Love the
LORD your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy
6:5
Fellow Believers,
Greetings in the
name of the worthy One, Yeshua! Do I love Him? In
reply I shout a profound ‘YES, I love Him!’ This verse found in Deuteronomy
was foundational in the relationship of man to God. Following this same verse to the
New Testament we find the command has an additional enrichment:
‘Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Mark
12:30
This addendum seems to
launch it out of reach making it impossible to comply. My mind is racing around
on overload much of the time. How does one love the Altogether Lovely One, with
all of one’s mind? But there's more! May be you should sit before you are presented with the next addendum to His command to love….
An expert in the law
stood to question Jesus. He ask what he must do to inherit eternal life. “What is written in
the Law?” Jesus replied. “How does it read to you?”
He answered, “‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” And He said to him, “You have answered
correctly; Do this and you will live.” Luke 10:26-29
I read this verse for
many years without really understanding, and I neglected to receive it as a
personal indicative to love as Jesus commanded. I needed to ask myself, “When
is the last time you took seriously loving others? What does it flesh out
to be for me?” How have I ‘loved’ my neighbor? I hope this makes you as
uncomfortable as it does me. Adding the last phrase, ‘and
your neighbor as yourself’, should shake you to your knees, with a cry of repentance and confession, “LORD, I cannot love like that!”
True! Yet, we
are exactly where God wants us to be and it is hard as it requires dying and we
do not die easily. We rationalize that if things were only different (easier),
then we could enjoy a better Christian life and not feel inclined to escape.
Itching for things to be different, we are quite sure that Christ would be more
real. (in their everyday life) It has yet to dawn on us that it is these very
circumstances, we are meant to find the Lord Jesus, proving His grace
sufficient, find life more abundant..”
How much struggle have
we gone through trying to improve ourselves, fix up our old sin nature,
ignoring the fact God has one plan for the flesh and that is condemnation,
crucifixion and death. We can become frustrated and disappointed because of the
futility of living with the old sin nature always in control and all because of
our unbelief, we are not appropriating the truth He has provided.
Burn the ships!!
This
phrase “Burn The Ships” comes from a historic conquest when, in 1519, Spanish
Conquistador H. Cortez landed in Mexico on the shores of the Yucatan, with only
one objective…seize the great treasures known to be there, hoarded by the
Aztecs. Cortez was committed to his mission and his quest for riches is
legendary. Cortez was an excellent motivator, commanding 11 ships, to take the
world’s riches treasure. The historic question is “how a small band of Spanish
soldiers arrived in a strange country and swiftly brought about the overthrow
of a large and powerful empire that was in power for over six centuries?”
For
Cortez, the answer was easy. It was all or nothing! A Complete and Total
Commitment. He took away the option of failure. It was conquer and be hero’s
and enjoy the spoils of victory…or DIE! When Cortez and his men arrived on the
shores of the Yucatan he rallied the men for one final pep talk before leading
his men into battle, and utters these three words that changed the course of
history. “Burn the Ships”.
Our LORD calls us to
complete and total commitment. Burn the ships! For us it isn’t victory or die,
it is die; crucified with Christ, who is our Victory. No going back to find
contentment embracing the world’s lies. Burn the ships of lust, lies,
self-effort and unbelief. Cast yourselves into the fray for the Gospel, count
yourself dead to sin, but alive to Christ Jesus.
All or nothing.
See yourself as dead with Christ, risen with Christ. This world is not our home
we are aliens. Victorious from before the beginning of time. Victorious with
our King. The battle rages but the battle is our King’s. Burn the ships! We are
to Love the
Lord our God with all our heart and
with all our soul and
with all our mind
and with all our strength.
Luke 10:27 To love like this is to ‘burn the ships’! No matter what comes your
way in suffering, it is our lot. We are not
alone, our King leads us into battle and He will lead us home!
Daddy, hold me. Carry
me. Teach me to appropriate all You have given me in Your word. My heart longs
to love you perfectly and love others in Your name but it is so hard to die
daily, the flesh is relentless and the enemy comes in like a flood. You
have given me rest in Jesus. Thank you He finished all You gave Him to do and
all my Victory rests on the ground of His finished work at Calvary and the
empty tomb and His ascension. Thank You I am learning to rest in You, my King.
I bow in awe of You, praying in Your most worthy name Jesus.
Praying for you. You are loved immeasurably by the KING!
Burn the Ships!
az
http://www.gramzkidz.com
The Gospel (or Good News) message of Jesus Christ is so simple that it almost defies understanding.By evidenceofdesign| 1 video
