 LOVE
Recently I have realized that I haven’t defended my faith
convincingly enough. It took a lot of
intra-reflection for me to realize that the only way I could possibly make
other understand what I know, is to live it.
To defend something or someone is to protect them from attacks. But you see the Lord of my faith is a big
boy. He far knows better how to take
care of attacks than I do, and that I must believe. So defending my faith may not be the right expression to use when
I want to tell what I see, feel, and believe.
The right expression is share, as in sharing what I believe.
What I believe is influenced by just a few words. Words that Jesus/Yeshuah said before a group
of people. You see these people were
somewhat “religious”, meaning they had an organized system of rules that they
enforced in worship, conducts, etc.
They were proud, arrogant, and self-righteous. They abused their positions, lied, manipulated. They represented everything that is a turn
off for most of us, in terms of religion.
One day, they decided to trick Yeshuah into giving them a reason to
discredit Him. It went like that:
34 Hearing
that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One
of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus
replied: “‘Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38This is the
first and greatest commandment. 39 And the
second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law
and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:34-40
How can I not be in awe of the meaning of these words? This is all that matter. It is really that simple.
Not only is it that simple, but also we are told again in
1Peter 4:8 “ Above
all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” That means I must be forgiving.
I
found this to be the simplest concept yet the hardest one to achieve. There are so many situations where you want
to do anything but love the person in front of you. And if I can’t do the simplest thing, how can I be credible in
sharing my faith? The most posed questions are-if there is a God, how can He be so cruel and
let the innocent suffer, let wars happen, let children get abused? How they say indignantly. But they forget how it happens….
The
God I believe in has made us with a free will, all of us. It is us who chose to do the abusing, the
wars, and who cause the suffering. All
we need is a little push in the wrong direction. So If I am free to choose, which God I will worship; if I am free
to say what I feel; if I am free to love, then I am also free to chose hate; I
am free to chose to hurt others. It is
entirely my choice, not God’s. I
believe it is like that for us all.
Now the trick is that if I call
myself a Christian, then I have to honor what My Lord has instructed me. He said to love Our God with all of our
heart, soul and mind, and that was the greatest commandment. The second is to love all of you as
myself. And that is it! He didn’t say then the third one is…no-he
said that these were the foundation for all laws and for the prophets.
Can I do it? I have to do
it!
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Thursday, September 13, 2012
love
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