Deep down I am just the biggest nerd on the inside.
I really do love to study and read and learn stuff.
I get a genuine thrill from connecting dots that were loosely connected.
Studying the Bible could keep a body busy for the entirety of it's earthly existence.
And it would be a good existence, but not a great existence.
I look forward to opening the Bible every morning and reading it; meditating on it and making it relevant to my days.
God wants more from me than delighting in his Word.
He wants me to stop studying the Bible and to go do the Bible.
And you know, the Bible all boils down to one thing: Love.
Love God; love others.
What if beneath all if these beautiful layers of scripture and scholarly transliteration, the red letters are meant to be taken literally?
Are we missing that?
I only know the names of the inhabitants of three families that are direct neighbors, and I know nothing else about them; except this:
they are having a human experience too and their experience is bound to be as full of need for Jesus as mine.
Reading my Bible in the dark morning is not loving them.
The freedom that we have been given from the law is overwhelming, his commands are simple:
"Love me, love people"
"You can demonstrate your love for me by loving your neighbor"
"They will know you by your love"
If we are following Jesus, shouldn't we just do what he did?
He loved.
He didn't just write a check.
He didn't build them a bigger church ( he actually tore it down, right?)
He didn't sit in the temple and read and write about the Law; he was too busy loving people.
He got down in the dirt with poor people, he held hands with the sick and the dead, he dined with the hated and embraced the shamed.
He loved.
I love Jesus.
I am not loving my neighbors.
Maybe this is literal too;
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourself...
the one who looks into the perfect law...being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be
blessed in his doing." (James 1:22-25 ish)
Lord, make me a doer.
Help me see people the way you see people.
Show me where you are needed,
and then Lord, love them through me.
I really do love to study and read and learn stuff.
I get a genuine thrill from connecting dots that were loosely connected.
Studying the Bible could keep a body busy for the entirety of it's earthly existence.
And it would be a good existence, but not a great existence.
I look forward to opening the Bible every morning and reading it; meditating on it and making it relevant to my days.
God wants more from me than delighting in his Word.
He wants me to stop studying the Bible and to go do the Bible.
And you know, the Bible all boils down to one thing: Love.
Love God; love others.
What if beneath all if these beautiful layers of scripture and scholarly transliteration, the red letters are meant to be taken literally?
Are we missing that?
I only know the names of the inhabitants of three families that are direct neighbors, and I know nothing else about them; except this:
they are having a human experience too and their experience is bound to be as full of need for Jesus as mine.
Reading my Bible in the dark morning is not loving them.
The freedom that we have been given from the law is overwhelming, his commands are simple:
"Love me, love people"
"You can demonstrate your love for me by loving your neighbor"
"They will know you by your love"
If we are following Jesus, shouldn't we just do what he did?
He loved.
He didn't just write a check.
He didn't build them a bigger church ( he actually tore it down, right?)
He didn't sit in the temple and read and write about the Law; he was too busy loving people.
He got down in the dirt with poor people, he held hands with the sick and the dead, he dined with the hated and embraced the shamed.
He loved.
I love Jesus.
I am not loving my neighbors.
Maybe this is literal too;
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourself...
the one who looks into the perfect law...being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be
blessed in his doing." (James 1:22-25 ish)
Lord, make me a doer.
Help me see people the way you see people.
Show me where you are needed,
and then Lord, love them through me.
WORD! Speaks to me...I love to study...have to be reminded to be a doer!
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