Scriptures: Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Matthew 22:37-40, 1 John 5:3

Of all the things that God told Moses to tell his people to do, among the most important was, "Love your God with all your heart." You wouldn’t know this today, but had you been standing there thousands of years ago in the culture of the ancient world that would have been an eye-popping, head turning, neck snapping statement. There was no such thing in the ancient world as a love-filled relationship between a God and a man. The ancient world was consumed with appeasing the gods through sacrifice. For the first time in human history we are told that we can have a personal relationship with the God of the universe and that relationship is to be based on love. So know we’ve got this new dimension of a relationship with God.

The God that created this world and everything that is in it is not just a God that loves us, but He is a God we are to love back. That is the one thing this God wants from us more than anything else--just to love Him. In this message, Dr. Merritt details what it really means to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind"--and why this statement and practice is a key to solid and biblical family relationships.

"You know in a marriage you cannot really have a strong, solid, stable relationship with your spouse if you don’t spend time with them. You know as a parent the only way to keep the communication lines open with your children and have any meaningful influence on their life is to spend time with them. Just as you need to spend time with your wife or husband and just as you need to spend time with your children, you need to spend time with God and God wants you to spend time with Him where you just simply focus on Him and you love Him." --Dr. Merritt

Keywords: family, children, mother, father, husband, communication, wife, re:union, priority, strength, love, serve, share, parents, purpose, reason, design, mentor, mirror, model, instructions, left behind, legacy, quiet time, devotional, obedience