Jun 1, 2017

Introducing: Project Love


"What must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Ever since the beginning of mankind, this question has been forefront on our minds.  We can only live so long here on earth; what's next?  What must we do to inherit life that never ends?

So often we present the question to those who have no answer.  We seek abundant, never-ending life from the wrong sources  pleasure, happiness, money, possessions.  Life becomes confusing as we seek joy apart from the joy Giver.

But two thousand years ago another man raised his voice in question.  And this man was asking the right Person.

In Luke 10, Jesus heard the inquiry and turned to study the man who asked.  Instead of giving a direct answer, Jesus asked him a question in response.  "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?"

The man didn't miss a beat.  "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'"

This was confirmed when Jesus responded, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live."

Live.

The secret to true, everlasting life was summed up in one sentence:  

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'

Again in Matthew and Mark  Jesus says the same thing.  Summarizing the commandments from the Old Testament, He lists the first and second greatest commandments.

The most important:  
"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."   Mark 12:29-30
The second most important:  
"Love your neighbor as yourself."   Mark 12:31
Over the last few months, we've been talking about abiding in Christ  the first, greatest commandment.  This is vital.  It's a continual process that covers every aspect of the Christian life.  It represents every breath, every decision, every moment of life.  If we want to be passionate believers in Christ, this is simply something we must do.  We must love the Lord our God with everything in our being.

And once we have "mastered" that (although I'm not certain that it is possible to master such a wonderful thing in only one, short human life), I believe the second commandment will just be natural.  If we love God, won't we love the people God has made?

But we're human.  We haven't perfected the area of abiding in Christ.  Most of us struggle with loving Him our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Thus, we also fail in the second commandment.  We don't love others as much as ourselves.  We're selfish, prideful, lustful, and so much more.  We want to promote our good instead of others (or Christ's).


This is the reason for my new blog series, Project Love.  I want to focus on these two commands but with a direct emphasis on the latter one.  We've talked a lot about our relationship with Christ... but what about relationships with others?  Siblings, friends, family, strangers, blog readers, and others?

My desire for this relationship series is this:  I want to grow in Love.  I want to love Christ with my entire being.  But I also want to love and serve others more willingly.  As we examine many of the relationships around us, I want to see others differently  as unique individuals with dreams, hopes, and futures.  And I want to see them like God sees them  as beautiful masterpieces.

But before that, let's make sure our relationship with God is where it should be.  That's the greatest command after all, isn't it?

Last week my friend Ariel told me that she was starting a similar summer project.  She told me that it would be, "where anyone who wants to join (and myself ;)) make it a major goal during the summer to love waywayway more than we normally do and to spread the Gospel at the same time! We are going to write down our goals for the week about how we want to love, and keep each other accountable, pray for each other, and I'm gonna be having guest posts about love and related things on my blog."

I'm going to join Ariel in this:  Project Love.  Let's use our summer to make a difference!  Let's grow in love, share Christ, and live as His maidservants.  As we learn to abide in Christ, let's also live as He lived and love as He loves.

My goals and posts might not be the same as Ariel's... but together we (and anyone else who would like to join) want to grow in Love whatever that means for us individually!

So there you have it.  The inspiration behind my upcoming blog series.  I also hope to have some guest writers during this summer as well  women and young ladies who are inspiring in their faith and love for Christ and others.  I want to grow and love more.

I hope you'll join us.  =)

9 comments:

  1. Wow this is so timely! I'm doing a project where I focus on one of the Fruits of the Spirit each month--today is the first day, and for the month of June I'm focusing on love. :)

    Hailey
    www.haileyhudson.wordpress.com

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    1. Wow, quite timely indeed, Hailey! ;) But love is a vital aspect of the Christian life to focus on. It sums up almost everything about salvation: Christ loved us and gave His life for us; now we are to love Him in return with our whole heart, soul, strength, and mind and love others as ourselves. He was the perfect Servant, and we should follow His example. =)

      I'm eager to hear how you are focusing on love this month. What steps are you taking to spread love to those around you?

      Thank you for commenting. =)

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  2. YAYYYY we're starting this adventure together!! <333 I'm gonna get the first Project Love post on my blog soon! How's Project Love going for you? What are some of your goals for this first week?
    -Ariel

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    1. Yes, I'm excited about doing with with you, Ariel! =) I enjoyed reading Jaidyn's post, and I'm looking forward to catching up on the rest of the project love posts soon. (it's been busy recently!) For me, I have been focusing a lot on loving my siblings. My sisters and I are reading a book together called A Young Woman After God's Own Heart, and this week just happened to be about siblings. ;) So we are doing some challenges together for different aspects of loving each other. Lol! =) What about you? What are your Project Love goals?

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  3. WOW, awesome post, Hosanna! ;)
    And, Ariel, this was a great idea! I'm glad you went through with it. =) Have a great day, girls!! =D
    Jaidyn Elise

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    1. Ariel had a great idea, didn't she? ;) Thank you, Jaidyn! I enjoyed your post on love as well. =)

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    2. Yeah, she totally did!! =D
      Your welcome! ;) Aww, thank you. =) Aww, you're so sweet, thank you. =)
      Jaidyn Elise<3

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  4. Great post! Can't wait for the new series! I like the name of it too. I think s lot of the time we forget how important love is... and what it really is. We think of it as just romance when that's not what it is. God is love. Thanks Hosanna!

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    1. Exactly, Sarah! Recently I've been noticing how messed up relationships are. We have best friends who we spend hours with and can't get enough of, but we often ignore siblings, strangers, God... =( Love is so important. Perhaps by growing in love we will actually be discovering more of Who God is, because He is love. ♥♥

      Thank you for joining me in this adventure! =)

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