Gentle-Warrior Posted September 15, 2019 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 3 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 212 Content Per Day: 0.12 Reputation: 13 Days Won: 0 Joined: 08/30/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted September 15, 2019 On 5/6/2019 at 4:09 AM, diane32 said: Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' For all practical intents and purposes, how can we love the Lord our God whom we have no seen? So, without going into works of charity or loving one another, how to you think we can love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and minds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneLight Posted September 15, 2019 Group: Royal Member Followers: 22 Topic Count: 1,294 Topics Per Day: 0.21 Content Count: 31,762 Content Per Day: 5.23 Reputation: 9,760 Days Won: 115 Joined: 09/14/2007 Status: Offline Share Posted September 15, 2019 1 hour ago, Gentle-Warrior said: For all practical intents and purposes, how can we love the Lord our God whom we have no seen? So, without going into works of charity or loving one another, how to you think we can love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and minds? In the spirit. We don't see our spirit, but we have one. God is Spirit. John 4:24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willa Posted September 17, 2019 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 68 Topic Count: 186 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 14,242 Content Per Day: 3.33 Reputation: 16,653 Days Won: 30 Joined: 08/14/2012 Status: Offline Share Posted September 17, 2019 We can identify with Christ through our sufferings. He suffered physically for us, and knows how to pray for us while we are suffering because He has suffered horribly in His scourging and on the cross. We can identify with His emotional suffering, because He was despised and rejected by men as well. We can identify with Christ in His temptations because He was tempted in all ways like we are yet without sin. Identifying with Christ helps us to have heart knowledge. Praising and worshipping God for all He is, and thanking God for all He has done for us also helps us to have heart knowledge. God inhabits the praises of His people. We draw near to Him when we worship in spirit and in truth. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saved34 Posted September 18, 2019 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 5 Topic Count: 1 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 1,185 Content Per Day: 0.27 Reputation: 667 Days Won: 3 Joined: 03/28/2012 Status: Offline Birthday: 02/19/1971 Share Posted September 18, 2019 Excellent post @angels4u. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alive Posted September 18, 2019 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 22 Topic Count: 194 Topics Per Day: 0.11 Content Count: 11,053 Content Per Day: 6.55 Reputation: 9,010 Days Won: 36 Joined: 09/12/2019 Status: Offline Birthday: 01/09/1956 Share Posted September 18, 2019 On 9/15/2019 at 4:23 PM, Gentle-Warrior said: For all practical intents and purposes, how can we love the Lord our God whom we have no seen? So, without going into works of charity or loving one another, how to you think we can love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and minds? Having seen him is irrelevant. Your premise is flawed. To the core of the question...I for one, fall short-- just as I do in all other ways, This does not mean that I don't try: Phil. 3:14 I apress on toward the goal for the prize of the bupward call of God in cChrist Jesus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadworm Posted September 18, 2019 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 25 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 300 Content Per Day: 0.18 Reputation: 79 Days Won: 0 Joined: 09/13/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted September 18, 2019 I grew up in the most historically important large Pentecostal church in Canada. When I reached my teans, my faith was poisoned by faith crippling doubts about the Bible and the reality of God's intervention in our lives. My pastor and adult layman took personal interest in me and my problems--except one, Gordon Edmunds. Gordon wanted to encourage me in my walk by recommending good devotional Christian books he had read. I confessed that I didn't know any Christian adults who like to read books. Gordon sensed by faith crisis and replied with words that greatly impacted my life: "You don't have to be stupid to be a Christian, but sometimes I think it sure helps!" That rather crude comment made realize this paradox: On the one hand, we are commanded to love God with all our mind as well as all our heart. On the other hand, despite the deceptive character of some feelings, it is still easier to feel your way to God than to think your way to God. In other words, "Theological understanding is the booby prize because it gives you just enough spirituality to inoculate you against the real thing--iife changing spiritual experiences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentle-Warrior Posted September 19, 2019 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 3 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 212 Content Per Day: 0.12 Reputation: 13 Days Won: 0 Joined: 08/30/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted September 19, 2019 3 hours ago, Alive said: Having seen him is irrelevant. Your premise is flawed. To the core of the question...I for one, fall short-- just as I do in all other ways, This does not mean that I don't try: Phil. 3:14 I apress on toward the goal for the prize of the bupward call of God in cChrist Jesus. You response falls short because you did not explain HOW we are to LOVE the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength. The answer lies in what God has done for us first, 1 John 4:10 (NASB95) 10 "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." By the way, we don't love the Lord our God through our flesh, but through our spirits that are united to the Spirit of Christ. God is a Spirit and those who worship (love) Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:24). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saved34 Posted September 20, 2019 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 5 Topic Count: 1 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 1,185 Content Per Day: 0.27 Reputation: 667 Days Won: 3 Joined: 03/28/2012 Status: Offline Birthday: 02/19/1971 Share Posted September 20, 2019 On 9/18/2019 at 8:32 PM, Gentle-Warrior said: You response falls short because you did not explain HOW we are to LOVE the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength. The answer lies in what God has done for us first, 1 John 4:10 (NASB95) 10 "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." By the way, we don't love the Lord our God through our flesh, but through our spirits that are united to the Spirit of Christ. God is a Spirit and those who worship (love) Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:24). Worshipping God in Spirit does not mean to the exclusion of the fleshly body. It is in and through what we do in our bodies that are important to God. Rom 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 1Co 6:20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1Co 6:15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Worshiping in spirit simply means there are no longer specific physical Holy places that we have to go to, to worship God. Anywhere we are is Holy and a perfect place to worship God. In Old Testament times no believer would have ever thought to pray to God in a bathroom, or a woman right in the middle of her menstrual cycle. Now in Christ those things are not even accounted for as we can come boldly to the throne of grace anywhere and anytime at a moments notice. Joh 4:20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Joh 4:21 "Woman," Jesus replied, "believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Joh 4:23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coliseum Posted September 21, 2019 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 14 Topic Count: 133 Topics Per Day: 0.08 Content Count: 1,123 Content Per Day: 0.66 Reputation: 2,055 Days Won: 0 Joined: 09/07/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted September 21, 2019 When Jesus says to me, "If you love me, you will obey my commands," it says to me that it is not enough to know about him; external things are not of the heart. It is not enough to know him; even the Devil knows him far better than I. Rather, I must be like him, doing the things he taught me. When a hungry man walks by and needs food, do I give him a thumbs up, or a hamburger? Whatever I do for the least of these brothers of mine, I have done for the King. It shows my heart through my actions, and the love I show for my brother is a direct expression of my love for God. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTC Posted September 21, 2019 Group: Royal Member Followers: 18 Topic Count: 200 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 2,795 Content Per Day: 0.65 Reputation: 1,502 Days Won: 1 Joined: 06/25/2012 Status: Offline Birthday: 07/26/1952 Share Posted September 21, 2019 3 hours ago, Coliseum said: When Jesus says to me, "If you love me, you will obey my commands," it says to me that it is not enough to know about him; external things are not of the heart. It is not enough to know him; even the Devil knows him far better than I. Rather, I must be like him, doing the things he taught me. When a hungry man walks by and needs food, do I give him a thumbs up, or a hamburger? Whatever I do for the least of these brothers of mine, I have done for the King. It shows my heart through my actions, and the love I show for my brother is a direct expression of my love for God. Yes, very good my friend. There are several (or more) folks on our board that have said we cannot be like Him so we need not even try. That's so opposite of the truth none of us could convince them. You're still very new to the board but you'll bump into these guys. I no longer have the patience for people like them. I am very happy to read this Coliseum. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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