What God wants from us

Sometimes we make Christianity very complicated........perhaps too complicated. But Jesus gave us some very simple and direct instructions for living the Christian life. Note these verses:

John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." This was Jesus' instruction to His followers as He prepared to leave them for the last time.

And this one, a question from a lawyer testing Him: " 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?' Jesus said to him, ' You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.' "

When we look closely at what God wants from us, it can be reduced to this: he wants our HEART. Included in that is our love, our obedience, our worship to Him, our remembering and appreciating Jesus (including taking the Lord's Supper--communion), our love for the Word of God, the Bible, and perhaps more. But simply, He wants our Heart.

Now if all this seems too simple, remember that He gave us 21 letters (epistles), Romans through Jude, which are written to give us detailed information as to how to live the Christian life. And, of course, Jesus did a lot of teaching as recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John regarding how we are to live. But if we just give Him our heart and truly seek to follow Him, the rest will fall in place. We need to put our trust in Him and in the Word, the Bible, and we will be ok.

Thanks for reading this week. See you in the next message.......or maybe the next life. So I'll just say "see you.............and feel the love!"