Series: Love
Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 MSG
Deuteronomy 6:10-12 MSG
John 14:6 ESV
Matthew 4:19 AMP
Matthew 22:37 NIV
Words of Love
It seems like God gives each of us ‘special’ reminders that draw us to love and help us to realize God is ever with us, ever loves us, and especially protects us.
If I had to identify one message I carry with me in my heart to share with the world it would be God’s desire for us and the message of love and protection.
It’s clear this is not a God who demands love, but rather a message of God’s unending love and desire to be in relationship with us.
Moses knew it and spoke about it in Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
A significant message for us in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 from The Message
“Attention, Israel!
God, our God! God the one and only!
Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!
Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.”
Those words of love and desire to be in a loving relationship with God tell a story. The commandments are not given as a demand.
They were (are) given from a loving God who wants to be in relationship with children who receive and return love.
It’s followed by a promise in Deuteronomy 6:10-12, “When God, your God, ushers you into the land he promised through your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you, you’re going to walk into large, bustling cities you didn’t build, well-furnished houses you didn’t buy, come upon wells you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive orchards you didn’t plant. When you take it all in and settle down, pleased and content, make sure you don’t forget how you got there—God brought you out of slavery in Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is a significant reminder God made to His children.
Everything God did was from a position of love.
God created a beautiful garden for His children out of love.
God gave man dominion over the earth.
God gave man the ability to reproduce.
God gave man the task and great responsibility of caring for all of creation.
In return what God wanted more than anything was to be in a loving relationship with creation.
But man strayed from God.
God sent messenger after messenger but man strayed. So, God sent the prophets. The last book of the prophets in the Old Testament is Malachi.
Then for approximately 400 years there was silence. That period of time is called the “intertestament” years by Protestants or the deuterocanonical period by Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox. According to scripture no messenger arrived for 400 years.
Then a baby was born of a virgin and he was called Jesus.
Jesus brought the message of love and redemption to all people.
Jesus was “the way”. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “ “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
It seems like of all the messages in New Testament scripture this one short passage is ever so clear.
I am the way.
Jesus was also clear about how to find the way. In Matthew 4:19 (AMP) Jesus said, “And He said to them, “Follow Me [as My disciples, accepting Me as your Master and Teacher and walking the same path of life that I walk], and I will make you fishers of men.”
Sometimes I think children and the wisest and most perceptive of humans when it comes to Jesus/God. They don’t seem to cloud the issue. They understand ‘follow me’ and they get ‘love Jesus’.
That is God’s desire for us. Matthew 22:37 tells us, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Some might say that is oversimplifying the issue, but I think of ‘love God and ‘follow me’ as being at the core.
When we love God and choose to follow, it puts everything in God’s capable hands.
Spiritual Practice: Love God and Follow
Let God handle the rest.
In God, Deborah
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