Good morning on this Wednesday! Jesus gave us the two great commandments: love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and equally important, love your neighbor as yourself. We hear those a lot, and rightly so, on many ministry programs and Sunday sermons. What we forget is what has been said before, so let's go over it again. We forget the 'as yourself' bit at the end. Now, God loved us so much that He sent His only Son. Jesus, the Christ, gave up His precious life for us on the cross at Calvary. We are to become more like Jesus through His sanctification and our effort. Therefore, since Jesus loves us, we must love the self too.
We do not love only the self, for that is narcissism which equals bad. We love God's creation and that person we call 'Me' is one of God's special creations. Love God, love your neighbor, love me! We are the plus one in the great love commands. The problem comes when we look at the self first.
Jesus gave the loves in order, God, neighbors, yourself. We sometimes look at the self and we see the wicked heart, the lusts of the flesh, and the wobbly bottom. How can love spread outward from this wicked person? Well, yeah, if we get our sights all out of order, we run into problems sharing the love. By looking at the self first, we workout to tighten up the bottom, ignore the neighbor, and God seems distant. Those persons stuck in the darkness of this world like it that way. We are called to be God's children. Looking to God in love first, we love our neighbors and the self love we need begins to fall into place. We seek the kingdom of Heaven first by seeking the King, our King, Jesus the Christ, and then all those things we worry about are added to us. It's simple, yet a lifetime of work from God, my brothers and sisters in Christ, and me goes into the end result.
The grace and peace of Christ Jesus to you on this day,Bucky
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