You have probably had a first love at this point in your life.  And you probably felt that it was the only person in the entire universe that could possibly make you happy and that if you didn’t end up with that person you would never find true happiness because true happiness was only to be found in that person.  And then what happened?  It probably didn’t work out and you realized “Eh, no big deal.”  I hate that, as Christians, when we first come to Christ we have these feelings of love for God that we can’t even put into words.  Something that might describe how we felt is, “God is the only one that can ever make me happy!  How in the world did I not realize this before?!  God you are so awesome…I love you SO much!”  And then what happens?  A few weeks…months…years pass and all of a sudden it becomes, “Eh, no big deal.”  What happened?  We lost our first love.  We walked away from it.  Christianity became a religion for us.  It became a set of rules, a way to live, to be a good person, and we do all these things for God and there is no love.  If you knew how God was described in the Bible, His physical appearance, it would blow you away.  Do you have a minute or are you too busy?  Read Revelation 1: 12-16.  That is God.  And he gave all that up and He emptied Himself of all of that because He passionately loves us and He passionately desires a relationship with us.  Passionately…Passionately.  Where is our passion?  Where is the love we once had for God?  It is funny that this has been on my mind for the past couple of weeks because that is what Mark (Baughman) spoke about Sunday Morning – passion for Christ.  We need to remember the heights from which we have fallen and repent.  God is not interested in religion. He is not interested in lukewarm Christians.  He would rather us pick a side – hot or cold.  Let’s resolve to be known as passionate followers of Christ.  Christians who take the greatest commandment to heart – love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.  Let’s be known as those people.  

Bible study tomorrow night will be from Revelation 2: 1-7.  Sorry it is so late and I am just telling you this but if you happen to read this in time and want to read up on those verses, maybe we can talk about it tomorrow night at Panera.  Love you guys…

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