The New Free Thinkers » neighbors http://newfreethinkers.com Insight from a New Generation Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:00:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 The Revelation of John http://newfreethinkers.com/2009/the-revelation-of-john/ http://newfreethinkers.com/2009/the-revelation-of-john/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:00:18 +0000 Joshua Savary http://newfreethinkers.com/?p=350 Not long ago I spent a week at a camp meeting and heard a number of incredibly anointed sermons preached. One that stuck out to me was a message by Bro. Joel Urshan about the love of God. As he preached, I was convicted and lost control of my emotions as God began to flow through my life healing and reassuring me. I believe this message can do the same for you if you let it.

He taught about the love that God has for us, and how John had this revelation. That is why the apostle John was called “John the Beloved”. John, unlike any of the other disciples, saw Jesus all the way to the cross and saw his friend — his master, his God — die for him. It was a gruesome death unfit for any human, let alone the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Through the agony and suffering he watched his savior endure, John learned how much Jesus loved him. He would be forever changed by the knowledge that Jesus loved him enough to endure it all for him, to pay the ultimate price, to be the sacrifice to end all others. Jesus bled and died to relinquish the hold that sin had upon our lives: He gave His all that I might be free!

Christ and St John at the Eucharist

As I stand back and consider the impact that this unprecedented act has upon my life, it reminds me how insignificant my petty arguments are with my brothers and sisters. If Jesus could have held every sin against me and yet chose to forgive, how much more should I forgive my brothers? As it says in John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Then Jesus said in Matt 22:39, “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”  From these scriptures we see that we cannot love God if we do not love our neighbor — but we cannot love our neighbor if we don’t love ourselves.

Bro. Urshan said it this way: “We cannot love God if we don’t love others, and we cannot love others if we don’t love ourself”, so we must love ourselves, but not with a selfish love. We must not allow what we see in ourselves, our faults, failures and shortcomings to mitigate what God wants to do through us.

We can find encouragement in the fact that Jesus loves us despite our failures, and He knows us better than we know ourselves anyway. Personally, I am going to let God heal me of the things which prevent me from loving myself, and learn how to love myself unselfishly in the process that He has for me. I challenge you to do the same! Remember, He loves you!

He loves you. He loves you!

Apply this idea to your life. What changes when you know and are convinced that God loves you?

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