Puppy Love
I had the priviledge of taking the Open Heavens Devotional study in Church last Sunday. Unfortunately, the call to do so was impromptu so I wished I was more prepared. Did my best however. The title was Love Birds, part 1. After the teaching, more thoughts on the subject came to my heart.
When one is in love, you try as much as possible to spend a whole lot of time with that person. That's why a man will leave the house in the morning, after spending the night with his wife and kissing her goodbye as he's set to leave and she calls him 20 minutes later so say how much she's missing him! I had a friend in the university who gave his ATM card to his girlfriend(not fiancee, or wife!). I scolded him harshly for doing so,believing that move was a ridiculous one. In the same vein, the need for constant communication makes lovers have a date in the afternoon and still stay awake all night on midnight calls, not minding that they may be drowsy at work or school the following day. Silly things we do for love!
Jesus said we must love God with all our soul,mind and strength, this is the first commandment, it is also the most important one. The reason why it is the first commandment is because obedience to the other commandments is predicated on fulfilling this single commandment. Remember that Jesus said,"if you love me, you will keep my commandments". So the first commandment is that you love Him.
You will recall that after Jesus ressurected, before his translocation to heaven, He appeared to His disciples when they left the ministry to go fishing. If it had been you and I, that Peter deserted the assignment we gave to him, we'll scold him harshly and probably say something like "bobo yii,ori e o pe o,she ise timo ran e lonshe lowo yii?'. It wasn't so with Jesus, He first gave his disciples a treat of bread and fish, after which He asked Peter a critical question 3 times. He said, "Peter, do you love me?". When a woman asks her husband a question like that,it indicates one of two things. First, it could be that the man is doing something that is really upsetting her and she wants to bring it to his notice, or she needs something from him that she knows he ordinarily be unwilling to give to her! In this encounter with Peter, it was the former. Jesus knew that if Peter could answer the love question affirmatively, every other question had been answered properly and the ministry was not in jeopardy. 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. If you love Him, you will gladly give Him your time, effort, money,talents and resources. Jesus is asking you and I the same question today. "Do you love me?" . That's the crux of what we are to Him and all we do(or do not do) for Him. Do you love Jesus?
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