I'm not debating for the sake of debating. You're saying not to trust theologians. That's not meaningless. The (unstated) advice is to trust you. So, since you're without any qualifications I will trust theologians about all Christian matters.
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Do You Love God With All Your Heart?
- Thread starter DanielGarneau
- Start date
I love God by loving the goodness in life. A beautiful sunny day with a gentle breeze. A sweet smile from my dog. Witnessing kindness in others.
I struggle to love the sin in others and myself. But then the challenge is to look past that sin and see the purity behind. God..
No. Not easy
So I'm called to love ruthless mass murderers ?
Tessa
Member
It depends how you look at love. I wouldn't harn them and if I saw them injured or hungry I would help them if I could.
That's interesting. Now we are getting to the nuts and bolts of what love is.
Just because I don't want to harm someone, doesn't mean I like/love them.
Love then is a kind of neutral feeling.
Some of those serial killers I've watched on YouTube. I wouldn't help them even if they needed my help. Because I don't trust them. The minute you relax with them, you are vulnerable. You need to be in survival mode with them. Because they are always preying on weakness.
So the fact is, I don't love everyone and never will. All I can do is try to love many. Or more people every day
Tessa
Memberhumble soul
Your new avatar is very interesting. Can you tell us anything about it?
Indijup natural spa. Western australia
Hard to get to. Avoid on stormy or windy days. Try to get there when fewer people.
Went there earlier this year.
What!! I was hoping it rained on all my enemies!! All the time!! ?
Tessa
Member
I won't go there this weekend then. Did you go in the spa?
The story needs me to be the hero and all round exciting adventurous person who got in the spa.
Unfort. I stayed near the car and looked after the dog. The rock climbing was too much. Wife skipped it too. Getting too old with too many excuses .
A sinner is defined as a person separated from Christ.
For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; Hebrews 7:26
You are not a sinner.
Sinner — Strong's G268 - hamartōlos
- devoted to sin, a sinner
- not free from sin
- pre-eminently sinful, especially wicked
- all wicked men
- specifically of men stained with certain definite vices or crimes
- tax collectors, heathen
You are saint.
Saint — Strong's G40 - hagios
- most holy thing, a saint
You are in Christ; joined to Christ and are one spirit with Him, and therefore you are a holy one, a saint.
But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
1 Corinthians 6:17
Those who are indeed, in Christ are one spirit with the Spirit of Holiness, and are saints.
Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Romans 1:4
The New Testament is written to saints; children of God.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,
To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:1-2
JLB
Sister
CF AmbassadorVery convicting question. I would go further with this verse...
"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 ."
Mark 12:30
The heart is deceitful above all things, it is emotion... So to love God with all my heart, to me, means to guide my heart in what He wants rather then what my flesh wants at all times. I think loving God with all my heart means more in making the right decisions, basically. Loving God with all my soul and mind would be feeding myself more with the Word rather then more of the world, I think. To love Him with all my strength is to do everything for His glory rather then my own... I don't know. I fall in these areas a lot in serving God. I know my heart is His though. I am thankful every day for the transformation in my heart and thankful that even though I may fail in loving Him, He never fails loving me.Quantrill said,
"It is interesting to me that though the Law demands that we love God, our salvation is not predicated on we loving God. It is only based on our faith towards God." [/QUOTE\]
Wasn't it Adam and Eve's lack of love for the true God, that caused them to be disobedient? So they didn't show any faith in the true God, because they didn't cultivate love for God. They didn't progress toward perfection of love for God, and Adam and Eve were not created sinful. They were sinless until they disobeyed God.
The scriptures show us that faith without works is dead or useless. So to truly have faith we have to do more than believe. The demons believe that God exists, but they do not have no faith in him. Instead, they strongly oppose him, that's because they have no love for him. So if a person has faith in God, he will please God by doing good works, or good deeds. Why do you think a person does those good works or good deeds? Isn't it because a person's love for God is what influences him/her to want to please God? The scriptures Show that's what Abraham did. James wrote at James 2:21-23, 26, "was not Abraham our father declared righteous by works after he offered Isaac his son on the alter? You see that his faith was active along with his works." James also emphasized that, "just as the body without spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." Abraham did those works because of the love he had for the true God. He knew that because of the promise that God had made to him about Isaac, that the promised seed would come through him, Abraham loved God so much that he knew God wasn't a liar, so Abraham knew if he did actually sacrifice his son the true God would resurrect Isaac to keep that promise. That love Abraham had for the true God, caused him to exercise the kind of faith in God that he knew that whatsoever God told him to do, would always be in the best interests of those that God loved, so a person should be obedient, to the true God's commands.
So I think the love a person has for the true God is a major reason why a person exercises faith in the true God.
Tenchi
Member
No one loves God with all their heart. No one knows what this means, actually. Some like to pretend they know, but they can't possibly since their heart is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9) and thus, as the prophet wrote, unknowable (except to God).
Jesus said,
Mark 7:21-22
21 "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,
22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.
It's no wonder, then, that the Psalmist wrote,
Psalm 139:23-24
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my thoughts;
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.
If God does not reveal the content of our hearts to us, we can't ever truly know what is in our hearts. He does so, certainly, but not all at once, working instead over our entire lifetime to expose what is truly in our hearts to us so that we might be freed from its deceitfulness and desperate wickedness and thus enjoy Him more and more.
All those who have become "new creatures in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:17) benefit from the life and work of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9-16) who acts to transform the born-again believer, over time conforming their mind and heart to the will and way of God, shaping in them the character of Christ (Romans 8:29; Galatians 5:22-23; 2 Corinthians 3:18). He it is who creates in God's children an ever-expanding love for God, his own love, in fact, filling and overflowing from them (Romans 5:5) as they live in daily, conscious, explicit submission to the Spirit's control (Romans 6:13-22; Romans 8:14; Romans 12:1, James 4:7-10; 1 Peter 5:6).
But what is meant by "love for God"? It isn't mere gratefulness. It isn't sentimentalism or emotionalism. It isn't even obedience to God's commands, as so many Christians think. By "love" God means "desire." When He tells us to love Him with all we are (Matthew 22:36-38), He means desire Him above all else, with everything we've got. Out of this desire for God all of our Christian living is to arise (1 Corinthians 13:1-3), and if it doesn't, Paul wrote, what we say, or know, or do is spiritually useless.False pretense.
Isaiah chapter 29 comes in to mind.
Many Christian people give lip service to Jesus. Studying under two verse Charlie's. They are spirtualty dead and biblically illiterate.
Hebrews chapter 5
After 20 years, congregation should be teachers of God's word. Many are still in diapers.
ZACCAEUS, tax collector
He got money from people by dishonest dealings.
When he saw Jesus coming . He climbed down tree.
He told Jesus, he gave most money to people as restitution.
You see. I'll gotten gains can cost you eternal life. ZACCAEUS knew he was hell bound, if he didn't fix it.
Luke chapter 16
Analogy by Jesus.
Two sides of the Gulf.
Righteousness in paradise
Wicked and spirtualty dead in sheol.
Gulf is fixed. Neither side can cross over.
Many people won't repent and conform to God's standard.
False pretenses.
Mark chapter 7
Its those who do will of God.
James chapter 1
Be doers of the word.
Lip service won't cut it.
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