LOVING GOD: Statement of Faith

FORWARD As I prepared my Statement of Faith, I recognized that the importance of loving God which cannot be just reading or studying the Word of God, the Bible, but implementing or doing God’s will and also obeying God’s commandments. It reminds me how gracious and how merciful of my Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, has helped me and continues to help me to walk with him faithfully. Every day by the Holy Spirit, God gives me a little bit of the understanding of His Word through the Lord Christ. But how am I from knowing the Word of God to implementing His Word? From my mind to my heart, it takes the obedient faith in the Lord Christ to make the living word is alive and well but not just characters that I am reading every day and every night. Thus, the Statement of Faith is the first book of the Loving God series which are to help people to see God the Father, Lord Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, from a more realistic and more practical perspectives with a rejoiceful and faithful heart in Christ(Phil. 4:4). LOVING GOD ““The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’”” Mk. 12:29-30. Loving God is the most important and the highest theological goal for all His children, people, regardless of their physical, mental, social, cultural, economic, academic, politic, and racial statuses. Meaning of Loving God Loving God echoes the very First Commandment, Deut. 6:5, which is the first and the greatest commandment, and it also means to love Him wholeheartedly (Matt. 22:37-38, Mk. 12:29-30). This First Commandment builds upon the faith in God which is reflected by one’s love to which one believes that He is the only one true living God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever to which He is omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence, and His Word is inerrant and God-breathed message with the presence of His authority. Loving God –The Integrated Motif in Theology Throughout the whole Bible, the same emphasis has been repeated; “when one loves God, one obeys His commandments” (Jos. 22:5, Jn. 14:15, 15:10). One cannot just have lip service but one has to take action, i.e., obeying God’s commandments, as Christ has said that “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:30) and it is the faithful obedience in Him which is the foundation of this loving relationship. To build a loving relationship takes one’s interest, priority, commitment, and time to which it is not just taking one meeting, one day, one month, or one year, but also going to take one’s whole life, a lifetime commitment, which is like a marital relationship. And building a loving relationship with God, like a married couple, one is through the precious blood of Lord Christ (Eph. 2:13) to which he died for us on the cross once for all (1 Jn. 2:2) and this relationship is a faithful obedient relation between God and oneself (1 Pet. 4:19) and thus, this is the centrality of the theme, “Loving God,” is manifested in a steadfast obedient faith in God through Lord Christ and the reward is the eternal life (1 Jn. 5:11). Loving God – Its relationship to His Creations and Ministry To love is one’s choice to which one has freedom to make one’s own decision. Perhaps, one might choose to do things that are displeased God or one might reconcile with Him after the prideful, rebellious, and disobedient walk against Him, and Satan claimed that one’s problems were caused by the Lord Christ. However, the living Word of God has become our defense and offense (Eph. 6:10-18) and His Holy Spirit (Zech. 4:6) is our protector and counselor (Jn. 14:26). Besides, God is “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac …” (Matt. 22:32), and God is also the God of the 21st Century, our living God (Matt. 22:32, Jn. 1:1-3). Thus, making daily commitment and reconciling with Him, which are His ministry, one does so whether one eats or drinks or whatever one does, does it all for the glory of God, 1 Cor. 10:31, as my manifesto of loving Him.