"Hear, Isra'el! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is one; and you are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead, and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates."
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
"I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants, loving ADONAI your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him -- for that is the purpose of your life!
Deuteronomy 30:19-20a
"Rabbi, which of the commands in the Torah is the most important?" He [Jesus] told him, "You are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. This is the most important commandment. And a second is similar to it, 'You are to love your neighbor as yourself'. All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two commands."
Matthew 22:36-40
We are called to love God. We are called to love God with our whole heart. Loving God with our whole heart is the very purpose of our lives! How do we love God with our whole heart? What does that look like? I decided to study this topic and make a reference to look at for examination in my own life. What I discovered was that it is whole life immersion in God, his Word, his ways, and his love. I created a basic outline, which I will post below. Over the next weeks, I hope to explore each point in detail and pursue loving God whole-heartedly in my own life.
1. Loving God is obeying God.
John 14:15
John 14:21
Matthew 23:1-3
Matthew 23:23
2. Loving God is pursuing relationship with God.
Prayer
Worship
Study of God's Word
1John 4:19
3. Loving God is placing him first over everything in our lives.
4. Loving God is resolving to hold nothing back from him.
5. Loving God is listening to God. Paying careful attention to what he says. Listening in our heart.
Deuteronomy 10:16
Deuteronomy 30:20
Jeremiah 17:9
Psalm 51:10 (12)
Matthew 7:24-27
Matthew 15:8-9
Isaiah 29:13
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who alone is worthy of our love, our worship, our obedience, our all.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Standing For What We Believe In Gentleness
Studying God's Word is continually changing my life, as He is showing me what His way looks like through that Word. What a blessing it is to be taught by the Lord of Heaven! I feel excited when I study the Scriptures and gain new insight. It has been a joy to learn about Adonai's Holy Days and then celebrate them in my home with my family. To see the promises tucked away in Passover and understand the completion brought through Messiah has impacted my entire view toward this celebration.
My family decided not to celebrate Easter any longer about two years ago. After careful study, much prayer, and some historical research, it seemed that God's best for our lives was to abandon a day that had not a few pagan practices embedded in it in exchange for the Biblically sanctioned Passover. Passover is the way God chose for men to celebrate and remember what he has accomplished on our behalf. Praise God! Because I am so excited, I naturally want to share all that I have been learning. But when we make changes in our lives in order to walk more closely in our relationship with our Lord, it impacts our relationships with others. This can create difficulties. Friends or family members sometimes feel that you are throwing aside traditions which they hold dear. They may feel that you are rejecting beliefs they hold, and therefore may feel attacked when you explain why you hold a different view. They sometimes even think that you are rejecting the celebration of the Messiah's resurrection, which is not the case at all. It is precisely my desire to celebrate the sacrifice and resurrection of my Savior that compels me to worship God in the way He set forth. Honoring God is the focus in celebrating. May God strengthen us all in faith and love, and may he grant us gentleness toward one another as we give an account of our faith.
Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who directs our footsteps and grants peace.
My family decided not to celebrate Easter any longer about two years ago. After careful study, much prayer, and some historical research, it seemed that God's best for our lives was to abandon a day that had not a few pagan practices embedded in it in exchange for the Biblically sanctioned Passover. Passover is the way God chose for men to celebrate and remember what he has accomplished on our behalf. Praise God! Because I am so excited, I naturally want to share all that I have been learning. But when we make changes in our lives in order to walk more closely in our relationship with our Lord, it impacts our relationships with others. This can create difficulties. Friends or family members sometimes feel that you are throwing aside traditions which they hold dear. They may feel that you are rejecting beliefs they hold, and therefore may feel attacked when you explain why you hold a different view. They sometimes even think that you are rejecting the celebration of the Messiah's resurrection, which is not the case at all. It is precisely my desire to celebrate the sacrifice and resurrection of my Savior that compels me to worship God in the way He set forth. Honoring God is the focus in celebrating. May God strengthen us all in faith and love, and may he grant us gentleness toward one another as we give an account of our faith.
Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who directs our footsteps and grants peace.
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