Image #1: Heart.

We talked about loving God with all of our strength on Sunday (Meo-dekah) from Deuteronomy 6:4-7. In the same verse we have the phrase to love God with all of our "hearts".

I want to give you some insight into this image. Understand that Hebrew/Jewish culture was a visual culture. The scriptures are filled with visuals that help us understand who God is and what he desires from us. The heart was seen as the seed of ones emotions, but it also meant the "mind".

In Hebrew the word heart = "lev" or "leva". It was the center of ones thought and spiritual life. The heart was connected with intelligence and emotions because when the heart beat fast it was related to emotions and when someone died the heart stopped. They didn't have any idea about physiology, but it made sense in their context.

If heart means our minds and emotions, it is saying to love God with all of our minds and emotions from Deuteronomy 6. Do we study the scriptures and fill our minds with God? In the Jewish culture studying God's Word was the highest form of worship. Do we fill our minds with mindless entertainment? Do we keep tabs on our emotions and love God with them as well?

Jesus and Paul were some of the greatest intellectual giants of our time. They expected their listeners to know the scriptures because loving God with the mind was essential to life with Him. In the West we tend to seperate our intellect from our emotions. In fact, when we begin to love God in this way our emotions will follow. Our affections for God will become greater and greater. That is a worthy endeavour.

Here is how Paul says it from 2 Corinthians 10:5 "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought to make it obedient to Christ".

Our minds matter, and they matter to God. Find ways this week to use your mind to love God in a fresh way. One of the obvious ways is to spend time with G0d in His word. Use some of the scriptures to get going from my earlier post.

Shalom!

Book Resource

You can get "Our Father Abraham" by Marvin Wilson from amazon.com for about $15. Check it out if you are interested in going deeper into our Jewish Heritage.

Applications from Sunday's Message...

What can we do now if we are serious about making God the one who guides our life and is the one we find true life in. Here are some ideas:

Scripture for Reflection:

1. John 1, 3, 4, 14-17
2. Matthew 22, 28
3. Genesis 1, 2, 3, 12, 15
4. Deuteronomy 6, 30
5. Psalm 1, 27, 63, 42, 145,
6. Jeremiah 2, 29
7. Isaiah 6, 9, 11, 40, 53, 55, 61
8. Romans 1, 3, 5, 8, 12
9. Acts 1-2, 3, 4
10. 1 Corinthians 1-2, 12-15
11. 2 Corinthians 1, 2, 4, 5
12. Ephesians 1-2
13. Colossians 1-3
14. Philippians 1-2
15. Hebrews 4, 11, 12
16. 1 Peter 1-3

These are some of the most important scriptures to reflect on and see what it says about God and what he desires in us and his world? Of course there are many more we could wrestle with. I am not giving you verse numbers to see if you can find the "meaty" verses, the ones that make you fall to your knees.

Here are some other applications:

1. Pray and read the Bible as a family.
2. Serve another family with your own family. Offer to bring them dinner, baby sit their kids so they can go on a date, shovel their snow, rent them a movie, be creative!!!
3. Fast from TV and have a game night, or a read instead night. TV makes your brain mush:) Or, simply have some good old fashion conversation.
4. Tell someone about Jesus.
5. Invite a person into your home for dinner.
6. Fast from eating out and use the money to bless someone under resourced, or adopt a kid at Compassion International.
8. Throw a party for your coworkers, just to celebrate being alive...
9. Invite a neighbor over for coffee.
10. Fast from food for a meal or two. Use that time to spend with God reading the Bible and prayer.
11. Tell your family that you love them, just because...
12. Send an email or letter to someone who needs to be encouraged.
13. Pray with a random person in a hospital.
14. Visit someone in jail for the purpose of helping them feel loved and not alone.

I know you can all come up with a million more ways to pursue God this year. I hope we all begin to grow in the commitment and dedication to our God, as we saw with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

Shalom!

Question: what does "Lord of all" mean?

I was answering a question in regards to the place of other religions and mentioned that Jesus is even the "Lord of all" in these religions as well. If people from other faiths believe in Jesus they will be with him forever.

There can only be one true God. From the beginning to the end of Scripture you see God making this claim, that he is the Lord, and will not give his glory to another. "The" God revealed in Jesus in not one option among many other good options.

"Lord" was a bold statement made in Philippians 2:6-11, and many other places, by Paul. Paul came to realize that by Jesus coming to earth, giving up his rights as God, and serving humanity through the Cross makes him the one true "Lord" of heaven and earth.

"Lord" was always a loaded term. In Jesus' day it had political meaning. The ruler of Rome would be called the "Lord" of the universe and even was considered a divine being to be worshipped. When Jesus makes claims of being "Lord" and then you see his followers making this claim later in the NT, it meant that God was Lord and Cesar was not. It meant that God had claim of the entire world, our lives, and the rulers or governments of the day did not.

So when we make this bold claim that Jesus is Lord, it means no other idol, world religion, government, world leader, system of thinking, has claim on us, only Jesus, the one true Lord. One day the entire world will bow, even if they don't believe in the Messiah Jesus, and claim him as the one true God. Hope that helps.

Question: why do Christians no longer worship on Saturday?

When the early church was forming there were many Gentiles (Non-Jews) coming to faith in Jesus. They moved the corporate gathering of worship to Sunday's because that was the day Jesus rose from the grave. It was also thought that a pagan form of worship done by the Roman Empire was done on Saturday, and they wanted to not associate themselves with this kind of worship. Many Jews saw this as a way they (Christians) were separating themselves from Jewish tradition, but that was not the intent. The church did not want to be a church divided (Gal. 3:28).

It is believed that some Jewish Christians might have still worshipped on Saturday in the Synagogue and then worshipped with fellow Christians on Sunday's. The New Testament Church began to see every day as a day to worship and not a particular day. The law of worshipping on the Sabbath (Saturday) was seen as specific to ceremonial law of Israel and did not apply to the new movement of Jesus. You can argue if that was right or wrong.

The problem with today is that we don't do a good job of Sabbath. We don't take a full day to rest as God has commanded us to do. Try it. It is a way to reconnect with God and acknowledge we are not God and we are not human "doings", rather we are human "beings".

Book Resource

If you have an itch to get a basic understanding of our Jewish Roots as Christians, and where we have severed those roots for good and bad, check out the resource below. Beware it may change your life and faith!!!

"Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith" By: Marvin R. Wilson

Great Question #2: Why are Christians not considered Jewish if that is where our roots come from and Jesus was Jewish?

Another great question asked after the service.

Again, Romans 10:11-13 will help us. After Jesus goes back into heaven and the message of Jesus spreads through the world in Acts, we get a different flavor of a message. The main message of Jesus was for his Jewish audience, and now the message was spreading to include Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews). Jesus wanted to show his own people that he was the one they were longing for and now the whole world would be included.

Paul explains that Jesus is Lord of all, Jew and Gentile alike. Their will be no difference. If you are a Jew who comes to Christ, or a Gentile who comes to Christ we are all part of the same family. The word Christian is only used 3 times in scripture and was made up by non-Christians during the 1st century. It was a reference to being "little Christ-ones". The people were so impressed by the lives of disciples of Jesus they called them Christians. The word disciples is used 260+ times in scripture. It means to be a learner, apprentice, follower of Jesus. That is a better definition for anyone who follows Jesus. Christian has too much political and religious baggage to be helpful. Many of the early Jews who believed in Jesus were considered Jewish Christians. See Acts 15 for an early debate over this issue, in the early 1st century church.

If we came from Jewish stock, we could be said to be Messianic Jews, but most people that come to faith in Jesus are considered Gentiles. The heart of the message of Jesus is a relationship with God through a person, namely, Jesus (See Hebrews). That is why I like to say we are followers of Christ, disciples of Jesus, or part of the Jesus movement. It gets at the heart of being in a relationship with God and confessing Jesus is Lord! Jesus was not interested in starting a world religion, he was interested in starting a movement by the Spirit, in the lives of people, and his church. Jesus main message was the kingdom of God, not sign up to a religion, club, or philosophy. Jesus came to show the Jew and the Gentile that God has come, he is showing us how to be truly human, how to live, how to be rescued from sin and death, and that God is putting the world back together through his Son. Amen!!!

Hope this makes sense. Correct me where I need correcting and respond with any questions you may have for me.