These – And Other Such Commandments-- Are Summed Up In This One Commandment: “Love Your Neighbor As Yourself.”

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These – And Other Such Commandments--

Are Summed Up In This One Commandment:

“Love Your Neighbor As Yourself.”

Scripture

Romans 13

8 Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. 

9 For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

10 Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.

Observation

Love does no wrong to others – Oh, I just wish that Christians, my brothers and sisters in Christ, could just understand what the Apostle Paul is saying in these verses.

We have Christians suing each other, fighting with each other over stuff. It is like they totally disregard what the Bible says about loving each other.

Love is a choice. Love is action. It is not just a bunch of gooey, mushy, emotional feelings. God's love, Agape love is sacrificial; it is selfless.

For a couple in love it means: “I promise to be there for you all of my days.” It is a promise that says, “I will be there when you lose your job, your health, your parents, your looks, your confidence, your friends.

It is a promise that tells your partner, I’ll build you up; I will overlook your weaknesses; I’ll forgive your mistakes; I’ll put your needs above my own; I’ll stick by you when the going gets tough.”

God’s love is is caring as much about the welfare and happiness of your marriage partner, your business partner, your boss, or your employees, as you do about your own welfare and happiness.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 

5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Application

I will strive to love people with God's Agape love.

How about you?

Prayer

Heavenly Father, help me to never forget that You have commanded me to love the people around me. And when you put difficult people in my life I know that they are there to help shape me into someone that is more like Jesus. Help me to love them with Your Agape love.

I pray for any person who may read this blog today. Help them to overflow with Your Agape love for those around them. Help them to love the unlovely. Help them to love those who have hurt them and who have done them wrong. May Your face shine brightly on them as they love people as much as they love themselves.

Daily Bible Reading: Romans 13,14,15,16

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Love Does Not Dishonor Others, It Is Not Self-seeking, It Is Not Easily Angered, It Keeps No Record Of Wrongs.

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Love Does Not Dishonor Others,

It Is Not Self-seeking, It Is Not Easily Angered,

It Keeps No Record Of Wrongs.

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. ...

Observation

Someone once said that love is spelled or should be spelled … T-I-M-E! If we say that we love God but we never have or we never make time to read His Word and if we only pray when we are in trouble do we really love Him?

How about loving people? How about loving our kids … our grandkids? How about loving our spouse? Love is still spelled T.I.M.E.

Balance in life is a constant struggle – you and I constantly need to re-evaluate our priorities! Things get out of whack so quickly … relationships tend to drift apart unless we are constantly working on them.

We can easily let work, sports, hobbies, and lots of other things take the top priority in our life, causing us to neglect our relationship with God, our spouse, our children and our grandchildren.

Application

I will evaluate how I am using my time.

How about you?

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I know that true love means action. It is not just a word to be flippantly used but it must be backed up with action on my part. I must show that I mean it. Help me, Lord, to love like You love. Give me the ability to love with Your self-less, Agape love. Help me to constantly remember that other people and their needs are more important than my own. You are my example of how I am to love people.

I pray for any person reading this blog today. Help them to love like You love. Help them to have balance in his or her life. Help them to carve out time to spend with You and time for the other people that you have brought into their lives.

Daily Bible Reading: Job 39,40; 1 Corinthians 13,14

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The LORD Will Work Out His Plans For My Life – For Your Faithful Love, O LORD, Endures Forever. Don't Abandon Me, For You Made Me.

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The LORD Will Work Out His Plans For My Life –

For Your Faithful Love, O LORD, Endures Forever.

Don't Abandon Me, For You Made Me.

Scripture

Psalm 138

8 The Lord will work out his plans for my life—
    for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever.
    Don’t abandon me, for you made me.

Observation

I agree with the Psalmist when he says, “The LORD will work out his plans for my life.” Why not take a few minutes and think back on your life. Can you see how God has been at work in your life?

Psalm 138:8 is a declaration of King David's faith in his God.

I especially like the last part of the verse where David reminds God not to abandon him - because it was God who created him.

Today, you and I have an advantage that King David didn't have – we have the entire Bible, the complete Word of God – Genesis to Revelation, and it is filled with thousands of promises, assuring us that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

Application

God is working out His plans for my life!

How about you? Can you see God at work in your life?

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I agree with King David. I know that You are working out Your plans for my life. I see Your hand at work in my life. Thank You for guiding and directing me. Keep me headed in the right direction. Show me through Your Word how I should go. Thank You for all of Your promises. They encourage me. They give me hope.

Lord, I agree with King David as he continued to write in Psalm 139:1-18 and I pray those verses back to You:

“O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. 

You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!

If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!”

….

Daily Bible Reading: Ezra 5,6; Psalm 138; Luke 16

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I Tell You, Her Sins –

And They Are Many – Have Been Forgiven,

So She Has Shown Me Much Love.

Scripture

Luke 7

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat.

37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 

38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.

39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”

40 Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”

“Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.

41 Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. 

42 But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”

43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.” “That’s right,” Jesus said. 

44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 

45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 

46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.

47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”

50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Observation

In this story, we find Jesus with two totally different people, a Pharisee and a very sinful immoral woman. The Pharisee looked down with disgust at the sinful woman who was washing Jesus' feet with her tears and anointing His feet with very expensive perfume.

You and I can easily be the Pharisee in this story. We can look with disgust and disdain at the homeless, the drug addict, or the prostitute at the street corner, thinking that we are somehow better than someone else, that we are somehow better than they are because we are not where they happen to be at this moment in life.

This story is a reminder to me that the ground is all level at the foot of the cross.

Have you been forgiven of your sins?

Application

Every person is made in the image of God and has great worth to their Creator. I will try my best to look past the obvious sin of the sinner and be more concerned with his or her soul.

How about you?

Luke 23:32,40-43

32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 

40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 

41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Prayer

Heavenly Father, don't let me be like the Pharisee in this story. Touch my heart with what touches Yours. Give me Your heart for the people around me. Don't ever let me write someone off because of the way that they are living. I will keep praying for them. I will not give up.

1 Timothy 1:15-16

15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

Daily Bible Reading: Ezra 1; Psalms 84,85; Luke 7

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