Maximum Love

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your stength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts."

Deutoronomy 6:4-6

Now Compare:

"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.'"

Luke 10:27

The difference I wanted to point out was that in Deut. there are only three "with all"s and in Luke there are four. The one in Luke has added on the "with all your mind". In Hebrew, the word used Deut. where "heart" is mentioned means both heart and mind. It's like it is saying "with all your heart/mind". But in Luke they spell it out clearly wanting to be all-inclusive for us who didn't know the Hebrew all that well. Our heart and mind is one in the same. Many times people try to separate the two, but they cannot be separated, they are undoubtedly tied together and work together. It's beauty really.

There was a lesson taught on the scripture in Deut. while we were at camp the other week. God spoke so loudly to me during this that I wanted to share what I learned. Here goes...

In the first scripture (Deut.) there are some key words spoken. Immediately I think they have to be the words "love", but they aren't. The key words are "with all". Think about it. Aren't those incredibly big words? If you repeat them over and over the resinate inside don't they? They seem to get stronger and stronger.

Love God with all your heart/mind. That's everything you feel and think. Love God with all your soul. That's everything that makes up who you are. What else is there? Love God with all your strength. This is really a word in Hebrew that we don't have an English word equal to so we did the best we could and came up with strenght. The Hebrew word is really a word that puts finality and emphasis or intensity on-meaning with all your all. It's saying to give whatever there could possibly be left to give in love, give it.

Every decision I make throughout the day is an opportunity to love God. Every part of my life is a new way to love and worship God. I'll be done loving God when I've given every drop of spit I've ever had to love Him. Therefore...I'll never be done.

You know, there was a great point that was made during this class. Girls, we love to be romanced. Guys, I think, but am not sure, that you like to romance girls, when it's the right one. Why don't we romance God? We try and be so creative in romancing people on earth, but we lift of rituals to God and think that's enough. Romance is not legalistic or rule-bound-it is: freestyle, creative, my own and a pouring out of my heart. Let's do the things that no can teach us how to do in worship and love to Him.

God really, really loves us. A concept I don't think I'll ever understand. Check out some of these verses:

[Keep me as the apple of your eye. Psalm 17:8a]

[And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:5]

[How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1]

[We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19]

When you know how much someone loves you, the natural response is to love them back.

God waits to be wanted. ~A.W. Tozer

"So long as we imagine it is we who have to look for God, we must often lose heart. But it si the other way about-He is looking for us."

~Simon Tugwell

So we have to ask ourselves, do we truly know and accept how much God loves us?

"Give me 100 preachers who hate nothing but sin and love nothing but the Lord adn the world will be turned upside-down."

~John Wesley

What about 12 people? Jesus wanted 12 who hated nothing but sin and loved nothing but God. What about one?