Discipleship: Starting at the beginning

Sometimes life is like walking into the middle of a movie. You cannot understand the current scene because you missed all the beginning pieces.  For a long time, that’s how I felt about the Old Testament scripture from Deuteronomy 6:4-5

4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Who was this God I am supposed to love with everything I have?  It was like trying to love Abraham Lincoln.  I know who Lincoln is.  I read a lot about him. But I’ll never know and experience Lincoln because he is dead. He was just a concept.  How can I love a concept?  You can’t!

Intellectually I know to be an effective disciple I must have love in my heart and spirit.   But that’s insanity when I try to build love in my heart based on my own intellect. That’s a cold way to be a disciple. It’s not even authentic.

Even Jesus confirmed that we don’t know God when he faced a crowd stating; “You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.” John 7:28

So, I restarted the movie to understand the beginning pieces.

The first piece states; “We love, because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:20 

Do not normal loving parents love and nurture their child first?  All the child does is receive this unconditional love for it provides both nourishment and security.  It’s that special knowledge which recognizes our inner beauty and goodness.  It makes us glow with strength and value. It’s the love that accepts both our strengths and flaws, and loves us nonetheless.Is this not God?

The second piece states;

My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret,

And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;

And in Your book were all written, The days that were ordained for me,

When as yet there was not one of them.

Psalm 139:15-16

How marvelous it is to know that God dreamed of me before I was born, and all my days have been ordained.   God had his eyes on me before I was created and established a great plan for me.  This is a good beginning to understand and know my God. It was God’s intentions to make me the person I was born as, not as the world tells me. Just like my parents, God loved and nourished me from the beginning.  I am blessed with His love, trust, and security.  Now I can use the love he gave me to love Him back. This is a good foundation to start on!