by Elder Mike Chon

As my children grow up they begin to develop a passion for certain activities or toys more than other ones. If you mention certain games or sports you can see and feel the excitement in my kids’ eyes as they begin screaming and yelling. They have so much fun playing that they can literally play until the next day unless one of us tells them that they need to stop. Their passion to play can be attributed to their age and being children, but it reminds me of how easily we allow our age or our sophistication to prevent us from having passion for those things that we should be passionate about.

When it comes to our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are we excited or passionate about the things that He is passionate about? Maybe we don’t run around screaming and yelling, but do we get excited about coming to worship Him on a Sunday, or reading about Him in the pages of Scripture, or the opportunity to share about Him to a friend that does not know Him? When my children receive a new toy they are excited to play with it, but once they realize that it isn’t as much fun as they imagined, they lose interest rather quickly. Some time I wonder if some of us got excited when we first understood the gospel then after realizing the cost of following Christ, we lost interest and lost our passion to follow Him in the same way my children lost interest in a toy. Our Passion statement at LBC is “to love God and love people.” It was not meant to be something we just proclaim but it is something that we are called to live out, not just by our church, but by our Lord (Matt. 22:37-40). No one can just say that they love God and not live it out with passion. No one can just say “I love people” without showing love to people.

Our passion for God starts with having a passion for His Word.

• It is in His Word that we find the one and only God.
• It is in His Word that reveals to us the merciful and gracious Savior.
• It is in His Word that reveals to us the omnipotent, omniscient God who controls and holds all things together.
• It is in His Word that reveals to us the love of God in redeeming sinners like you and me.
• It is in His Word that reveals to us God’s justice and wrath toward the unrighteous.

When we start and stay in His Word, we begin to marvel and be excited about our God who is beyond our comprehension. Along with that excitement comes the passion to live out our lives to the glory of God in all that we do. Whether in our work place, while we study, when we have an opportunity to evangelize, when we share prayer requests, during Sunday morning worship, or when we are alone, our passion for God should continue to grow and not grow old. We live knowing the creator of the universe, how can we not be passionate about the things of God?