Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as if they are your own self. (This is a paraphrase of Luke 10:27.)
The lawyer who was speaking to Jesus in this passage, goes on to ask him, "Who is my neighbor," and the Lord begins to tell the story we know as "The Good Samaritan."
After Jesus finished telling the story, he asked the lawyer, "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise." (v.36, 37)
In essence, the Lord ignored the lawyer's question in order to convey the greater principle. It is not a question of who is your neighbor, but rather who are you a neighbor to? The neighbor, Christ showed us, is the one who showed mercy. Therefore, we are to be the neighbor, showing mercy and compassion, to all.
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8
Just to give you a clear definition of this verse, the word commend means to entrust someone or something to. In this verse, the word commend is used in the present tense: commendeth/commends. So literally, this verse means that God is right now entrusting his love to us through His Son. Even though we were and are still sinners,Christ died for us so that we do not have to pay the penalty for our sins.
So no matter what wrongs you have done, you are given this priceless gift of love. It is a love that is powerful enough to change the hardest of hearts, to break the bondage of sin, to defeat death and hell, and to restore us to eternal fellowship with the creator of the universe. His gift of love is entrusted to every person. It is up to you what you will do with it. Will you accept his gift of love? If you have accepted it, will you squander it, or will you treasure it and share it?
John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"
Romans 3:10, "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one:"
God's standard of righteousness is perfection, and unfortunately, we all make mistakes.
Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
The penalty of our sins is an eternal death and separation from God in Hell. But God's gift of love, through Jesus Christ sacrificing himself, enables us to accept His sacrifice on our own behalf and restores us to a standing of righteousness in God's eyes.
Romans 10:9,10, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Romans 10:13, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
1 John 5:13a, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life"
Once you have accepted Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for your sins, you are in a standing of righteousness with God, and have the guarantee of eternal life in heaven. Therefore, you do not ever have to confess your sins to anyone as a means of justifying yourself, you do not have to pray for your salvation again, you KNOW from what the Bible says, that Christ's sacrifice on the cross and your acceptance of that has made you righteous forever.
Hebrews 10:14, "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."
Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
Many things inspire me. However, few things inspire me like my mother's yard. She has so many different plants, so many spots you can sit and enjoy nature (except for the mosquitoes), and most importantly, she has my favorite climbing tree! All of these things were on my mind when I painted this picture. It is very basic, but it is from my heart! Love you Mom!
You can visit her blog, simplefascinations.blogspot.com and see some of her beautiful flowers for yourself!
I love watching inspirational movies about people who, despite all odds, refuse to give up. Their spirit refuses to be broken. They keep going. Somehow, something inside will not give up. I've known people with physical disabilities that were the happiest people and the greatest joy to be around. Their spirit sustained them.
A person's spirit is not easily broken. We all go through stages of melancholy or even depression. But to break a person's spirit takes something truly catastrophic. Sometimes it is a sudden occurrence, and sometimes it is a series of events from which we have not been able to recover. A broken spirit can no longer see any sign of hope.
My heart hopes that you will never experience the darkness of a broken or wounded spirit. However, most of us either already have suffered through it, are currently going through it, or will at some point.
I have been there. It is so much deeper than a heart hurt. It causes you to not even be able to feel your heart. Your whole world seems colorless, tasteless, pointless. You go through the motions and wonder why? You wonder if God sees you at all, or are you completely invisible? It is a scary place to be.
During the time I was going through this, I had people ask me what was wrong, what could they do to help, etc. I could not articulate what was going on inside of me. There was so much hurt, confusion, anger, and uncertainty that I didn't feel I could trust anyone enough to share how I was feeling. I truly thought God was through with me.
Despite all of my feelings, God was there. He did see me, and surprisingly enough, I believe now that he led me to that place of brokenness. While you may think that God would be cruel to have done so, let me explain why I believe this to be. I had to learn a lesson. I had to understand that despite what people do, despite what I do, and despite what happens on this earth, God is good. GOD is good, and is the ONLY source of goodness. When people separate themselves from God, they are separating themselves from any goodness. Man always has and always will fail, and cause pain to each other. Any time I looked for guidance, acceptance, or fulfillment solely from a person, I was hurt, confused, disappointed, frustrated, etc. I had to learn that I NEEDED God. I had to come to a heart understanding that I need Him above all else, and that he alone could give the guidance, acceptance, and fulfillment that I needed. I HAD to break.
If you are currently struggling with a broken spirit, let me encourage you to pray. Seek Him as your source of peace, love, acceptance, fulfillment, and anything else that you feel is missing from your life right now. No matter how alone in your pain you may feel, please know in your heart that he is there. He wants to heal you. All you have to do is take that first step and ask!
I totally forgot today was St Patrick's Day until I got to the bookstore and noticed everyone (except me) was wearing green! (Green is my favorite color.) I must be very unlucky because the leprechauns did not come to my house, I couldn't find a four leaf clover, and there was no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. (Actually, there was not even a rainbow.)
Regardless of my lack of luck, I am happy and today is a good day.
By the way, do not try to make a Caprese salad with fake (Wal-Mart) mozzarella. It does not work properly at all. It isn't pretty and it has no taste (in case you were wondering.)
So, enjoy your St. Patricks Day, and may real cheese always be with you.
