It’s Friday…Deeply, Madly In Love

Love is in the air. On this weekend of love, how will you be celebrating? Need help finding an answer? Here’s a good one, actually it’s the greatest commandment: Love the LORD with everything you got (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37). It may take us a lifetime to figure out exactly what loving Him should look like, but it doesn’t take us long to realize one sad truth: We don’t love Him that way very often.

Have you ever tried to determine what the backbone of your faith is? Is it doctrine? If so, you you’ve probably found that, though necessary and important, doctrine runs dry pretty quickly, even for those who decide to spend their lives in theological scholarship. Is it emotion? You’ll find that a faith that not only includes emotions, but is based on them, will be an up-and-down experience. Is it understanding? No, we all need it, but we’ll never have enough. So what is our faith about?

It’s love. God makes that clear. Scripture tells us to study doctrine, express emotions, and seek understanding, but it never tells us to make those things our foundation. A consuming love for God, though, is foundational. If we don’t have that, we don’t have much of a relationship with Him. Not a meaningful one, anyway.

“Love The LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For The LORD is your life.” (Deuteronomy 30:20)

An old song tells us that “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” It’s exactly right, although not in the context that the songwriter probably intended. What the world really needs now is a generation of followers of Jesus who are Deeply, Madly In Love with Him – and who live like it. That is what the church, in its simplest definition, is supposed to be – a people in love with Jesus. That includes understanding His revelation, experiencing His grace, and studying His Truth; and those endeavors are surely necessary. But without a love for Him, those endeavors are, well, boring. Or irrelevant. They carry no weight in God’s presence, and they have no impact on our world.

Do you really want to commune with the heart of God? Then love Him.

Have a loving weekend. Make it better by worshiping The Lord with those who have and are experiencing His unconditional love, live like it, and model the same.

All For Jesus – Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else.

“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, The King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15b-16)