Love the Lord

 Love the Lord

March 31, 2026

Mark 12:28-31

28 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answeredthem well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; 30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ 31 The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Yesterday we talked about trusting the Lord. You cannot trust without love. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, he quickly quoted the command to love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind. When we love the Lord totally, it is easy to trust. The second part is more difficult. We can love the Lord because we know He loves us back, but what about our neighbor? He can be difficult and contentious but we are to love anyway. 

The golden rule states that we are to do to others what we would wish to be done to ourselves. It is said that only Judaism and Christianity have this rule. All other religions, at best, only command to love your brother, but to hate your enemy. Certainly Islam falls into this category as they decree charity be done to fellow Muslims, but they teach that all infidels deserve slavery or  death. Certainly Jesus taught a better way! 

So our job today is to love the Lord with all of our being and to love our neighbor as ourself. “There is no other commandment greater than these.”

He Will Rejoice over You

 He Will Rejoice

March 16, 2026

Deuteronomy 30:8-10 (NKJV) 

8 “And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and do all His commandments which I command you today. 9 “The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the LORD will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, 10 “if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, [and] if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Do you know that the Father God loves you and rejoices over you? Today’s scripture is from the Old Testament, so relates this to obeying the law, but the principle is the same in the New Covenant. The Lord God loves the people that He has chosen and rejoices over them. That is, He rejoices over you. That is sometimes hard for us to comprehend, especially if we are going through hard times or are in relationships that don’t express that kind of love. It is unfortunate that many don’t have an earthly father that demonstrate this kind of fatherly love. I was fortunate to have a good father that loved me and taught me many valuable lessons about life. But regardless of the kind of earthly father you have, the Lord God, creator of the universe, is your loving Father. He loves you, has a plan for you, and rejoices over you. That is cause for rejoicing and praising the Lord.

Lovingkindness

 Lovingkindness 

December 2, 2025

Yesterday, we were talking about the name of the Lord as a strong tower. So today, let us explore that further and try to understand why. Why would an infinite God wish to protect and defend us? To answer that, we need to look at His lovingkindness, chesed in the Hebrew, which defines His infinite mercy and grace towards His people. He protects us because He loves us.

Psalms 17:6-9

6 I have called upon You, for You will answer me, O God;

Incline Your ear to me, hear my speech.

7 Wondrously show Your lovingkindness,

O Savior of those who take refuge at Your right hand

From those who rise up against them.

8 Keep me as the apple of the eye;

Hide me in the shadow of Your wings

9 From the wicked who despoil me,

My deadly enemies who surround me.

Psalms 36:5-12

5 Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens,

Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;

Your judgments are like a great deep.

O LORD, You preserve man and beast.

7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!

And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;

And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.

9 For with You is the fountain of life;

In Your light we see light.

10 O continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,

And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.

11 Let not the foot of pride come upon me,

And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.

12 There the doers of iniquity have fallen;

They have been thrust down and cannot rise.

Ephesians 2:4-7

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even whenwe were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

The imagery of Psalm 17 is beautiful. In it we can visualize God protecting us as He would protect the apple (pupil) of His eye. We also can see His love as the protection of a mother hen sheltering her chicks in the shadow of her wings. We take refuge in His strong tower because we find peace, protection and safety in His lovingkindness. This imagery is expanded in the New Testament when we see graphically the love of Jesus in His dying on the cross for our sake and then sitting us with Him in heavenly places. It is hard to describe the extent of His mercy, grace and kindness towards us. We can but try to accept His love and abide in Him. When all around you seems dark and in despair, look to the chesed of the Father and hide under the shelter of His wings.

(For more, see my previous blog on lovingkindness : http://bbb-brillhart.blogspot.com/2023/08/psalm-36-lovingkindness.html)

Living Letters

 Living Letters

June 19

2 Corinthians 3:1-3 NLT

1 Are we beginning to praise ourselves again? Are we like others, who need to bring you letters of recommendation, or who ask you to write such letters on their behalf? Surely not! 2 The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. 3 Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

I was thinking about this scripture from this week’s lesson when the song “I want my life to preach” came on the radio. That seemed very appropriate. You often heard it said, “Your life may be the only Bible that some people read”. So if your heart was a letter, what would it say?

One of my personal quirks is that I have difficulty reading people. I tend to keep my emotions buried,which probably makes it difficult for others to read me as well. Therefore, I’m not entirely sure what people read when the see my “heart letter”. One always hopes that people see the best in you, but do they? In my case, I know some people get offended because I don’t always return a greeting, but I am hard of hearing, so many times just don’t hear them. Do people ever misread your intentions? With that in mind, I think we need to make an effort to make our heart known. The more open we are the easier it is for people to read our “heart letter”.

The Bible lesson at church last night was the parable of the Good Samaritan. One way for people to know our heart is for us to be there for them in trouble and reach out and help them when they are in need. There was no doubt that the Samaritan in the parable cared for his neighbor since he took time, effort and money to care for the wounded traveler. It certainly makes it easier for people to to read our “heart letter” when we make an effort to help them in concrete ways.

So endeavor today to be a clear letter written by Christ that shows the love of God. Be a letter of recommendation for the Kingdom of God that helps them to see that there is a better way to live than what the world offers.’

Faith, Hope, Love and Peace with God

 Faith, Peace, Hope, Love

May20, 2025

Romans 5:1-5 - Results of Justification

1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in ourtribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Most are familiar with the faith, hope and love verse in first Corinthians 13, but we also find faith, hope and love in Romans 5, but with the addition of peace with God. The discourse in Romans 5 systematically lays out the doctrine of justification by faith, and includes peace with God, hope that does not disappoint and the love of God. Thus he explains here how justification by faith is not just about salvation, as wonderful as that is, but is also about living at peace with God, having hope and experiencing the tremendous love of God, in everyday life now. There is great benefit from faith in life today, as well as eternal life in the here after. He goes on to expound on the love of Jesus, who died for us while we were yet sinners, but it is enough for now to consider how we are able to have peace with God and hope that does not disappoint not disappoint because of the love of God and our faith in Jesus. Jesus loves you and you can have peace with God and hope if you have faith.

Faith, Hope and Love

 Faith, Hope and Love

April 16, 2025

1 Corinthians 13:12-13 (NASB95) 

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Hebrews 11:1-7 (NASB95)

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval. 3 By faith weunderstand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Romans 8:24,25 (NASB95)

24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we donot see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Faith, Hope and Love. Like it says in Corinthians, now we only see dimly so I can’t claim to understand faith, hope and love. The best I can recommend is to read the passages above and pray for understanding. I Corinthians1 13 is the best description of love in the Bible and Hebrews 11 is the definitive chapter on faith. We talked some about hope yesterday, and there is more in these references in Hebrews and Romans.

For the most part I’ll leave the discussion of love to I Corinthians 13. I will note though that Biblical, agape love is quite different from the modern concept of love which is more based on emotions that on actions. In the Bible, love is putting someone else before yourself and doing whatever is required for their benefit, despite the cost to yourself. This kind of love is greater than faith and hope.

“Faith is the assurance(substance) of things hoped for” according to Hebrews. Watchman Nee translates this as “Faith is the substantiating of things hoped for.” He explains that hope is for something in the future, which you would like to happen, but you don’t see. When you have faith, this hope becomes substantial or real. It is like it has already happened, but you just can’t see it yet. His example of this is colors. Colors are real things, but if you close your eyes they are not real to you. But if you remember what the colors look like and imagine the color of the object before you, you can substantiate the color, or make it real in your mind. Then when you open your eyes, the reality of the color will match if you have imagined correctly. The color was always real, but faith substantiated it so that it became real in your life. Thus faith takes a promise, or a hope, and makes it real so that you know that you will see it one day.

Romans then explains that hope that is seen is not hope. So hope is less substantial than faith. But hope is still essential for life. If we are without hope we have no reason to live. The hopeless live in despair. Hope for tomorrow gives us something to eagerly wait for. In fact, as we pointed out yesterday, in the Hebrew hope and waiting are the same word. We wait on the Lord, or we hope in the Lord were the same things to the Hebrews. Hoping and waiting give us a reason to praise the Lord and to look forward to all the great things that He has in store for us, even before we see what they are. When I look back on my life, I remember many wonderful things that the Lord has done for me that were even beyond the things that I hoped for when I was a youth. The Lord always exceeds our hopes and dreams when we put our future in His hands.

So Faith, Hope and Love; three essential elements of life; As necessary as air, water and food. So hope in the Lord and wait for His promises. Have faith in His saving power and mercy and love for us. And love one another as He has loved us. Do those three things and you won’t go far wrong.

The Lord is My Shepherd

 The Lord is My Shepherd 

March 7, 2025

Psalms 23

1 The LORD is my shepherd ^h7462a,

I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

3 He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil, for You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You have anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

h7462a. רָעָה raah; a prim. root; to pasture, tend, graze:--

John 10:11

11 “I am the good shepherd; the goodshepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

As we consider the names of God, we come to Jehovah Raah, The Lord is my Shepherd. This speaks of the care and concern that the Lord has for each of us. The twenty third Psalm expresses this beautifully and thus is one of everyone’s favorites. I’m sure it was one of the first Psalms I memorized in Sunday School as a small child. I remember reciting it often, and we also had a painting of the Good Shepherd on the wall of our Sunday School classroom. This particular copy of that famous religious painting was a memorial to one of my Sunday School teachers who died tragically, trapped in her car in a snow storm one winter. She was a young lady who represented the Lord’s love and concern for me, so her accident was a tragedy in my young life and the image of the Good Shepherd was powerfully etched in my mind.

Jesus applied this name to himself in John 10; “I am the Good Shepherd”. By this, He not only identified identified himself with the Lord God, but also with King David, who wrote Psalm 23 and who represented the kingly shepherds of the nation of Israel. But unlike the kings of old, Jesus was the good shepherd who layed down his life for the sheep. Such powerful love has been shown by no other king or leader. How can we comprehend the love that the Lord has for us that He not only provides for our care and comfort, but actually lays down His life for us so that we can be redeemed and live with Him forever? 

My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Amen

The Love of Christ

 The Love of Christ

February 22. 2025

Romans 8:35-39

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36Just as it is written,

“FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;

WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”

37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is one of the most encouraging passages in the Bible and does t need much explanation. When you get the revelation the Jesus loves you, you realize that nothing else matters. There is. It much else I can add to this. Just keep your eyes in Jesus and overwhelmingly conquer all things through Him who loves us.

Sons of God

 Sons of God

February 13, 2025

Romans 8:12-17

12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

We have been looking at the doctrines of the faith as laid out in Romans. But we are not careful, we can get caught up in the intellectual understanding of these things; propitiation, justification, sanctification, glorification, etc. We need to remember that we aren’t saved by understanding these things in our mind, but we are saved saved because God the Father loves us, and has adopted us as sons. All that Jesus did on the cross was for our benefit because He loves us. I am particularly subject to this problem, having been trained over many years to think about everything and to try to understand and analyze everything . Some things don’t need to be analyzed, they need to be accepted by faith, and appropriated into our soul and spirit. Knowing that God the Father loves us is not something that we can understand intellectually. I know, I have tried. It is only when the Spirit of God reveals it to your spirit that you really comprehend it, and can cry out, like Paul says, “Abba! Father!”. It is then that we realize that we are heirs to the promise, and that forgiveness, holiness and the ability to please God are gifts. They are part of our inheritance as sons. We just need to accept them. Perhaps that is one meaning of the verse that we often use as a call to worship:

Habakkuk 2:20

20“But the LORD is in His holy temple.

Letall the earth be silent before Him.”

Our voices clamor and our minds inquire, but to truly understand the Father’s Love, sometimes we just need to be silent before Him.