The Golden Rule--Part Two

Second of our Tuesday postings...TP

[happening every Tuesday, right here.]

The Golden Rule--part two

*This is a study on the "Golden Rule", and what it truly means.*

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Luke 6:31               " ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you."

In response to the question from last Tuesday Postings:

You may ask, "How then can I, who by nature am merely natural, respond in a super-natural way to Luke 6:31 ?"

Here is the answer:

“YOU CANNOT!”

Unless…….You should be introduced to the power of God in the person of Christ and that that power may come and live in you so that HIS love may flow from you.

Yet, we will still get bogged down by lies of the world.

“We can work it out.” – John Levin [song]

That is what men and woman are saying all the time.

“We can work this out!” 

And they can’t. Levin couldn’t and didn’t. Neither can you nor I.

So you see, that’s why religion, as an external code of practice, presented to well-meaning religious people, Sunday after Sunday, after Sunday is the most dreadful tyranny.

Because, the pastor then stands and says, “Now go out and love your enemies!” 

And the people want to be jolly good people… “You know I think I’ll go out and have a good try at this”… and they go out and have a miserable week, and they come back and say, “You know, I never tried hard enough.”

Furthermore, they think that by doing “that” they actually make themselves the Sons of the Most High God.

“So, if I do “this” I will become Your son.” Really it is, “Until I become His son or daughter, I cannot do this!”

You cannot bear the family likeness until you become a member of the family. And…

“How do I become a member of the family?”

Only as a result of God’s goodness and grace to you in the person of His son as He comes to confront you with our inability. To make you distinctly uncomfortable in order that you might know what it is when your heart accuses you to have the peace of God in your heart.

"It will only be as God works it in, that we can work it out!"

[Philippians 2:13[{revised}]

Stay tuned until next weeks post, where we will pick up right where we left off. 

Until then, if you have any questions or comments concerning this post, please contact us @ alacritymagazine.director@gmail.com putting as your subject "The golden Rule".

Blessings

Charity for,

Photography {via}

Post revised from Allistair Begg's sermon, "The Golden Rule"

The Golden Rule--Part one

First of our Tuesday postings...

[happening every Tuesday, right here.]

The Golden Rule--part one

*This is a study on the "Golden Rule", and what it truly means.*

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

Luke 6:31               " ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you."

In the Old Testament [Leviticus] Luke 6:31 is written written in a negative fashion:

“What you do not want others to do to you, do not do to others.”

Or another version:

“What is hateful to you, do not do to neighbor.”

Jesus, on the other hand, states it positively:

“Do to others as you would have them do to you."

Not simply enough for us to be passive, or to be refraining from recrimination. The children of God are to be those who are initiative takers in this matter of love.

Even Plato, Aristotle, confusious and many others are for “The Golden Rule”. But the framework needed is absent in their beliefs.

The Old Testament laws: You shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, you shall not commit adultery..etc are summed up in one positive dimension:

“Do to others as you would have them do to you."

As well, in Romans 13:9-10 Paul uses the same terminology.

⁹ For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be [As if Paul doesn’t know, which clearly he does.] , are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

And then in the next verse Paul says,

¹¹ And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

Paul is saying [in a kind manner] wake up, be sure you are “loving” your neighbor as yourself. 

In other words….

We need to understand the rule not only positively, but we need to understand it precisely.

We need to see what it doesn’t say, as well as what it does say. And it does NOT say “Treat others as they treat you”.

Don’t treat them the way they treat you, treat them in the way you would like to be treated by them.

Make sure you do not view this statement in verse twenty-one as simply a requirement which an individual is able to fulfill in their own strength.

We should not regard this Golden Rule, so called, as a requirement which men and woman, by virtue of who we are and what we are, are able to fill this in our own strength.

Many people hear,

“Do unto to others as you would have them do unto you”.

Then they say,

“Now I am going to go out and have a very good try at that.”

But that is where we go wrong,

For we CANNOT do it!

We can make an attempt at it, but we cannot achieve it. 

What Jesus calls for here is not the natural response of natural men and woman. It is the super-natural response of ordinary men and woman. 

You may ask, "How then can I, who by nature am merely natural, respond in a super-natural way?"

Do you want to know the answer?

Stay tuned until next weeks post, where we will pick up right where we left off. 

Until then, if you have any questions or comments concerning this post, please contact us @ alacritymagazine.director@gmail.com putting as your subject "The golden Rule".

Grace and peace be to you

Charity for,

Wheres the love?

        One of the last scenes of Seven Spielberg's Schindler’s List, shows Oskar Schindler filled with grief while surrounded by the some 1,200 Jews he has saved from the Holocaust. Looking around at what little he has left after spending almost everything he had to save Jews, he is not satisfied. He looks back on all the money he wasted early on in the war and wonders how many people he could have saved if he had not squandered his wealth. He looks at his car and wonders how many lives it would have been worth if he had given it up. He looks at a gold pin on his chest and cries because with it he could have bought at least one more life. He wonders how many lives he could have saved if he had given it all. 

How many of us will experience the same feeling when we understand that it’s too late? 
Will we get to the end of our life and realize how many lives we could have reached out and touched if only we had let go of everything we were holding so tightly? 
Will we finally realize that it was not things but people that really mattered? 
When will we finally attain a God-given love for people and give up everything so we can love as many lost souls as possible?

We are comfortable Christians today. 

Isn’t that an oxymoron! Nowhere in the Bible is there a command to sit back and do your own thing. Instead, I see, 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,” 

and, 

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

 Jesus never once told us to do what was easy. Living your life for Jesus will never be easy. Living your life for Jesus means giving up everything to take up your cross and follow Him because He gave up everything to carry a cross for us. Living for Jesus means loving like Him.

No Christian should ever make excuses like, “That’s not my problem to deal with,” “It’s in another country,” “I can’t speak their language,” etc. because James 4:17 says, 

“Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” 

Yes. We sin every time we walk past an opportunity to share God’s love. And believe me you; we miss those opportunities all the time.

When it comes down to it, what is a person worth to you? 
Is it worth giving up a little time, love, and comfort? 
Are people worth giving your life for? Jesus thought so. What could be better than surrendering your whole life to following God’s commands and just loving people with all your might? 
Do we want to stay where we want to stay, or do we want to be where Jesus is: In the arms of the broken, unlovely, and lost.

Do you ever look around and wonder why you have been so blessed? Have you ever thought that you were given those blessings to give them away? 
Luke 12:48 says, 

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” 

If you have much, then why are we not giving much? Since we are not going to keep anything when we die, then why not use earthly possessions to bring people into the kingdom and show love? 

Have you ever looked through your closet and wondered how many people there are who have no clothes to wear today? 
Have you poured yourself a glass of water and wondered about the woman across the world that has to walk great lengths to get a little bit of dirty water for her and her family? 
Have you ever put some change in a vending machine and wondered how many children have died of starvation this hour? 
Have you ever walked down your street and wondered how many hurting people dwelled in those houses? 
Have you ever looked at the time and wonder how much you have left? 
Have you ever wondered what more could you do to make a difference?

When it’s too late will you wonder? 

Or will you think outside of yourself today to touch a life tomorrow and the days after? 
Love. We are called to love. It seems so simple, yet it is so hard. Here’s a question: why do we call ourselves Christians when we are not showing love? Why do we walk past people in need when we are in a rush to get somewhere? In a rush to get where? What could be more important than helping someone else find their way in the dark world? If anything, we should be rushing to share the gospel for we only have one life to live and so many people need to find God’s love. We do not have any time to waste. When our time comes, we should look back on our lives not sorry because we did not show love in the time we had, but sorry that we didn’t have more time to show love.

Matthew 6:19- 20 says, 

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” 

What then, are the treasures we ought to be storing up? 

What treasures will last? 

Theres only one answer.

People.

Megan Kristy for

Photo: {via} Google--Schindler’s List

True love.....for real?

Love......when did this word really come into being? When the world was made?

2010 years ago, on a dark night in the city of Bethlehem a small child was born. A child that would save us from our sins, God made man. That night love was made *real*. God sent His only child, to a world of pain and sin, and why? Because he loved us.


The meaning of Love now in our culture is so different from what it was 2010.
The media has twisted that word and changed its meaning, "Give love to get love back."

Where has that *real* love gone to? The love God gave us that we did not deserve. Can we ever get it back?

Guess what? It never left, God's *real* love is here even more, and it is our place to bring it out. Send it to every tribe and nation, every tongue and dialect. God loved us expecting nothing back, we can also love others in that same manner.

Here is one way we can spread God's *real* love:

Loving your neighbor as yourself.
"For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." 1 John 3:11

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Matthew 22:37-40

1 JOHN 4:7-21~God's Love and Ours
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Love is not an option, it is an expression of our union with Christ.

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Ephesians. 4:1-3


Speaking the Truth in Love to one another:


1. Honor one another (Rom 12:10)
2. Encourage one another (1 Thes. 5:11, Heb. 10:25)
3. Confess to one another (James 5:16)
4. Pray for one another (James 5:16)

Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
1 John 3:13-15

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:18

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
1 John 3:23

To love God is to love others.

♥God is love.♥ If we do not love others, we do not love God.

Today, tomorrow, seek out someone in particular to show God's love to, and be reminded of just how much God loves you.

Tonight, when you have a quiet moment, grab a blanket and your favorite drink and sit down to read Luke 2, the greatest Love story of all.

Much Blessings,
Charity Anne for

P.S For more on loving your neighbors and loving God, read 1 John 3 and 1 John 4:7-20