July 13, 2008

So we just finished up service at New Life about two hours ago. It was a good service! Worship was splendid (who uses that word anyway!?) as usual! W only had three song on the set list this morning, but they took plenty of time.

New Life Set List: 7/13/08

Jesus I Surrender- Jeff Deyo
All I Need Is You- Marty Sampson
Freedom Reigns- "Some guy"

I know that's not fair to the author of the song, but heck.... I don't remember his name and I don't really want to go look for it. Laziness! I tell you, kids these days don't have value for hard work. When I was their age.... wait I am... crap! Oh well.

Jason spoke on the second half of our "motto"..... Grow In Love. The first half is Grow in God. They may sound redundant, but the fact is that the two are the same and separate. He talked about how we love one another. To Grow In Love we must first learn what love is. The Father has love abounding and it is easily accessible to us by simply accepting the gift of His love. We tend to worry about whether or not God has "feelings" for us, like some worrying girlfriend or needy lover. The fact is that He loves us and we have to deal with it. Once we do that, we then have to start loving others.

Jesus in Matthew 22 is speaking to the people and the Pharisees try to catch Jesus in His own words. One of them being an expert in the law asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is? The ever clever Jesus replies with one of the greatest sayings in His ministry. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

The reason this is so important is that Jesus puts these two commandments side by side. He equates loving the almighty creator of the universe with loving the man next door. We often neglect loving God by being mean to our neighbors. We forget that God has created every being on this planet and His love for mankind surpasses them all! So if he loves someone and we are mean, rude, hypocritical, and not loving towards them then we are neglecting God. He created us in His image. So leaving out one person is like leaving out the master of our hearts. It's sad to see people continually neglect the heart of their Savior by hurting their fellow man.

We worship God through many avenues. Songs, dance, prayer, preaching the word, but the most powerful of all of them is showing compassion and care for those who are around us. Whether or not we like the person, we are still to love them with the love we show towards God. We can lift our hands into the highest of the heavens, sing the praises with our loudest voices, but if we have not love for those with whom we interact with on a daily basis then God will turn a deaf ear to our clanging cymbol.