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Oct 11

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LOVING GOD (4)

If you were going to get people to love God, just how would you go about it? Better yet, before worrying about another and how to get him to love God, let us start with our self. What did it take for you to love God? What was the single act, or was it a number of acts, then, which one brought on full love of God? It is good that each of us deal with such a question!
We all know the words of Jesus, when he identified the first commandment: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30). This being the first commandment, there must be good reason for our love of God. God would not just command us to love him without good reason. So, just how do we answer the question: “Why should I love God?”
First, just look out and see the earth and its fruit. Can you truly think of something more beautiful in a physical world? Reach down and the touch the green grass, smell a rose, look at an eagle flying in the sky, taste the apple, drink the water from a clear cool stream, watch the snow as it falls to the earth, and breathe the air that is everywhere. Then, look up, see the clouds and all the shapes, look higher and view the sun, then, at night see the moon, and all the stars. No, this is just the beginning; the universe is so large and full, that we are just beginning to learn of its greatness. Then, hear the laugher of a little child; receive a hug of someone who loves you. It all comes from God: “In the beginning God created.”
As great as the above are, God created man with an eternal spirit, a spirit that shall exist without ending. Enjoy all the good this earth has, but there is heaven waiting after this life is over! The God who created us has invited all humanity to share all the blessings that his eternal home has. Then, while living here and enjoying all the physical blessings this earth has to offer, but as we do so, we know we can also have the best spiritual life which can be had, while doing so!
This comes to us as a result of God’s love for us. You see, at one time or another, we sin against our creator! Even though he has shown us his love in every good physical way there is, we reject his holy manner of life and we sin. We disobey his commandments, even though they are all for our good, but we seek the “forbidden” fruit of Satan! We become convinced that we know better than God! How foolish, but the “forbidden” fruit looks so good, we just must have it. Sin has now taken us away from God and his holiness; Isaiah put it this way: “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: (2) But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isa. 59:1-2). You see, God cannot, yes that’s right, God cannot violate his own holiness; therefore, it is that our own sins that now stand between us and God! The darkest moment in our lives is when we sin, thereby, separating ourselves from God. Eternal separation now stands before us and we are without any hope of being able to change our now dead state!
So, what are we to do? Friends, there is nothing, no not one thing, that we can do to repair our spiritual state, but God in his love, yes, even while we stand in rejection of his way; God moved by his love for us and prepared a way for our forgiveness! Paul tells us: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). Yes, God and only God had the answer to our dead state, separated from him.
Now, what does it take for you to love God? What does it take for you to lovingly obey his commandments? The all-knowing God said through Paul: “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” ( 1 Tim. 4:8). There is heaven, in the words “and of that which is to come!” Do you love God enough to believe that heaven is greater than anything on earth? Do you love God enough to keep his commandments? If not, there will be no heaven for you!
Friends, Is what God has done for you enough for you to love him and in that love obey his commandments?

— Frank R. Williams

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