Definite Chief Purpose (DCP)

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As exhorted by Napolean Hill in his wonderful work, Laws of Success,  reports that every successful person as a burning Definite Chief Purpose that propels him to greatness.

dcp-definite-chief-purposes

I submit we need to focus our skills in seasons of life to one or two while at the same time we need to distribute our time and energy to keep a sense of balance in all the key areas of our life as have defined in the Circle of Success.

Our DCP should be our primary focus and be congruent with our Personal Mission Statement. Our goals are then derivatives our DCP.

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#1 COMMAND

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You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Deuteronomy 6:5 NKJV

ACTION WORDS

Love

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SUPPORTING SCRIPTURE

 

Matthew 22:37

Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

 

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.’

 

Mark 12:33

and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

 

Deuteronomy 4:29

But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

 

Deuteronomy 10:12

“And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

 

Deuteronomy 11:1

You shall therefore love the LORD your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

 

Deuteronomy 13:3

you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

 

Deuteronomy 19:9

and if you carefully observe all these commandments I am giving you today, loving the LORD your God and walking in His ways at all times, then you are to add three more cities to these three.

 

Deuteronomy 30:16

For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

 

Deuteronomy 30:20

and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

 

Psalm 119:2

Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, and seek Him with all their heart.

 

SELECT COMMENTARY

 

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. – To the one indivisible Jehovah undivided devotion and love are due. Hence the injunction, Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. The “heart” is the inner nature of the man, including his intellectual, emotional, and cognitive futurities; the “soul” is the personality, the entire self-consciousness; and the” might” is the sum of the energies, bodily and mental. Not by profession merely is Jehovah to be loved; the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, is to be yielded to him in holy and devout affection (cf. Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:33; Luke 10:27; Romans 12:1). The last letter Of the first word, and the last letter of the last word in this verse are larger than the ordinary size (majuscula), and as these two form the word for witness (עד), the Jews say that they are written thus “that every one may know, when he professes the unity of God, that his heart ought to be intent and devoid of every other thought, because God is a witness, and knoweth everything” (R. Bechai, fol. 195, quoted by Michaelis, ‘Bib. Heb,’ in loc.).

 

Matthew Henry Commentary

6:4,5 Here is a brief summary of religion, containing the first principles of faith and obedience. Jehovah our God is the only living and true God; he only is God, and he is but One God. Let us not desire to have any other. The three-fold mention of the Divine names, and the plural number of the word translated God, seem plainly to intimate a Trinity of persons, even in this express declaration of the unity of the Godhead. Happy those who have this one Lord for their God. It is better to have one fountain than a thousand cisterns; one all-sufficient God than a thousand insufficient friends. This is the first and great commandment of God’s law, that we love him; and that we do all parts of our duty to him from a principle of love; My son, give me thine heart. We are to love God with all our heart, and soul, and might. That is, 1. With a sincere love; not in word and tongue only, but inwardly in truth. 2. With a strong love. He that is our All, must have our all, and none but he. 3. With a superlative love; we must love God above any creature whatever, and love nothing but what we love for him. 4. With an intelligent love. To love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, we must see good cause to love him. 5. With an entire love; he is ONE, our hearts must be united in his love. Oh that this love of God may be shed abroad in our hearts!

 

KIRK’S COMMENTARY

 

What is love?

Who is God?

They are One and the same.

To know God is to love God. To love God is to know God.

 

We are made in the image of God. We are made to know God. We are made to worship God. We are made to love God and have a relationship with Him.  The summation of all this is to love God.

 

Our hearts have a God need. But we must choose and commit fully. If we do not choose to make God #1 then false idols, false stuff fills ours hearts that lead to unfulfillment and certain disappointment.  Just as as most internal engines in our automobiles are made to run on gasoline. If we put something else in there, even if good will have problems. The further away from the God the worse the closer but not it may seem okay temporary but are not the same and ultimately flawed. For example, if you put kerosene, alcohol or diesel fuel in the car, it might run for a while but there is going to be a problem. We need 100% straight God in our hearts to hum along. We need God’s power to push through and accomplish our best.

 

So let’s not confuse and replace something good (or worse bad) for the best. Some people run their hearts on things that aren’t bad per se on the surface but nothing should get in the way of our ultimate relationship and purpose.

 

Common substitutes and diversions include: Parenting vicariousness, Career compulsion, Work over need,  Success selfishness, Sex perversion, Drug misuse, Food gluttony or deprivation, Sports fanaticism, Gaming or working out obsession, Beauty adornment, etc.

 

None of the above first words are bad per se (Parenting, Career, Work, Success, Sex, Drugs, Food, Sports, Gaming, Beauty) but when and if they supplant God’s role as our essence and mission by becoming misguided lusts, passions, obsessions, and idols we find ourselves in a very dangerous place. It’s good to be excellent in these things, in the right context at the right time, but the motivation behind them must be to glorify God. The Bible speaks to all of this. These things should assist us in loving, knowing and fulfilling His calling and will.

 

KIRK’S PRAYER

 

LORD God, help me to love You. Guide me to where I need to be. Holy Spirit, I need Your assistance because it is clear to me without Your assistance, I have no hope.

 

Love

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Philosophy

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“And you shall 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 of Nazareth (Mark 12:30)

Philosophy is the cultivation of the mind’s love of God. The term “philosophy” is derived from the Greek philosophia, meaning “love of wisdom” (philo, “love” + sophia, “wisdom”). Wisdom is grounded in proper reverence:

 

Proverbs 9:10—The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Effects reveal something about their causes, and God is Creator of all that is distinct from himself. Hence, whatever exists apart from God (physical objects, human consciousness, objective moral values, etc.) tells us something about God.

Romans 1:20—For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

In the ancient world, any attempt to understand reality through the use of human reason would have been regarded as philosophy. Accordingly, mathematics, biology, and physics were all once part of the philosophical enterprise. However, as branches of study gather sufficient depth and content, they eventually break away and are considered independent fields of learning.

Four branches of study are still within the domain of philosophy:

 

Logic
The study of the principles of valid reasoning. Logic is concerned with the form of arguments (especially whether the form entails that true premises will lead to true conclusions), rather than the particular contents of arguments.
Epistemology
The study of knowledge. More precisely, epistemology focuses on (a) the difference between knowledge and mere belief, (b) how one moves from mere belief to true knowledge, and (c) the kind of epistemic justification that is indicative of truth.
Metaphysics
The study of the deep structure of reality—first causes, cosmology, modality (possibility and necessity), the nature of existence, the status of abstract objects (e.g., numbers, kinds, and propositions), etc.
Ethics
The study of moral behavior and moral obligation. Ethics primarily deals with concepts such as “right,” “wrong,” “good,” “bad,” and “ought.”
Credit: http://www.acts17.net/p/philosophy.html