Christian Quotes

It seemed to be a typical day in Israel. Jesus was teaching the people as a crowd of scribes and other religious leaders looked on. We don’t know what the weather was like on that particular day, whether it was cool or hot, whether there was a breeze or not, but we do know that the religious leaders were getting pretty hot under the collar. With consummate skill, Jesus had just silenced one religious group, the Sadducees, who had come to the popular young Rabbi thinking they were going to outsmart Him. Suddenly, out from the crowd stepped a scribe with a question that he thought would put Jesus to the test.

If you have your Bible, maybe you’d like to follow along as I read to you from Matthew’s account of this story. Matt. 22:34-37:

“But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer [a scribe who had the particular job of interpreting the law], asked him a question, tempting him [or testing Him], and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND.”

Jesus singles out loving God with the totality of our being—heart, soul, and mind—as the GREATEST commandment. Out of all the commandments in the Old Testament, loving God is the greatest, Jesus says.

Our Lord was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. This is what it says:

“Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might [or strength].”

Now for whatever reason, when Jesus quotes that verse from Deuteronomy 6, He changes the word “might” to “mind.” “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND.”

I want to talk about that for a few moments tonight: loving God with all our MIND.

These are days when a premium is set upon doing, rather on on being or quietly meditating. We are what we think; therefore it is very important to regulate our thoughts. And there is no better subject to apply our minds to than divine things.

By quiet meditation I don’t mean just reading; because if all we do is read, then our mind becomes full of other men’s thoughts. Meditating is an exercise of the mind, and, like other parts of us, the mind can only gain strength by exercise. We must read, yes; but we must not stop there. We must chew over what has been read, and weigh it all in the balances of our mind and judgment–learn to discern between good and evil.

Meditation also involves prayer.

A meditating man is one who is acquainted with the thoughts and opinions of other men, but who has opinions and conclusions of his own. He knows what he believes, and he knows why he believes it. This gives him a certain authority–an authority that can never belong to a mere parrot. The result is that the meditating man (assuming that his meditations are upon the Scriptures) is loyal to truth, not to any system of doctrine or to the writings or sayings of this or that person. –EC

Welcome to a brand new blog. Sometimes in my work I come across stories or short quotations that make me stop and think (or smile) for a few moments and I’d like others to share those moments with me. However, I don’t like sending emailed stories and quotations to people who may already be tired of the amount of unsolicited messages they are receiving. So, the alternative is to post them here. If you want to read them, all well and good: you just go to cookbits.com. If you don’t want to read them, that’s fine too. It’s all about choice. Thanks for stopping by.