Affections

Our primary affection in life should be the Lord our God. Our commitment to Him should be absolutely without reservation.

• Deuteronomy 6:5 HCSB Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
• Psalm 42:1 HCSB For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God.
• Psalm 73:25 HCSB Whom do I have in heaven but You? And I desire nothing on earth but You.
• Mark 12:30 HCSB Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

This affection should be reflected in our love for His church. It should result in a willingness to support His ministries financially.

• 1 Chronicles 29:3 HCSB Moreover, because of my delight in the house of my God, I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the house of my God over and above all that I've provided for the holy house:
• Psalm 26:8 HCSB LORD, I love the house where You dwell, the place where Your glory resides.
• Psalm 27:4 HCSB I have asked one thing from the LORD; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the LORD and seeking Him in His temple.
• Psalm 84:1-2 HCSB For the choir director: on the Gittith. A psalm of the sons of Korah. How lovely is Your dwelling place, LORD of Hosts. I long and yearn for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh cry out for the living God.

It should further be extended to a love for God’s holy people.

• Psalm 16:3 HCSB As for the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.

The affection we have for God should lead us to identify with His house (his family, clan or people). That zeal causes us to identify with Him. When others insult God, they are insulting us.

• Psalm 69:9 HCSB because zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult You have fallen on me.
• Psalm 119:139 HCSB My anger overwhelms me because my foes forget Your words.

Our loving devotion for God places us under His protective overwatch.

• Psalm 91:14 HCSB Because he is lovingly devoted to Me, I will deliver him; I will exalt him because he knows My name.

We are such fickle creatures. Love must be maintained in the faithless human heart. If we neglect to recall what He has done for us and become ungrateful, we will soon cease to seek His instruction and will very shortly thereafter fall.

• Psalm 106:12-13 HCSB Then they believed His promises and sang His praise. They soon forgot His works and would not wait for His counsel.

When we maintain our affection for the Lord, we will not fall short of His commands.

• Psalm 119:10 HCSB I have sought You with all my heart; don't let me wander from Your commands.

Because we love the Lord, we take great delight in His word.

• Psalm 19:8-10 HCSB The precepts of the LORD are right, making the heart glad; the commandment of the LORD is radiant, making the eyes light up. The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the LORD are reliable and altogether righteous. They are more desirable than gold--than an abundance of pure gold; and sweeter than honey--than honey dripping from the comb.
• Psalm 119:97 HCSB How I love Your teaching! It is my meditation all day long.
• Psalm 119:103 HCSB How sweet Your word is to my taste--sweeter than honey to my mouth.
• Luke 24:32 HCSB So they said to each other, "Weren't our hearts ablaze within us while He was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?"

Our love for God also causes us to trust His character. We therefore don’t avoid His judgments because we know that He always seeks our good. We actually begin to long for His judgments – knowing that they bring health.

• Psalm 119:20 HCSB I am continually overcome by longing for Your judgments.
• Psalm 119:167 HCSB I obey Your decrees and love them greatly.

Our love for God should also lead us to love righteousness. We should cry out for justice. We should speak up and be activists. We should not be ashamed to claim Adonai as our God and King.

• Isaiah 58:1-2 HCSB "Cry out loudly, don't hold back! Raise your voice like a trumpet. Tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek Me day after day and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not abandon the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God."

It’s not enough to CLAIM a love for God. It is when we actually obey Yahweh Melek that we demonstrate true love. The vast majority of cultural Christians are in love with the beauty of their music; the eloquence of their preachers or the grandiosity of their church buildings. Adonaists don’t fall into this idolatry. We love the Lord.

• Ezekiel 33:31-32 HCSB So My people come to you in crowds, sit in front of you, and hear your words, but they don't obey them. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue unjust gain. Yes, to them you are like a singer of love songs who has a beautiful voice and plays skillfully on an instrument. They hear your words, but they don't obey them.

Our love for the Lord should be so deep, so powerful, so passionate, that it supersedes all other loves. It actually forms the foundation of all other loves. We cannot truly love other people if we do not love Hashem more.

• Matthew 10:37 HCSB The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
• Luke 14:26 HCSB "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, and even his own life--he cannot be My disciple.

Many people allow hurt feelings, love of the things of this world, or simple rebellion against the ways of the Lord to grow like weeds and choke out their love for the Lord.

· Luke 8:13 HCSB And the seeds on the rock are those who, when they hear, welcome the word with joy. Having no root, these believe for a while and depart in a time of testing.

However, the same principle that applied to Adam and Eve (disobey and you’ll die) still applies. To love sin is to love death and darkness. To love Elohim is to love life and light.

• Romans 8:13 HCSB for if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
• Romans 6:23 HCSB For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• John 1:3-4 HCSB All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created. (4) Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men.
• Proverbs 3:13-18 HCSB (in re God’s Holy Spirit of Wisdom)Happy is a man who finds wisdom and who acquires understanding, (14) for she is more profitable than silver, and her revenue is better than gold. (15) She is more precious than jewels; nothing you desire compares with her. (16) Long life is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor. (17) Her ways are pleasant, and all her paths, peaceful. (18) She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who hold on to her are happy.

We mustn’t make any allowances for sin in our lives but constantly seek to be more and more like our Master.

• Romans 6:6 HCSB For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin's dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,
• Romans 13:14 HCSB But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires.
• 1 Corinthians 9:27 HCSB Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
• Galatians 5:24 HCSB Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
• Colossians 3:1-2, 5 HCSB So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. Therefore, put to death whatever in you is worldly: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.
• 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 HCSB (3) For this is God's will, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality, (4) so that each of you knows how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, (5) not with lustful desires, like the Gentiles who don't know God.

We need to practice showing familial affection. We need to compete – in demonstrations of love.

• Romans 12:10 HCSB Show family affection to one another with brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor.

The Galatians loved the apostle Paul in spite of his handicap and deformity. They were willing to do whatever they could for him.

• Galatians 4:15 HCSB What happened to this blessedness of yours? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.

The apostle Paul clearly demonstrated his love for the Thessalonicans. He brought the Gospel to them and was willing to serve them with his entire being.

• 1 Thessalonians 2:8 HCSB We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.

Our love for God and our obedience to His ways will increase the affection that God’s other holy people will have for us. If we want to satiate that need for belonging, that urge to be loved and held in esteem, we need to discipline ourselves to Hashem’s ways.

• 2 Corinthians 7:13-16 HCSB For this reason we have been comforted. In addition to our comfort, we were made to rejoice even more over the joy Titus had, because his spirit was refreshed by all of you. For if I have made any boast to him about you, I have not been embarrassed; but as I have spoken everything to you in truth, so our boasting to Titus has also turned out to be the truth. And his affection toward you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of all of you, and how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoice that I have complete confidence in you.

Sometimes, our love for God will require that we be rejected by people who have rejected Him. We should not let that cause us to waver in our obedience.

• Galatians 1:10 HCSB For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.

Often people will proclaim their affection for us while in fact they are merely USING us. We need to be careful in distinguishing true affection from hypocritical expressions of love and esteem.

• Galatians 4:17-18 HCSB They are enthusiastic about you, but not for any good. Instead, they want to isolate you so you will be enthusiastic about them. Now it is always good to be enthusiastic about good--and not just when I am with you.
• 2 Peter 2:3, 10, 18 HCSB In their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep. especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones; For uttering bombastic, empty words, they seduce, by fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error.

Love of God will lead us away from sin. Love of sin will lead us away from God. Either the Book will keep us from sin or sin will keep us from the Book. But in the end times, people will be so sinful that they will actually start forgetting HOW to love.

• Matthew 24:12 HCSB Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold.
• Romans 1:21 HCSB For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened.
• Romans 1:28-31 HCSB And because they did not think it worthwhile to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong. (29) They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, disputes, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, (30) slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, (31) undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.
• 2 Timothy 3:3,6 HCSB unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good. For among them are those who worm their way into households and capture idle women burdened down with sins, led along by a variety of passions,

As the end times approach, we must be ever more vigilant to stoke the fires of our passion for our King and to keep away from whatever can keep us from His loving care and protection.

• Revelation 2:4, 14, 20 HCSB But I have this against you: you have abandoned the love you had at first. But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the sons of Israel: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.But I have this against you: you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and deceives My slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat meat sacrificed to idols.

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Affections Deuteronomy 6:5 (cp Psalm 42:1; 73:25; Mark 12:30); 1 Chronicles 29:3 (cp Psalm 26:8; 27:4; 84:1-2); Psalm 16:3; 19:8-10 (cp 119:97, 103; Luke 24:32); 69:9 (cp 119:39); 91:14; 106:12-13; 119:10, 20 (cp v. 167); Isaiah 58:1-2; Ezekiel 33:31-32; Matthew 10:37 (cp Luke 14:26); 24:12 (cp Romans 1:21, 28-31; 2 Timothy 3:3, 6); Luke 18:13; Romans 6:6 (cp Romans 13:14; 1 Corinthians 9:27; Galatians 5:24; Colossians 3:1-2, 5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5); 8:13 (cp Romans 6:23; John 1:3-4; Proverbs 3:13-18); 12:10; 2 Corinthians 7:13-16; Galatians 1:10; 4:15, 17-18 (cp 2 Peter 2:3, 10, 18); 1 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 2:4, 14, 20