Wednesday, June 4, 2008

"Love your Neighbor as Yourself!"

Ever thought about what Jesus said in Luke 10:27?
Can you love your spouse, your children, your friends, your family, you NEIGHBOR, if you don't love yourself?

Jesus is so awesome, He gives us permission and in fact commands us to LOVE ourselves!!
In an egotistictical way? No.
In an arrogant way? No.

2 Corinthians 5:17: "If anyone is in CHRIST, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!"
Psalm 139: 13-14: "I am fearfully and WONDERFULLY made! For you created my inmost being!"

How cool is God? He loves us so much he forgave us our sin, made us new creatures and allows us eternal life with Him, and God don't make Junk!
So, LOVE YOURSELF as God Loves You!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm curious as to why you are so bent on the gay marriage issue. If you thought marriage was such a sacred institution why don't you lobby the government to outlaw divorce?

Anonymous said...

Because divorces, according to Matthew 19:9, can be granted in cases of: immorality (NASB), unfaithfulness (NIV), fornication (KJV), without committing perpetual adultery should one remarry. If divorces were only granted in those cases, people might do a little more soul searching before making the commitment. The phrase "gay marriage" is of man's making and is purely oxymoronic in the eyes of God and according to His Word. If the act of homosexuality is "detestable", how could the union of homosexual couples be holy? You will find, however, many clergy of "progressive" denominations have called it just that. (i.e.; the pastoral staff of the United Methodist Church in Corvallis to name one) As a Christian, it's not my job to condemn the person or their behavior (I've not been given an earthly authoritative role to do that). However, since the late 1960's, the homosexual agenda has attempted and succeeded in pushing their social protocol upon our nation. As American citizens, they have the right to do that. I also have the right to counteract their belief system with my own, in an attempt to influence my society as well. I acquiesce to the civil union issue, but to call it marriage, which I believe to be sacred, is where I will put my foot down. Having a family is as close as I'll get on this earth to experiencing God's unconditional love. I can't imagine why people would turn their backs on the opportunity to experience it!

Bill's Waste of Air said...

Dear Anonymous:
Whomever you are, going through ALL of my old posts may be entertaining, but you must have better things to do?

Where in THIS post does anyone say anything about Homosexual marriage?

By the way, if I COULD outlaw divorce, I would. Stupid easy way out of a committment in my estimation.
Nice job Mick! Good stuff.

Anonymous said...

I was also wondering how homosexuality was apart of your most recent post. As I was readig your post the thing I thought about is that Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves...because He knew we do love ourselves very much. We are a self-centered race...man-centered and not God-centered. So much of advertising and man's psychology is about love ourselves but I would argue that we already love ourselves to death. Wouldn't we do better with reading His Word, worshipping our Mighty, Perfect King, and serving Him...rather than pondering how we should spend more time and money loving ourselves. We all do that pretty darn well. I know the heart of your entry Bill...I just think we all do love ourselves waaayyy too much. I know I am just your little sis but read Jeremiah 9 and Galations 6 just to name a few good passages about this subject. Jeremiah 9:23, 24 says this The LORD says, "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and Knows ME, that I am the LORD who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD. I hope that I can love others and most of all, above ALL, I love the LORD with all my heart, mind, and soul. I know my wicked heart is to lean on my own understanding and spend all my time, efforts, and money on ME! Oh, how I want to be all about HIM instead of me!!

Bill's Waste of Air said...

Dawn: you are probably correct in what you say, but I am teaching a class on discipleship and you wouldn't believe how many Christians have very low self esteem.
The kind of "love for oneself" that you address is different. Yes we Americans are pretty high on ourselves, but really, most people don't LOVE themselves as God does.
We are HIS creation in HIS image. We were given a Saviour to die for us. We are promised an eternal home with our Creator.
He must love us, so we must love ourselves in that same, peaceful, graceful, merciful way.
Do you see the difference?
I think Christians are especially hard on themselves. I want to free us from that kind of thinking.

Unknown said...

Love the LORD with all my heart, love Jerry, love my family, love my friends, (blogging and otherwise), and am a bit fond of myself.

Cool post.

Detest "gay marriage." Abominable.

Anonymous said...

Leslie McFall has an interesting way to deal with the so-called exception clause in Matthew 19:9 that appears to allow for divorce and remarriage for marriage unfaithfulness.
He has written a 43 page paper that reviews the changes in the Greek made by Erasmus that effect the way Matthew 19:9 has been translated. I reviewed McFall's paper at Except For Fornication Clause of Matthew 19:9. I would love to hear some feedback on this position.