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hebrew passage

The end of this fallen world grows nearer and nearer with every passing day. My spirit is stirred within me. I go from being troubled and in tearful, deep prayer, to that of worship and praise with shouts of “come quickly, Lord Jesus!”

Dear Reader, how is your walk with the Lord going today?

Deuteronomy 6:5 reads, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” And I thought to myself, what does that really mean? So, I looked up each word.

It is amazing what I have found regarding that passage. Jesus quotes that passage in Mark 12 and in Luke 22. To begin with, in the Hebrew language, heart and mind are synonymous terms. So when it says to love God with our heart, it also means with our mind. In the Greek language, however, heart and mind are not synonymous. That’s why the Greek in the New Testament uses two words for heart and mind.

Now, getting back to Deuteronomy 6:5, we are to love God with ALL of our HEART/MIND. The heart/mind is the seat of the emotions, conscience, moral character and understanding. Thus, we are to love God with EVERY emotion and thought; we are to love God by being sensitive to the Holy Spirit when He pricks our conscience concerning sin and doing good. Really, I think to sum it all up, to love God with our heart/mind means our hearts begin to beat with His heart concerning what He’s concerned about whether hating evil or loving good, and our minds begin to think along biblical/godly lines and on biblical/godly things.

We are also to love God with ALL of our SOUL/BODY. The soul in Hebrew is not separate from the body. Body and soul are one, and has to do with the breath of life that animates the body. Therefore, when God says to love Him with all of our soul, it means to love God with EVERY breath that we take and every move that we make, with our WHOLE person.

Finally and most potently, to love God with ALL of our MIGHT comes from a word meaning “exceedingly, greatly, highly, very much.” In Greek the word for might that is used in the Gospels does not mean physical strength. The way the Vine’s Expository Dictionary puts it is perfect, so I’ll quote it instead of trying to reword it. The word might “describes the full extent of the power wherewith we are to love God.” In other words, we are to love God powerfully. We are to love Him POWERFULLY with ALL our emotions and GREATLY love Him with ALL our understanding and HIGHLY love Him with ALL our character and morals and EXCEEDINGLY love Him with EVERY breath and love Him VERY MUCH with EVERY move that we make. Our body/soul and mind/heart is to shout out our love to Him highly, greatly, exceedingly, very much and powerfully with every fiber of our being, every moment of our time, and in all that we do, think and feel.

Now, when it says to love God everyone automatically thinks they totally understand that word. I was one of those too! However, the adventure of study is to find the width and depth and breadth and height of the true meaning of a word. It is after all the glory of God to conceal things, and the honor of kings to search out a matter (Proverbs 25:2). It’s sort of like the game of “hide and seek.” God loves it when we really want to know something, especially to know Him, and we want it so much that we seek to find the answer. So, I looked the word love up!

Agapao is the Greek word for love. Every Christian is to agapao their fellow Christians and to agapao those who are not Christians. Husbands are commanded to agapao their wives. But most of all, Christians are commanded to agapao God Himself. So….what is this love?

Agapao means “to esteem, regard, indicating a direction of the will and finding one’s joy in something or someone,” and is “unselfish love ready to serve.” At first I went, hmmm, okay. That’s good. I think I’ve got it. And then, I looked up esteem and regard in the English dictionary, and wow did it ever uncover more of what this love really means!

To Esteem means to “set a high value on” and to “regard.” Regard means to “gaze” upon and to “look attentively” and “to pay attention to” as well as to “hold in high esteem.” Now that is awesome! Think about that for a moment. To love God means that we “gaze” upon Him. How do we do that? Through His word! We are to gaze upon Him, to pay attention to Him, and to watch what He does in His word attentively! He is our focus! That’s AWESOME!!!!

So…. I encourage you Reader, as the Day of the Lord draws ever nearer, LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might; let’s love Him all the more! Gaze intently upon His word, value Him and what He says above all others!! Let His word drown out the noise of angry protests. Let His word drown out the pompous, deceptive words of politicians. Let His word drown out the confusing words of the media. Let His word drown out the fearful, uncertain words of scientists and doctors. Powerfully love who He really is by being transfigured into His likeness to the very core of your being, your very character and in all that you think, say and do!!! Wow, wow, wow….

While we navigate through these perilous times on the precipice of the Great Tribulation and just before Christ’s return, let our journey of Christianity continue on down this incredibly narrow road paved with Holy Spirit insight and discernment, with a map of God’s word in our hand that is leading us ever closer to the goal of being more like Jesus. It is only in reading God’s word and gazing upon Him that you will ever look like Him inside as well as outside!

I know you can do it! You can do all things in Christ! You are a new creation in Christ! You have Jesus’ DNA.

The song, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” by Helen H. Lemmel says it well:

  1. O soul, are you weary and troubled?
    No light in the darkness you see?
    There’s light for a look at the Savior,
    And life more abundant and free!

    • Refrain:
      Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
      Look full in His wonderful face,
      And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
      In the light of His glory and grace.
  2. Through death into life everlasting
    He passed, and we follow Him there;
    O’er us sin no more hath dominion—
    For more than conqu’rors we are!
  3. His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
    Believe Him, and all will be well:
    Then go to a world that is dying,
    His perfect salvation to tell!

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