Matthew 6:33-34
Our Priorities in Life
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 22:34-40
The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
John 4:9-15
Jesus is the Living Water that is Eternal Life
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Matthew 9:1-8
God Gave Jesus Authority
1 Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”
4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” 7 Then the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.
Jesus' life was and is centered around God...He was always teaching about His Father...He tells us first to seek God and His Kingdom and His righteousness...We are to have Him as a priority in our lives...He says that Loving God and Loving neighbor summarize the Ten Commandments and maybe the Bible...Jesus showed His priority and His compassion for God and His neighbor...
To Jesus the central part of His life was God and His Father is His Main priority...His Father was certainly relevant to Him...He gave us the good news about God and when Jesus spoke the gospel was dynamic, robust, and exciting...His faith in God was such, that He always did God's will...He trusted in God, even until His very death...God and His faith was not something of the past or a traditional thing, but God was a Living Fountain, a Living Water that always quenched His thirst for life...This Holy Living Water springs up eternal life...God gave Jesus an authority, and His teachings share His compassion and LOVE for His Father in heaven...
The question is do will still find these elements in our spiritual life today and in our faith...Rabbi and Theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society...It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats...Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid...When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion--its message becomes meaningless.”...