First Things First

Matthew 22:37

Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This world is full of many evils and injustices. It is almost a thing of the past to be able to really feel safe, apart from the divine protection that we have from God., On a normal day, if you watch the news, you will see that there have been robberies, murders, rapes, bombings and the like all across our land. In the natural, things look hopeless. These and all the other terrible things that are going on are the result of a world that has lost its primary reason for being.

It would be normal to think that with all the churches in America, we would be able to curb the tide of evil and mischief. No doubt, we should be able to, but one of the main reasons that the church is being so ineffective is that the message that most of the church in our land is preaching is flawed.

Now don’t crucify me yet, listen to what I am saying. I am not saying that the Bible is flawed or that it doesn’t have all the answers to the problems. I think that the real message of the Bible concerning the relationship that God wants with man has been misunderstood. We have substituted law for love. If you read the scriptures, you will find that what God is looking for and desiring is a relationship with man, to a legalistic obedience. The world has been turned off by this teaching that God is up in heaven, waiting and watching for us to mess up so that He can punish us. For this same reason, there are many God fearing Christians who are not enjoying their Christianity.

God is not wanting to punish, He is wanting to fellowship. The real message of church should be that first and foremost, God wants us to love Him as He loves us. The first thing that God wants is for us to love Him and to enjoy His presence. If we will remember to keep the first thing first, we can teach others how to really enjoy life.