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And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Deuteronomy 6:5
This was the first commandment, and according to Jesus it summed up all ten. That simplifies it, but it doesn’t make it any easier. Jesus preached a simple gospel that is most difficult to accept. He said leave it all behind and follow me. He said die to yourself and live for me. He said the world will hate you as it hates me. He said love your enemy, reach out to the outcasts, become of no reputation. It wasn’t a complicated messege, but it was hard to swallow.
That’s why we’re always trying to add to it or take away from it. We add rules here and there so we can feel like we’re doing rather than having to feel like we’re dying. We want to be noticed instead of being of no reputation. Our flesh resists the cross at all costs, but if we’ll just listen to His voice of love, we’ll count the cost and realize that the reward of knowing Him is more than worth the price we pay.
We have to continually examine our hearts. Are we really loving God with everything in us or are we flirting with the world on the side? Are we trying to impress “the right people” to get our way or on the flipside are we trying to shut people out in an attempt to protect our wounded hearts? Are we happy with our cliques or do we open our hearts to others? It’s really not so much about what we’re doing, but how we’re dying.
James minced no words when he said in chapter 4 4″You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” He stuck with Jesus’s method and made it simple, not easy. We can be a friend of the world, or a friend of God, but we can’t be both. We have to choose our enemy.
Loving God with all our heart, soul and mind means that those who love the world with all their hearts, souls and minds are going to hate us and persecute us. Jesus didn’t teach a course on How to Win Friends and Influence People. He said follow me. You’ll make enemies doing it. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. And He also said that if we choose Him, He would call us His friend. It doesn’t get any better than that.
And thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart…
12 And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.
13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attend unto the prayer that is made in this place.
16 For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.
When I read these verses, I am absolutely blown away. I literally covered my mouth and closed my eyes as I meditated on this. The realization that Yahweh God wants to speak these words to each of us is an absolute silencer.
Because of the cross and resurrection of our Lord, we are the Temple He is speaking of. He has chosen Earthly, human vessels to be the places that he would sanctify, and that His name and His eyes and heart would be perpetually. It is not entirely a free gift as some have been led to believe. To be indwelt by the God of the universe is a costly endeavor.
When He chooses us, He chooses us as a house for sacrifice. There is no longer needed the sacrifice for sin, as that was made once and for all by Christ, but there is a cost to be counted as a joint heir with Him. We have to die completely to everything we are and have in order for him live fully through us in the power of His resurrection. Dying to our flesh is a mysterious thing and it is never fully accomplished, but with every blow our flesh takes there is more freedom and power and life.
As we become living sacrifices and God fills our temples, we become useful vessels for His kingdom on Earth, even to the point that God will hear our cries for our land when he sends judgement (locusts and pestilence). There has not been a time in our nation such as the times we live in now, when there has been such a great need for men and women to lay down their lives so that people can see the true and living God among them and this nation could be healed.
There will be lots of media attention and even pulpit time given to the coming elections, but for those of us who are following Christ, the emphasis never changes. Jesus and a life lived as an offering are our only hope and the only hope of our lost and dying nation and world. May we be those living, moving temples that bring His presence and His heart to those around us.
