| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"In His Blood" |
| Date: |
24 Aug 2004 11:22:57 AM |
| Object: |
To both Stephen M. Adams AND Steve Winter |
Hi Stephen and Steve
Why oh Why are you wasting so much energy which could be put to better
use?
Stephen: did you realise you wrote "your God" in one of your post to
Steve. As though you two had different gods.
Steve: do you realise that your posts are full of insults (and the same
ones over and over again)?
I don't know the roots of the evil that generated this hatred between
yourselves for so long but in the Name of our Lord and Blessed Redeemer
Jesus Christ, I am asking you to stop and to put your energies to better
use.
May the one who is hurting the other ask the other for forgiveness
and
May the one who is hurt give forgiveness.
And may you both live in accordance with the Teachings of Christ Jesus
and follow His Way++
This message is a sincere message as I don't know either of you and I do
not take side, God is the only Judge, I only wanted to point out to both
of you what you seemed to have forgotten: Love Your Neighbour as Yourself
- Luke 10:27
In these words Jesus is summing up what we may call the moral law, the
six commandments of the Ten Commandments that relate to how we treat our
fellow human beings. The first great commandment is given here – “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart.” That sums up our obligation to
God, but the second one – “Love your neighbour as yourself” – sums up our
obligation to our fellow men.
How are we to understand this commandment? First of all, it expresses
God’s standard of perfection. God has given us the ten commandments – and
these two commandments that sum them up – to tell us what is his
expectation of us. If we were to be perfect, as our Father in heaven is
perfect, that is how we would live, keeping those commandments perfectly
in thought, word and deed. To inherit eternal life, as it is put in this
passage, we would need to keep those commandments perfectly. This expert
in the law comes to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal
life?” Jesus asks him, “Well, what does it say in the law?” He says it
gives these two great commandments, and Jesus says, “You answered
correctly. Do this and you will live.”
When we have come to Christ, and we discover that in Christ there is
forgiveness of sin, and there is new life – the gift of eternal life
given freely – what function does the law perform? What is the value of
these words then – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, love your
neighbour as yourself”? Is that law then worthless, is it meaningless, is
it something about which the Christian can say, “I don’t need that,
because I have forgiveness of sin and eternal life through Jesus Christ”?
No, far from it, because this is the law of Christ – Christ’s own abiding
law, the law for Christian behaviour and Christian attitudes. We are to
examine our lives in the light of these great commandments. How do we
love the Lord because of all that he has done for us? How do we love our
neighbour in light of the great love of God to us? We know that we will
not be able to keep these things perfectly in this life, but they are
there as the standard that we are aiming at – the ideal against which we
ought to measure all our attitudes and behaviour.
Particularly as we think of this commandment – “Love your neighbour as
yourself” – we have to ask ourselves the question, “What is our attitude
to our neighbour?” Have we a concern for the whole well-being of our
neighbour, our fellow human being? Have we a concern for his spiritual
and physical well-being? Is that something that matters to us? It ought
to, because this is Christ’s concern. Trying to keep his law will not win
us salvation, but having been given salvation by Jesus through his death
and resurrection, we must follow this law of love. “Love each other as I
have loved you” – that is his new commandment, as he calls it, that he
gives to us.
“Love your neighbour as you love yourself.” How are we matching up to
this expectation of the Lord Jesus Christ? Keeping this commandment is
not the way of salvation. It does not buy us eternal life, because
everything we do in that realm is tainted by our sin and failure. But it
is Jesus’ expectation of us to love as he loved. He came into the world
to seek and to save the lost. Around us – even in our families, among
people we know very well – there are people who are lost, just as lost as
people who may be in great physical need. We have to be concerned that
this love for our neighbour is shown in a full-orbed way. Just as Jesus
was concerned to heal the body, so he was concerned that sins would be
forgiven.
Remember the man who was paralysed, who was lowered down through the roof
to him. Jesus’ first words to him were not about his physical condition,
about the healing of his body. Jesus knew there was something troubling
that man more than his paralysis. It was his needy soul, his guilt before
God, and Jesus dealt with that. “Your sins are forgiven.” Then he turns
to his critics and asks, “Which is easier: to say ‘Your sins are
forgiven’, or to say ‘Rise up and walk’?” So he says, “Rise up and walk!”
and the man rises. He heals his body as well.
We have to have this whole-orbed concern for people, no matter who they
are. As we seek to show the kind of love that the Lord Jesus Christ
shows, then perhaps in God’s grace blessing will come in the church and
in our society. But we need to be awakened as to how far we may be from
the reality of that love in our own lives and in the life of our
congregation and in the life of our church. We are challenged by the
words of Jesus, and by the example of this Samaritan. We are challenged
to love our neighbour.
.
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| User: "Midjis" |
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| Title: Re: To both Stephen M. Adams AND Steve Winter |
24 Aug 2004 01:36:25 PM |
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In His Blood <Inthetruthofthelight@btinternet.com> wrote:
Hi Stephen and Steve
Why oh Why are you wasting so much energy which could be put to better
use?
Stephen: did you realise you wrote "your God" in one of your post to
Steve. As though you two had different gods.
Whatever God "Pastor" Winter claims to be a 'pastor' for, it is not the
God of Christianity. I suspect Stephen's usage was entirely intentional.
Steve: do you realise that your posts are full of insults (and the
same ones over and over again)?
Yes, he does realise it. He has realised it for many years. Again, it
is quite intentional. However, determining what motivates Steve to the
hatred and spite that he manifests would be a task for a psychologist,
and cannot be addressed here. Suffice to say that he either believes or
has convinced himself that he is doing the work of Christ in calling
people names. He has stated as much previously, offering as
justification the fact that Jesus called people names from time to time.
He neglects to take into account that, according to Christianity, Jesus
was God, and therefore pretty much had the right to call anyone anything
he liked.
Steve is on a mission to expose 'false-christian scum' wherever they may
lurk, and shout abuse at them. Quite what contribution he thinks this is
making to God's great plan is for him alone to know.
One day, perhaps, Steve will show enough respect for the religion he
claims to represent to put a capital 'C' on 'Christian'. In the
meantime, feel free to have a look at his site at http://www.impsmail.org
- it should tell you all you need to know about how "Pastor" Winter sees
Christianity.
I don't know the roots of the evil that generated this hatred between
yourselves for so long but in the Name of our Lord and Blessed
Redeemer Jesus Christ, I am asking you to stop and to put your
energies to better use.
You are only wasting your own energy. Winter is not happy unless he is
spitting flames at someone. It is the Lord's work, apparently. He is,
after all, the only truly righteous person in this nest of demons called
Usenet.
As I said, we can only speculate as to the roots of his hatred. No doubt
there is some cause; something deep in Steve Winter's past that makes him
the hatemonger he is today. But hatemonger he is, and if it is not
Stephen Adams it will be someone else. Over the years many people have
tried to make "Pastor" Winter see reason, and many different approaches
have been used. All have failed. Recently, he did post a message that
gave some of us hope that he might have calmed down a little. He
received many supportive and compassionate replies. Unfortunately, this
now seems to have been merely a 'flash in the pan', and the old resentful
and bitter Steve is back with a vengeance.
This message is a sincere message as I don't know either of you and I
do not take side
Interesting that you chose to apply a 'followup-to' field, then. Not
knowing "Pastor" Winter, you will not know that this is one of his normal
routines, used with the intention of redirecting any challenges or
responses to a little-read group, where they will not unduly trouble him.
This rarely succeeds these days, since most of his opponents are aware of
it. That said, it is easy to forget and he does occasionally manage to
succeed in making someone post something twice. Presumably he gets all
the satisfaction he needs from this.
--
Midjis
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