Love, Grace and Heaven

Matthew 22:36 Jesus said to him, ’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

I had lunch with a friend a few weeks ago to talk about God. I still feel out of my element when asked to do so one on one. I am fine in front of a crowd, I can pray off the cuff at church, but when the rubber hits the road and I sit one on one. I worry, will I say the wrong thing, will I scare them off, will I come across as nuts, angry, vengeful, wild eyed? My prayer always is please God, let me come across as you would.

This friend had been "hammered" by the Old Testament. Yes, there are great, timeless and most relevant lessons in the Old Testament but as a follower of Christ I really have to go to the new and I have to go to Matthew. In God's own words through Christ we are given new commandments. These make all of it simple, we don't have to worry about blended fabrics, shell fish, milk and meat, hair, etc. we have to worry about two things. Loving God; that means spending time with God, praying to God, thinking aobut God and loving our neighbors. That means exactly what it says and loving ourselves. In theory these lines are "simple," in reality they are difficult and testing.

Involved in all of this loving is a remembrance of Jesus' sacrifice. In remebrance of that act we are called to feed the hungry, house the homeless, to be kind to others, to remember and serve those in pain, to remember those in joy and to sacrifice our own needs, wants and desires. Don't get me wrong, this is not a plea for work's righteousness, I don't buy that; there is one path to Heaven and that is Christ and through him God's grace, we can't work our way in. You see by God's kindness we are afforded Heaven and that model of His grace is how we are called to live. It is after all....the loving thing to do.