The Decision to Love
"And these three remain, Faith, Hope, and Love...
But the greatest of these is Love."
I Cor. 13
We are exhorted and encouraged over and over throughout the scriptures to:
Let's face it, folks. We, as fleshly creatures, were not created with an inherent tendency to Love others, but rather, to Love ourselves... then if all goes well and things are going o.k., to Love others. Why do think Jesus made such a point of telling us to Love others more than ourselves? Because it's not a natural thing for us to do that, that's why He had to keep telling us.
Then It Is A Sin, folks! Because we make those things sinful when we take the blessings and refuse to use those things for Him, and when we make those things more important than Him.
And we are told in scripture that our tongue steers our life like a small rudder can turn a ship.
That we have this incredible power to destroy others and ourselves with just the wickedness and evil weaponry of this little piece of our flesh called our tongue. In the Bible it is compared to a two-edged sword that can cut, kill, dismember, and mame when it's used as a weapon of destruction.
We're so worried about the weapons of mass destruction in other countries that I'm afraid we have forgotten the worst weapon of mass destruction that has ever existed, and that, of course, is our own tongue and what comes from it.
Look in your Bible. It's filled with scripture after scripture after scripture about our speech, our tongue, our words, and the power that passes from our hearts... through our lips... and into the hearts & minds of everyone who hears us, including yourself.
That's right. When you speak, you actually hear yourself, and that truly does influence you.
Yet we have the same incredible and unequalled power of our God in that same tongue...
"Through God ALL things are possible!" This evil tool can become the soul-saving gift of God to the person who doesn't yet know God! With God's Word and His Love in me, it can be Life that flows from my lips, instead of death, depression, and cutting, ever-scarring hate. And the first sinner it can save is Me. My own soul.
Think about that... you hold the final decision of Life or Death to every person you speak to everyday. Eternal, forever, no second chances Life or Death to that person. Look into their eyes... their fate... their entire eternity, depends on your decision. Will you choose to let them live, or condemn them to death? Which do you decide to give them?
This leads me to another quick point here; If you fill a glass with milk, do you expect to taste orange juice when you drink it? Of course not! If you put milk in, then you get milk out, right?
Then why is it that we think that somehow we can fill our minds or our children's minds with Godly things, when we watch things, listen to things, and read things that are ungodly... in fact, that are in direct opposition to God? "Evil companions corrupt good morals." Remember something in Proverbs along those lines? You only get out what you put in! That's not my idea, that's just the way our physical world and nature works. And like it or not, your spirit resides in a fleshly physical vessel right now.
If you want to give that person we spoke about a few minutes ago Life, then you better have some Life in you, which can only be God in you, to give them! Otherwise you are condemning them to Death, right alongside you. Yes, you'll be right there with them, because when you choose Death for them, it's only because Death is in you... and because only Death is in you.
"You cannot serve two Masters. You either Love one and hate the other, or cling to one and despise the other." You either have Life or Death in you to give to others... but I can promise you, based on scripture, that you don't have both. We were created in spirit to Love God, but in the flesh we were born to a sinful nature that we are told about many times.
So this Love that the scripture tells us is "the greatest of the three things", that Jesus instructs us we should have for one another... Even as He Loved us! To the point of ultimate sacrifice!
This Love that we are instructed to have for God, our Father; and for one another
- How do we achieve it?
- What is it?
- Where can we find it?
- Who can really do that, Love like that?
When we see someone, what do we do? We begin to formulate our judged opinion of them, right? And the more we see that person week to week, sometimes day to day, the more we find this fault, or that annoying habit, or some kind of negative thing about that person. Whether it's a brother or sister, a friend or an enemy, it's all the same, except we make a more conscious effort to define every flaw in our enemies and those we don't really care for. But we pick people apart, regardless of who they are.
The biggest difference is that we somehow find a way to overlook and diminish the faults of those we care about to a point that we can bear to live with them... Right husbands and wives?
So how can we sinful, wicked, creatures that live in a world where Satan's most powerful tools against us are the whole world that surrounds us and swallows us up, and the flesh that we find so difficult to deny in one way or another... These are Satan's strengths here... so, how can we Love like God tells us we should?
Through dedicated, committed, unwavering determination and concentration to do what He has instructed us to do. You go to work, let people tell you when you can go to the bathroom and take a break, and let them tell you how much you're worth and how much time you can spend at home. Admit it, most of us don't like that. It's hard to keep going sometimes, but we know we have to. So we do. No matter how much we don't like it and no matter how tired we get.
For us, Love is like that sometimes... well, really, most of the time. There will come a time in your relationship, whether to God... or your husband or wife... or to your best friend... that you simply decide to Love that person. NO MATTER WHAT! You have to consciously make the decision to Love, rather than hate...
You have to make the decision to go against your inherent sinful nature and Decide to Love;
"And these three remain, Faith, Hope, and Love...
But the greatest of these is Love."
I Cor. 13
We are exhorted and encouraged over and over throughout the scriptures to:
- "Love one another"...
- "Love one another, even as I have Loved you"... that's what Jesus said.
- We are a family... the kind that God intended, not society's incorrect and accepted view of what a family can be...
- That we are Brothers and Sisters...
- That we are of One Body, One Mind, and One Spirit...
- And that we have a closeness, likeness, and understanding of pure Love that the world will never know, except as we share that incredible Love of God with them.
Let's face it, folks. We, as fleshly creatures, were not created with an inherent tendency to Love others, but rather, to Love ourselves... then if all goes well and things are going o.k., to Love others. Why do think Jesus made such a point of telling us to Love others more than ourselves? Because it's not a natural thing for us to do that, that's why He had to keep telling us.
- The very fact that we are in the flesh makes us have the burning desire to fulfill that flesh, not the commandments of Love.
- Our body WANTS to sin by putting things in and on our bodies that are not healthy, but feel good (at least according to our culture and the world's perspective), and our body WANTS to lust, not Love...
- Our minds WANT to think of things that they shouldn't, and technology has made it just entirely too easy to add visual stimulation to sexual sins, violence, and all kinds of abusive filth, rather than things that keep our thoughts clean, pure, and on God...
- Our desire to please, comfort, and entertain our flesh drives us NOT to God, and NOT to His kind of Love, but to all kinds of sinful things and material things to fulfill those desires, wants, and selfish needs.
Then It Is A Sin, folks! Because we make those things sinful when we take the blessings and refuse to use those things for Him, and when we make those things more important than Him.
And we are told in scripture that our tongue steers our life like a small rudder can turn a ship.
That we have this incredible power to destroy others and ourselves with just the wickedness and evil weaponry of this little piece of our flesh called our tongue. In the Bible it is compared to a two-edged sword that can cut, kill, dismember, and mame when it's used as a weapon of destruction.
We're so worried about the weapons of mass destruction in other countries that I'm afraid we have forgotten the worst weapon of mass destruction that has ever existed, and that, of course, is our own tongue and what comes from it.
Look in your Bible. It's filled with scripture after scripture after scripture about our speech, our tongue, our words, and the power that passes from our hearts... through our lips... and into the hearts & minds of everyone who hears us, including yourself.
That's right. When you speak, you actually hear yourself, and that truly does influence you.
Yet we have the same incredible and unequalled power of our God in that same tongue...
"Through God ALL things are possible!" This evil tool can become the soul-saving gift of God to the person who doesn't yet know God! With God's Word and His Love in me, it can be Life that flows from my lips, instead of death, depression, and cutting, ever-scarring hate. And the first sinner it can save is Me. My own soul.
Think about that... you hold the final decision of Life or Death to every person you speak to everyday. Eternal, forever, no second chances Life or Death to that person. Look into their eyes... their fate... their entire eternity, depends on your decision. Will you choose to let them live, or condemn them to death? Which do you decide to give them?
This leads me to another quick point here; If you fill a glass with milk, do you expect to taste orange juice when you drink it? Of course not! If you put milk in, then you get milk out, right?
Then why is it that we think that somehow we can fill our minds or our children's minds with Godly things, when we watch things, listen to things, and read things that are ungodly... in fact, that are in direct opposition to God? "Evil companions corrupt good morals." Remember something in Proverbs along those lines? You only get out what you put in! That's not my idea, that's just the way our physical world and nature works. And like it or not, your spirit resides in a fleshly physical vessel right now.
If you want to give that person we spoke about a few minutes ago Life, then you better have some Life in you, which can only be God in you, to give them! Otherwise you are condemning them to Death, right alongside you. Yes, you'll be right there with them, because when you choose Death for them, it's only because Death is in you... and because only Death is in you.
"You cannot serve two Masters. You either Love one and hate the other, or cling to one and despise the other." You either have Life or Death in you to give to others... but I can promise you, based on scripture, that you don't have both. We were created in spirit to Love God, but in the flesh we were born to a sinful nature that we are told about many times.
So this Love that the scripture tells us is "the greatest of the three things", that Jesus instructs us we should have for one another... Even as He Loved us! To the point of ultimate sacrifice!
This Love that we are instructed to have for God, our Father; and for one another
- How do we achieve it?
- What is it?
- Where can we find it?
- Who can really do that, Love like that?
When we see someone, what do we do? We begin to formulate our judged opinion of them, right? And the more we see that person week to week, sometimes day to day, the more we find this fault, or that annoying habit, or some kind of negative thing about that person. Whether it's a brother or sister, a friend or an enemy, it's all the same, except we make a more conscious effort to define every flaw in our enemies and those we don't really care for. But we pick people apart, regardless of who they are.
The biggest difference is that we somehow find a way to overlook and diminish the faults of those we care about to a point that we can bear to live with them... Right husbands and wives?
So how can we sinful, wicked, creatures that live in a world where Satan's most powerful tools against us are the whole world that surrounds us and swallows us up, and the flesh that we find so difficult to deny in one way or another... These are Satan's strengths here... so, how can we Love like God tells us we should?
Through dedicated, committed, unwavering determination and concentration to do what He has instructed us to do. You go to work, let people tell you when you can go to the bathroom and take a break, and let them tell you how much you're worth and how much time you can spend at home. Admit it, most of us don't like that. It's hard to keep going sometimes, but we know we have to. So we do. No matter how much we don't like it and no matter how tired we get.
For us, Love is like that sometimes... well, really, most of the time. There will come a time in your relationship, whether to God... or your husband or wife... or to your best friend... that you simply decide to Love that person. NO MATTER WHAT! You have to consciously make the decision to Love, rather than hate...
You have to make the decision to go against your inherent sinful nature and Decide to Love;
- To put out the effort today in order to get the reward tomorrow... delayed gratification
- To build and encourage, rather than tear down and discourage
- To speak kindness, rather than meanness
- To lift up, rather than hold down
- To let God speak through you, rather than let Satan perverse your words
- To confess and learn from your mistakes, instead of deny your sins and continue your failures
- To choose Life for your soul, instead of Death for you and all those around you
If you have an interest in the Bible, missions work, or religious
matters, you will most likely enjoy and learn much from my site:
[http://www.MissionsWorks.org] You may also want to visit my blog: http://360.yahoo.com/brantdeth
The sites are designed to teach, but also to provide numerous resources on the Restoration Movement that took place in America's early history. There are several resources that you can access from the site, as well as some very basic biblical teaching that may enlighten you or others about just what the Bible tells us, without interjection of man's creeds or opinions.
I am also working on a book of my own that should provide some interest to a wider audience, whether believers or not. The book briefly addresses some of man's theories (Darwin, Uniformitarianism, Existentialism, and others), the age of our earth (and universe as a whole) by genealogical and secular historical perspectives, and other interesting aspects of our being.
At some point, though not ready yet, MissionsWorks.org will also provide an interactive living map of where missions works are being performed globally.
Any thoughts, comments, or feedback is always appreciated! God Bless You!
The sites are designed to teach, but also to provide numerous resources on the Restoration Movement that took place in America's early history. There are several resources that you can access from the site, as well as some very basic biblical teaching that may enlighten you or others about just what the Bible tells us, without interjection of man's creeds or opinions.
I am also working on a book of my own that should provide some interest to a wider audience, whether believers or not. The book briefly addresses some of man's theories (Darwin, Uniformitarianism, Existentialism, and others), the age of our earth (and universe as a whole) by genealogical and secular historical perspectives, and other interesting aspects of our being.
At some point, though not ready yet, MissionsWorks.org will also provide an interactive living map of where missions works are being performed globally.
Any thoughts, comments, or feedback is always appreciated! God Bless You!
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