At one point as Jesus is being asked questions, some of which are an attempt to catch Him in some false teaching. In the midst of that, He is asked to share what He believes is the greatest of the commandments. He shares this . . .

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."

Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)

Love God

I hope that you noticed the very heart of Jesus in His words. Love God.  Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.

It is clear to me that Jesus is saying that it is not enough to just love God as a friend or sibling or spouse. No, according to the Master, God deserves the best of us . . . All of our heart.  All of our soul.  All of our mind. All of our strength. The ALL of who and what we are.

In other words, the highest honor of all is to enter into the presence of the Almighty. To sing His praises, honor His desires and bow before His throne are the greatest honors a man or woman could ever aspire to. And for me the place that this is played out most effectively and learned best is in worship.

I am sure some will disagree with my assessment and I suppose that's ok. I am not here to place my demands on anyone. My purpose is to share the truth I came to a long time ago. Worship is the one and only place to truly demonstrate that we love God and for the seeker, the only place to learn how to love God.

Why do I say that? Because worship means that I forget about me & focus totally on the Eternal God. Think about it for a moment. What do we do in a worship time? We sing about Him and we sing to Him. We pray to Him, seeking His guidance, comfort, peace, protection, wisdom, etc. We give of our financial resources recognizing that it all belongs to Him anyway. We listen to a message from His Word. We commune with Him remembering His greatest act of love.

Now I am sure that someone will say that he or she can do this without having to enter a church building to do so. And I will agree with them. I have on more than one occasion given myself completely to worship God in the wilderness, on the ocean, in the mountains and most recently plummeting toward the earth at 120 miles per hour. Times of awe are for me very special opportunities to open my heart to His presence. However, those times are more rare than most of us would care to admit. That is why a weekly worship time with other Christ followers is so important.

No matter what you might think, this is why it is imperative that you spend time each week in worship expressed toward the living God. You can of course do all of what I mentioned above on your own. However the greatest expression of worship is not in the lone expression of it but in the corporate expression of worship. It is not enough to just love God alone but the love of His people plays an important role in this as well. (more on that next time)

So what do we do? We love God. We learn to worship Him. We become a part of His body which He loves even though it is filled with imperfections. Why? Because this is the highest honor we can bestow on the Master.            back                                          continue to Part 2

Questions? I sure hope so! You can always reach me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by calling the church office at 407-293-2768.