One Word that Can Change your Day and Your Life

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“Chesed”.   My wonderful teacher and mentor in graduate school made this word the centerpiece of His course on the Theology of the Old Testament.  Tom Olbricht wrote a book on this called “He loves forever.”

Ever wonder why Jesus gave as the greatest commands the command to love?  Love God.  Love people.  Everything hangs on these two Jesus said.

One reason was because He had come from God in heaven and knew His character.  Also Jesus was familiar with Scripture.

Psalm 108.4

For great is your love, higher than the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

One Hebrew dictionary says of this word:

Chesed:

kindness; by implication (towards God) piety; rarely (by opprobrium) reproof, or (subjectively) beauty: - favour, good deed (-liness, -ness), kindly, (loving-) kindness, merciful (kindness), mercy, pity, reproach, wicked thing.

 

Reading a new book this week, “Amazing Chesed”, Living a Grace-Filled Judaism, Rabbi Rami Shapiro which gives this definition for the word.

“God’s unlimited, unconditional, unconditioned, and all inclusive love for all creation.” Quoting Yadit Greenberg and Raabbi Lawrence A Hoffman, P ix

Friends we need to remember this every day.  God loves us.  Makes a big difference in life.

The Bible says that Jesus did all things well.  He did teaching better than anyone but He taught that everything hung on loving God and loving man.

Mark 7.

36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Larry Wishard

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