Look to Love (For Free)
New free, weekly video Bible teaching & a free copy of my new book
Hey friends!
Over the next few months I’ll be focusing a lot of my attention on the mission of helping more people fall in love with God through the act of Looking to Love in scripture. I’m convinced, there’s just nothing more important than loving God. And I’m convinced, some of us need a little help falling (and staying) in love.
That’s my goal: to be the help you need (or maybe the help your friend or mother-in-law or co-worker needs).
First let me tell you about my new video series. Then we’ll get to the book…
Each week for the next 66 weeks or so I’ll be releasing a Bible teaching video in which we Look to Love, asking the question “Who is God in this passage?” in an effort to see, know, and fall in love with God. We’ll look for God in each of the Bible’s 66 books, tackling one passage each week (not the whole book). To assure you that we won’t be avoiding the tough passages, I’ve started out with Genesis 4, the story of God, Cain, and the murder of Abel.
These videos are totally free. Share them far and wide! You can watch on YouTube or on Instagram TV. Click either of the thumbnails below to start watching.
Get Your FREE book!
Look to Love is a book about how to read the Bible to fall in love with God. Loving God is the first and greatest command, and the best of all possible lives. When we fall in love with God everything changes. But how do you fall in love on purpose? That’s what this book is about. Hint: It’s all in the looking.
You could have the book in your hands THIS month for FREE if you join my Look to Love launch team!
What does that mean? It means you get a free PDF copy of Look to Love a full month before it’s available for purchase. All you need to do is…
Read the book (you’ll have 4 weeks to do it).
Commit to leave a review on Amazon.
If you like it, recommend the book on social media and in person.
I’ll provide some graphics you can use to help me get the word out (in addition to links to podcast interviews about the book). And I’ll give you a by-name shout out during our virtual launch party.
If you leave a review on Amazon (any star level—not forcing your hand here), you’ll be entered to win a $50 Chick-fil-a gift card.
I’d be so excited if you’d recommend the book to your local bookstore, Bible class teacher, women’s ministry leader, youth minister, or MOPS group.
I need partners to get this book into the hands of everyone who needs it. Want to partner up?
Simply reply to this email with your favorite “I’m in” emoji.
Not sure you’re interested. Here’s a snippet from the chapter “First & Greatest”:
I meet a lot of tired church ladies these days--women wearing themselves out in service to God and His people. They’re attending Bible studies, volunteering in the kids’ ministry, taking food to sick people, throwing baby showers. They have a daily quiet time. They listen to praise music in the car. They call their senator to advocate for refugees. They sponsor an impoverished child in a South American country.
And many of them are exhausted, resentful, and bitter.
They’re tired of always being the one who’ll do the responsible thing. They’re tired of other people’s expectations. They’re tired of rules. They’re tired of trying to fix everything. They’re tired of messes.
They’re mad, too. They’re mad at the women on their TV screen wearing not enough clothing during the Superbowl halftime show. They’re mad at less devoted friends who spend their time and money however they want--vacations, nice clothes, leather seats. They’re mad when their husbands play a video game while they’re stuck loading the dishwasher. They’re mad at their neighbor who works out all the time and looks amazing. They’re mad about people not wearing masks.
They keep trying--trying to be who they’re supposed to be, trying to be who God wants them to be. But they’re bitter, because walking with God seems like a lot of work with very little payoff. These good, caring, striving women can’t shake the feeling that they’re missing out on something, like Jesus is keeping them from wearing leggings as pants and having a heated steering wheel. Like Eve, they think God’s holding something back.
It’s not just women, of course. My friend Eric told me that he feels like he’s running twenty races, trying to win them all. Be the best dad. Be the best father. Best employee. Best at working out. Best at Facebook. Becoming a Christian several years ago added one more race to the list. Eric’s sometimes tempted to give up on all the races. Surely that would be better, easier, lighter.
I know men working in ministry who feel buried under other people’s expectations. This is what a good minister does. This is what a good minister doesn’t do. There is no end to the list. Sometimes they exhaust themselves checking all the boxes. Sometimes they give up.
Once I had a friend tell me, “I don’t want to hear one more thing God wants me to do.” She was done with the striving. All those rules to follow, all that right to do, it was more than she could muster.
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When I was a child I couldn’t open a locked door with a key. I’d struggle to fit the key in the lock. I’d turn the key the wrong way. I’d turn it the right way but then turn it back, unlocking and locking again. I’d fumble and jerk and otherwise make a loud, awkward mess of what should have been a straightforward task. My grandfather would get frustrated and tell my mother to go take the key. Who gave the key to Jennifer anyway? My mother would be more patient: Keep going. To the left. No, all the way to the left. Don’t pull the key out yet. Try it again.
I remember thinking at sixteen when I was still a wreck at opening doors with keys (but quite proficient at breaking into doors with grocery store rewards cards) that somehow after all these years I must have missed an essential piece of information, something that would make all the difference. There had to be a trick to it.
I find myself thinking the same thing when the Christian life seems more penalty than gift. All those rules to follow, all that right to do… It can’t be done.
Surely there’s a trick.
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A long time ago, when Jesus was walking around here on earth in a human body, teaching and helping, some Pharisees cornered him to ask a question. Pharisees were the ones trying to be perfect, or trying to look perfect anyway. They prayed and fasted and told everyone to follow all the rules. Sometimes they even told Jesus He needed to follow the rules better. It was these Pharisees who asked, “What’s the greatest command?”
We infer that the Pharisees meant this as a trick question, a way to trip Jesus up. But the more I think about it, I wonder if they didn’t have a second motive: I wonder if they weren’t tired, resentful, and bitter. I wonder if they felt worn out from all the to-dos. I wonder if they ever got mad at the Romans filling their cities with the tempting smell of bacon.
I wonder if what they’re actually asking Jesus is this: “We’re tired of all the things--all the commandments, all the clean and unclean stuff, the sacrifices and the tithing, the temple upkeep, the fasting, the itchy beards. What’s the least we can do and still be good?”
I don’t know what they expected Jesus to say (probably they’d decided for themselves that there was no right answer, likely that’s why they were asking, to put him in corner), but this is what he did say (and when he said it it seemed very good):
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
“Well done,” said the teacher who’d asked Jesus the question. I don’t think he was supposed to say that, but what else can you say when the quarterback throws a 60 yard pass and the wide receiver catches it without even looking up. Well done.
Why is Jesus’ answer so good? Why, for generations, have Christians passed down this one piece of truth as primary and essential? We call it The Greatest Command; why? Yes, because Jesus said it (and named it), but also...
Because it’s the trick.
The Greatest Command isn’t an abstract principle or the first place winner in a contest; it’s useful. Loving God is the thing that makes everything else doable--better, easier, lighter. It’s a seed commandment; do this first and everything else will grow out of it.
Love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and that love will bloom into love for others, obedience, service, righteousness. Loving God first is what enables everything that comes next. Everything--the law and the prophets, every message you’ve ever received from God--everything hangs on this one great love.
Do you want to be a good parent? Love God first.
Do you want to be wise with your money? Love God first.
Do you want to have peace? Love God first.
Do want to flee sexual temptation? Love God first.
Do you want to love your neighbor? Love God first.
Yes, God wants you to be a good parent. He wants to help you use your money. He wants to give you peace and make you strong and enable you to love even the most obnoxious of neighbors. He wants all of those good, beautiful things for you. But you can’t get there without love. Loving God opens all the doors.
I think this is why we’re struggling--all us good church people; it’s the same reason the Pharisees struggled, trying to get it all right. We can’t do what God calls us to, because we’re doing it backwards. We’re trying to serve and obey Someone we don’t love. Mother Theresa said, “Work without love is slavery.” Her life of humble service shows she felt differently about work with love.
Love has to come first. Love the Lord, your God.
-JL
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