Keep the LORD on Your Heart

When in the work, it is easier to keep the work in focus and we will remain on task. But, when the work is “done” we will find ourselves drifting away from the work and onto/into things that are not of a productive nature.

“⁴And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. ⁵Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” – Joshua 22:4-5 (ESV)

Joshua is advising those that have come to be with and help out their fellow Israelite people that their work is done and they are free to return to their homes and live out their lives. Joshua is indeed thanking the people for their help and advising them that they have done that which God had asked of them. Now they can return home and get back to their own, caring for themselves.

But, Joshua also charges them to keep the LORD on their heart. They are to return home and get back to life, and they are not to forget what they have done and how they have done it. The LORD had given them victory as they had obeyed Him and now they should remain in the LORD and continue to receive victory.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, it is easy to remain on task while doing the work, but when the work slows, we tend to wander off task. Joshua is warning the people of this as he sends them home. He wants them to know that they are free to return home, only not to forget the LORD who provided for them and the victory they achieved.

I have to remember to keep the LORD on my heart at all time. I have to not give in to the distractions of the world. I have to love and serve the LORD, “with all your heart and with all your soul”. It is okay and encouraged to get back to the life that I have been given by the LORD, only I have to remember that He gave it to me. I have to remember Him in all that I am and do.

Where is the LORD in your life? Once you have completed the work, have you drifted off, away from the LORD? What if you were to stay on task with the LORD, remembering Him on your heart as you traverse this life in this world regardless of where you are?

Love the LORD with All Your Heart

“⁵You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” – Deuteronomy 6:5 (ESV)

And there you have it, the greatest commandment. We are to love the LORD will all our heart and more. But don’t take my word for it.

“’³⁶Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ ³⁷And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment.’” – Matthew 22:36-37 (ESV)

Jesus tells us the same so it is not just me saying. It is something to love, something else to love with all your heart, soul, and mind. It is loving with every fiber of you being. It is emotional love and physical love and actions of love.

It is the common thing in the social world today to throw up a heart sign, meaning “I love you” or “you have my heart” when expressing ourselves positively for some thing. I do it, influencers do it, public figures do it, most everyone does it. But notice when it does get used, it is in the world as we know it today and we express it, in a lot of cases, to those we don’t even really “know”. What about throwing it up with the LORD.

Our greatest commandment is to love the LORD with all our heart and yet, are we our there expressing that full love to Him at all times. I don’t believe we are. I know that I am not always queued in to my heartfelt love for the LORD. I may pray to Him in the morning and when there is a need to be expresses for others, but I should be better at being all in, heart, soul, and mind, for the LORD. I have to throw up a heart sign for Him more than I do for other figures in this world. I have to live the greatest commandment in my life as I have been instructed to do and more importantly, as I should do for the savior of my life.

What is your view of love for the LORD? Are you giving others love with all of your heart before the LORD? What if you were to first give the LORD all of your love from the heart, soul, and mind as instructed by Jesus?

Resurrection’s Importance

Why is resurrection so important? – Randy Alcorn

Well, there is so much in the above. I am not a theologian and it would take a lot more study and learning than the 30 minutes or so I devote to the lesson in my MasterWork study. But, I will say that there are a few things that we have to look at to see the importance of resurrection.

First, look at the way I wrote resurrection. I did not say “the resurrection”. Resurrection is important in that there is a transformation of our physical bodies and not just a removal of the old body and the getting of a new one. “Despite the radical changes that occur through salvation, death, and resurrection, we remain who we are. We have the same history, appearance, memory, interests, ans skills.” – Randy Alcorn We are not turned to be different, our current selves are transformed back to how we were created, as the pinnacle of His work.

Next, resurrection is a physical thing. Our bodies do not remain in this world. We are reunited with our bodies that were created as God intended. We were meant to be body and soul. Thinking of our creation, God created our bodies from the earth and then breathed life into us. Until He breathed life into us, we were not. Once our soul, God’s Breath, was united with our bodies, we were created. Resurrection is important to reunite our bodies with our soul.

Then we have “the resurrection”, Christ’s resurrection, “without Christ’s resurrection and what it means—an eternal future for fully restored human beings dwelling on a fully restored earth—there is no Christianity.” – Randy Alcorn If Christ was not physically resurrected, then everything we believe cannot be true. Our preaching is not true. Our faith is not true. Our dead are not resurrected. We are not free from our sins. All who died before us have perished. Paul tells us all that without the truth of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:14-19 we are simply living a lie.

So, why resurrection. We are transformed back to God’s perfect creation. Our soul and body are reunited. Without Christ’s resurrection, we would be living a lie. Resurrection is what we hang our hats on in Christianity. Without it all else is futile.

Where are you on the importance of resurrection? Are you of the thought that it is or isn’t, and that the idea of Christianity is okay too? What if you looked at resurrection as “THE” importance of Christianity?