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June couldn't agree more!
You underscore, reinforce, and contribute to June's nonbelief/atheism.
Your's is an all too clearly self-serving doctrine and dogma which even Paul discredits/discounts in Romans.
"Those who trust God's actions in them find that God's Spirit is in them -- living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing." -Romans 8: 5-8
Well said, June. A focus on whether or not we will be rewarded or punished for not obeying some rule or other is a totally SELFISH concern and God has no part in iT. Since there is NOTHING God could possibly get or gain from said obedience . . . it clearly had another purpose that Jesus made clear . . . for us to learn to "love God and each other." The Kupps and Verna, et al. are stuck in the "schoolmaster stage" of understanding God and have not yet realized the actual purpose for the earlier rules. They retain the selfish motivation of avoiding punishment or hoping for reward.
He alone is holy, and we must depend (draw from) His life within - just as the branch gets its life from the Vine.
Great post little elmer and I see where you are going with this.
Doesn't it say in the Word that we love because He first loved us? I John 4:19) He is our example. Christ did everything first as an example of His Love for us. "God is Love" (I John 4:8) as the scripure says.
I am not sure I completely understand this thread. It is confusing to me and very contradictory of my understanding of God. What about Romans 7 where Paul explains that he is a sinner that does the things that he doesn't want to do and says "Oh wretched man am I who can save me from this body of death"? And then he goes on to say thanks be to Christ. Please see the scripture below:
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. – Romans 7:15-18
then it goes on to say:
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want…Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. – Romans 7:19,24-25
Being in the Word and being renewed in our minds is the victory...
"Those who trust God's actions in them find that God's Spirit is in them -- living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing."
-Romans 8: 5-8
With:
Rom 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
It is certain that one cannot be saved until they know they are lost.
HK
Written to non atheists:
Rom 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Great post little elmer and I see where you are going with this.
Doesn't it say in the Word that we love because He first loved us? I John 4:19) He is our example. Christ did everything first as an example of His Love for us. "God is Love" (I John 4:8) as the scripure says.
I am not sure I completely understand this thread. It is confusing to me and very contradictory of my understanding of God. What about Romans 7 where Paul explains that he is a sinner that does the things that he doesn't want to do and says "Oh wretched man am I who can save me from this body of death"? And then he goes on to say thanks be to Christ. Please see the scripture below:
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. – Romans 7:15-18
then it goes on to say:
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want…Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. – Romans 7:19,24-25
Being in the Word and being renewed in our minds is the victory...
Many Christians cannot understand this, and consider it a form of mystism: We have an old nature (the flesh) with a holy Seed within. The Seed (His life) within is to be drawn upon while the flesh is denied, withering its life while the Spirit grows within.
We're pregnant.
I want to apologize for coming across as denying obedience - I'm not - God is holy, and we are to be His people in the earth. But I'm focusing more on the end result: we find that our enabling and ability to keep the law is found in His life within - He's the source. We're not just doing these things in His name, He's doing them in us.
This is the result of denying our flesh (aka dying to self) which Paul hammered away at in Romans 7 and elsewhere. It becomes less and less of a struggle as we come to the end of ourselves - finding that we can't keep the law, and we must turn to Him. We acknowledge our weakness, and He shows Himself strong.
We want to please Him and live for Him, but we must come to the place where it's about God in us.
Many Christians cannot understand this, and consider it a form of mystism: We have an old nature (the flesh) with a holy Seed within. The Seed (His life) within is to be drawn upon while the flesh is denied, withering its life while the Spirit grows within.
We're pregnant.
I want to apologize for coming across as denying obedience - I'm not - God is holy, and we are to be His people in the earth. But I'm focusing more on the end result: we find that our enabling and ability to keep the law is found in His life within - He's the source. We're not just doing these things in His name, He's doing them in us.
This is the result of denying our flesh (aka dying to self) which Paul hammered away at in Romans 7 and elsewhere. It becomes less and less of a struggle as we come to the end of ourselves - finding that we can't keep the law, and we must turn to Him. We acknowledge our weakness, and He shows Himself strong.
We want to please Him and live for Him, but we must come to the place where it's about God in us.
AMEN.....!! Yes...It is Christ in us that keeps the Law, we surrender to Him!!! Hallelujah!
To demonstrate the love of God to us as sinners does not mean that He "loves" those to whom he is demonstrating the God kind of love.
Yes, he acts in love toward his enemies but it does not follow that He loves them. That is why, in the Scriptures you cannot find any Biblical statement which says that God loves ALL men -
Notice verse 10...
Rom 5:10
For if, when we were **enemies,** we were reconciled to God
By the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled,
We shall be saved by his life.
Yes the kind of love that will send ones Son to die for a people
That God was "sorry He had made". (See Gen 6:5-6)
The love God "demonstrated" was not love for you as an individual,
But undeserved mercy for mankind whom he was sorry he made
Because they are desperately wicked.
Those verses clearly say that God will love someone IF they keep His
Commandments. If God already loves all men then these comments By Jesus are nonsense.
No, the Scriptures are nonsense to the one who wrote the above post.......
To all it may concern.....
Hmmm.... God does not love His Creation...? God would of have never created the man or woman if He didn't love them....and keep on creating them too this very day!! Why would His mercy continue if He did not love?
And God being omniscient and omnipresent, the Beginning and the End......the Alpha and Omega....knowing His creation would fall from His grace.....
If He didn't love ...then why through Noah that He gave mankind another chance.... Noah also was born with Adam's sin.....sin was still in the this world because Noah was carrying the sin nature within him and he was before the Ten Commandments.....It is the heart who will believe in God and His love....sent to us through Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets!
God can do whatever He wants and if He wants at this very moment He can destroy all.... but why hasn't He?
Again....because God is love and His grace has been given to the world, mankind, He has given us the way to come out from under the dominion of sin and its curse.... To enter His Kingdom......through His precious Son, Jesus Christ! Amen, Hallelujah!!!
THAT IS LOVE!
Hallelujah.... God has given us the way of escape from our fallen nature that He already knew that was going to happen to all mankind!!
If one is saying God hates that which He created, isn't one actually saying God hates Himself, for we're created in His image....!! Gen. 2: 26-31
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was good.
Also God formed us and knew us in the womb.....God knows every person that is born......knowing darn good and well they were going to be born with Adam's sin .....Hmmmmmmmmm
Isaiah 44:2
Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you.
Jeremiah 1:5
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.
Matthew 10:30
But the very hairs of you head are numbered.
God goodness and love reigns on the just and unjust....
Proverbs 15:3
The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
Exodus 33:19
Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Exodus 34:6-7
And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
God is love and He loves ALL His creation. If we were created in His image then we have been born with the love of God within us....yet sin has deceived us from His love.....Yet, remember Jesus Christ it the answer to our sin!!!
How can anyone truly believe that God hates His creation is beyond me....it is sin that God hates.....
And YES, there is all kinds of Scripture to refute the lie of those words....that God does not love His creation....
Malachi 1:2
"I have loved you," says the Lord.
John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 11:35-36
Jesus wept. The the Jews said, "See how He loved him."
John 13:23
Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.
John 15:9
"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love...."These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may may be full. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
1John 4:19
We love Him because He first loved us.
1John 4:7-16
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is Love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son in the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Rom. 5:5
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Rom 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
2Corinthians 5:14
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all then all died; and He died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
There are so many more.....
Reading that post is the worst twisting of God's precious word, taken completely out of context. Yet of course when one is looking at themselves and the law, they will not see the love of God, but the law pointing to the hate they see within their own heart and will find something in the Scripture which will be taken completely out of context to justify their own sin and hate and projected it onto God and other's!
Yes, when one discovers the love of God through Jesus Christ! God's grace then creates the faith to desire, honor and obey His word. Because His grace given to us gives one the ability to walk by faith through the Holy Spirit who is our Helper whom God sent in Jesus' name, who also has sealed us.
He is our guide into all truth and is our strength, knowledge, discernment, our everything, especially our protector from false teachers and their teachings and most of all He opens our hearts to the love of God! He also helps us to abide in Him and His word and gives us the love to love the Father. Because without Him we are nothing.....It is not within or of our own selves to do.
And using and abusing the Law of God to justify ones own ability of thinking they can overcome sin, denying Christ is a awful deception to be in bondage too. And does not know Christ, because they have denied the Cross of Jesus Christ and have trusted in themselves to live for the Law!
Hmmm.... God does not love His Creation...? God would of have never created the man or woman if He didn't love them....and keep on creating them too this very day!! Why would His mercy continue if He did not love?
Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth;
Zep 1:17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
Zep 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
Isa 63:3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
Eze 22:31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.
Pro 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. (ASV)
Eph 5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
HK
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. – Romans 7:15-18
then it goes on to say:
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want…Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. – Romans 7:19,24-25
Being in the Word and being renewed in our minds is the victory...
This is a complete distortion of what Paul was trying to convey. In Romans 7, Paul is revealing his condition when he was under the law. He could not live free from sin when he lived under the law. However, when He met Jesus on the road to Damascus, everything changed; he had found grace; and, through Jesus' grace, Paul conveys his victory in Romans 8. Paul lived free from sin thereafter.
Romans 7
5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Romans 8
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
So, we must ask ourselves these questions:
What is walking after the flesh?
What is walking after the Spirit?
Paul gives the answers in Galatians 5.
Galatians 5
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage [the law].
4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
[1] Walking after the flesh
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
[2] Walking after the Spirit
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
So, there it is for us to plainly understand. If we are doing any of the works of the flesh, we will not inherit the kingdom of God; it doesn't matter if we profess Jesus to be our Lord or not.
If you have been taught wrong, or if you did not previously understand these things, repent now. Yield yourself to Jesus, and His blood will purge you of these works of the devil. However, if you refuse and rebel, you will surely end up in the torments of a devil's hell one day. And, don't say within yourself that Jesus died a cruel death so that you can continue sinning. God cast satan and his followers out of heaven, and He won't spare us either.
Yes, some will see the wrath of God and be completely separated from God for all eternity... Especially those who continue to deny and not teach....the TRUTH of God's grace....spoke, taught in His WORD...
Eph. 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.
And those whom brings another Gospel to the child of God....
Gal. 3
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—
6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying,“In you all the nations shall be blessed.”
9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
The Law Brings a Curse......
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursediseveryone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”
12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursediseveryone who hangs on a tree”,
14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The Changeless Promise....15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.
16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.
17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
Purpose of the Law......
19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
20 Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.
21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.
22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.
24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. Sons and Heirs
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
To put oneself under the Law ONLY is serving the Law of their own self-righteousness. Not God's grace through faith in Christ Jesus!
We see God looks at the heart and it is the disposition of the heart.....head knowledge will deceive!
Deut.30:6
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Jesus came to and fulfill the Law....in that we are too believe Him and put our trust in Him to save us....
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Jesus was asked who will inherit eternal life? Luke 10:25-37
25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”
27 So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.
34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’
36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”
37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
(Guess Jesus was a neighbor hugger.... hmmmm)
So we see....nowhere did Jesus tell that one is to follow the Law ONLY! But one whom loves the Lord with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their strength and their neighbor as themselves....will definitely follow the commands of God, but not in their strength, but the strength of Christ. And this is what Christ promised...
28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
Now, one who is truly saved is trusting Christ and they will deny self (crucify their fleshly desires) and follow the Holy Spirit whom God has placed in the heart of the believer and that one is not going to practice sin...but repent of it and walk by FAITH... Gal.2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
They have become a new creation in Christ Jesus through FAITH, not the Law.... 2Cor. 5:12-19
12 For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.
13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.
14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
1 Cor. 10:31-33
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
32 Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God,
33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
To end this post ....with one of the most beautiful chapters in the Word of God, FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE !!!
1Cor 13
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Blessings....
Last edited by Cyber Munchkin; 01-04-2010 at 04:49 AM..
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Hmmm.... God does not love His Creation...? God would of have never created the man or woman if He didn't love them....and keep on creating them too this very day!! Why would His mercy continue if He did not love?
