Here are the first three of six steps to keeping the first and greatest commandment.  On December 13th we will share the final three steps.

1.    Know the first and greatest commandment. 

 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:36-38)

Memorizing the first and greatest commandment keeps us focused on loving Jesus supremely.  Obeying him becomes absolute fun and seeking him becomes our top priority.  As a result, we experience the abundantly rich life he planned for us.

In about 1974 or 75 the Lord helped me schedule private time with him into my very busy days.  I disciplined myself to place private time with him as top priority in my daily calendar.

After a few years of this regimented fellowship with the Lord I recognized that lots of up building and encouraging thoughts came to mind.  Regrettably, these thoughts disappeared after a few seconds or a few minutes.  So in August 1980 I began writing these Thoughts During Prayer in a notebook.  I’m so glad I did because since then the Lord has shared so very, very many insights into his person, his ways, and his purposes.

For the last several months I’ve occassionally listed what impairments have taught me.  Please let me add a few more insights.

Yes, I believe in divine healing.  The Jesus who healed illnesses, injuries and diseases during his days on earth continues his healing ministry today.  However, when the Lord chose not to heal my legal blindness and the macular degeneration with which I live, I learned to profit from lack of healing.  If God miraculously heals us or not, we win, either way.  “The Lord…takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear; I  will help you,’” Isaiah 41:13.

Dear Friends,

Let me share with you an edited email I recently sent.  Perhaps it will be a strength for you.

 Please read Genesis 37, then chapters 39-50.  Joseph’s story helped me so very, very much during the trials I went through during the early 1990’s.

I practiced lots of ruthless introspection, self-criticism and self-depreciation.  Trials and tests will do that to us if we allow it.  So one evening in Japan during early 1991, I was convinced I had never done one good thing in my whole life.  I figured all my trials and sufferings were due to my own faults and frailties.  About that time the Lord clearly spoke to me, “I am Controller of Circumstances and Director of Decisions.” 

     At the end of my junior year in high school the Lord helped me surrender myself to his lordship.  He began leading my steps and building my love for him.  About 2 ½ months later I experienced what John the Baptist and Jesus called the Baptism into the Holy Spirit.  This new and powerful relationship with the Holy Spirit created in my heart an insatiable desire for the Word of God.  When the Pastor of our family’s church recognized my new interest in the Bible he personally taught me how to memorize Scripture.  His instruction launched me on a life long program of not only reading the Bible, but memorizing portions of it.

     In this Blog I want to share with you the five verses I most recently began memorizing.  I trust these portions of God’s Word bless you a lot!

Being legally blind because of totally blind spots could have proven an insurmountable barrier to happiness.  In fact, there were times during my 20′s that I felt quite resentful for the way I perceived God had treated me.  He mercifully changed my attitude and I started looking for lessons for life contained within the physical impairment I was born with.  Hopefully some of these lessons will help you deal with the more unpleasant side of life.

Accessing Jesus’ Peaceful Thoughts

           Quiet peacefulness enveloped a grove of olive trees just outside the wall of Jerusalem.  We call this place the Garden of Gethsemane.  Darkness added a feeling of calmness to the scene.  Jesus’ apostles continued hoping their leader from Nazareth would, like Moses, bring Israel into freedom from foreign oppression.

            Suddenly human voices, muffled by distance, sounded in the apostle’s ears.  Gradually these angry voices grew louder as men holding torches approached.  This furious mob shattered their idyllic surroundings.  “Judas…arrived.  With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs.” ^{(1 Matthew 26:47)} As the arresting officer seized Jesus, our Lord began the most stressful, painful and disturbing time of all his days on earth.

In one of my recent blogs I listed four lessons my physical impairment has taught me.  Here are some more valuable lessons I have learned from my physical impairments.

1. Don’t take yourself too seriously; find humor in your differences and struggles.  As my wife drove me to my office one morning we passed a jogger.  I commented, “That guys looks absolutely worn out.”  Two or three days later Delores told me that the jogger was a female.  I responded, “Well, at least that polar bear looks worn out.”

Jesus made it very plain, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” ⁽¹⁾ He gives us no choice—“You must be born again. ⁽²⁾ What did he mean by “born again?”

Humans are more than physical.  We are not mere material creatures made up of countless cells and molecules.  We are human spirits temporarily housed in these bodies.  In fact, our physical life depends on the presence of this other part of us the Bible calls “spirit”.

Defeating Our Resistance to God’s Thoughts

Slightly over four thousand years ago, God issued an unreasonable demand to a man named Abraham. “Offer your son Isaac as a sacrifice,” God ordered.¹

Abraham didn’t question God’s motives, he didn’t argue with the Lord and he didn’t outright reject God’s edict. Instead, he immediately prepared to destroy the son he thoroughly loved.²

Nothing in Abraham offered any resistance to God’s unreasonable command. He flowed smoothly along with God’s thoughts. His body, mind and spirit willingly yielded to what God had in mind. “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead…”³. Abraham thought like God thought. His mind offered zero resistance to God’s will and God’s ways.

But it wasn’t always like this.