"Home is the nicest word there is." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
In love with Jesus. Wife to my best friend & man I love more than life. Mama to 4 amazing God given blessings. Proud Homemaker & Homeschooler. Living life with it's ups and downs and blogging about it!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Love God and Love People

This scripture is what I read in my quiet time this morning and then I checked my email and this was the Daily Heartlight so I thought I would share it. If you haven't subscribed to Daily Heartlight already, please do so. It will help you so much. I really needed this today and reading it gave me great peace in some situations I always seem to be facing in my life. Let it help you to focus more on loving others.

Is It Really Enough?, by Tom Norvell

When they asked Jesus, "Which is the most important of all thecommands?" Jesus said, "Love God with all your heart and soul and mindand strength. Then, love your neighbor as yourself. All the others hangon these two" (Matthew 22:34-40).

My question: Is this enough?Jesus said these are the most important things: Love God and lovepeople.

My question: Is this enough?For those asking the original question, it seems the answer did not satisfy. Jesus follows His answer with a question for them, "What doyou think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" (v. 42) After theywrestled with the question Matthew says, "No one could say a word inreply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions"(Matthew 22:46 MSG).

In chapter 23, Jesus speaks to the crowds and to his disciples: "The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do,for they do not practice what they preach" (23:2-3).The rest of chapter 23 contains some of the most harsh statements everuttered by Jesus.
Again, my question: Is love for God and love for people enough?What if it was? What if we took Jesus seriously? What if we said that loving God and loving people is our goal -- that these two would be priority #1 and #2 in our lives?It's worth a try, don't you think?

If we would let loving God and loving people be enough, there would be few arguments about following His teaching and doing whatever He called upon us to do. He addresses this very clearly in some of His last words with His disciples (John 13:1-17:26). Most of the issues we debate about would possibly be resolved. He clears up many of these questions-- hard questions we wrestle with -- in His sermon on the Mount (Matthew5-7), but again, these all focus down to these two basic priorities.

If we would let loving God and loving people be enough, many of the issues of "Who is lovable and who is not?", "Who is acceptable in the Kingdom and who is not?", "What is right and what is wrong for God's people to do in worship, in business, in marriage, and in all our relationships?" could be settled. Or better yet, they would never surface. It might bring some clarity to many of the questions we haveabout how to take care of our planet, poverty, war, and how to interact with people of other races and religions.All these good things could happen if we would let loving God and loving people be enough.

So, we're back to the question: is it enough?This is not a question to be answered only by the religious leaders ofJesus' day, or our day. It is the fundamental question we all must answer. As Jesus said, everything else depends on how we answer this question. Everything else in my life depends on how I answer thisquestion. So it is rather important.A new week is upon us. A new challenge is before us.

Will we love Godand love people this week as of first importance? Will that be enough?Will we let it be enough?It's worth a try, don't you think?

This week: love God and love people.

Have a blessed day, Love, Julie

3 comments:

Denise said...

Wonderful post sweetie. Hope you are enjoying your birthday. I love you.

Amy said...

Ooo, I liked that! Thanks for sharing. Also wanted to let you know that you are in my prayers daily. I know how stressful a pregnancy can be and how exhausting it is being pregnant with one toddler running around, let alone two. Hope you sail through the second trimester!

cryssi said...

Loved this! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

If we don't find Him in the small things, how will we ever find Him in the big ones? ~Elisabeth Elliot