Working on the basics

I don't think I will soon get away from one theme in my life.  It's not because I've mastered it and am gloating in my success, but honestly it's because it is my greatest weakness and the thing that God is working on in me more than anything else. 

What I'm seeing is that as I focus my attention on the basics of my faith all the cultural religious habits begin to look silly, artificial and frankly a waste of time.  Here are a few examples of the Christian cultural issues that really don't matter in eternity: who is president and what I think of him, any specific sin or life choice of a non-believer, who is right on non-essential doctrine issues, etc.  (I have a long list in my head, but you get the idea....much ado about nothing that will matter in 100 years.)

So, I am drawn back to the basics.  What are the basics, the essential things that God commands me?  And, most important, how am I doing on the first things, let alone talk about a myriad of other useless topics.  And so I look at scripture and the basics, the mains things become clear and I have to tell you that we avoid these like the plague because we, as Christians, are so bad at them.

Here are the basics, the essential...if you don't get these right then don't bother with anything else,

Mark 12:28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 

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.’ 

31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

The Lord is constantly drawing me back to these basics and I have to be honest, I am trying, but I'm not doing very well (don't tell anyone that, ok?)  These are daunting!  They are vastly more important than we think and clearly, in the culture I live in, the Christians in the world I see are getting an "F" on these most important basics!

How have we boldly declared what God wants to the world when we can't even do the basics he commands us?  How can we claim to tell the lost world what is right and wrong when we aren't even doing it?  No wonder they scorn us and laugh at us....we have become the ultimate Pharisees!

And so, as the good Pharisee I so easily become, I come back to the basics and ask God to rekindle my love for him.  I have to start there.  And that is one of my great desires, but also one of my weaknesses.  Yes, I love God, I've given my life to serve him, but I see so much in how I live out my life that says I don't really love him at all.  If I did, how could I act that way?  In the reality of my own weakness I come to him and ask, "Dear Lord, rekindle my love for you. Teach me how to love you, not just in word, but in how I live, the decisions I make, the way I treat my wife, my kids, the people around me." 

Because what I know is this- my love for God is reflected in how I treat other people. Loving others is a reflection of my love relationship with God, so if I'm harsh, unloving, angry with others, hurtful to those around me it is a reflection of my relationship with God.  

Here's how John describes it,

1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

How do I know I'm doing well with my love walk with God? I'll love others.  That's the test for my walk with him, it's reflected in the face of other people...the people HE made and loves and died for....the Muslims who angrily wish my death, the lost who glorify their sins, the rich who use their wealth to dominate others, the people we think most vile...those people are the testing ground for my love for God.

They will show the world, and they will know, if I really love God by the way I treat them.  How am I doing?  Not well, but I know that and I'm working on it...so today, my goal is to once more passionately pursue God and fall in love with him all over again, and out of that will come a love for others that can only happen as he does it through me.

I think it's time, for everyone who claims to be a Christian, to go back to the basics and make sure we have those done well.  When we do then we will reflect the Jesus everyone wants to be near.