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Friday, March 28, 2014

(*) The Simplicity of Love

Love for the lovely warms our hearts and makes us smile. 
Love for the less fortunate is beautiful. 
Love for those suffering and unloved is compassion. 
Love for your enemies is Christ’s love.
 
The Bible calls us to be consumed with Christ and His love.  His love is true love.  True love makes you love a person when there are no apparent reasons to love.  We show our faith and trust in the promises of God when we sacrifice our time and comfort for the sake of others. 
In Deuteronomy 6:4-9, the Bible tells us “The LORD our God is One.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.”  Our heart is the seat of our emotions and the very center of our being.  It is where we make all of the decisions.  Our soul is the basis of our traits, qualities, and personality.  Our strength consists of physical, mental, and spiritual.  This command to love God involves our whole entire being. 
As Christ the Messiah said, the most important commandment is to “Love God;” the second, is to “Love your neighbors as yourself,” including love your enemies.  This is an extraordinary call to love, which sums up the entire message of the Bible, and it is not an option… it is a command!
This is the message of Christ the Messiah that is unique and different than all the messages.  It is a call of sacrificial love, exemplified by God Himself.  It calls us to put our performances and achievements aside, and continue to love when it no longer makes any apparent sense...
Have you ever thought about how crazy and senseless it is to believe in the existence of God?  What about this command to love?  Throw our minds out the window and invite our heart back in!  Have you ever thought about why God didn't say "love me with all your 'mind'?"  No, no, no!  God says, "love me with all your 'heart', 'soul', and 'strength'." 

God's love is Crazy Love.  It is a command.  So, looking around the world... throw out what people say about themselves, how do you know who truly belongs to God?  ==> By their display of this Crazy Love.  Do you have Crazy Love? 

5 comments:

Jake Donaldson said...

Hey George - Thanks for sharing. It's always interesting to follow your thoughts on religion, spirituality, and truth. I'm curious that you mention that the commands to love God and to love one's neighbor (including enemies) are unique to Christianity.

Through my studies of Christianity, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Islam, and even Atheism, I have found that very message to be at the core of all these philosophies/religions. I have also found that most of these philosophies/religions, in their most main stream and dominant manifestations (including Christianity and also Islam), are quite the opposite of such teaching.

It seems like you're doing a fair amount of research on Islam right now. I would be curious to hear your thoughts on someone like Ghaffar Khan, a Muslim whose whole life was inspiringly dedicated to the very type of Crazy Love that I think you're talking about.

Unknown said...

who can claim that they have the crazy of God? not me. but I hope that in the end people will say: that was a man who loved so well, loved me like none other. Definitely not there yet

William Shaules said...

It's "crazy love" indeed. It's a love rooted in YHWH's love for Israel (Isaiah 62:5) and in YHWH's love through Christ Jesus (Romans 5:8). Although I wouldn't think of it as completely mindless.

George said...

Thank you Brian and Professor Shaules. Your comments are so valuable. I am not there yet either... may be much further from you... But, perhaps that is why just pondering on how crazy the love of our God has for me, just blows my mind. I, really, don't even understand it. And, yes, now I ponder it some more, I wouldn't say its mindless either... but sometimes I feel like my mind to reason, can often reason me away from where my heart would like to be... if that makes any sense. I appreciate your feedbacks. They are food for my soul :)

George said...

Jake, I always loved talking to you about these things. It is enjoyable to broaden our learnings. Although we are often looking from different vantage points, I loved that we also shared a lot of similarities. I am inspired by the way you chose to live your life and always love to hear your comments.

Often times I feel like a little child, grappling with all the complexities of life/philosophy/religion. I enjoy all the differences and similarities. And you are totally right, me growing up in a completely different and foreign culture from the American culture has made me appreciate things so differently. Regardless of philosophy and culture, there seemed to be a common thread in our reverence for the 'unknown God'. I love the various expressions of that.

Did you hear that Maalala, the Muslim Afghan girl who was terrorized, is now stepping out to speak out to help the abducted Christian Nigerian girls?! I think that is absolutely beautiful. From my vantage point, the beauty that God puts into our hearts is without limit and boundaries... it is our choice and our desire to allow it to bloom or not. As we see here, how it blooms also have no creative boundaries!

Love it! Thanks Jake.

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