Jeff's Journal 2010 - 2018

Please read Deuteronomy 6:4-9

They were about to come “home,” to the Promised Land.

Moses had just come down from Sinai with the ten commandments, which were a wonderful guide on what to do and not to do.

There was something more God needed to say to bring together God’s full intention for the people.

The command was, “Listen.”

There is one God and Lord of all.

Then the writer tells us about the deepest and truest sense of the word love.

You shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your might.

Close your eyes, use the best of your imagination to visualize what this might mean for you.

Use mental images to sort through the immense implications of submersing yourself in the glory of God’s love.

Center yourself on the meaning of “all.”

Reflect and meditate on love.

Study the relevance of keeping all his commandments and decrees.  You will never get this completely right, but you will come much closer by studying it than by not studying it.

And if this is the most important thing in your life, you must think through how to teach it to your children and your grandchildren. Otherwise, it isn’t really THAT important.

This frames or re-frames everything we know and believe. This love of God shapes how we think, what we do, who we love. When we are “all” in, God becomes the wind in our sails, the rudder on our ship, the guide on our life trek.

Then, write it down, here, there, everywhere you will see it. I have actually known people who have written this on their doorposts.

Create times of the day – especially sunrise and sunset – to refocus, to recite what you have embedded in your heart and soul.

This is a lot to ask. But it is asked by a God who established the world and all that is in it.
 
Moving to the deeper places,
Jeff