So what is the connection between loving God and loving our neighbour? If there is real love of God, there will be love for ourselves, and love for our neighbour.

See how complete Jesus reminds us this love for God is meant to be: all our heart, soul and mind.

We are so often tempted to hold something back. We want to love ourselves on our own terms – to love ourselves fully, like we should love God. But that would lead to a world full of Gods, and how would that work out?

Or we are tempted to put these two loves in opposition. I can either be good, ethical, and law-abiding to love God, or I can just love people. The problem with this is that true love of our neighbour flows from the love ofGod. Our love for God leads to love of our neighbours, which leads us to want to act right toward them. Without love for God, and an experience of his love, we each have to define love for ourselves, and we all have different ideas about what love is!

We’ll see tomorrow how Jesus’ self-giving love sets the pattern for our love, while freeing us from the traps of loving ourselves first, trying to use others to earn our salvation, or any other attempt to manipulate God or others.

Question: Define love.

Ryan Sim - November 11, 2013

Monday - A New Idea - God in Worship

We are a few weeks into a new series on “Becoming Like Family”. This is important as our online community begin to share the daily challenges with friends, and we begin to gather our larger community together as one church community. We won’t be bound together by a building, or institution, but rather by five commitments. Two weeks ago, we explored commitment to common learning goals. Last week, we explored a commitment to connectedness as a community of small and large groups. This week, our commitment is to God in worship. Worship is not a word everyone uses every day, and even if we do, we might not sure what it means. Does it mean to bow down and say I’m not worthy? Kids “just worship” their parents, older siblings, etc. is that what it means? Or if you have church experience, you might think worship is something you do at a weekly service, or even just the music part of that weekly service. Did you know the official way to address Rob Ford is “Your Worship”? As you can see, there is some confusion on what “worship” means. Question: What do you think of when you hear the word worship? Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.

Discuss

More Messages Associated With "God"...

Powered by Series Engine