Passages - Life Verse #2

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 

Matthew 22:34-40

I can tend to be wordy in my story telling or explanation.  I love the side stories that go along with the main plot.  Yet, I love it when someone is able to sum up a huge issue, happening, or idea with a sentence or two.  When I ran across the Greatest Commandment passage during my Time Alone with God (or as we call it at NMC Student Ministries, TAWG) when in college, something hit deep.

The two commandments resonated with me deeply...

1.  Love God with everything you have.

2.  Love others (Jesus defined "neighbor" pretty broadly in other passages) in the same way you should love yourself.

I've dissected this passage trying to learn the historical, textual, theological significance of it.  

I've come to realize this passage is not a pathway to salvation but a call to godly and holy living.

I've wrestled with what it looks like to love your neighbor without loving your neighbor's sin.

Ultimately, what continual blows me away is the deep truth of verse 40... if these two commandments were a coat hanger, you could hang every other commandment on one of them.  So, if I can nail these two commands, I can nail the whole of scripture.

I try to make it a point to pray with or over my kids nightly.  One key phrase I pray over them, or that Katylynn will now pray out loud, is, "God, help (Katylynn/Moses) to learn how to love you and love others." 

When asked for a "life verse," I rarely quote this one, because it's a passage and not a verse. 

Matthew 22:37-40 is a "life verse" for me that I'm praying to be a life verse for my kids.

Passages - Life Verse #1

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 

                                                              Matthew 6:33

I'll often be asked if I have a "Life Verse."  A life verse, as I understand is a verse or passage of scripture that God has more or less branded on to your life.  It will likely tie in to your direct calling. When asked, I have several verses that come to mind (hence #1 as a part of this post).  This tends to be the primary one I'll give. 

I love to be about "kingdom" business. When I gave my life over to Christ in September 1995,  I remember looking at a friend kneeling at the alter next to me and saying, "If I'm doing this, it's all or nothing.  I'm done living for myself."  Unfortunately, that statement has been a little more tough in practice than it was to simply declare it.  Yet, I find myself most alive, most in my "sweet spot" when I am...
... involved in something that clearly glorifies God's character and God's calling for mankind.
... taking part in something that will live beyond me.
... wearing my "eternal eyes" and not just a "momentary monacle" (a really dumb illustration I often give when speaking).
... a part of something significant.

When I seek HIM first, things don't necessarily get easier, and they don't necessarily change, but things do seem to fall into proper place and perspective.

A common prayer for me:  "God, let me advance your Kingdom today.  Get my eyes off my Kingdom."

Passages: I John 4:19

We love because he first loved us. 

                                                                              I John 4:19 

I was in High School. I wasn't pursuing after Christ. I had a ton of religion and no relationship with Christ. I had to sit through church services on Sunday morning and Sunday night. I would do anything to pass the time... Tic Tack Toe, drawing, passing notes, and sometimes when I was really board, reading my Bible.

I can't remember the exact date or even year, all I remember was I was in High School. As I leafed through my Bible, I realized for the first time there was the book of John, but there was also the book of I John. I started skimming through I John. When I hit chapter 4, verse 19 something just made me pause.

It was a simple statement, but it spoke to me. I am able to love because of God's love. In that moment, I decided to do something I'd never done before. I was going to memorize the verse and where it's found. Don't get me wrong, I had memorized verses before, but every other verse was because I was told to or it was so I could earn a patch for my "Missionary Cadet" sash.  This time my memorization was different.  It was the first verse I ever memorized because I thought it would be good to memorize.

I don't think I memorized another verse or passage of scripture until I fully surrendered my life to Christ my Freshman year at Bethel College.  After that moment and in the years since, I have committed many passages to memory.  This one will always be a special one to me.  Both for the message and for the reality that God was speaking love to me as I was running away from him.

Passages

Kind of funny that I'm heading on a vacation and I'm going to kick out a blog series. Normally vacation time means no blogging. I figured I would switch The concept of "Passages" is to throw out passages of scripture that are especially meaningful to me an the story of why. Look for more to come over the next few weeks.

Converge Is Back

After a few month break, I was able to get back to the Remedylive studios to record several new episodes of Converge.  We did a little reformatting to the show...
New set, shorter episodes, and series.

I'm excited about the 4 episode series with Terry Linhart about where we are discussing how the Christian teen can make a global difference.

Here's part 1:

Converge EP01 Terry Linhart from remedyLIVE on Vimeo.


Here's part 2:

Converge EP02 With Terry Linhart from remedyLIVE on Vimeo.

Part 3 will air live Sunday at 7:30 p.m. on Remedylive. You can also watch archived episodes of Converge here.