It starts with Jesus

I love the word "perfect." It refers to being complete or whole, lacking nothing. In Matthew 22:34-40, the Pharisees attempt to trap Jesus by asking Him what the greatest commandment is. Jesus replies "You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is first and great commandment." He then goes on to say the second is to love your neighbor as yourself, and that the WHOLE law and prophets hang by these concepts. I think we generally understand the first commandment to mean that we are to love God perfectly or completely: heart, soul, mind. But if we think about this a little more logically, I think we can see just how smart Christ's reply was. Jesus uses this term "perfect" many times when referring to Himself. Jesus came not to do away with the Law that had been taught to these people, but to perfect. He completed what God had always intended for man. Jesus then tells us that the foundation of our relationship to God is bases on loving Him competely. Later on in 1 John 4, we read how God, Himself, IS love. So basically we're told that thru Jesus we are able to be competed: thru Jesus we are able to love completely, and thus thru Jesus we are able to be competely made one with God. The symmetry of Jesus teaching is amazing! All these things tie together so beautifully! Now going back to Matthew 22: Christ gives us the foundation of the Gospel, the foundation of Himself. He gives us three things to focus on. These three things will pertain to everything Christ did, is doing, and will ever do. We'll look at each one of these over the next three weeks. Jesus basically tells the people that the greatest commandment, the most important thing you can do in this life, is to prepare yourself completely. Here's what we'll start looking at next week:
I. Preparing our Hearts
II. Preparing our Souls
III. Preparing our Minds

Lord, we praise you for all the things you have put in motion for us. We praise you for the things we take for granted everyday. Help to realize Your hand in our lives. Help us to see Jesus in the things we think, the things we say, and the things we do. Help us to know you completely. Increase our faith and give us hearts of servants. Amen

Motivation

To be completely honest, I must say that I struggle with a countless number a things in my pursuit of Christ. Recently it seems like motivation has been a serious stumbling block to me, whether it's dealing with my school work, my job, my family life, and especially my spiritual walk. Today I began thinking about how I had come to this point of my life, not necessarily referring to my lack of motivation but rather my current spiritual status. As I mentioned in my first post, my father started a chain of events in my life that seems to have snowballed (in a good way) into a thirst that never seems to be satisfied. When I study one thing and begin to draw conclusions, it leads to re-examine things I had taken for granted previously as well as look into things I never bothered contemplating. In an effort to let whoever reads this know a little bit more about me, I'll try to explain. My parents always raised my siblings and I to fear God and study His Word, but it always seemed like we did it because that is what they had always known. The things we learned were exactly what we were taught, there was no personally discovery so to speak. A few years ago I began to see a change in my father. The once towering and intimidating man (6'6") now seems humble, gentle and meek. But at the same time he seems so much happier and at peace with his life. We began having a running dialogue about all things spiritual, especially pertaining to Christ. My father and I began studying and realizing many of the things we had been taught do a great disservice to the character of Christ. These began a new time in my life, one that I hope will continue until I pass from this life to the next. Over the next few months I hope to share many of the things both my father and I have studied. I hope they encourage you to look deep with yourself and within the Word to find Christ, to see the power He has and the call He gives. I look forward to hearing from you and may God increase our faith and give us hearts of servants.