I am going to begin my blog today by having us look at Matthew 22: 36-38, " Teacher, which is the great (highly esteemed for it's importance) commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the first (principal) and great commandment."  A Pharisee asked Jesus which commandment in the law was great. His answer to that question defines the nature of the relationship that God's people are to have with Him.  He said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."  With this response, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 which we will look at shortly. 

 Knowing that God gave mankind a free will when He created us, helps us understand that God does not force us to do anything.  We are not puppets, forced to follow their creator's wishes.  There are a number of things the Scripture encourages us to consider : "choose life", "choose the good", choose none of the ways of the oppressor", "choose to forgive" , or "choose to be obedient" to mention a few.  What I want you to think about today, though, is "choosing to love" God. 

 It is pretty easy for us to be aware of what some of the leaders of our nation are choosing today, if we listen to any "news" at all.  I recently heard of a Congressman who expressed that he was not interested in the will of God.  We will continue to pray for our nation and leaders.  However, I want us to focus on how the "church" is loving God today.  I believe that even those who claim to be believers are failing to love God and put His will above all else. 

 In Revelation 2:4, Jesus spoke these words concerning the church of Ephesus, "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left (forsaken or neglected) your first love. (love for God and the things of God)."  Their love had degenerated into orthodox routine.  I feel strongly that we can see this same decline in the church today.  Many church leaders are not leading believers to enter into a more intimate personal relationship with the Lord.  Nor are they teaching the Word of God. This is problematic. When trials or temptations come, the sheep are not able to withstand because they do not have the strong foundation of the Word of God in their hearts or minds. According to a poll by George Barna, only 16 % of all (who claim to be) evangelicals have a Biblical worldview. In order to be successful as a follower of Christ, we must know and choose to live by the Word of God.  It reveals His will for those who choose to accept and love Him.  Instead, many church leaders are busy building bigger and better churches and congregations.  Often we are seeing more programs, more elaborate worship and praise teams with bigger bands and more singers.  Even though the worship team is more professional, I wonder if they are really leading members of the congregation into worship or if they are entertaining? It would seem many are concerned about numbers and facilities and not making disciples.

 Deuteronomy 6:5, is a command given to the Israelites, by Moses, that reads, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."  This command is repeated many times throughout the Bible. (Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 and as I shared earlier, Matthew 22:37)

 Let's look more in depth at Matthew 22:37, "Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."  "Love" in this verse is the Greek word agapao, which is the verb form of agape.  The word, agapao is used uniquely  regarding Christianity.  It is the unconditional love, such as God has, for His people, with which we are to love Him and others.  This word has more to do with the will of a man rather than emotion.  It is a choice that is made.  The word "heart" (kardia) is the center of physical life, the seat of one's personal life (physical and spiritual), the center of one's personality or the seat of one's entire mental or moral activity.  Psuche, the Greek word for "soul" is the seat of affections, will desire, emotions, mind, reason, and understanding.  It is the inner self or the essence of life.  Note that the body and spirit may be separated, however, the spirit and soul can only be distinguished.  Then, the word, "mind" (dianoia) means, thinking through.  This word suggests understanding, insight, meditation, reflection, perception and the faculty of thought.  Considering the Greek meanings, you could read this command in this way, "Choose to unconditionally love God with all your physical and spiritual life, your personality, your mental and moral activity, with all of your will, desire, emotions, reason, and affections, and with all of your understanding and intellect!"  Wow!  I believe this shows us that loving God, the way He desires us to do so, is more involved than we might have thought.

 I believe we can gain more insight from looking at John 21:15-17, " So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love (agapao) Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love (phileo) You." He said to him, "Feed My lambs." 16 He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love (agapao) Me?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love (phileo) You." He said to him, "Tend My sheep." 17 He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love (phileo) Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love (phileo) You." Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep."  In these verses, we read that Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him, three times.  To fully comprehend these verses, we must look at the Greek words that have been translated, "love".  In verses 15 and 16 Jesus used the word agapao, which, as we saw earlier, is loving with the God type of love, or the same way God loves (unconditionally).  When Peter responded to Jesus' inquiries in these verses, he stated , "You know that I love (phileo) You."  Phileo in the Greek means to be fond of, cherish, have a personal attachment for, to be kindly disposed to one or to be a friend to. We see that the third time Jesus asked, He used the word phileo.  Peter's response, basically, was to say he loved Jesus with a brotherly type of love.  We need to understand though, that Peter answered with this word for friendship because, at that moment, it was all he had to give.  Later, when the Holy Spirit imparted to him the fuller understanding of agape love, Peter used the agape/agapao words nine times in his writings.

 As with Peter, the Holy Spirit will continue to reveal a deeper, more intimate relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit to us.  Our love for Him will grow as we experience more of God and His presence in our lives.

 In searching the Word of God, we find there are many benefits in choosing to love God:

 Deuteronomy 30:15-20. "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 "in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. 17 "But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, 18 "I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. 19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 "that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is]your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."  These verses make a bold statement concerning the command to love God.  The choice to love God, serve Him and obey Him determines life or death, or, blessing or cursing for us.

 Nehemiah 1:5, " And I said: "I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments"

 Psalm 31:23, " Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, And fully repays the proud person."

 Psalm 91:14-16, " Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. 15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation." 

 Psalm 97:10," You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked."

 Matthew 6:33, " But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."  Those who love God and seek Him above all else, will have their needs met.  (Be blessed)

 The question then, is, "How do we show our love to God?"  I will start by saying this,  "Spending time with Him."

 Matthew 18:20, " For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."

 1 John 1:3, " that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

 Psalm 91:1, " He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

 And with Jesus as our example, we see in Mark 1:35, " Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed."

 The greatest way to show our love for God is to obey Him.  John 14:15 and 23, " If you love Me, keep My commandments... 23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."

 Then, the scripture very emphatically says if we love God, we will love our brothers.

 1 John 4: 20,21, " If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also."

 1 John 5:1-3," Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

 How then, do we daily choose to love the Lord?

 We choose to obey His Word.  That means we choose to not compromise with the world and choose, as Jesus did, to do nothing on our own initiative but to do always what pleases Him.

 We choose to forgive.

 We choose to love our brothers.

 We choose to spend time with Him, which means we choose to pray and choose to read the Bible and hide the Word of God in our hearts so that we do not sin against Him.

 Our walk with the Lord is a journey!  None of us are perfect, when we mess up, we confess, repent, pick ourselves up, and continue to press in.  It is well worth the effort! 

 Continue to LOVE HIM! Open up your heart and seek to love Him More!