Loving
God
(One Man’s Journey)
By
Michael Didier
I asked Jesus into my life
as a child more than 40 years ago. My family never opened a Bible or even went
to church. For me, in those childhood and teen years, my faith consisted of
doing what “I thought” was the right way to conduct my life; I (thought I)
had no examples of the way I should go.
Shortly after HS graduation
I fell in “infatuation” with a young lady that loved me and, I believe, I
loved her to the best of my ability. Through her influence I started smoking
marijuana which I would never have done except for my love and respect for her.
But there was emptiness in
my life that I could not explain, something was missing. So at the age of 19 I
started searching. Associating with others who were involved in the drug culture
led me in a way that did not provide many answers.
I met some people who were
involved with Transcendental Meditation and studied that; while never forgetting
that Jesus was my Savior. His lordship meant nothing to me at this point in my
life, and would not for many years. When I considered my future, at this point
in my life, I would wonder how I could raise children and still smoke pot.
The Commons was a city park
near my home. I met a young gal named Le
The service that week was
just for me. The pastor put up a diagram that day that most of us have seen upon
occasion. God was on one side, man on the other; the gulf between us was
“sin” (the things we did that God said we should not do) and it separated us
from him. Each time the pastor put up a new part of the diagram I said to myself
“yah,” “yah,” “yah,” I knew all this. Then he bridged the gap with
Jesus who paid for our sins with His life. Again I said “yah.” That night I
recommitted my self to the King of kings and His Father.
It was only a short time
before I realized that I had people now who really did care about me; unlike my
drug buddies who knew I pretty much always had a joint to share. I had to tell
these old friends that I still cared about them but I was not going to be going
their way any longer, but if they wanted to come with me they were welcome to
join me. They, however, never came. Within weeks of my recommitment I went for a
drive and claimed the blood of Jesus over my life and threw out more than a
pound of marijuana as I drove. I was free.
Many months before I had
been sitting by a lake and thought about what I need to “get by” in this
world. The answer at first was food, water and clothing (warmth); but there was
something even more important than those, which I identified as “truth.”
With it (truth) I would always be going in a positive direction in my life;
“truth” must be sought!
Armed with this knowledge I
returned to school, which I swore I would never do (I was never what anyone
would call a good student). The next three years were spent at a two year
community college while I also worked part time. To my surprise I was now a very
good student, and even more surprising I became a leader of the Campus Christian
Fellowship. There were six of us when I began and over 60 when I left to attend
Contrary to my time at the
community college where every one of us had to fight for our faith and
appreciated what we had; the two years I had at
During these five years of
college I realized that I could have a positive effect on the lives of the
students, so I decided that I wanted to become a dean of students as I had great
respect for the Dean of Students at
That summer I had to do a
practicum for my bachelor degree in Christian Education. Honeyrock Camp was a
facility maintained by
There were two places in
which I could do my masters work in College Student Services Administration, one
was in
We lived and ran a
dormitory during our first year of marriage. Becoming a Dean of students never
became a reality for me as I was entering the workplace at the beginning of the
equal opportunity era and had many say that they would hire me if I were a
minority or a woman. Since Judy was a teacher we took a team position running a
small dormitory in central
We heard about a church in
the
Judy and I have never
lacked, been cold or gone hungry. Our Father in heaven has always proved Himself
faithful, I believe this is so because we have always served Him as best we knew
how.
My desire for “truth”
has never failed. The friends Judy and I had over the years were for the most
part teacher friends. Their husbands were my friends because they came with
their wives or they taught with my wife. I have never been interested in
baseball, basketball, football, fishing, etc.. The conversation topics that
interested me were political, social, family issues and of course issues
regarding my faith in the Creator and His Son.
As our children grew (we
had three – two boys and a little girl) I, like most dads, attended
practically every sporting event my children were participating in. In addition
I became a Boy Scout leader and required each of the boys (Wes and Jonny) to
participate until they made First Class Scout. Fortunately, at least that is
what I thought at the time, they continued and went on in there scouting
endeavors and became accomplished in many areas.
Beginning around the time
of the new millennium I began to search the scriptures much more seriously than
I ever had before. By the time I had read through my Bible two times I began to
see many things that we did, and things that were spoke about in church, which
had no Biblical basis or were in fact contrary to the scriptures. (Is
the New Testament Really New?)
One of the first
inconsistencies I saw was, “if Jesus died and was in the earth for three days
and three nights, how come we celebrate Easter where He died on Friday at
evening and rose on Sunday morning.” At best, according to that tradition, he
was in the earth a day and a half, but that is not what the Bible says. Upon
doing more research I found out some very disturbing things concerning the
origin of the Easter celebration. (Man’s
Holidays or God’s Holy Days)
Next I read two books which
speak about the political and social aspects of our faith as it relates to the
scriptures (the Kingdom) and the systems of the world (the state). One was
called “Christian
Patriotism” written at the turn of the 20th century and the
other “Covenant
of the gods” written by a man who is an historian, Bible scholar and
lawyer.
I started to ask myself
some very difficult questions like:
- What makes us God’s
people? And “Which nation
is under God?”
- How many Kings can we
serve? Can we pledge our allegiance to a flag and the King of kings? (See Whom
do you serve?)
- If the forth commandment
says Saturday is the Sabbath and we should keep it holy, why do we worship on
Sunday and not even keep it holy? (See Sabbath
Truth)
- If Jeremiah 10 forbids
Christmas trees why do we do it? Well that opens up another whole can of worms.
(Again See Man’s
Holidays or God’s Holy Days)
- Is saying I believe in
Christ enough? What does repentance have to do with salvation? And what did we
repent of anyway? Should we still be doing what we repented of? (See Just
Believe?)
- What really is faith
anyway? (See Faith, The Just
Shall Live By It!)
- Is there a way for a man or men (the church) to live in the world without being conformed to it?
What about SSNs and Drivers Licenses? You can both work and bank without these
encumbrances to the world. (See Kingdom
Living Today!)
- I began to ask myself if there
was anything that I had been taught in my Romanized Christianity that had any solid Biblical
foundation? (See Precept,
the Milk of the Word)
Needless the to say, but I
will, the more questions I asked the more “friends” I lost. First I was
asked to leave the Boy Scouts by the pastor (I did not want to say the pledge of
Allegiance to a flag of a corporation), Then I was asked to leave the church by
my wife who did not want me to ask the pastor the sincere question which I had.
Then I was commanded by the court to leave my home, my wife (of 24 now 26 years)
and my three wonderful children. I fought the court against separating what God
has brought together and stopped the divorce proceedings for 3 and a half years but ended up with a
ten year restraining order which the judge put in place even though my own wife
said I am “a kind and gentle man.”
The title of this article
is called Loving God, for me this has been a process. The first commandment
says:
“Thou
shalt have no other gods before me.) (Exodus 20:3)
(Strong #430 elohiym,
is defined as “rulers or judges,” Brown – Driver - Briggs’ Hebrew
Definitions)
This commandment must be
pretty important since our heavenly Father put it first.
Deuteronomy 6:1-5 says:
“Now
these are the commandments,
the statutes, and the judgments, which YHWH (most Bibles say, "the
LORD")
your God commanded to teach you, that ye
might do them in the land
whither ye go to possess it: That thou might fear YHWH thy God, to
keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and
thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be
prolonged. Hear therefore, O
Jesus (Yahshua) picked up
on the next two verses when he was listing the first of the two most important
commandments of YHWH saying:
“Hear
O Israel, … you shall love YHWH thy God with
all your heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
(Deuteronomy 6:4-5,
In my mind all is a
lot! All is what Jesus did. He was our example of how we should live.
Between the second
commandment and the third we are told by YHWH:
“Thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am
a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation of
them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me,
and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:5-6)
His
commandments, as opposed to their commandments? Who is “them” that we are
not supposed to serve? Any other Elohiym (rulers or Judges)! It appears that
loving YHWH our Elohiym and obeying Him go hand in hand and that not
loving Him by continuing in sin is the counterpoint. But let’s see what the
New Testament has to say about loving God.
Yahshua (Jesus) said:
“I
and my Father are one.”
(John 10:30)
And,
“If
ye love me, keep my commandments.”
(John 14:15)
Again,
“He
that is of God hears God's words: ye therefore hear them
not, because ye are not of God.”
(John 8:47)
Loving
YHWH our Elohiym and obeying Him are intimately related. In other words
we are not doing the former unless we are doing the latter also.
John, the one whom Yahshua
loved, echoes the same opinion.
“This
then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God
is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth (Who
defines light and darkness, the Father or the state?):
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we
have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1John
1:5-10)
“And
hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that says, I
know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in
him. But whoso keeps his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected:
hereby know we that we are in him. He that says he abides in him ought
himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” (I
John 2:3-6)
Finally,
“By
this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his
commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and
his commandments are not grievous.”
(1John 5:2-3)
The
second of the two greatest commandments which Jesus referred to was this:
“And
the second is like
[the first], namely this, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater
than these.” (
People
love to quote this verse "you
shall love your neighbor as yourself," but let’s take a careful look at it in context from
which it is quoted. How is this verse "like the first"?
“When you
reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your
field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not
glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you
shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the LORD your God. 'You
shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. And you shall not
swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the
LORD. 'You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is
hired shall not remain with you all night until morning. You shall not curse the
deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am
the LORD. 'You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to
the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge
your neighbor. You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people; nor
shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. 'You
shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your
neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor
bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your
neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. 'You shall keep My statutes.”
(Leviticus 19:9-19)
In
context we see that even loving our neighbor is not possible unless we are
following YHWH’s commandments, judgments and ordinances which tell us how we
are to love them.
I
said at the beginning of the article that “I (thought) had no examples of
the way I should go.” Of course I was wrong. Yahshua (Jesus) was our example
of the way in which we should go. He demonstrated the “narrow way” for us.
Which is why Paul said:
“Be
ye followers of me, even as I also am
of Christ.” (1Corinthians 11:1)
Yahshua was our example of
how we are to love YHWH our Elohiym with all out heart, soul and strength and
our neighbor as ourselves. Let’s follow Him and His example.
He
that says he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.”
(I John 2:3-6)