Have you thought about God this week? How many times? Have you talked to Him this week? For how long? Have you talked about Him this week? How often? How about the person you’re in love with, or for us single folk, a favorite TV show or pastime, or maybe a crush. Have you thought about that person/thing this week? How many times? Have you talked to that person/enjoyed that pastime this week? For how long? Have you talked to someone else about that person/thing this week? How often? Here’s the point I’m trying to make: we are called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and strength. But what does that love look like? The answer is: it looks like any other love, for the most part. “When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You’ll drive for hours to be together, even if it’s only for a short while. You don’t mind staying up late to talk. Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You’ll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you’re crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it’s painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together." - Francis Chan, Crazy Love This same love we often have for other humans or for certain things belongs to God. While it’s not inherently wrong to love other things, it becomes an issue when our love for those things becomes more passionate than our love for God. How could we ever compare the God of the universe to a flawed human being? Or to a TV show? Or to absolutely anything ever? How could we ever think something in this wicked, temporary life could be better than the eternal, living God? God doesn’t like to be tolerated. Lukewarm Christianity, in which we ask God to fit perfectly around the outside of things we care more about than Him, is not Christianity. “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” Revelation 3:15-17 This is a serious verse. I’ll get more into the rich part later, but a lot of us are lukewarm Christians. We'll say things like, “Yeah, I believe in God and Jesus and all that, but I’m not super into it,” as if those Christians who give their lives to God and pray to Him constantly, reading His Word whenever they can, are the crazy ones. But isn’t that what loving God with all your heart, soul, and strength means? Does the verse say to love the Lord with some of your heart, soul, and strength—so you can have room for all the other things you love? (The answer to the previous question is no, see Deuteronomy 6:5). "Whoever is not with me is against me.” Matthew 12:30a We’re either with God, or we’re against Him. And if we aren’t following His command to love Him with all of our heart, soul, and strength, I don’t think He would consider us to be “with Him."
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AuthorFighting complacency and advocating change in myself for the world around me. Posts by Date
February 2019
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