The Lord is my refuge

 

Psalm 11

¹ In the LORD I take refuge.
How then can you say to me:
“Flee like a bird to your mountain.
² For look, the wicked bend their bows;
they set their arrows against the strings
to shoot from the shadows
at the upright in heart.
³ When the foundations are being destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”

 A prayer for protection…

Lord, be my refuge.  Be my strength.   All around me I see the dangers.  There are those who say I should just run.  There are enemies who shoot lies at me from the shadows.   My heart has at times been wounded from their shots.  But Lord I trust in you to be my shield.  In the face of a crumbling world around me I will rest upon your truth.   Your foundations alone are sure.   You alone are my resting place.   If I run may I simply run to you.   In the name of the one who is righteous Jesus Christ my Lord.  I pray.  Amen.

Loving God, Loving Others

Mark 12:30-31

³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^{[f] 31} The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[g] There is no commandment greater than these.”

Familiar verses?  Should be.  I’ve heard this quoted from many people (even those who do not profess to be a Christian).   In fact I was in Guatemala one time listening to a popular philosopher of the day who was making the argument that we are all gods and a part of the larger universe of “love”.   He quoted “we should love your neighbor as yourself”.    And it is true to the second part of this verse … for granted loving our neighbor as yourself is central to this passage.  Yet, how many times do many forget (something I mentioned to this popular philosopher) the first part.   “we are to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”   In fact this verse begins with the phrase “Hear O Israel the Lord is One, the Lord is God”… something that would have reminded us of the Ten Commandments (in Exodus 20) which are first to worship God alone and have no other gods before Him.  So it corrects the false notion of the new age philosophy that says we are all gods.      

Loving God.  Loving others.  It is central.  And they are to go hand and hand.   As followers of God we should not forget that loving God also means loving others.  As 1 John 4 says  “¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
So in the same way it corrects and challenges those of us who are Christians who may be tempted to say we love God ... but fail to love others the way we should.

Loving God.  Loving others.  They go together.  (I know I said it before but we tend to forget one or the other). It is a basic central belief.   But remembering both … and even more than that, practicing both … is not as easy.   Yet, they are said together because they need to be, in order to really live it out.  We love because God loved us first.  It is God’s love living in us, and loving God in return… that commands us and enables us to love others. 

The basic questions then are

Do I love God?  Am I Loving others? 

More specifically

Am I loving God with ALL that I am … not just part …but ALL (my heart, my soul, my mind my strength)?

How am I loving my neighbor today?  Is there something I am not willing to forgive?   Do I see them as someone that needs to be shared the Love of God? 

Note of interest: for further study: Look at the 10 commandments in Exodus 20 the first 4 have to do with how we relate to God (Loving God) the last 6 have to do with how we relate to others (loving others).