The Greatest Commandment, partially summarized.

Wow, it has been a while, hasn't it?

Probably too long, but I've been busy. Bought a home and in addition to the increased workload from work, I am now ladened with the duties of home-ownership. The commute now being further, I have that much less time to think and write.

Still, it isn't like I haven't been thinking.

So here's the restart of my blog, and it comes with a bang.

Here is a summary of a statement of faith, filtered through me, as to why we are all here, and what it is that we should be doing. Knowing, of course, is infinitely different and separate from doing, but like Flint from GI Joe said to kids everywhere, "knowing is half the battle."

What we are, and why are here. A Christian response.

The Bible is God's Word to His people, so that we may understand why we are here, and what we are to do. And the Old Testament and the New Testament are the same in this regard. As man is created in the image of God, so we are created for His purpose, and only proper response to our creation in such an image is to worship God. God's nature, being Perfect, without Sin, and being infinite in majesty, mercy, Goodness, love, and grace, is incompatible with the fallen state of man. But how is man fallen, when made in the image of the Perfect God? The answer is straight out of CS Lewis, with the idea that there is no meaning of Good without Evil, there cannot be choice if you do not have the ability to choose against.

The glory of God is God's nature, and it is beyond argument or compromise. Man's nature is filled with choice, and we are compromised. But God's love for us extends so far and so deep that He would have us with Him, despite our nature. But should this happen directly, would mean our destruction because God cannot abide Sin. The mercy and the grace of God, therefore, extended to us in the form of His Son, who as the sacrifice for all time, gave hope to all of God's people. And the choice for individuals is this: to have faith in God so that we may be saved, and at the same time, to be sealed with the Holy Spirit so that we may be sanctified and properly respond to God.

The Bible, as God's Word, is set up as the Old Testament and the New Testament, a singular document told with a linear viewpoint of time. And being a single document, both the OT and the NT describe the same two things: God's relationship with mankind, and mankind's relationship with each other. As a Christian, we should see our relationships with those two elements in mind: (1) worship as our relationship with God, and (2) missions as our relationship with the rest of mankind. And this is intimately related to the two Greatest Commandments - You shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. All of the Law and the Prophets hang on these two things (Matthew 22:40).

The reflection of the Glory of God, when we turn our faces toward Him in a spiritual act of worship and obedience, is the process by which we make fellowship with God and how we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. It is also directly connected to how we are to face the rest of the world, because as we are facing God, so then is God's glory being reflected off of our faces unto the rest of the world. It is THEN, that we can live up to the commands to love our enemies, to leave our mother and father (letting the dead bury the dead), to give up all our wealth, to die for the sake of others that they may live. None of these things make any sense, unless we are facing God first.

How we are to accomplish the missions aspect of our life depends entirely on whether we are facing God. This is why worship, as our response to God's nature, is so important. Worship will combine both aspects of the Greatest Commandment, and worship will mean fellowship with the Holy Spirit. And, when an individual faces God and sees the glory of God, the Bible says that the glory of God is a noticeable thing, and it changes both the person and those who view the person. When an individual chooses to turn and face God, so many things happen at once:

1. God's glory is not blocked by the person like a dark silhouette, but it is reflected outward and others can see it. A person who does not face God will be a dark eclipse and those people who are in the eclipse may not see God.

2. God's glory is not just reflected to others, but it is internalized by the person and that person is now changed as well. This is the process of sanctification, which does not come from us, but it comes from God. We are made perfect by God, not by what we do.

3. The person is making his or her spiritual act of worship, and

4. There is fellowship with God.

When Christians turn their faces toward the Lord, there is fellowship with God, and with that fellowship comes a resonance of God's glory. The resonance is what will affect other people, not what the Christian does, but what God's glory does. The resonance effect is definitely something that I will probably blog about in the future.

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So, I guess we can simplify everything I've said above into the following, which more or less explains the idea of a Christian response to God. It falls into two categories, Worship and Missions. HOWEVER, this is NOT to say that there aren't more categories that need explaining, but how long of a blog is this going to be?

Worship:
1. as our proper response to God's nature.
2. as our duty to God's command.
3. as our duty to love the Lord.
4. as our duty to love our neighbors as ourselves.
5. as part of the missional aspect of our lives.
6. as a means of fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit.
7. as a means of fellowship with other believers.
8. as a means of sanctification through the Holy Spirit.
9. as a means of sustaining ourselves, our food.
10. as a means of protecting ourselves from sin.
11. as a means of giving us joy, making us happy.
12. as a learning exercise, that we may know Truth from Falsehood.
13. as living sacrifices, that we may die to ourselves.
14. as a means of living by the Spirit.
15. that we may be humbled and be without pride.

Missions:
1. to usher in the new age of Jesus Christ (see Pastor Ed's diagram)
2. to fulfill and as part of our spiritual act of Worship.
3. to shine God's light where there is no light
4. to help save others, as we have been saved
5. to love others as ourselves, as we have been commanded
6. because God said so, directly and without equivocation.


-David