For the past couple of days I have been sort of reeling over a church I heard about on the news. The church is Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Their primary goal is to picket. They picket everything from soldier's funerals to the anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech. Why you might ask? Personally, I am not sure. But I did google them and I encourage you do so yourself because their actual official website address is so vile I don't even want to put it in blog. From what I can tell this church uses the mantra of hate instead of love. It has really bothered me. That sort of church is what gives us christians a very bad wrap. It upsets me because people who are on the fence about believing in God might see things about this church and blanket all churches and christians in that category. With that being said, I started researching the word love in the Bible. The word love is mentioned 310 times in KJ version and 531 times in the NIV version. Searching the word also lead me to one of the most important verses in the Bible spoken by Jesus himself.
When a teacher of law asked Jesus what the most important commandment was Jesus replied, ""The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:29-31.
God is love. And as christians we are commanded to love Him and our neighbors. I admit the second one is hard sometimes. I get so mad or frustrated with people, for example like while driving on the road, that I forget I am to "Love your neighbor as yourself." That is my new personal challenge. Every time I feel the urge to rant and rave over someone on the road, at the grocery store, in the line at Starbucks, or anywhere I am going to pray for an open heart to love my neighbor as myself. Max Lucado put it best, "He loves each one of us like there is only one of us to love." And I want to try and do the same.
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