obedience

If you have children, you will identify with this.

Quite often, when I tell my kids to do something, they respond: "WHY?" Now I don't want to stifle their inquisitiveness, but I know that a sincere quest for knowledge is not the motive for their question.

When my four-year-old daughter asks "why" she should go to bed, her aim is to call my judgment into question. She wants me to offer a rationale for my decision so that she can argue with that rationale. Continue reading...

Jesus said that the greatest commandment in the Torah is to love God, citing Deuteronomy 6:4-5.

When you think of love, what first comes to mind? For many people, love is a feeling of affection. The Scriptures tell us to love God with all of our heart, soul, and strength. Does that mean that we are to muster up intense emotions of affection toward God?

Certainly affectionate feelings play into our relationship with God. How can one not feel a sense of affection toward the God that created us and continues to give us life? But we have not met our obligation simply by generating an emotion. Continue reading...