03.05.08 thequest UPdate

thequest family,

Being a dad, everyday I do one of the things that drove me crazy about parents--they say the same thing over and over. Bedtime rolls around and out of my mouth rolls, "Get your pajamas on, brush your teeth and go to the bathroom." Those three things I've told my kids every night for years! Somehow it seems like every night, one or more of them doesn't remember or doesn't care or something, and the reminder rolls off my tongue. They could recite those three things back to you. They know them...but the doing of them often is lacking.

As I've been thinking a bit more about the Letter from the old man, we received and read on Sunday night at our assembly. Another insight came to me. As a spiritual father, he repeated himself over and over too. Listen to this. I'm sure you've heard it before:

I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning. Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning. (2 John v. 5-6 NLT)

Sound familiar? Yep. It is the same thing you've read before. Over and over and over again. From the beginning, God's reminder brought by all sorts of spiritual people is the same--Love one another.

I realize that our Heavenly Father is a broken record as well. He repeats Himself because as His child, I can recite those words back to you or to Him really easy. It's the doing of them that is often lacking.

In the words the old man penned above, he isolates that issue. He speaks straight to the doing which often lacks. He says, "Love means doing what God has commanded us." Lov-ers are Do-ers. If you don't show love, you don't love. That's the deal. The cliches about "love is a verb" are true. Love one another...and show you love with action. Don't let your doing be lacking...because then you aren't really loving.

So what's the thing you are being asked by God to do to Love Others around you today? Do it.

Press on,

Mike

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