This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here:
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/
On this day and every day –
God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn nor weep.” . . .
“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Jesus said the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke10:27; Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37). Repeatedly throughout the Bible, God commands His people to love Him with all their hearts and serve Him alone (Deuteronomy 6:5; 11:1; Joshua 23:11). But can love be commanded? How can we make ourselves love someone?
Since love is commanded, then it must be within our power, in Christ, to love. Love, therefore, is a decision we make. Yes, love will often be accompanied by feelings, but emotion is not the basis of love. In any given situation, we can choose to love, regardless of how we feel.
The Greek word for “love” used in reference to God is agápē, which means “benevolence, delight, preference, or good will.” This is the kind of love God has for us (Zephaniah 3:17; John 3:16). First John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.” Since God is love and we are created in His image, we can love as He does (1 John 4:16). He has placed His capacity to love within our hearts. He then teaches us how to love by demonstrating what real love looks like (John 15:13).
Loving God begins with a decision. It is a purposeful setting of our affections (Colossians 3:2). We cannot truly love God until we know Him. Even the faith to believe in God is a gift from Him (Ephesians 2:8–9). When we accept His gift of eternal life through Christ, God gives us His Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13; 1 Corinthians 6:19). The Spirit of God dwelling within a believing heart begins to produce the traits of God, the first of which is love (Galatians 5:22). God Himself enables us to love Him as He deserves to be loved (1 John 4:7).
As we grow in knowledge and understanding of who God is, we begin to love the characteristics that define Him, such as wisdom, truth, righteousness, and purity (Psalm 11:7; 90:12; Hebrews 1:9; 1 Timothy 6:11). And we begin to find the opposite of those traits repulsive (Proverbs 8:13; Psalm 97:10). Spending time with God causes our hearts to hunger for holiness, and we find satisfaction only in more of Him, because He is the perfect embodiment of everything we long for. Learning to worship Him “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24) allows us to experience the pleasurable emotions of love. Emotion does not create love, but, when we choose to love, the emotion comes. A. W. Tozer said, “Flowers and bird songs do not make spring; but when spring comes, they come with it.”
One obstacle to loving God is love of this world’s sinful ways. We cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), and neither can we love God and the world at the same time. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them” (1 John 2:15). Many believers today need to heed the word given to the Ephesian church: “You have forsaken the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:4). The call is for a conscious returning of the affections to God alone.
Another obstacle to loving God is the mind. Our minds continually set themselves up against the knowledge of God and challenge the faith that has made its home within our spirits (2 Corinthians 10:5). Doubt, anger, misunderstanding, and false doctrine can all rob us of life’s highest pleasure, intimacy with God (Philippians 3:8). These obstacles can be overcome through repentance and a determination to seek God above all else (Matthew 6:33; Jeremiah 29:13). In order to truly love God, we must stop insisting that God explain Himself to our satisfaction. We have to crucify our pride and our right to approve of His ways and allow Him to be God in our lives. When we humbly recognize that He alone is worthy of our love and worship, we can abandon ourselves to loving Him for who He is.
The essence of what it means to love God is to be satisfied in Him. In Him — in God Himself, as the glorious Person that He is — admiring and enjoying all He is, and giving Him our worship and praise. And it is this enjoyment of God that makes all of our other responses truly glorifying to Him, including thanking Him for all His gifts, blessings, mercy and grace, believing His Word, and obeying His commands.
We need to have an authentic love for God that starts with God-oriented affections, desires, and thoughts, that permeates our speaking and behavior, and then influences the way we spend our money and how we dress, and drive, and our forms of entertainment. Whether we’re eating or singing, jogging or blogging, texting or drawing, love for Yahweh — the one true triune God — is to be in action and seen.
