We’ve finished our two-week series “Love God; Love Others” with a challenge to our students to make their love for God part of every area of their lives. Our conversation centered around Luke 10:25-28, which reveals that God’s greatest commandment is for us to love him with our heart, soul, strength, and mind.
during our worship time we stepped off with this video from our pal louie giglio. loved the response…one student stood up and shouted…”that’s crazy!” great lead in to our worship set…how great is our God…blessings and new one by kristen stamfil – who you are.

Learning to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is a lifelong commitment. We encouraged our students to consider the benefits and rewards of obediently loving God and pursuing lives that put love into action. Our love for God ought to connect to every area of life-it isn’t just a “church” thing or a “spiritual” part of life.

here’s some questions to ponder in the week to come based on our study.
How much of our experience as followers of Jesus do you think is based on our feelings, and how much of it is based on our willingness to act or serve or obey even when we don’t feel like it?
What do you think it means to develop a lifestyle of loving God? What would that look like if you pursued that path?
What are some changes you might see in your life as you love God more and more?

I pray that you and your family have an awesome week!

hey EVO…here’s some more details on Doing Something Now…

here are several agencies that are working to bring about awareness of human trafficking…click on their banner to learn more. 

Big Idea:  Love God; Love Others: Week 1-Loving Others.  We used this video to help set up the conversation.

Because the idea of loving others is a little easier to grasp than the idea of loving God, we began with this as our foundation.  The two topics, of course, are inextricably linked, and both discussions are vital for a healthy faith…and we’re trying to reinforce the value of our being in community with each other.

We examined the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. The story’s hero was “a despised Samaritan” who treats the man’s wounds and spends his own money to provide lodging at a nearby inn. Jesus wants us to love everyone, not just the people who are easy to love or who are just like us. Love for others is demonstrated through our actions.  The conversation also settled around the idea of our loving ourselves, as God has created us is also foundational.  Our small groups had fun with each member sharing their strengths.  Several questions for the week to come are:

• Why do you think God wants us to love other people? Why does it matter to God?
• If you truly love your neighbors, what evidence will people see in your life?
• Why do you think God connects or links our love for other people and our love for ourselves?

click this image to watch the film on the passion 2012 site.

We also finished the 4th and final installment of the Freedom Film from the folks at 268Passion Project.  This film was originally produced for the Passion 2012 conference last month in Atlanta.  It was viewed by more than 45,000 college students who attended and was the catalyst to that group raising more that $3.3 million towards beginning the ending of slavery for some 27 million people worldwide.  Our students are now pondering what we might do to make an investment.

Next Up:  Love God-Love Others – WK 2 Loving God.