“28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’  29 ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:28-31

GCA Family,

I pray that this summer affords you and your family the opportunity to rest, rejuvenate, and grow closer in your relationship to the Lord!  I have often found in my own life that when I take the time to stop and enjoy those rare moments of quietness that God speaks to me the loudest.  Recently, I have been reflecting upon our school verse, Mark 12:30: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”  The truth of this passage and its surrounding context serves as the foundation for what it means to be an authentic follower of Jesus Christ.

In Mark 12:28-31, Jesus explains that of all the instructions given to us in the Bible that there are two key commandments that serve as the basis of the them all.  The most important commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”  Jesus teaches us that first and foremost, we are to love God!  Notice that this command also involves the entirety of who we are.  Jesus is instructing us to love God with our whole being: heart, soul, mind, and strength.  No part of us is left out.  We were designed to love God with the total sum of who we are.  At Grace Christian Academy, it is our mission to help all our students, parents, and staff to love God completely.

Although the teacher of the law only asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus went on to explain that the second most important commandment is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  By doing this, Jesus is linking the command to love God with the command to love others.  We will never be able to truly love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength if we do not love others.  Conversely, we will never be able to truly love others until we love God.  As John 3:16 explains, God loves people so much that He was willing to sacrifice His only Son so that a rebellious humanity could be reborn as His children!  People are infinitely important to God and therefore, they should be important to us as well.  At Grace Christian Academy, it is our mission to help our students, parents, and staff to love others as God loves them.

The bad news is this: It is IMPOSSIBLE for us to fulfill these commands on our own.  In our own strength we are incapable of loving God and loving others as we should because our selfishness and pride.  The good news is: with God, all things are POSSIBLE (Matthew 19:26)!  Through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will help you to love God more and more.  He will also empower you to love others more and more as well.  At Grace Christian Academy, it is our desire that we would be vessels through which the power of the Holy Spirit can flow into the lives of others to help them love God and love others.  We greatly appreciate your prayers and partnership in this effort in the days ahead!  Thank you for the privilege of being a part of this journey with you!

May God bless you and your family richly this summer!

Tony Pointer