If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 2 Cor 5:17
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Go to the source! Discover what the Bible says about …
These pages are designed to aid study or investigation for Christian discipleship through individual Bible study, Cell groups, Home groups, or meeting one to one. The questions could be used alone allowing each person to use their own Bible.
Introduction
Love for God needs nurture to develop. Without feeding the fires of passion die and our attention moves on to other things. This relationship with God is worth nurturing because God brings a new dimension to our lives: A unique relationship. We cannot see Him for He is Spirit, and we relate through means that are often unclear, yet He knows us better than we know ourselves. There is the opportunity for intimacy beyond anything possible on earth, even the most intimate marriage.
Bible Zone
- Expressing Love - We must love God with all our being.
- Desiring God’s Love - Journeying through life seeking God we foster love for Him.
Deut 6:4-9 shows us how the Lord desired the people of Israel to express their passion about their love for Him, for love that is not expressed becomes passionless and flat. The passage ends with a mention of symbols. In our culture the most common way of people displaying symbols is for the sports team they support.
- There are many specifics here, but what is the essence?
- How does conversation show a persons passion?
- How is conversation used here?
- How could your passion for God be developed?
Deuteronomy 6: 4 "Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.*5 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
When I first became a Christian people talked about loving God, and frankly I had no idea what they were talking about. If this is the case for you, don’t worry Pursue God with all your heart, spend time with His people, with time, as you look back you will discover that the kind of love God desires has arrived, maybe without your even being aware of it.
Seeing the hunger of the soul in a life situation. Learning to notice when I have a hungry soul.
Psalm 84 is an expression of love for God. It’s setting is that of going on pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem. I will be taking this symbolically with Jerusalem as the place of the presence of the Lord. This intimacy with God does not come naturally, but is developed as we walk with Him, his way. The rest of the page will work through Psalm 84
- How is the Psalm writer’s desire for God expressed?
- This desire is not automatic, but can be prayed for and developed.
Psalm 84:1-2 1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of Heaven's Armies. 2 I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the LORD. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.
- What choices are needed to live in God’s presence?
- What is the result of these choices?
4 What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises.
The place of intimacy with God is not necessarily somewhere you arrive at. It can also be a journey. Even a journey that takes you through the valley of Baca - an arid waterless wasteland, symbolically a place devoid of any experience of God’s presence.
- What difference to the journey does God’s presence make?
- What life circumstances God’s strength in us?
- As God works in us, what impact is there to the places where God is not?
- In what ways have you seen these differences?
- What hope is held out by the Psalm writer?
5 What joy for those whose strength comes from the LORD, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 6 When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,* it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings. 7 They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.
This is not just for spiritual giants like this Psalm writer, this is for you! It begins as you invite the Lord to join you in your life, through prayer in every situation, and spending time to feed on Him through reading the Bible.
NURTURE LOVE FOR GOD
