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No commandments greater than these. How?

OK. I've been practising listening more carefully. My first step is to resist the temptation to break a conversation off when people get a bit rambling and dull. It's more challenging than I had thought.

Not sure anybody's life has changed other than mine, but I have found an unexpected pleasure in giving other people more time and attention.
 
OK. I've been practising listening more carefully. My first step is to resist the temptation to break a conversation off when people get a bit rambling and dull. It's more challenging than I had thought.

Not sure anybody's life has changed other than mine, but I have found an unexpected pleasure in giving other people more time and attention.

PraIse the Lord.....thats very heart warming brother @Hekuran
Im sure your conversants have been richly blessed by you putting them first
May the love of the Lord reigning in your heart shine through blessing all those you meet

(I am going to do the same in day to day life ...)
 
One of our grandsons got involved with the 'choking/ fainting' game. It wasn't something people talked about. Until is happens to one of their kids. And our older grandson was a victim. He was found unconscious at home and died the next day at the hospital. No one of the other kids were willing to admit what had happened when asked by the Police. After a while - it resulted in our born-again son-in-law filing for divorce. He'd been part of our family for 20 yrs. He refused any attempt at counseling from their pastor or Anyone. It shattered our daughter and all of the family.

Dear Sister Sue,
It may have been some time, but I wanted you to know that my heart goes out to you, and so will my prayers for your family.

With the Love of Christ Jesus.
YBIC
Nick
<><
 
Greetings,

Is there a way to put a double like on this post? :)

That has been brought up several times, but no one seems to care.

excuse me, but, that sounds a bit lame.

How about I put a ban an ALL members who have participated in the topic being referred to? that would be fair, surely?
One Member posts something, which I am sure that all would agree is OK to do, if one feels so inclined to post something, as you have here, and several then interact and continue in doing so.

Do you realise how difficult it is for Staff Members to keep all you rowdy children from arguing and bickering, from back biting, from continuing in a round and round disagreement, from biting and devouring, from division and schism, on many different topics? As if we don't have plenty enough to do besides and as if we really relish the idea of having to moderate those who can not contain themselves and get pointing a finger at another, expecting that Staff should jump to and come down hard on only one participant rather than all who join in?

I have noticed even you, sir, have been a participant and have even put up threads alluding to the topic that some are complaining about. Should you be the first to be banned temporarily for being part of the problem you are so keen to suggest that no one cares about?

Think about it and if ye be men, all of you, and ye be women, all of you, grow up and be so. Take responsibility for your own actions and stop expecting others to tidy up your mess. Did not your parents explain this to you? (Please excuse me if any of you were such that were devoid of parental care and did not have the blessing that comes with it, my sincere love and prayers be for all such who might have had an orphaned and/or abandoned childhood or a childhood that had no care from parents)

Shall I continue?

I expect to see a few likes on this post and you can bump it up and so to get a few more!

----------------------
to everyone,

please use your brains a little bit. If someone comes to your door trying to sell you something you don't want to be interested in, do you keep engaging with them day after day or do you politely close the door and you personally refrain from participating in any dialogue with the salesman?
If you do not like to talk about the topic that appears here so often then why on earth do you participate in it?
I am not validating nor invalidating the topic. i am however, trying to give you the sensible option. No body forces you to write any replies about any topic and from what i see here across the forums, there are a lot of topics and forums that very few care to even read, let alone reply to. You are not forced to reply to any particular post or thread so why complain when you do that the topic is yet again taking over a thread? Are you stupid or simply asleep to your own actions?

For me, i would much rather be here praising the Lord and lifting His name high and engaging in friendly sharing of all the Lord has done for each and every one of us. TalkJesus is here for that but some of you dear folk have a fixation with arguing the point about anything raised.

Should i ban all who do?

Who would like to be first?

-----------------------------------------------------------

getting back to the original topic of this thread, it has been suggested that we might find a little help in doing the will of God in our loving others and so at least in part do some keeping of the commandments in topic.

OK. When one repents, where ought they be facing? The world and the flesh or God and His Christ?

Would that in any way also require and/or result in inclining our ear to Him?
IF we want to serve Him we Do need to first repent (that is a broad spectrum statement given that there may be some who have not as yet repented and turned to Him away from the past evil of the sin and corruption that so engulfed them and that they wallowed in as swine and haters of the Word)

However, our repentance ought to be both sincere and permanent, not simply an qucik "sorry Lord please forgive me" and then back to business of the flesh.
So, first we need to hear then we need to repent to the Lord and in so doing, incline our ears to Him and THEN we will be able to hear Him regarding how...
"No commandments greater than these. How?"
if we do not first do the first step we can not do the second.

Try this...
go to a door of a house or room. Take one step in. Are you in yet?
Now return your foot back to it's original position next to the other and try taking the second step in first. Can you do it?

Go on, try it. and stick at it until you really get to the point of having to realize that the first step only gets you started in the right direction and the second MUST follow if you are to enter in.

Now, you are in the room. Wacky do! Party time!!! No.
you will look pretty stupid simply standing in the entrance of the room. You need to actually continue walking in, to really be in the room, as such.

Now try this for those who can walk (please forgive me if you can not and are either bedbound or in a wheel chair of have no legs or only one, but know too that you can do a work around with this example... and my love to you be assured )
Let's go to the front door of the house... go on, it won't hurt to actually physically do it.
Take one step outside. You again realised you need to take another to complete the action of stepping outside. (be thankful you are not a spider that has eight legs!!)

In order to go for a walk, you MUST keep stepping one foot then another, all the way, each and every step in the same direction, if you are to walk as a sober man/woman.
Drunkards are somewhat excused from this exercise as it would be understandably difficult to keep walking a straight path, (you see that drunkards can not enter the Kingdom for good reasons)

Now, the point is?

'How', is the question.
First listen to the direction you are to face and then step one, love and serve God with all your intention to start walking in the Light, then follow through with applying that love He has loved you with and called you with, in making the walk a walk and thereby taking the Gospel where ever you go. As you will encounter other people, around you in life, (your neighbours being the closest to you) but all you pass and see and are aware of in physical ways, you can love them with the love you have been loved with but you always have to remember that your walk is two edged, first the Lord, then the neighbour. You can't do it the other way around.
Some can even run once they have perfected walking.
So, go, run the race set before you, and go in Peace, His Peace that passes your understanding and if ever you be weary, lean on Him and find refreshment to your souls.

May the Grace of God in Jesus Christ the Lord be with you all as you acknowledge Him, Who first loved you.



Bless you ....><>

turn your eyes upon Jesus.. and follow Him

PLEASE WATCH AND READ THE WORDS....

 
Maybe Your life has been simple and struggle-- free. Mine hasn't been. Up until about 10 yrs ago -- bad stuff only happened to 'other' people who I wasn't around. And Then the 'unspeakable' started happening in our extended family. One of our grandsons got involved with the 'choking/ fainting' game. It wasn't something people talked about. Until is happens to one of their kids. And our older grandson was a victim. He was found unconscious at home and died the next day at the hospital. No one of the other kids were willing to admit what had happened when asked by the Police. After a while - it resulted in our born-again son-in-law filing for divorce. He'd been part of our family for 20 yrs. He refused any attempt at counseling from their pastor or Anyone. It shattered our daughter and all of the family. So Please -- born-again believers are very capable of very poor decisions.


Greetings @Sue D.

I have only just read your post quoted above, I apologise for missing this.

I cannot imagine tne pain you and your family must have been through.

May you know the comfort of the Lords blessing in your life and may He enable you to use this experience to share His love more fully and richly.

Blessings to you
 
@Frangrant Grace -- your comments are very much appreciated. As are "Christ4Ever".

@Mr. Bear -- a great deal to think about. And, yes, sometimes 'we' do get to sounding like argumentative little kids. But, once in a while -- a subject area Does come up and as much as 'I' Should ignore it -- leave it alone -- I simply Can't. I will Try to behave myself a bit more. :)
 
The "displeasing" portion of their conduct is indicative of the seed they are born of. {1 John 3:10)
Displeasing perhaps because they were still incomplete!

Some people have really already overcome certain things that either were sin or that when followed led to sin. At any point in time in our walk God's judgment is upon us according to what we have done with what we had. In the OT, we see David, the one called the apple of God's eye and a man after God's heart marrying several women, but for that part of his natural life we see no repentance... no move to only have one wife. Was not scripture is clear even at the time of David that there was only supposed to be one man for one woman and vice versa. Jesus cites a verse considerably before the time of David here:

"And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Matt 19:4-6

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Gen 2:24

Where in that verse does it say it is OK for a man to marry another wife and hold both of them with him as one flesh each in their turn? David had several wives simultaneously and his son, Solomon had hundreds. Ultimately how pleasing was that to God considering what He said in Gen 2:24?

Did Jacob do the right thing when he went for number two [Rachel] because he was cheated by Laban into marrying the wrong one [Leah]? I really don't think so. Men have been messed up from that first sin and they have steadily grown more complicated in their sinning over the centuries. In spite of his inherited bad situation David pleased God, but he was hardly an overcomer. He did good with what he had, but do we not have more?

Putting people down because they are not already overcomers of everything evil in every moment doesn't mean they are without hope. It may mean they are still on the journey. They can do better than David. Jesus made is a possibility


While Jesus was not speaking directly against polygamy, I believe his words are saying one man and one woman. The problem is that men and women had moved so far away from what they were prior to that first disobedience in Eden, they did not even know everything for which they needed to repent. They couldn't know and they could not do it and God understood that better than all of us. We cannot repent for something before we know it is wrong. But when we are made of aware of the error even if it is after our first repentance to God, do we not then need to repent of the newly discovered error?

You speak of seeds as if good seed could never go bad. Adam and Eve had a good seed, until they went bad and corrupted it. The potential for goodness remained in their children even if it could not be fulfilled until Jesus made a Way for them.

Repentance is available to all.
But more sin will manifest that the repentance was false.
If it does, is that not really between each person who does it and God? Preach the Word my friend, but leave judgment to God for who else is able to always judge fairly?

"Interim"?
You must mean..."As we think about one day serving God with our entire heart...we will commit sin".
Perhaps a better word for some of us who have not yet overcome everything between us and the Father is incomplete. When we quench the Holy Spirit in us then we are as King David, with good intentions, but having retaken the control ourselves. Ourselves, when we are in control, will sin. When we are yielded to the Holy Spirit we will never sin?

Had our surrender been true, there would be no need for another surrender.
You illustrate the double-mind of the lost.
No I illustrate the double-mindedness of someone who has moved toward God, but keeps grabbing hold of his own reins again and again. There is a limit to that... if no other, time our time as allotted to us by God!

How do God's ALWAYS provided escapes from temptation apply to your thesis of failure?
When we sin as for instance when David sinned with Bethsheba and Uriah, God seeing our heart will allow space because of what He sees. David was guilty of adultery and murder under Mosaic Law. The penalty for either one was death, but God had mercy on him because of David's heart. Similarly in the NT, the wages of sin is death. When we have walked back to partake again of our own vomit or to yearn for the pleasures of Sodom, is all hope lost?

Thank God we don't live in the OT anymore.
Thank God for the gifts of repentance from sin and baptism and the Holy Ghost...together, capable of maintaining the righteousness of God's children.
Thanks be to God for all we need to keep loving God above all else and our neighbor as our self.
We really do not have it better than those in the OT. God is and never has been a respecter of persons. The apparently rules and penalties under the law given to Moses were different, but God judged them as He does us ultimately according to these words spoken by Jesus:

"But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." Luke 12:48

Give God the glory!
 
What I find interesting in the O.T. is that God Did allow men to have multiple wives -- possibly a cultural norm back then? But no where do we find a woman having many husbands. Maybe because the man is meant to be the 'head' and not the woman.

Also -- kings did have Many wives and concubines. A lot of them were given wives from many countries -- uniting the countries. It was more political than sexual in nature. And Solomon had all those hundreds of wives and concubines. He probably had a favorite one or two. Maybe when one got pregnant there would Always be one 'available'. Solomon was greatly used by God. As was David. David and Bathsheba's infant child was taken from him. Didn't Nathan come and rebuke him? David agonized over his son's brief illness and when he was told the infant was dead -- he said that his infant could not come back to him, but that he, David, would one day be reunited with his son.

One of the points made here is that God can and does use us even when we Have sinned -- even greatly-- we're repentant and God Does use us for His glory.

No one becomes sin free in This life time.

The situation with Jacob and Laban and his two daughters. The culture back then -- Jacob should have realized that the older daughter would be married off first and then the younger daughter. And Laban also knew which daughter Jacob really loved -- Jacob really shouldn't have been too surprised to find he'd actually gotten Leah. But he was also willing to work those seven more years for Rebecah.

I do recall that back in the days of the temple, the Law had been lost -- it was discovered Many years later and shown to the king at that time. He read it and realized the people had been obeying the Law of Moses and the Prophets. He read it to the people and he and the people repented and started living the right way.

One other comment -- about David and Jonathon -- Bible says they were very close friends -- society wants to believe they were homosexual. Society doesn't want to acknowledge the Fact that people of the same sex Can be close friends and Not be sexual. But they Do want to use that close friendship to Try to validate that homosexuality is really okay because After All -- since God 'allowed' Them to be "that way" then it Must be okay for other Christians to be Acting On their homosexual desires Also.

The Fact is that God's plan is for men and women to unit in marriage to produce children. Two people of the same sex cannot possibly produce children together.
 
No commandments greater than these - How?


You're hinting that I'm topic , yet again. Actually I was responding to some of "Amadeus 2" comments. And he was responding back to "At Peace".

Don't tell me that this line of conversation is getting Boring?! :(

Maybe go back to the original posts?! See what was actually being talked about :)
 
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
Matk 12:30-31

This has been on my heart for some time and I have been prompted by brother Dave M"s prayer thread.
(Thank you @Dave M )

How do we do this?

How do we know we love the Lord with all our soul mind and strength?

How do we love our neighbour as much as we love ourselves?

Surely this is something we all fail in many times?

I'm sure I put self first a lot of the time above my neighbour?

How can the great commandments in theses verses be applied Spiritually and practically to our lives?


Some good questions.
 
You're hinting that I'm topic , yet again. Actually I was responding to some of "Amadeus 2" comments. And he was responding back to "At Peace".

Don't tell me that this line of conversation is getting Boring?! :(

Maybe go back to the original posts?! See what was actually being talked about :)

Not directed specifically at you, promise. But yes, I find it frustrating to see that there a new post on a topic I want to follow, only to find that it doesn't relate to the theme in any meaningful way.
 
A Don Francisco song that in many ways sums up how we should love our neighbour selflessly.


Give it for love
Don't do it for show
Give it in secret
When no-one will know
For all that you have
Is a gift from above
Like your Father in heaven
Give it for love

Do it for love
Don't do it for show
Smile when you're fasting
So no-one will know
Yielding to God
Is what you're thinkin' of
Like your Father in heaven
Give it for love

Worship in truth
Don't do it for show
Pray all alone
Where no-one will know
Let your words be few
For I know what you need
And take time to listen
Take time to heed

Worship in truth
Don't do it for show
Pray all alone
Where no-one will know
Let your words be few
For I know what you need
And take time to listen
Take time to heed

Give it for love
Don't do it for show
Give it in secret
When no-one will know
For all that you have
Is a gift from above
Like your Father in heaven
Give it for love

 
s


In the below bible passage take the word Love and replace it with your name,by the end of this exercise I realized how selfish I truly was, and how often I fail to represent Love the way the God tells us to. This has to be connected in loving our neighbor as yourself. I got this from Francis Chan

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.












It all about hating sin and loving our neighbor as yourself
 
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