April 13, 2017 - "And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "which commandment is the most important of all?" (Mark 12:28)
"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31)
So there we have it from Jesus' own mouth. Our first priority is to love God with our entire being, body and soul and secondly, to love our neighbor as ourself.
The great king, Solomon, in his later days pondered all he had learned and had this to say about serving God.
"The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the sole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, with every secret thing, whether god or evil." (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)
Does that not sound like the words of Jesus many generations later in time?
God asks all people through the scriptures to step forth and live wholeheartedly, for Him. To love Him with all that we are, each day. God is not looking for "Sunday Morning Christians" no, He is looking for those who cling to Him all day, every day.
So many are afraid of this total commitment, so many want to worship a little while on Sunday and slip right back into the world on Monday morning.
Folks, this is not what the Lord asks of us, we are asked to give Him our all, without hesitation and, to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Is this so hard, are the pleasures of the earth so great that they are worth forfeiting eternity spent, in heaven, with the Lord?
If worldly pleasures seem so important to you then I ask you to listen to the words of Jesus, given to His disciples only days before His death on the cross. He is telling them of the coming of the Son of Man, the event we call the Second Coming, when Jesus comes back to earth in all His glory. An event so great, so dramatic that as the Bible says; "every knee shall bend, every head shall bow" as the world witnesses God's great glory. Jesus said this about the events into the future.
"So also, when you see all these things, you know that He is near, at the very gates. (Matthew 24:33)
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words will not pass away." (Matthew 24:35)
Any worldly things you may be concerned with; those will not survive the second coming of our Lord. They will be burned up as chaff of the field, nothing left of them but ashes.
Jesus tells us what is important, love Him with all that we have, and he tells us why. Because in the end we will have nothing left but our relationship with Him. Choose life today, choose to believe God's Word, choose to accept the free gift of eternal salvation, paid for by the Lord Jesus and His death of the cross. Just tell Him; "Jesus save me for I am a sinner", and He will.
May God's blessings be upon you this day...
