What a question!  To make any kind of answer would involve cutting out some of what anyone would see as an essential of the faith.  I am not the best person to try such a task.  But I will try anyway.  Please know that many very gifted writers have tackled this topic.  Since we have included one of my favorite writers in this edition of the newsletter, I would like to recommend that anyone interested in a real and serious answer to this question should read William Law’s ‘A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life’.  In that wonderful book, Law writes an inspired and inspiring book that has enflamed the hearts of Christians for nearly 300 years.

Let me begin here.  God expects us to do the things that He has told us to do.  The things that are written in the bible are not challenges, or suggestions, or Handy Hints for a Happy Life, but the Holy Book is an exposition of the kind of life that we are supposed to live. 

The words of Jesus that first come to my mind in this regard are:

Matt 22:37-40  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” ESV

Speaking of prophets, Micah put his finger on a great answer:

Mic 6:8  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? ESV

In short, God expects of us that we take Him and His word seriously.  He expects us to live as creatures that were made by Him, and have been provided for by Him, and are responsible to Him and who are grateful for His care and kindness and love.

This is a dangerous comparison, but what might we look like if we loved God in the same way that my precious little Sarah dog loves me?  When I am gone, Sarah waits impatiently for me to return.  When I come in the house she greets me at the door with excitement and a wagging tail and she races to what we call the Lovey Spot with her favorite toy of the moment and begs for my attention.  My dog, and I am sure that every dog in the world, greets their Master with the kind of devotion that God would take delight in seeing from us.