ONLINE CHURCH BULLETIN

ANY QUESTIONS?

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." 

32 "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God  is one and there is no other but him.

33 To love him with all your heart,  with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your  neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and  sacrifices."

34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not  far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more  questions. 

The teacher finished the lecture and asked, "Any questions?" Some of the  students were sleepy. Some looked at their watches and thought about lunch.  Nobody dared to ask a question that would postpone the escape from class.  Some of us have been in such classes but none of us have been in a class like  this one in Jerusalem.   A bell did not sound to tell them they were dismissed but after THE question  was answered, who could think of another one? Jesus communicated so much  truth with very few words. We find His words intensely challenging. First,  we see that love is a command to be obeyed--not an emotion to be felt. Love  is a choice. To obey God, we must love Him supremely and others as we love  ourselves.   While you may label the emotional response you feel when you are with certain  people as "love" and consider them your "loved ones," that is not obeying the  command. Jesus said, "Love your enemies" (Luke 6.

35a). In other words, we  fulfill God’s will in our lives only when we love the unlovely. The mother  and father love their new baby and they would do so without a command. They  want only what is best for him. Would they love the one who abused and  killed their beloved son? Our Father did and we must choose to love or  disobey God. 

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.  13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his  Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to  be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son  of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the  love God has for us.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this  way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the  day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear  in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with  punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  19 We love because he first loved us.  20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet  hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother,  whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  21 And he has given  us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.   Jesus loved those who beat Him, spat on Him and nailed Him to the cross. The  cross reminds us that love is not optional. Perhaps we are most like our  Father when we love our enemies: 

Luke 6.35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without  expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will  be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

36  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.  Any questions?

1 John 5.14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask  any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he  hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we  desired of him.   Only God can know HOW our prayers WORK but we believe HE answers. Please  write me to add names to the prayer list and to report changes in status.  Let us be thankful and prayerful! 

Love
Brad Forgy