Loving God

One of my favorite books and one that God has used to greatly influence me is Charles Colson's classic "Loving God". Written in 1987, "Loving God" is one of the five books I use when I want to personally disciple someone. The reason is because it is broken up into six sections which I feel are six key elements to a Christian life.
Colson, who has never written a bad book and I would highly recommend every single one of them, says the key to truly loving God falls within understanding these six areas: obedience, the Word of God, sin and repentance, the hunger for holiness, the holy nation and loving God.
Today's devotional and the next six we will look into and gain a better understanding on how to love God.
In the Preface and in the section called How It All Began: An Introduction, Colson goes over how God changed his life in the middle of the worst crisis in our nation's history; Watergate. A former Marine and a graduate from Brown University, an Ivy League School, Colson worked his way up the political ladder as a successful lawyer and political king maker in New England and DC area. When Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, Colson was asked to work for the president and eventually became President Nixon's right hand man as Chief Counsel.
After Nixon's landslide election in 1972, Colson turned in his letter of resignation but agreed to stand on just a little while longer to help with the transition. What happened next to Colson was life changing.
Unknown to both Nixon and Colson, people who worked for the Reelection of President Nixon broke into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel and were caught. Although Nixon didn't order the break in, he did cover it up once he knew and tried to obstruct justice which eventually led to his resignation in disgrace.
While Colson didn't cover it up and had nothing to do with the break in, Colson did admit to ordering the breaking into the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Ellsberg copied a lot of classified papers from the Pentagon concerning the Vietnam War called the Pentagon Papers. Colson want to discredit him and ordered the breaking in of his psychiatrist office. For that crime he was sentenced to federal prison.
It was during all of this chaos in his life that God used a faithful laymen and a book to bring Colson to a life altering relationship to Jesus Christ. The man's name was Tom Phillips and the book "Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis.
After meeting with Phillips and Phillips giving him the book Colson writes: "But in his driveway that night, the dam burst. I could not drive the car; I was crying too hard (remember this is a former Marine and Nixon's Hatchet Man), calling out to God with the first honest prayer of my life. I sat there alone for a long time---but not alone at all.
From that day on, nothing about my life has been the same. It can never be again. I have given my life to Jesus Christ."
Today I would like for you to think about the day God saved you. While it may or may not have been the emotional experience that Charles Colson had, the end results will be the same, you life wasn't the same and it can never be again. Now your desires is to love God. The following devotionals will show you how to Love God.