February 19, 2012 … The Legacy of Love

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Leviticus, Chapters 19-21 … To study these chapters, go to this link -

Leviticus 19: 9-10; … 18 : … [Priestly Preparation for Atonement] … 9 "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.” >>> … 18 [After a series of specific laws from God to be followed by His chosen ones] … “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
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Matthew 22: 34-40; … 18 : … [Christ on the Legacy of Love] … 34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” >>> 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ [Deut. 6: 5] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ [Lev. 19: 18] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
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John 13: 34-35 : … [Again, Christ on Our Legacy as Christians]… [Jesus] … 34 “A new command I give you: ‘Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’ 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

My Journal for Today: Today, God’s word jumped out at me from Leviticus 19 in my chronological reading plan, especially the passage I copied above from verses 9-10 and verse 18. It immediately reminded me of those passages in the New Testament where Jesus was challenged by the Pharisees and Sadducees to declare the greatest of God’s Law. And without hesitation, Jesus gave His Law of Love to the people, letting God’s people know exactly how they were to live and how this living would be a legacy of loving.

And that is the message we all need to contemplate, internalize, and live on a 24/7 basis. It is God’s commandment to a legacy of love for all of His children; and it comes right from the Old Covenant, fulfilled by Christ in the New Covenant. And in today’s passage in Leviticus, God, through Moses, even gave His chosen ones a word picture of how they (and we) should live their (our) lives. Note the instruction of Leviticus 19: 9-10 where God commanded how the people were to glean the harvest from the promised land, … but leaving the left-over fruit which was on the field from the harvest, as well as the fruit from the edges of the fields … so that those who were not as capable could come behind the workers and be able thrive from the gleanings of the fields.

And that was what – in essence – Jesus was saying to His attackers and followers in Matt. 22 and John 13 above. He was saying that we, as Christians, ought to be showing so much of God’s love to God’s people and all whose lives we touch that those who come after us will have plenty of God’s left-over love upon which they can thrive.

Have you ever asked yourself, “What is my legacy of God’s love?” What am I leaving in the fields for those who come after me? Am I living with such an abundance of God’s love that all who know me can thrive on the leavings of God’s love from harvest of living in my life?

If you were to write in a word – or at most, a short phrase – on a 3X5 card what others can – or will – glean from your legacy of God’s love in your life, … what would you write? In my attempt to declare my legacy of God’s love in a word, I think I would write “ALOGOSPHOBIA” on my card, which is a word I made up to describe my obsessive-compulsive fear of not having God’s word in my life.

Before I was a Christian, I was driven by a fear of not having love and physical affection imparted to me by others; and that fear drove me to try to pursue God’s love in all the wrong places, mostly through the selfish pursuit of sexual pleasures. But when Christ came into my life and I sampled His fruit of love through His word, I couldn’t (and still can’t) get enough of it. And I began to see that God’s Spirit had replanted a new compulsion in my life and that is the obsessive drive to go deep into God’s word. That’s why I’m here this morning, digging into God’s truth and trying to find the fruit of His love; … and that’s where I get my LOVE FIX every day from God. AND, my friend, I will pray below that those who come after me will find and develop the same drive to find God’s love in their lives through His word.

My Prayer Today: … Lord, my others, especially my family, catch the love-bug from Your word, and take enough from the fields I harvest from You through Your truth to be able to live their lives with Your love. Amen