well as the lives of others. (more…)
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