Matthew 22:35-40  ³⁵ Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,  ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”  ³⁷ Jesus said to him, ” ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  ³⁸ “This is the first and great commandment.  ³⁹ “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  ⁴⁰ “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

So in My daily life I find myself thinking a lot about the Lord, His goodness and His Love towards me. I am blessed beyond belief. I am Loved each day more than anyone can ever love me. And then I think about it some more: this love that I feel is not the mushy gushy love that is portrayed in Hollywood movies. This isn’t a love that brothers have for their friends. It’s not high school love either. It is not a love based on attraction, nor a love based on finances.

This love is based on sacrifice.

The Greek word that is rooted in the phrase “You shall love the LORD…” is AGAPE and Agape love is sacrificial love. Well what does that mean? Let’s take a look at what Webster says sacrifice means:

You are to set yourself aside to truly love the Lord, you are to put yourself in the position of a lowly servant and Love god in a way that He loves you. Remember that God sent His only son to die for you, a huge sacrifice of Love. Because you reading this, if I had a son, I can almost guarantee to you that I would not want my son to die in your place. But Because of God’s great AGAPE LOVE-Sacrificial Love, He sent His son for you and for me.

Because God is worthy to be Loved, we are to Love Him, Because of the gift of Life and the gift of eternal Life we are to Love God. How are we commanded to Love God? Half heartily? No way! We are to “…with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” Our whole essence of being. We think to ourselves that this is impossible.  But in reality it is not if you get just an idea of who God is. God is not some Greek loveless god. He is The God of gods. He is Love, and He has shown us love. God is Spirit so we are to worship Him in Sprit and in truth.

Logically and as a human we cannot worship God with our whole essence. But we are not of this world, we are His creation and He first showed us to love, remember in first John We love him, because he first loved us . 1 John 4:19

We have an example of how to Love and what Love is. So we are to Love God in the same manner that He loves us. With everything that we are, because in order to forgive me of my sins, would take everything that He gave.  And gladly I accept that perfect gift of Love. Because with that gift came eternal life, it came abundantly!

Now there is a second and EQUAL commandment and that is too “… Love your neighbor as yourself”

Do you feed yourself on a daily basis? Do you take care of your hygiene, make sure your clothes are suitable for your body? Do you make sure you have a mode of transportation, make sure that daily life needs are met? I am pretty sure you do. I am sure you are more concerned with the way you look and the way you are taken care of rather than your concern for the person next door. Or down the street. How do I know this? Because you are an American. I am an American. The Land of opportunity, AKA the land of climb over and take advantage of everyone around them so they can achieve the higher more desired position.

As Americans we so often find ourselves not caring about the other person, even our charity places are trying to outdo the other charity with slogans like “doing the most good” Really? To me I see people trying so hard to be better, I am sure there are people in these organizations who truly sacrifice and love others above themselves. But in a whole, what is the heart behind a lot of peoples motives? I cant judge but I can tell you from my own experience of helping people and being helped. A lot of my motives are sadly so I can be rewarded by man. Other times, I do it because I truly love and care for the person.

Is it a sacrifice for me to give out of my abundance a bag full of tshirts to the little white Ronald mcdonald houses? Or is it more of a sacrificial love for me to stop and literally give a man on the corner a shirt off my back?

My point mainly is this how do we love one another?

In my life, I have avoided people and I have been avoided. That is not a sacrificial love. In my life I have made fun of people and have been made fun of, again not a sacrificial love. In my life I have felt that no one around  me cares about me or loves me, and then also I have been told by others that they feel like they don’t have any friends and that everyone is judging them or that they just don’t feel the love from other people. Well let’s take a look at something:

^NKJ Proverbs 18:24 A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

If in your life, you feel like people started out of nowhere talking about you behind your back, or that people you were once friends with are no longer your friend. You’re probably not a friendly person. I know for a long time, I didn’t have many friends. Taking a look at my life at that time period, guess what!? I was not friendly. Not too say that I am the most friendly person in the world, I really feel that the Lord has done a work in my life to where I can say I have true friends that stick closer than a brother and there is A friend in Jesus who taught me this love.

Recently in my life I have a friend who they seem like they have a chip on their shoulder, I don’t know if I did something or if there is something wrong. But, many people have come to me asking their name and saying I just don’t know if that person likes me, so I’m just going to leave them alone because the make me feel like I am a child or that I am weird or dumb. Almost like this person is better than me. It breaks my heart to hear this about this person. I have known them a long time and sadly I do not know how to approach this person, in fear of the way they are, I don’t want to lose a friend but I also know that the wounds from a friend are faithful…

Let me encourage us. God is Love, He taught us Love, He taught us how to love, be loved, and be loving. A Karate instructor can teach someone to fight and to defend themselves, it is up to the student to actually take that discipline and put it to use.

We as students of the Greatest Teacher, are to take the discipline of love and apply it. More than to just our friends, more than just lip service, but to actually take it to heart and Love like God taught us. With EVERYTHING THAT WE ARE TO  GOD AND TO EVERYONE.

I was challenged while I wrote this, God was speaking to my heart and I know clearly what I am to do with this discipline of Love that God has/is teaching me. I pray that this finds you well and that if you are challenged that you hear what God is saying.

Richard

What do YOU think???

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Billie Jean

1. To promote the Love of God and to share His word and Love and Grace and basically Share him!

2.We met each other at a high school bible study. We are great friends and San Antonio AND Corpus Christi seperates our friendship.

3. after alot of drama with someone I dated in high school Amanda and I are now “allowed to be friends” this is basically a catching up and seeing where God has taken us in our walks with Him. And our Thoughts as we Journey with Him!

We love him, because he first loved us . 1 John 4:19