062: James Flint - Love the Lord Your God

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1. 0:13

   Welcome to the good Christian talks podcast. I’m Levi and I’m Chris. Thank you so much for joining us this week on this podcast. We select one taco week to help each one of us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post at the start of each week for you to listen.

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   With a short intro before hand to kind of set the stage for the talk. You’re about to hear and now let’s hear more about this week’s talk. So that’s called love Lord your God by brother James Flint. He gave it last year at a conference called nce W in Australia. I really enjoyed this class.

3. 0:45

   It’s part 3 of I guess the study for the whole weekend was on the Shema and it’s a beautiful kind of quick study of the of that phrase and then the and then specifically just how transformative it. When you in our life when we truly do love the Lord Our God with all our heart.

4. 1:05

   It’s interesting coming from brother James. He has a lot of very practical experience in the mission field. He doesn’t mention it. But he was involved in with the egg pay and action Chris Sofia nonprofit in the work that they do so you can he he kind of does demonstrate also in his actions what that transformation can be like I found this class to be very encouraging a very well-rounded.

5. 1:29

   And I’m excited to share it. Please continue with your suggestions sending us emails is a big help and thank you for listening. Here is love the Lord your God by James Flint. So very good evening everyone. We come to love in the Shema. This is really a central part of this section of Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 and what a great section for us to be considering this weekend it really so aptly Moses so aptly and succinctly sums up the entire.

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   Spirit of the law in this one verse the really the whole intent to what God intends to develop in us his children this of course is the greatest commandment Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 and Jesus affirms this in the New Testament and upon this commandment. He says and the related commandment to love one another love our neighbor as ourself hang all the law and the prophets so it really is a central tenet of our faith. It’s the first principle of all our first principles and I think it’s something we don’t spend enough time considering this verse in Deuteronomy chapter 6.

7. 2:41

   It’s so fundamental as the pivotal verse for our lives in Christ. So it’s very fitting that we are spending some time this weekend looking at this important verse and tonight. We’re going to look at love and consider the meaning of this word and really try to make it practical and and Think through how we can develop this love in our own lives because there’s is absolutely critical.

8. 3:05

   It’s a critical part of what it is to be a follower of the Lord Jesus today. And the reason why this section of the scriptures is so exciting is because it has an incredible power to transform us. It has the power to transform life filled with apathy and emptiness to one filled with purpose. And passion is right here in this fourth verse of Deuteronomy chapter 6 and love the love that is mentioned in this verse is really the secret ingredient that has the power and the potential to catalyze this a remarkable transformation that we read about in Romans chapter 12, and I don’t know if you’ve ever met one of those people that is So on fire for God so radiant and so open and expressing their love for God for him.

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   They are driven and they’re motivated. They’re committed to service and to sacrifice. Well, we don’t have to stand back in or at these people we can be that person. We can be completely committed and we should be completely committed and purpose-driven in our lives today being passionate about what we put our hands to and being fully committed to God and I remember my first trip into the mission Fields into the camera and many years ago in West Africa went with an older brother and sister though in their late 70s and had been going to this part of the world for years and it was a difficult place to go.

10. 4:43

    I remembered couldn’t Wait to get out of there. When I was there. The place was really tense. There was on the verge of Civil War. There are tanks going down the streets. There was this tension you could feel in the air. It wasn’t a nice place to be it wasn’t easy and yet so committed with his older brother and sister are still Marvel at their little love and commitment to the work of serving our brothers and sisters in this part of the world.

11. 5:11

    And while we were there they were that were beaten and robbed at gunpoint. Point and yet they were undeterred in their love and commitment to this work their lives really revolved around this mission that they had taken on that was their service that they chose for their heavenly father and it’s only love is only a deep committed love that can result in this sort of life. That is completely given over to our Heavenly Father. And that’s exactly what God wants to see in all of us is to develop further develop this really committed love for him. I love that is demonstrated in in action. And we as we know after a baptism, we are a new creation and I think we often settle for making a few minor behavioral adjustments in our lives, but we’re called to radically transform Our Lives as Paul says in Romans. As 12 we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And the essential prerequisite for any sort of change any sort of transformation in our lives is first we need to develop this love for God is all-consuming love loving him with all of our heart our soul and our might so let’s take a closer. Look at this word love in this section of the scriptures. It is the word a hover or have and it means to give to desire to breathe after to delight and it’s a spontaneous and natural sort of love.

12. 6:53

    It’s not one that is forced or obligated. It’s a love which originates and emanates from God is part of his character and it’s from the root word. Which means I will give And it’s both a feeling and an action. It’s a broad word that captures the love of a father to his child a husband to his wife a close between close friends or companions is the love which has used to describe Abraham’s feelings for Isaac. Jonathan’s for David gods for his people. It’s not a deliberate deliberate love that scare said it’s not a brotherly love.

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    That’s her harm. It’s not a love of obligation. That’s Hova. It’s a intimate warm deep emotional love. It’s the love that Rachel Jacob had for Rachel. Jacob had a hover for Rachel, but for Leah he had Hoover and a love of obligation or responsibility. It’s the love which leads a person to give spontaneously and to give more than they expect to receive. It’s a love that’s holy and deeply from where the end and if you’re a parent and ever wandered into your child’s room at night when they’re sleeping, you know, this love it’s a love that can’t really be described.

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    It has to be felt. And it’s a love which develops as can only develop if you truly know and feel connected to somebody. It’s not a love that can be commanded. It’s not a love that you can concoct or through will power can come up with but it is a love that deepens as the relationship becomes closer and more intimate. and Moses tells us to use this laughs however to love our God with all of our heart soul and might So brothers and sisters, there’s got to be feeling in our love for God.

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    It’s got to be rooted in Emotion. God doesn’t want a transactional. Obligated intellectual love he wants an emotional passionate love that is expressed in action.

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    And we have to ask yourself. How much emotion how much feeling is there in our hearts when it comes to our God? Last week I was in Mozambique. I was in a refugee camp there. We have a little work Leisure is about 20 brothers and sisters and about 20 young people and children in this Ecclesia.

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    They’re being in this Camp many of them for over 15 years. They’ll fled from conflict zones in the Congo in Rwanda and in Burundi that been really kind of shuttled from one place to another they’ve traveled thousands of miles to get to this camp in. And really they’re in a very hopeless situation there less than 2% of people get repatriated or migrate through the unhcr most of them are stuck there for life and it’s not an easy place to live.

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    They can’t work. They can’t practice their professions that extremely restricted in what they can do in this camp that completely dependent on handouts from the world food programme and sometimes seems there’s an interruption in the food supply and they just don’t get food. But when I was there sitting in there a little occlusal whole and listening to them sing. I’ve never experienced such emotion expressed in song. It was absolutely beautiful.

19. 10:51

    They sang from deep within their souls and it really choked me up. It brought tears to my eyes as being with these humble brothers and sisters and just listening and watching them praise their Heavenly Father. So in a completely hopeless situation, they were so filled with hope they were so thankful for their lives.

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    So appreciative that God had rescued them from even War situation and provided them in a place of peace. That was a hover that was his emotion is love which just poured out of them. That’s a love of Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 and we may not all be able to sing with this sort of emotion. We’re not all wide in that way, but we can also Express. We should all Express feeling towards our heavenly father in one way or another Even in our conversation. We can express feeling in our prayers. They can be heartfelt.

21. 11:51

    And we need to try to develop this this sort of love in our relationship with our heavenly father. So the question for us to reflect on is is really do we love him with this intimate this emotional love do we feel that connection with our heavenly father? Do we breathe after him? Do we desire to get to know him more and more deeply to please him more completely.

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    Is he on our minds constantly every day. I know for myself. I often do things these actions based more out of a love of obligation or sense of Duty and I don’t know if you are similar. Do we give of our time and energies to God out of however or Hova? Is it a feeling and a response a natural inclination or is it a sense of Duty and obligation? Do we serve in the closure with what sort of Love do we 10 Bible class?

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    Do we read our Bibles? Do we study the Bible? Do we visit the sick? Do we provide Hospitality out of a half-hour or out of an obligated love?

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    Know when we think of loving God. We often think of the all their loving God with all of our heart. So I might we often think of that all is a quantitative measure how much we love God and give to him but there’s also a qualitative element to that word all as well and we can recall in Malachi that the children of Israel. They had despised God by offering the Blind and the lame now they were giving their tithe. They were carefully making sure they measured out one tenth of everything.

25. 13:48

    Can we giving it to God so from a quantitative point of view they were giving everything that we’re giving all the tide the 10% however They weren’t giving all because Malachi calls them to give all of the tithe to God. So it was a qualitative sense that there were failing in and we know they were offering their leftovers are blind and the lame that we’re giving the poor quality things to God. So in that sense, they weren’t giving their all to God. So it is also about the quality of what we give not just the amount of what we give and God interpreted their offering is despising him and he treated his evil those offerings is evil. So Malachi cause them to bring all of the tithes to him to give in the right Spirit to give their very best out of appreciation for everything God has done for them. And if they did this God promises that in turn he would even give more a however.

26. 14:57

    He said he would give so much he would love them so much that they wouldn’t have enough room to store all the blessings he pour out on them So when we hold back selfishly, we don’t give our best. It’s really the very opposite of what this word a hover means this word. Love love have a means to give and when we hold back but doing the opposite of what God wants. So it’s not so much about what or how much we give but it’s also about why it’s that attitude why we give why we serve the motives behind our actions that we know is so important and that is what this word love is all about. We can give a lot to God.

27. 15:48

    However, if it’s given half-heartedly out of obligation. Is evil in God’s mind and if we’re serving in the Ecclesia, but wishing we were somewhere else if we’re giving but reluctantly doing so if we’re rushing through our readings or prayers, so what we give to God. Then it’s evil. That’s how God sees it and and when you think about it, it’s really so ridiculous.

28. 16:19

    It’s outrageous that we can be so selfish when it comes to giving to God that we can hold back and give him our leftovers of time and energy resources after everything. He has given to us the Abundant love he’s shown to us and yet we respond at times holding back the best for ourselves.

29. 16:43

    And justifiably is offensive to God and he is the kicker if we do respond with generosity with this a hovel of if we Delight to give our very best to God he promises to throw open the floodgates of heaven and bless us more than we can handle. And I think at times at least for myself is embarrassing to think that in response to what God has done for us.

30. 17:11

    We respond with mediocrity with half hearted commitment and tight-fisted stinginess ahava is the opposite of this is a type of Love which doesn’t give to the minimum. It gives regardless of the bounce so deep meaningful love, which is a response to everything God has done for us.

31. 17:37

    So what can we do to develop this sort of love it? We know it’s important and we know we struggle with showing this sort of love in our lives. How can we develop and work on it? How can we transform Our Lives go through that process of transformation. Well, I want to consider just for areas for Focus areas and try to make them a little bit practical for us.

32. 18:03

    So we can go away from here if we’re interested and we’re committed and work on developing this sort of love because it’s absolutely critical. If we are to please God we have to develop this love and it is for our own good at the end of the day as well. So these four things we’re going to take a look at the first one destroying the competition now in the shammai in Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 loving God wholly and solely is directly linked to God being one.

33. 18:33

    And because God is one there’s no need for us or the children of Israel to divide their loyalty and affection. They don’t need to share it around and divide it up. It’s only one God in everything every part of us. Can be channeled and committed to that one single entity God and in cultures where there is multitudes of god, they have to pick and choose on what day and what time of the year or what they’re interested in they pick and choose what God they’re going to serve and worship they spread around their loyalty and their service. However, because there’s only one true God and because he’s provided absolutely everything all of our love can be and must be directed. to him and God hates competition And when it comes to giving our love our affections our energy to another guy’s it demonstrates.

34. 19:31

    We have a divided loyalty and God hates. This we reading is in Exodus 34 verse 14 that God is a jealous God for Thou shalt worship. No other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God and that were jealous meet exactly what we think it would mean someone who cannot bear.

35. 19:52

    the arrival and while it’s very true today, we don’t worship idols. Well images that are carved we stood we do still battle with our idols and this Western age these false gods. They’re all around us. They’re vying for our Attention our buying for a piece of us how piece of our hearts that competing with the one true God.

36. 20:17

    And we need to identify and Destroy these things which compete and an idol today is anything that diverts our time our money our energy our affections away from God to something else. It’s something that we worship some of that we’re committed to something of the world Colossians 3 verse 5 says don’t be greedy for a greedy person is an idolater worshipping the things of this world.

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    And God has purchased us. We know he’s purchased us were owned. So when other interests are the gods lay claim to a piece of us God objects to that. He’s already purchased us. He’s already given us everything and we owe him our very lives and we know our Lord’s words. We can’t serve two masters. We can’t divide our loyalty.

38. 21:11

    It’s got to be directed to one the one and only true God. So who A lotta we really devoted to who’s getting a piece of Al Haas. Who do we really love?

39. 21:25

    And the choices we make well reflect this the things we watch and read how we spend our time and money how we choose to spend our time. All these things are indicators of what we’re really devoted to or committed to what we’re really serving and we know our Lord’s word in Matthew 6:21 where your treasure is there. Your heart will be also So here’s a quick activity the first two you can do now the third one you can do for homework, but let’s just review and think just for a couple of minutes over the past week how we’re spending our time how much time have we dedicated to God really dedicated to him in prayer and reading and service in some activity. That’s really focused on him.

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    How much time? What about our energy? What are we really passionate about? And is it or cannot be dedicated or directed in a way that honors God? And for our money, this is a home where all we need to do is go online or pull out a statement and see. Where we spend our money to follow the money follow the money and that will tell us really what we’re most interested in.

41. 22:43

    What do we value in this life? What are we really value? Our hearts will deceive us our bank statements won’t or our Diaries. They want we need to sometimes take a step back and have an objective. Look at really what we’re spending our energy our time our resources on what really are we devoted to?

42. 23:12

    We cannot love God with all of our heart our soul and our might and also be committed and dedicated to the things of this world. It’s really not possible and it’s a challenge for us. Absolutely and the challenge is not loving God. I think we all love God. Is loving God with all of our being that’s the difficult part for anything like me We love God, and we love a little bit of the world as well and what it has to offer and we’re so quick to settle for a compromise when it comes to loving and serving God and loving and serving something else some other God some other interest. We’re pretty good at giving some of our heart or even most of our heart to God, but giving all of it given everything not holding anything back that is very difficult. We always like to keep something back something. We are addicted to We crave.

43. 24:24

    We like just to keep that alive, but we should be striving to give all to a heavenly father and it’s about Owen the bars high and we never going to perfectly reach it. And I think that’s why it set so high is so we continually strive and we don’t sit back and settle thinking we’ve done enough.

44. 24:44

    It’s there is a battle for hearts and Minds all around us and it’s being aware of this and making an effort and showing a willingness to engage in this battle. and to try to destroy the competition so we can completely commit and love God with all of our being now the history of Israel just shows how Insidious how powerful how a dangerous.

45. 25:12

    Idols are these things that we naturally are inclined to go after I mean how difficult was it for Israel to get rid of idols and especially the high places God commanded them when they went into the land to destroy all the high places and there were forbidden to have idols and was actually Solomon who introduced idol worship and introduced the high places in First Kings XI and and we read in in this event that Solomon’s heart was not whole It wasn’t whole like his father.

46. 25:44

    David’s was he wasn’t completely he didn’t give all he provided a space for these idols and man. Were they a snare to Israel for Generations? They battled with these Idols in these high places. Most of the Kings failed to do anything about them. Some of the Kings got rid of the idols that very very few completely dealt with the problem and it seems That these high places were the most difficult to get rid of Asa was a good King.

47. 26:19

    His heart was loyal to God we read. He removed the idols yet be reading First Kings 15 verse 14, but the high places were not removed. Jehoshaphat was another good King. And he too was unable to root out these high places the high places were not taken away and it’s a recurrent theme if you read through the king’s the high places the high place.

48. 26:47

    They couldn’t get rid of them. Once they were established. They were a nearly impossible to get rid of And on personal reflection we need to think are there any high places in our lives? Things that prevent us from fully giving ourselves over to a committed love of our heavenly father giving him all of us all of our hearts their habits are their Pleasures are their vices their behaviors or attitudes.

49. 27:21

    That we find painfully difficult to get rid of. really really hard Well, this my is clear strudel me six is clearly. We really do need to battle and Destroy anything that is in competition with God. He wants all of us not the majority of us. Not 95% of us. He wants us all he wants to see us making an effort to commit all to him. It’s a high high standard and there were a couple of kings that did succeed in removing the high places Hezekiah was one of them he cut down the Groves he break him. Pieces of brazen servant that Moses had made and he was able to remove the high places in Second Kings 18 verse 4 and what’s interesting about Hezekiah didn’t just get rid of the high places.

50. 28:11

    He also restored true worship in the temple. So he didn’t just leave a void. He replaced it with god-centered activity. He didn’t just depart from Evil. He pursued that which was good as we read in the Psalms depart from Evil and do good. Good and there’s a really powerful lesson. Of course, we know it is replacing things. It’s replacing our Idols is displacing things. It’s replacing Idols those things which take her heart away from God with something good and wholesome that will take us closer to God Josiah was another king who managed to get rid of the high places completely destroying the competition and goes into great detail in second of Kings 23 how he About doing this everything that he did to root out these idolatrous practices and what I find striking was he was absolutely brutal in his demolition of the competition. He slew all the priests on the high places and burnt their bones on the altars.

51. 29:19

    And I think his response kind of reminds us of our Lord’s words when he’s talking about the same subject and he says he we need to cut out. We need to pluck off those things which cause us to sin or Paul when he uses the was crucified and mortify when he’s describing what we need to do with the flesh with these things that are opposed to God destroying the competition cutting off those fleshly.

52. 29:49

    Lots of us at last after these things won’t happen without a conscious effort to make it happen. And here’s some actions we can take we need to identify what the competition is for us. It’s going to be different for every one of us. What is really taking our heart away from God. What is it?

53. 30:13

    What is the competition and we need to destroy any of that takes means taking extreme. Ins and we need to do something. We need to stand strong against Temptation and we won’t always succeed. But if we’re battling that is what counts And we can replace we can replace these things. We love to do which have fleshed Lee and sinful with something healthy find something. We’re passionate about and make that the focus where we put our energy and time into it’s not complex or difficult, but it does take discipline and it won’t be easy. The second thing that we can focus on when it comes to developing this sort of love that we worry about in Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 is we need to develop a committed relationship with God and this is not brain science a rocket scientist.

54. 31:06

    It’s nothing new that you’re hearing. We’ve heard this a lot but is again it’s not something natural and we need to be reminded of how important this is having an actual relationship with God is absolutely essential. if we are ever to develop this a hover love this emotional love it goes without saying we need to spend more time with him.

55. 31:32

    That’s how a relationship develops and grows its through investing time in understanding and knowing god and we will draw closer to him. He will see him working in our lives and this will draw us even closer. We’ll get to know him more intimately and then an emotional connection will be established and that will provide an Avenue and opportunity for a hover. Love to develop in our lives.

56. 31:58

    Later, persistently pursue him be fully committed to him and we do this, of course by reading the Bible learning and understanding getting to know him thinking meditating on on what we’re reading. Try to really understand his character this concept of listen with intent to get to know God. It’s one thing to read. It’s another thing to to listen with intent to understand. And of course prayer is absolutely essential it is simple things but we get so busy in life that we find it hard to spend time doing the things that are most important. I mean we can’t so busy in life that the most important relationship of all is harmed.

57. 32:49

    We don’t have time for it and it really does come back to prioritization As a matter of priorities. It’s so easy for us to go after those things which the flesh appeals to all that easy that Pleasant rather than pursuing things that are deep and meaningful and important. There are many gods after our Attention our love and it’s easy to give in and serve these things serve what our flesh really wants what we’re really naturally attracted to.

58. 33:25

    So having a little exercise for you to do and if you have a pen and paper grab it out and let’s just do a quick assessment of how we have prioritized our time in this past week. Just guesstimate. How much time this past week you are sleeping and this will be shocking for some of us.

59. 33:50

    How much time you’re eating just quickly guesstimate how much time you’re at work how much time you’re playing things that are not particularly spiritually healthy how much time was committed to movies Internet TV reading books? What about exercise and fitness how much time shopping prayer Bible reading Bible study listening to Bible talks family and friends including time with our brothers and sisters and caring for people in need. I’ll give you a few minutes because I think it’s good for us to go through this exercise.

60. 34:25

    If you don’t do it now, let’s face it. We won’t have time to do it after this talk. So let’s spend two minutes right now estimating guesstimating. How we spend our time just this last week? Okay, that’s enough time. We don’t have time to spend any more time on this but we all know the story of putting the big things first into the jar. Right?

61. 34:46

    It’s if we don’t do that if we don’t put the big things in first, they won’t end up in the jar and we know this the problem is we don’t do it. We leave the most important things to last. And when we don’t have time where either skip them always through rush through them and this includes Bible reading and prayer.

62. 35:07

    These are important things these things which develop our relationship with God we often leave out and leave to the end and we rush through but we really need to put first things first and it’s a good reminder of this we know it, but we need perhaps to think about a little bit more and apply a bit more into our lives if we want to build a relationship with God and develop the love we read about intruder.

63. 35:31

    We 6 verse 4 we cannot love someone that we don’t know. We have a close relationship with someone. We don’t understand. So we really do need to spend time and be serious about our reading and thinking meditation and our prayer and if it means getting out of bed an hour early, then maybe that’s what we need to do or shutting the door at lunchtime and and just spending time with God.

64. 35:57

    It may even mean fewer social activities. So we have more time to focus on this most important relationship of all. We need to take control of our time and also be smarter how we use it. I know many of you have the Bible app on your phone is fantastic. I commute to work is 15 20 minutes half an hour in the car every day and you just plug it in and listen to the Bible pick a an easy to listen to translation. The New Living Translation is great and just listen to the Bible as you’re driving make smart use of your time. Another thing I do in this one who killed everyone but when I exercise I used to love listening to audiobooks and recently I discovered Used to be called Livonia tapes, but it’s now called christadelphians Bible talks.com. There are thousands of Christian Bible talks on here download them and listen to them some great Bible studies Bible schools and when I’m running I listen to these things now, It’s helpful.

65. 37:04

    It’s helpful just to have the Bible and godly thoughts flowing through your mind. Even if you can’t make note of every Point that’s being made at still useful. We can do it while we’re doing housework while walking or biking whatever it’s making smart use of those fourteen hundred and forty minutes. We all have every day.

66. 37:25

    And it’s certainly true the more we let God’s word and his thinking his thoughts flow through our minds more in tune will be with him the more we’ll get to love and know him. And of course prayer is another key element of developing this love and it’s something a lot of people struggle with I remember being at a bible school where they did a survey of everyone and everyone. It seems a struggling and a lot of people in the week before had not prayed at all.

67. 37:53

    So it’s something we perhaps don’t spend enough attention on prayer and something we can all do better at And of course, it is absolutely important if we want to have a relationship with God we communicate with him and I really find it useful to have an ongoing conversation and people may think that’s extremely weird. But we have formal prayers that were used to but why can’t we just communicate throughout the day with god with our lord Jesus?

68. 38:23

    Why can’t we bounce ideas off of him seek his input and advice on everything doesn’t have to be your formal time of prayer. We can have this spontaneous talk this ongoing conversation and I find that more effective than formal prayer. However, it’s also important I believe to set aside time for formal prayer personal prayer and to really think through what we are going to say. I don’t know if you’re anything like me perhaps I’m got some attention deficit disorder as well. But you start a prayer and before you know, it your mind is off and you’re thinking about something completely different you pull it back.

69. 39:01

    A few more minutes and then you’re gone again. I really struggle with this keeping focused and if you like me one thing that does help is actually writing out your prayer sit behind a computer or get a pen out and just write it down. It’s extremely powerful and extremely useful thing to do not all the time. But every now and again give it a shot. It really helps you structure.

70. 39:25

    Your thoughts. Another group practice is putting down prayer Points each week to pray for And then coming back and reviewing them to see how God has worked to answer those prayers. So some actions here download the app. If you don’t have a listen to The Bible and talks read think pray more pray with purpose and intent and feeling if we can write out a prayer write out a weekly prayer list and communicate often and openly with God. So the third thing which will help us develop this a hover love for God is too.

71. 40:01

    To celebrate Every Day gifts and this is so powerful is the concept of appreciation and it’s really an important part of developing this love when you think about everything God has done for us. It is a reasonable expectation that we will genuinely respond with genuine love. And first John 4 verse 19 really sums it up nicely in one simple short sentence. We love because he first loved us. And now love our Harbour is a response. It’s a response to God’s abundant overflowing love and blessings for us.

72. 40:45

    And if we more deeply appreciate this, then this love in return will become much easier and much more natural and it will just develop God’s given us so much really when we think about it so much far beyond we can ever experience. He’s blessed us. He’s given us life and giving it to us more abundantly through giving us his son.

73. 41:06

    He gives generously reading James without finding fault. His good. God is good. His love is everywhere. However, we still need to spend time to acknowledge it and identify and appreciate it. And Moses when he was speaking to the Israelites made a constant point about remembering remembering what God has done recalling the blessings that God has given them a not forgetting dirt on me 8 Deuteronomy 8 verse 2 8 verse 89 verse to remember and don’t forget remember and never forget.

74. 41:39

    Remember the Lord your God and if we do this it’s a life-changing practice to really identify a recall and acknowledge the blessings. Which God gives us every day of Our Lives to see his hand at work in our in our lives answering our prayers and the more we acknowledge and appreciate these little gifts and blessings the more we will love him with that true deep emotional love.

75. 42:09

    Some of you may read this book maybe not it’s called 1,000 gifts and the author and Vos Camp was went through a very troubled childhood. She was with her mother when she watched helplessly as a little sister was run over by a truck and crushed in her driveway and her mother consequently checked into a psychiatric hospital and she really lost her mother as well and then later on in life. She faced the tragedy of her two nephews being killed and she writes this book and its really a description of the process. She went through to kind of come out of this Brokenness and reconnect with God and it was all hinged it all hinged on a simple activity of journaling her blessings every day. And in the description of the book, it says this it says in 1000 gifts and invites you to embrace. Race everyday blessings and embark on a transformative spiritual discipline of chronicling God’s gifts is only in this expressing of gratitude for the life. We already have we discover the life. We’re always wanted a life.

76. 43:25

    We can take give thanks for and break for others. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones. We are wildly loved by God. Let ends beautiful heart aching stories of each of the everyday give you a way of seeing that opens your eyes to the ordinary Amazing Grace a way of being present to God that makes you deeply happy and a way of living that is finally Fully Alive.

77. 43:57

    So this pork is based on this simple practice of counting your a daily blessings the little gifts of everyday life journaling these blessings identifying them writing them down and for her this process transformed her life and her relationship with her with her God in heaven. We can all do this. We can all start by simply writing down things we’re thankful for And we don’t have time of course to do this, but do it make a list of the little gifts the daily blessings the daily Gifts of life, and I’ve tried to do this on a Monday morning when I come to work and open my diary and plan out the week.

78. 44:46

    I now have a section on gifts to be thankful for and I try to come back to that throughout the week and just identify small things. Could be a beautiful sunset you saw in the morning or a message that you received from someone you care about Every Day gifts and it can be transformative in the book daring to Hope which I know some of you are red Katie Davis describes putting these Post-it notes all over her kitchen wall each one a blessing a gift that she’s thankful for.

79. 45:20

    And in her trying circumstances dealing with pain and grief and loss and Injustice and death and suffering on a daily basis. She had this surrounding her these gifts of everyday life. It’s a powerful thing that we can all do. It can be transformative if we spend the time to do it and someone in seven was a sound we had read for us this morning and it really is this overflowing thankfulness and gratitude that the psalmist has pointing to the provincial care of God in the life of the children of Israel and some 107 verse 8 to 9 there.

80. 46:00

    Oh that men might praise the Lord for his goodness for all his wonderful Works to the Children of Men. He satisfies the longing soul and fill out the hungry soul with goodness. And it’s easy for us to think of God is distant and impersonal but he’s not he is active in at work in our lives. We know it.

81. 46:20

    We have Angels which are sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. There are angels working in our lives engaged in our lives. We pray we expect a response from prayer. We know that and look back and see God at work. It really helps us to appreciate God and to love him with this deep emotional love.

82. 46:45

    With so much to be thankful for and we can easily just rush through life without stopping for a moment to appreciate God’s everyday gifts and acknowledge his providential care in our lives. I don’t have time to read through this section. But as I was reading listening to the Bible and the way to work, I was listening to Ezekiel chapter 16, and it just absolutely struck me.

83. 47:12

    It was probably because it was written it was being read out of the New Living Translation, which is quite easy to read but I’d read this chapter over and over but on this particular morning, I just hit me like a ton of bricks and I had to re listen to it and I encourage you to do likewise it is so The picture is so vivid is talking about a baby with this umbilical cord not being cut been thrown by the side of the road like laying in his blood left to die. No one caring and God coming along and picking up this helpless baby and completely providing everything for this baby making it grow and Thrive and providing it with fine linen and silk and embroidered clothing. And when this baby gets older she turns around and takes all these beautiful things God’s given and makes Idols with it and worship the idols and ignores God and prostitutes herself for the other nations and he kept his sense of God’s feeling and emotion in how that makes him feel when we don’t respond in appreciation and gratitude for everything. God has done for us.

84. 48:28

    It’s a really powerful and moving. Moving section of scripture zq chapter 16 and you can just feel God absolute bewilderment and dismay at how the children of Israel his special chose and people had responded to his love and care and he’s absolutely heartbroken and infuriated and shamed by how they responded. So God does care how we respond.

85. 48:56

    He wants us to show this appreciation and love. So simple actions for this one right down your daily gifts and list your prayers and review them. So we’re out of time. But the fourth one I was going to look at is is loving others and this is going to be a natural response. Once we develop this love for God. It will naturally flow out to how we interact with people around us ahava is both a feeling and an action and it’s got to be practical and Deuteronomy 10 for a 16 to 19 years is a Fantastic verse it starts off circumcised therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff-necked says for the Lord.

86. 49:40

    Your God is a god of gods the Lord of lords our great God Mighty and terrible regardeth not persons not take you through ward. He executed judgment for the fatherless and the Widow. He loveth The Stranger and giving food and raiment therefore love. Ye The Stranger For You Were Strangers in the land of Egypt Thou shalt fear the lord. Thy God Thou shalt serve.

87. 50:01

    Him and now shall cleave unto him and swear by his name. So again, it’s this idea of reciprocating God’s love in our everyday lives and loving like he loves and in this example is loving the needy the vulnerable the stranger the migrant the poor that’s who God loves and he calls us to love in the same way. And of course this is picked up in Luke chapter 10 when the lawyers talking about what’s the greatest commandment and and Jesus Is on to talk about the parable of the Good Samaritan and says go and do likewise.

88. 50:37

    So a legalistic love looks to kind of Define. Well, who is my neighbor? So as to limit one’s obligations, but however or agape love is it’s picked up in the New Testament is based on need and it’s not restricted by bounds. and finally It’s not all about what we do in Deuteronomy 10. It says circumcise your hearts in Deuteronomy 30. It says the Lord will circumcise your heart. So it’s not all about us.

89. 51:10

    Yes. We need to initiate the process. We need to show the commitment. We did develop the relationship. We need to destroy those things which compete by cutting off the fleshly parts of our heart. We need to make an effort, but we cannot do it alone. God will come in and work with us to fulfill and to complete this process of transformation.

90. 51:35

    And we just start the process God works with us. It’s a joint effort is God who is working in us? It’s God who is working in us to fulfill his good pleasure reading in Philippians 2 and we are his workmanship if we allow him in a few in Ephesians 2 verse 10 So the more we willing to take those first steps, the more God will be able to step in and work with us to complete that journey of transformation.

91. 52:03

    And finally when Jesus returns, we will be completely transformed will finish that process when this corruptible this week this nature we struggle with or can be completely changed the crop will put on incorruption and the Mortal will pick it up put on immortality and We can say thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening to the good Kristoff intox podcast Please Subscribe for new episodes and leave a review and apple podcast or whatever service you are listening from to help people find the show when they search for it. If you enjoyed this talk share it on social media. So other people can find it to for show notes and links to the talk that you just listen to visit our show page at anchor dot f m / G CT We want to encourage everyone to share their thoughts from the talk this week on Facebook or Instagram where we are at good christadelphians Hawks or on Twitter where we are at GCT underscore podcast. If you know of a great talk, we want to know about it to send a suggestion to good Christie delphian talks at gmail.com or message us on any of our social media platforms. Thank you for listening.

92. 53:23

    God bless and talk to you next week.