Debbie at Heart Choices is hosting In Other Words. Visit her to view more posts and to add your own take on today's quote.To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid "big" sins - is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?
~ Francios Fenelon, The Seeking Heart
In every new relationship there is an initial sense of exuberance. The joy of being together drowns out all other distractions. Spending time with each other is the most important thing in the world.When we are children we seek out every opportunity to be with our friends, even as the initial intensity of the friendship wanes and other friends come into our lives.
When we fall in love for the first time, we are consumed by thoughts of the object of our affections. Sometimes even minor separations feel like excruciating pain. But eventually, even that intensity also fades with familiarity.
If we truly care for the other and our feelings are reciprocated, we make deliberate effort to grow the relationship into one with strong and steady communication that includes daily contact.
But there comes a point even in the deepest relationships where we become so comfortable that we begin to take the other person for granted. Our excitement dims into expectation. The passionate farewells turn into quick kisses and an automatic "I love you" thrown over the shoulder as we go on to more interesting activities.
As we get older, we may see this as a normal progression. Maybe we are at a level where the intensity has dimmed and our relationship is one of simple contentment with little effort required to maintain it.
There is a very serious danger to allowing our relationships to become that comfortable.
We may discover a distraction or new relationship that stirs our sleepy passion, causing us to neglect or turn our backs on the relationship that once consumed us.
...and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Revelation 2:3-4The church at Ephesus experienced the all-consuming intensity of first love when the apostle Paul came to them and established the early congregation there (Acts 18:18-21).
The next time Paul went to Ephesus, he stayed three years and his ministry to them helped the Ephesian church become a center for evangelistic outreach in the Gentile world.
And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all...So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. Acts 19:18-20The faithfulness of the Ephesian church even sparked a riot among the pagan business people in the city because so many were being drawn to Christ through the passion of the Ephesian believers that the pagans were loosing their businesses due to a lack of customers for their idols.
What drew the metropolitan people of Ephesus to leave their popular and politically correct pagan worship practices and follow a Carpenter from a dusty little town in Palestine?
It was not the believers' habit of reading a Proverb a day.
It was not the church's great programs and fellowships.
It was not the members' good deeds and honest living.
Although these things will get people through the church doors...
Only a dynamic, passionate relationship with God is enough for a person to give up a comfortable "good" life and turn to a life of holy living in Christ.
Yet we know that even the Ephesian church let themselves get comfortable.
It was not the church's great programs and fellowships.
It was not the members' good deeds and honest living.
Although these things will get people through the church doors...
Only a dynamic, passionate relationship with God is enough for a person to give up a comfortable "good" life and turn to a life of holy living in Christ.
Yet we know that even the Ephesian church let themselves get comfortable.
They took for granted their security in the salvation from Christ.
They turned from their first love and let themselves be consumed with
going through the motions of worship...
singing all the right praise songs...
doing all the right things...
singing all the right praise songs...
doing all the right things...
I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and found them liars; and you have persevered... Revelation 3:2The danger of becoming content in mediocrity and routine is real for Christians today. Jesus was specific in what the consequences of that is -- we will no longer be useful to Him in bringing others to Him and therefore
I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place. Revelation 2:5cOur salvation is secure in Him (Ephesians 1:13-14), but our usefulness is completely based on our
"passionate, wholehearted love for God"
Jesus told the Ephesian church
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works. Revelation 2:5a-bWe also must REMEMBER:
And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God... Ephesians 3:17-19
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Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2
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...speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ... Ephesians 5:19-20
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Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints! Psalm 31:23a
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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Matthew 22:37
3 comments:
Thank you for the reminder of returning to our first love. The warning to the church at Ephesus is also a warning to us. Thank you for participating this week and adding your valuable opinion and take on this quote.
It's like what we were talking about in Bible Study this morning about going back to the basics. Often we need to stop and go back to our first love, Christ and put into that relationship our greatest love and efforts. Thanks for sharing
Awesome post! Thank you for the reminders of our first love. Think I may be forgetting that too often. Bless you!
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