Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself

Matthew 22:36-40 (American Standard Version)
36 Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the great and first commandment.

39 And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

40 On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.


It's funny, last week I talked about being so busy and Friday I realized that it has been about six months since I last watched Joyce Meyer (one of my favorite minister's) on T.V. I bring this up because on Friday while flipping through the channels I came across her program and caught about the last 5-10 minutes of it. She was talking with John & Lisa Bevere and they were talking about love. How we as Christians are suppose to love other's but that it is very hard to do if you don't love yourself. Basically, if you think about it in this frame, if I give you 5 apples and then someone walks up to you and asks you for 3 you can give them 3 apples because you have some. However, if I were to give you 5 banana's and someone came up asking for 3 apples you could not give them anything because you do not have it. It is the same with love.

Joyce brought up the scripture in Matthew 22:39 that you read above, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." It was at that moment that I believe I received divine revelation about this scripture. What if we added two tiny words, "well as," to that scripture; Now, let's read it like this "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as well as thyself." I believe that it is as much a commandment as loving our neighbor since we can not do one without the other. We have to pour out from what is within us, if we do not have love we can not pour it out. Then I started thinking about the enemy and how he is always working to undermine us in every area of our lives and I thought what would be the most effective way to ruin our testimony, by destroying us from the inside out. It has always been said that churches fall not from people talking about them from the outside but by the people not getting along and backbiting on the inside. Well if that is true then why would it not be the same for ourselves.

If the enemy can get us to the point that we look down on ourselves and are constantly putting ourselves down, then the enemy can destroy us and therefore destroy our testimony to others. I want you to think about this, today when you woke up did you confess anything negative about yourself? Did you look in the mirror and think eww...I have to lose more weight, I can't stand the way I look? Are you constantly meditating on the negative instead of the positive? I told someone last week that we can spend 15 minutes in a car going from one destination to another talking about all of the negative things in life and be miserable and in a bad mood by the time we get where we're going and the sad thing is not even understand why we are in a bad mood; or we can spend that time meditating/thinking about all of the good things that God has done in our lives and how He has blessed us and by the time that the 15 minutes is up we are in an awesome mood and just can't wait to witness to someone about how good God is.

One of my favorite books is "Battlefield of the Mind" by Joyce Meyer and I highly recommend it to everyone because we all struggle in this area. The devil knows exactly where to attack us, it always starts in our minds before we ever speak or act on it. I want you to start thinking about what you're thinking about. If the thought is a bad thought then take it captive. Let's look at
2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
We are to take every thought captive that does not glorify God and make it obedient to Christ. We have the power to break out negative thoughts.

Know that you are a child of God and that you are made in His image. If God loves you then what right do you have not to love yourself. No, I am not telling you to be arrogant. I am saying that you need to appreciate who you are, knowing that God put you here at this time and hour for a purpose. He has plans to use you in a special way but if the enemy has you tied up believing the worst in yourself then you are going to be too miserable to make a difference for God. Be happy knowing that when you look in the mirror you are made in His image and He loves you, once you realize that then loving your neighbor becomes easy.

Always too much going on....

Man...do you realize how busy we are! Everyone is always rushing around about something, we have to go here and we've got to get there but really how much of it is necessary?

Do you ever think about the fact that God is probably looking down at us in the midst of our (self created) chaos and is shaking His head thinking I sent my son the prince of peace to give you peace and you wouldn't know peace if it hit you in the face. Women are the worst...don't throw anything at me...I am a woman so I can say that. I am the classic Martha in the Mary and Martha story. I bought a book called "Being Mary in a Martha world" so far what I have read is excellent but there is only one problem, I am still being Martha because I bought the book over a year or two ago and still have not gotten around to reading past 3 chapters. Sound anything like you?

I believe that I have a Mary heart, in that I want to be at His feet at all times, my heart longs to always be in the presence of my Father. I miss Him when I am not talking to Him and I want to serve Him in any way I can. Unfortunately though, I have a Martha mindset. Work, Work, Work, and if I am running behind...guess what I will work some more, but at what cost? Funny thing is, all He wants is for me to be Mary and sit down at His feet and spend time with Him.

It is said that everyone wants to obtain that which they do not have. At the end of a persons life they look back at all the things that they have accomplished but usually find that the things that were most valuable, like time spent with their family, is the one thing that slipped through their fingers. They gained everything else but figured out at the end of their life what was most important. Billy Graham was once asked, if you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently. His comment "I would spend less time reading books about God's word and would spend more time reading God's word." He also commented, "I would spend more time with my family." I don't want to find myself in my older years looking back wishing I had spent more time reading God's word.

I am writing about this today because I believe that we have allowed society to dictate our pace. I believe that it is time that we took a stand and determine that we will dedicate ourselves to what is most important and let all the trivial stuff fall where it may. There are two things that are important in life and the rest are a distant third to them. Number one is our walk and relationship with God and number two is our walk and relationship with our family. We can walk the road alone or take the hands of those that we want to walk with us. I believe that this is what God wants from me and I believe that it is what He wants from you as well.

One of my favorite scriptures is Jeremiah 15:16 "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts."

God's word is more than just a book, it is life. It is the tool that helps me to get closer to my Lord. The bible is a format for living. I know a lot of people that buy magazines at the check out stands so that they can find out more about the latest movie star on the scene, but when is the last time that we picked up the word of God for the soul purpose of finding out more about the Lord and what He has in store for us. I am challenging you today to not pick up the bible the way that you always have, don't pick it up and start reading it because "well I have to get in my 1 -2 chapters today or at least a verse". Pick it up because it is the ultimate resource for finding out more about your heavenly Father and His son and the Holy Spirit. Pick it up and become stronger because you are lifting up who the Bible is about. If we spend more time in His presence we will spend less time in counseling and more time guiding people to the one that can help them.

I once asked my husband, "How did you read the bible all the way through in 30 days?" His reply was, "Someone once told me that when I was reading the Bible that God and all of His angels were encamped about me, and I wanted to be in His presence at all the time." I loved that! I believe that my husbands comment totally describes Jeremiah 15:16.

So my question today is, "Have you spent time with God today?"

Are you motivated or committed?

Have you ever determined in your mind, it's time, I am going to start working out and I am going to loose all of this excess weight? I am going to tone up and feel good and fit into my old clothes. At that time you are truly motivated. So, you join the gym, you buy some workout clothes and you get all of the cool workout stuff. Now it is time to go to the gym and you go and you work out hard, and I do mean hard. You are so dedicated for the first month to 6 weeks but then things start getting busy and you have to miss one day. No big deal, it's just one day right. Another week, a couple of more things come up so you have to miss another couple of days but hey your still on track...your still working out. What's the big deal if you miss a couple of days...it's not like you will have to start all over, it's just a couple of days. A month goes by and soon you're so busy with other things that now you may only go once a week but your still going right. Then six months down the road you turn around and say, "What happened, I used to go to the gym all of the time and now, I haven't been in 5 months."

Does this sound familiar, if you have not done the same thing with the gym there is probably something out there that you have done this with. A lot of people are motivated but are they committed? The difference between the two is what determines whether or not you will still be working out in 6 months or six years. It is the same with our Christian walk. So I ask again, are you just motivated or are you committed?

Let's look at another scenario. You are a born again Christian, just saved and you are so on fire for the Lord that you can't stand doing anything else but being in His presence. Every time that the church doors open you have to be there. You want to help out in any area of ministry that you can and witnessing, oh just forget about it; you are off the chart with witnessing. If someone asks why you are smiling and happy, you can't wait to share what God has done for you. At this time though...you're still just motivated. When motivation turns into commitment is when the trials come and when the cares of this life come, but you make a stand. You have a choice, you can say "You know what, this is not worth it and give up" or something a little more subtle "I am just tired I think I will stay home tonight, after all I can catch church on Sunday." Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with taking a day off every once in a while but when that every once in a while becomes a habit and you're staying away more than you're at church then you're no longer committed.

We can even take another turn and move away from the church topic. Let's go into the relationship mode. Are we so busy in our everyday lives that before long we have pushed God off to the side so much that He is no longer the center of our lives; we are no longer spending the time with Him that we once were? I think that everyone at some time or another has done this, but where the commitment issue comes in is where you realize it and do something about it. If you are married at some point you may realize that you are not communicating as much as you used to with your spouse. Maybe the daily grind has gotten in the way of your alone time together. Once you see this happening then the next step should be to plan a date night or a weekend away so that you can get back to the basics, the thing that drew you to each other in the first place, the fellowship. The flip side of this is that you know if you do not get some time alone the relationship will continue to deteriorate to the point that there will no longer be a relationship. Our relationship with God is very much like our relationship with our spouse.

If you find yourself in the same situation with your relationship with God today, it's not too late. Determine that you are going to be committed to this relationship and make a date with God. Start now by setting time aside to spend with Him in prayer. I want you to remember that praying is nothing more than talking to God, just like you would talk to a friend our spouse. Talk to Him; tell Him what you are going through. Yes, God already knows but He wants you to turn to Him and cast all your care upon Him. Then be still and listen and see what He wants to say to you. Take time to read each day...even if it is just one verse. Putting God first makes everything else fall into place.

Be committed and run the race, endure to the end and get your prize, the prize is God.

Trusting God

There is no easy way to describe what it means to trust God. For someone like me who always likes to be in control it can be quit annoying at times, especially when all I want to do is figure out how to trust Him. It seems for the most part my way of thinking is like a dog chasing his tail...it's to no avail. God is not nearly as complicated as we seem to want to make Him. All He asks is that we lean and rely on Him.

Have you ever been swimming? Have you ever tried to float on your back? If you have then you know that basically all you really have to do is lean back, be still and breath. You don't hold your breathe to see if you can float because you will start to sink. You breath and relax. That is the way that God wants us. He wants us to lean back on Him and trust Him enough to just breath in and breath out, relax. Just know that He is in control. God's word says "If God is for us, who can be against us." I think that it is evident that God is for us considering that He sent His only son to come and die for us so that we might live.

So many people want to blame God for the way things are today when really the human race is to blame for the way things are today. God gave us a free will and with that free will He gave us choices. Those choices, good or bad lead us to a final destination. We choose that destination. Someone once said that when you die on the tombstone is a date (when you where born), a dash, and another date (when you died), but it is the dash in between that defines your life.

My question to you is this, what is your dash saying about you? Are you trusting Him? What will it take for you to trust Him?