"Who Do You Love"-?"
Good morning -
I am sitting here this morning chuckling to myself. I am truly whacked in the head. I had a thought about what to share with you this morning and got the passage and then just started thinking about how best to relate it. This is where I am laughing at myself, not only am I dating myself I also am just amazed at what pops into my mind sometimes. Well any way here it is... Goerge Thorogood and the Destroyers - "Who Do You Love" . I'm sorry I am the source of that song being stuck in your head all day now; not really but anyway.
I've got a couple of questions for you today:
#1 - How do you best communicate love to those you care most about without using any words?
#2 - How would those closest to us feel if we never read anything they wrote to us, never listened to what they said, and never did any thing they requested of us?
21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." (Joh 14:21 NAU)
Jesus answers both of my questions in this passage. We say "I love you" the loudest and best with our actions and obedience to requests. And for the second we would have to say they would feel unloved and disrespected, ignored.
One of the most often questions or statements people make to me are I don't understand the Bible, Why should I read what doesn't make sense to me? That's a great point and really does impact our ability to communicate our love in ways those we care most about would understand.
#1 - There is nothing in life worth doing that doesn't require time. It is going to take a period of time to learn and practice; and you are going to have to set time aside to do what we will talk about.
#2 - Like time if it's worth doing it's worth the effort put into it. You will have to work not just half heartedly try.
#3 - Pray and ask God to help you by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is probably the most important step because this will directly impact the first 2 and everything else.
#4 - Plan - plan your work and work your plan. Without a plan of what to do you will give up frustrated and disgusted in short order.
Sooooo here is a plan that Martin Luther (of the reformation Luther) gave to his barber who asked something very similar to our questions this morning.
A - choose a bible reading plan - I will try to post several different ones a little later today.
B - Rejoice - from the passage I have just read, ask yourself what can I rejoice about God from this passage?
C - Repent - From this passage what has it revealed to me that I need to repent over?
D - Recount - look at this passage and ask yourself how through the Gospel has Jesus made a way to do what the passage is asking of you?
E - Request - Pray and ask God to help you do what it is you are learning in the power of the Holy Spirit.
F - Rethink - Now ask yourself, how must I think, speak, and act differently because I know this now?
G - Reflect - Stop and ask the Father to show you why HE is bringing this to your mind and life circumstances at this time in your life and not some other time? Why Now?
Practicing this will now help you understand the Bible so that you can obey the Bible; in so doing you will be practicing what Jesus told us... "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." (Joh 14:21 NAU).
If you have any questions or comments feel free to post or inquire -
Blessings -
Pastor G
