{"id":2935,"date":"2021-12-04T17:46:44","date_gmt":"2021-12-05T01:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2935"},"modified":"2021-12-04T17:46:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-05T01:46:44","slug":"devotion-mark-1228-31-one-good-thing-to-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2935","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Mark 12:28-31 One Good Thing To Another"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark 12:28-31<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0One of the teachers of the law\u00a0came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, \u201cOf all the commandments, which is the most important?\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/span>29\u00a0\u201cThe most important one,\u201d<\/i><\/span>\u00a0answered Jesus,\u00a0<\/i><\/span>\u201cis this: \u2018Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.<\/i><\/span>\u00a030\u00a0Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.\u2019<\/span>\u00a031\u00a0The second is this: \u2018Love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019\u00a0There is no commandment greater than these.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Family and Friends, oh you who are called by His name and you who will come to be one who is called by His name, Jesus spoke the Truth to these people.\u00a0\u00a0They knew it was the truth.\u00a0\u00a0Nothing was more holy of a proclamation from God to His people than these verses.\u00a0\u00a0In fact Jesus is repeating the first part of what the Jews call the Shema.\u00a0\u00a0It is a central part of the verses they pray. Look at\u00a0Deuteronomy 6:4-9<\/b>\u00a0\u201cHear, Israel! The\u00a0Lord\u00a0is our God, the\u00a0Lord\u00a0is one!\u00a05\u00a0And\u00a0you shall love the\u00a0Lord\u00a0your God\u00a0with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.\u00a06\u00a0These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.\u00a07\u00a0And\u00a0you shall repeat them diligently to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.\u00a08\u00a0You shall also tie them as a\u00a0sign to your\u00a0hand, and they shall be as\u00a0frontlets\u00a0on your forehead.\u00a09\u00a0You shall also write them on the\u00a0doorposts of your house and on your gates.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This is what Jesus was quoting.\u00a0\u00a0For our purposes today, let\u2019s concentrate on\u00a0Vs 4-5<\/b>\u00a0as that is what the Lord quoted from here in\u00a0Mark<\/b>.<\/p>\n

We have, more than once, talked about the fact, not the human thought, but the fact that our love for God, His love for and in us and that love filling our hearts and changing everything about us, is the most important commandment God has given us.\u00a0\u00a0It is not only the greatest rule, a rule above all others, but one that is in all His rules.\u00a0\u00a0The love of God is what is behind us being able to joyfully live out any of God\u2019s commandments and laws for our lives.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is behind having and living in God\u2019s joy.\u00a0\u00a0This rule of law does not break any laws but fulfills them.\u00a0\u00a0Any of man\u2019s laws that break this law is not of or from God but from Satan.\u00a0\u00a0A country or land may make evil laws out of ignorance but rest assured anything that goes against this law of God is from the devil himself.\u00a0\u00a0He knows how hide in bushes, and also amongst us, to watch his evil plans unfold.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s been doing this since the Garden of Eden.\u00a0\u00a0Love is the rule that teaches and incorporates all the loveliness of God to us and in us.\u00a0\u00a0Love.\u00a0\u00a0God\u2019s love. In us, that is the highest the best and the most enjoyable rule.\u00a0\u00a0Love.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s go back to what is the most important thing to learn and grow in God\u2019s love. Jesus said to those listening to Him, and to all of us \u201cListen! God is one!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Those who refuse to know God, and in our day He must be known through the Son, cannot have God\u2019s love and so cannot grow and be changed by the only true form of love, God\u2019s love.\u00a0\u00a0We know that God is love but how can we know that if we don\u2019t love and obey Him.\u00a0\u00a0Ah, says the proud, I have already figured out how to know that without God. But the proud are wrong, they cannot know His love unless they know Him.\u00a0\u00a0The Triune God must be known.\u00a0\u00a0His love is a contagion that infects one wholly, kills what one was to become something incredibly beyond they ever were or ever imagined they could be.\u00a0\u00a0We must submit to His hand, to have it touch us in order to change us.\u00a0\u00a0In a day that we believe superheroes come from spider bites, radiation or our atmosphere, does it not ever seem to you that these stories are borrowed from the greatest truth?\u00a0\u00a0We are changed by being touched, and submitting to the hand and plan of God.\u00a0\u00a0His Spirit inhabits us and changes us like a substance put into us might change us.\u00a0\u00a0Only what He does changes us completely and noticeably both immediately and gradually.\u00a0\u00a0And this truth did not come from comic book heroes, but if the creation of these fictional heroes are inspired they are likely inspired the Truth, and they borrow from it.\u00a0\u00a0But we don\u2019t need superheroes, though they are fun.\u00a0\u00a0The One, the Mighty, the God and Loving Hero we all have is Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0And Jesus is one with the Father and one with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0These three are one.\u00a0\u00a0So Israel and all the earth, God is one.\u00a0\u00a0First learn that.\u00a0\u00a0First learn who God is and what God is.\u00a0\u00a0Then His love will grow and change you.\u00a0\u00a0It has been happening to me for over forty years.\u00a0\u00a0To others much longer.\u00a0\u00a0We all testify the truth written here.\u00a0\u00a0Know God is one.\u00a0\u00a0Know He is love.\u00a0\u00a0Love Him with all that you are.\u00a0\u00a0Love others more than you love yourself.\u00a0\u00a0Then, oh then, we are changed, and so is the world around us, and that onto the whole world.\u00a0\u00a0And we are all connected, not like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon, but to the nth degree as the Lord God has ordained, as is His will, as it is what pleases Him.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!\u00a0\u00a0Catch what changes for the good.\u00a0\u00a0Let God infect us with His Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0It is the best thing that could happen to anyone.<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has\u00a0shown you, Oh man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; and what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of you, but\u00a0to do justly, to love\u00a0mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.<\/i><\/p>\n

Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0The\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark 12:28-31\u00a0–\u00a0One of the teachers of the law\u00a0came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, \u201cOf all the commandments, which is the most important?\u201d\u00a029\u00a0\u201cThe most important one,\u201d\u00a0answered Jesus,\u00a0\u201cis this: \u2018Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.\u00a030\u00a0Love the Lord your God with all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[1872,93,94,1874,17],"class_list":["post-2935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-deuteronomy","tag-mark","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2936,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2935\/revisions\/2936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}