09-12-08 (Tuesday) "Mark 12"

Got inspired from an entry from Sam Koh's blog. One on 1 Peter 1:8.

Anyway... I suddenly got curious about the Youth Camp theme verse again and looked into the whole chapter of Mark 12 to see whether I got anyth more out of it. Mark 12 was all about the 'religious leaders' trying to trap Jesus with their questions. It suddenly struck me how in the midst of all this trapping and testing that Jesus managed to keep His calm and 'give them a good answer' all the time.

What would YOU do when a person, B, comes along asking you sth like... "Hey, I just saw X crying over there? You know what happened?" And you both know that you were the one who made X cry and that you and B never really got along well and that B always pounces at any opportunity to make you feel bad. Our first thought would be that of contempt and 'pissed-off'ness, isn't it?

But Jesus... NO... Not Jesus... He answers them firmly and politely... AND... He can still be asking them to LOVE...!! I mean... How easy is it to ask others to love when they're all out to provoke you and make you err in what you say? How much love is there, you tell me?

Then... I realized how nice God is as a Father who teaches and instructs us. He simplifies all the laws and sums them up in 2 simple lines. We no longer to run through all the "you shall nor murder", "you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God" to know whether we're obeying God. We just hafta think, "Does this action of mine show love for God and for others?" and as long as your logical mind is working well, then you're on the right track! God's so nice to us, isn't He?

Then came the part where the teacher said in verse 33 "To love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbours as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."... It struck me that services and our words really DO mean NOTHING if all of it comes out WITHOUT love for God and ppl. I say this is NOT easy cos' we can get so absorbed into doing stuff that we forget the LOVE part of it.

Love is... Really MORE than just a feeling. It involves action. To love is to act it out. That is why we know someone loves us even when they don't say it (especially fathers/parents) and we wonder why someone says they love us when they don't ACT that way.

Freely You gave it for us
Surrendered Your life upon that cross
Great is the love
Poured out for all
This is our God
~ "This Is Our God"
Hillsong