If you asked me what was most important to me, you may think you know my answer. Since I am a Christian you would say it was God. This is true but only in part. You see, it isn't that simple for me, yes God is the center of my life, I lean on him completely for everything. Well to the best I can, no one(save him) is perfect. The only catch is this, how could you put him so simply? How could I? To say that I center my life around such a simple word, it's foolish. However, thankfully God is far more than simple. You see if I were to choose a different word, one that better describes what I center my life around, I would say the word would be, "love."
Love:
Some of you just got a big-ol-grin across your face, others are a little confused, and some are even angry. Let me clarify... 1 John 4:8 (GOD IS LOVE). The reason I would choose the word, "love" over the word, "God" is because when people think of the word, "God" they tend to think religion, rules, tithing, confession, and how they are a sinner. I am telling you that this is just the devil trying to discourage the thought of God in your mind. The less you think of him, the less likely you are to follow him. I'm telling you that if you want to know what God wants his children to think of him as, it is more along the lines of compassion, a relationship, not rules but suggestions, not sin but forgiveness, interesting, complicated in a good way, universal, not bound by time or language, beyond anyones comprehension, forever lasting, what happens when fairy-tails become true, amazing, the one and only and above all else, the best. The best, not in just one area, but in all areas, not just at one thing but all things. To be something good. Can you think of a better word that we use to describe him?
Truth:
The average bible says the word, "love" about 700 times, my version(ESV [click to view]) says it 771 times. Searches for the words like happiness, hate, sing, tithe, and greed all come up with less than 200 results, in fact some less than 30. So if you were writing a letter to a loved one, and while you were away you wanted them to do something or act a certain way, do you think you might mention that more often? Of course you would because you would try to get the point across. But don't just take my word for it read it your self, I'll even tell you where to find some of it (bottom of post). Now if God really is love, that mean love is also God, same with Jesus. If you added just the total of those 3 words in the bible you would come in the range of about 5903 (Biblegateway.com [NIV]), not to mention their variants (such as agape, messiah, lord, etc.). To tell you the truth, I think he is trying to get into you. To get to know you. To have a loving relationship with you, not to be someone who you just know. Not to get something from you, he is God, trust me, he already has everything. He does all of this to show you that he loves you. All he wants from you is to love him in return, not just say it, but mean it. Stand firm behind it, do what he asks not because he makes the rules but because he asked you for a reason. Think of only the commandment not to have sex before marriage. If everyone followed that commandment alone and no other... think how fewer teen-age mothers there would be, how less abortions, less single parents, less divorces, less abused children. Take that in for just one second, one commandment that most of us disobey because the world says it would be stupid not to disobey it.
