I was leading a group on Sunday morning around a long table and we were discussing memories we have sitting at tables. During this discussion, a 20 something young lady spoke up about her generation and how they are hungry for authentic Christianity. She said, we can smell a phony and we don’t want religion, the hunger is real, but the food must be authentic not packaged, processed or full of preservatives. I smiled as I listened to her, because I do not know anyone that would honestly say they want anything but the authentic, yet we have learned to settle for something else because it seems like there are so few authentic options out there.

I have been thinking about this young ladies comments all week long and then as I am reading John 14 today I realized the challenge we have as people who call themselves Christians is that we do not love God. I know we say it with our words, but love is not words, love is obedience. When we say we love someone we do what we say and we do what they ask. People know when they are truly loved and God knows if we truly love Him.

John 14 says, “If anyone loves me (Jesus), he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” In our culture this can sound harsh, but it is not harsh it is truth. We can say we love God, love Jesus, but if we are not keeping His word, doing what He says, we cannot honestly say we love Him. The Bible is not bending to our culture, our culture has to bend to the Bible if we say we love Him.

There is a generation that is not going to fall into our religious say one thing do another culture. They can see through our words to our actions and they aren’t buying it. If we were honest, when we were there age we weren’t either. Where are the people who will love God not just expect to know God loves them? Friends, loving God is easy, it is fun, it is exciting, it is the greatest decision I ever made. There is abundance in loving God, there is life, there is hope, there is peace, there is joy. Try loving God by doing what He says in His word, I promise it will be the best decision you ever made and a generation will follow your lead.