Love God with all your body, soul, and mind

Time passes no matter what we do.  Time goes fast.  What do you think?  You realise that your life is also going fast because everything goes hand in hand with time.  For the first 6 days when God created everything, there were no human being witnesses.  He created everything in first 5 days that is beautiful to look at and admire it.  He didn’t do one item per day but many.  E.g many different species of fish but on the 6^th day, He only took one dust to create you and I.

He made us special, “let us make one like us, one of us, a part of us”.  Although animals can breathe, God did not use his mouth to breathe into those creatures,  He only breathed into human beings.  The love of God for humanity started here.

God gave us time to push us and help us to realise that we will not be on this earth for eternity because eternal life is somewhere else.  He decided the human being will die and when people die, it is painful because we don’t see them again except if we meet with them in heaven.  Because God loves the world, He gave us that one verse, John 3:16: only 26 words.  God gave his Son and whoever believes in his son will never die.  We trust in that and believe in it.

The greatest commandment is to love your God with all your mind, soul, strength and heart.  Four things.  Have you stopped to think how someone can love God with their soul?  How to love someone with my strength or mind?  Once you understand that, it is the beginning of knowing how God loves you and how to love him back.  If you don’t understand how to love God, you will achieve nothing with love.  Many Christians do not talk about this. 

I have asked many pastors, “Why don’t you tell us how to love with your soul?  How do I love God with all my heart? Teach it to me.  How to love God with my Strength? Teach me”, but no answer. 

Today, we will focus on the second part where Jesus added to love your neighbour in the same way you love yourself or your soul.  Do you love yourself?  God loves us and gave his only son and gave us everything we have surrounding us.  Being created in the image of God means we must love other people. 

Do you love yourself?  What is love to me?  If I don’t love myself, how will I love my neighbour?  If I don’t even know how to love, how will I love others?  You can only give what you have.  How much love do you have for yourself?  When I think of myself, I don’t know what I love about myself.  “Odon, can you tell yourself 20 things that prove you love yourself”.  I couldn’t count 5. 

When someone comes to you and says, “I love you”, you feel good but when asked, do you love yourself, what is your answer?  Jesus was trying to remind us that it is impossible to enter Kingdom of God if you don’t understand how precious you are to God and to love yourself.

Love has steps to grow, you need to do work and need fertiliser to grow.  Many people protect their love because they don’t want it to be broken.  Back home, we see people who kill themselves because the one who loved them is dead or doesn’t love them anymore.  I have seen people sacrifice everything for love including putting their Bible down.

Imagine how you love your mum, friend, children.  If you were asked, if you can only love one person on this planet, who will it be?  Many will not say themselves.  Ange I am sure has one child on the top of the list.  When we love those people, we are ready to sacrifice even our own kidney for them to live. Imagine if we loved ourselves in the same way.

We look at physical appearances and  believe that is what it is to love ourselves.  Many will spend thousands of dollars to look attractive.  That is not love or to love yourself, that is to be attractive to others not yourself.  I once watched the Kardashians.  They are see me see me, look at me, look at me, focus on me.  They can go through a lot of things, take operations to appear beautiful.  To look beautiful doesn’t mean people will love you.  They may appreciate your beauty but they do not necessarily love you.  Imagine if the entire world could only love beautiful people, the world would be different and Jesus would only come for the beautiful.

Human beings focus on things that are not important, focusing on our beauty rather than our love.  When you want to love yourself for the Bible, you need to understand that you were created in the image of God and because he loved the world so much, he gave his only son.  Do you give what is precious to yourself or to others?  Do you give so others can also be saved.

We have soul, heart and body.  God, you created us has been teaching us that the body is just dust and not important.  We should focus on what is eternal.  Whoever trusts in God will love for eternity. 

To love myself, I must be clean and happy and joyful with all I see and appreciate it.  Love is patient, that is the first point of definition of love.  Am I patient with myself?  When you do a mistake in your life, we sometimes become angry.  Even a small mistake can make you become wrong.  Some people will say, “it’s every time me, another mistake” and they are good at counting their weaknesses rather than their strength. 

When you love yourself, do you appreciate what you do?  In my community we celebrate wins but in NZ we don’t celebrate achievements or announce it. 

Yesterday I went to Auckland, we saw Samoan vehicles with their flags hanging out the window. They love their nation and are proud.  They were proud of their identity.  Are you proud of your identity as child of God?  I must be proud of how God created me.  God decided to create you in the way you are, with your physical appearance and your nature.  We don’t have to imitate others, just be ourselves.

I can’t say that because Ange sings very well that I must sing like her.  Ange will still be Ange and I will still be me.  Men try to dance like Michael Jackson, but they will never be Michael Jackson.  Love who are and be natural, don’t try to be synthetic.

When I read the Bible, am I patient or do I just read it quickly?

1 Timothy 12:1, do you remember that you are a servant of God?  God has chosen you and given you a place to be and the strength.  Are you strong enough?  Someone who is strong enough is also strong in love.  That’s how you know if someone is strong by measuring their love.  Even if someone hates you or does wrong against you, you will love that person if you are strong but if you hate, then you are weak.

The Bible says, let the weak believe they are strong and only way to be strong is to love.  After being strong, you must be trustworthy.  God trusts you, according to Genesis 1, God gave creation to us to control.  If God trusts you, why don’t you trust yourself?  Why are you unable to trust yourself?  You will only be able to trust yourself when you love yourself.

I love my hands so I will use them for God, I love my time so I will use it for reading Bible.  My father was good at soccer.  Every day we would play and he would always defeat me.  I was learning many skills and when I did those skills and pass my father, I would mock him and say, “you know nothing, you see how good I am”.  One time, by luck I won against my father.  I then told the other kids that my dad has something to say and I pushed my dad to tell them that I won.

For me, my focus was winning but forgot all the games I lost against him.  Our love in Jesus should have a focus of winning.  What do I win by being me?  What do I love?  Do I love my way of reading Bible, praying, thinking of God.

How often we can think of our husband/wife or children and we want to hear from them but how often do we think of God?  Love between you and God should be like the love you have for your family members.  Think about God.  When you don’t see God for a few days, do you panic, do you start the search for God? 

How often do you call God to come back into your life?  How often do you tell yourself to love yourself?  Do you love your heart? Your soul?  If so, what do you do to love your soul/heart?  If I ask my soul, what do you love?  What will it say?  Some might say, when I read the book of Psalms, I feel joy.  When I sing a certain song, I feel joy.  Keep feeding your soul with great things, take care of it.

When you love your soul, it will be easy to love your neighbours.  When you are patient with your soul, you will be patient with others.  When your body asks for something at the same time as your soul, there will be a fight.  Your body will want to sin, but soul doesn’t want it.  How often do you favour your soul when your body battles?

I jumped onto YouTube this morning, it said, “praying to God is wrong, pray doesn’t work, if you pray, you won’t get money but if you give money, you will get money, your prayers are useless just fight for money”.  Why can’t you invest in your soul or for the desires of heart to please the Father who sent his son to die for us.  When you please God with your heart and soul, you will get reciprocal love.  If you only say God loves me but you don’t love him back, it will be like the prodigal son.

Love yourself first then compare the way you love yourself to others.  Do I pray for my neighbours?  If I have a headache, I feel it but when my neighbours go through pain, do I care or not?  The only thing I will look is when my dog barks at them as they pass. When we do not care, we don’t love.  Love cares.  Do you care about yourself?

Soon we will go back to heaven and my soul must go to God and take our love that I have given to myself and others.  If you have protected your soul, your soul will testify.  He fed his body 6x per day but only fed me once/week.  The body was given all the privilege.  You will have to explain why you loved your body more than your soul or heart.  Your body can’t defend you, it was your decision.

Why did I give to you eyes but they were only on your phone 6 hours per day but no time to read the Word of God.  Love yourself means to love your soul.  Once you love your soul, you will pass that on to your children.  Look and try to find what your soul needs.  The need of your body should come last.

Communion - God's love never fails

By Hayley Boud

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, we see the attributes of love and when we look at these we can see that God Himself is love.  He is patient and kind, is not selfish etc.  This week I have been thinking about the attribute of love, "Love never fails".  God is love and therefore, God never fails.

If God never fails, that means He is always successful.  He was succesful when He left Heaven to become a man.  He was successful because He came in the body of a man but did not sin.  That success meant that He was able to be the sacrifice for our sins.  He was successful when He chose the cross (not my will but Yours be done).  He was successful because of His great love for us which never fails.

This morning we sang a song that said, "calvary has covered it all, my sin and shame, don't count anymore".  Love covers all things and by shedding His blood, Jesus has covered our sin and shame and now the Father doesn't count our sin anymore.  All because of His great love that never fails.

As we take the bread and juice this morning, we will remember the love that God has for us.  This love that never fails.  We will remember Jesus, this God that is always successful.  We will thank Him for His love for us that enabled Him to endure the cross (love endures all things) and we will praise Him for He was successful as a man, successful in not sinning, successful in enduring the cross and He was succesful in rising from the dead.  Let's worship God for He never fails.

Let the Peace of Christ Rule in Your Hearts

By Hayley Boud

 

Colossians 3:12-15New International Version (NIV)

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved,

clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.   

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful”.

 

Colossians 3:12-15New American Standard Bible (NASB)

^“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved,

put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;

bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful”.

 

God has given us a gift of peace that this world doesn’t have.  It’s a gift that only God can give us but we can choose to let it rule in our hearts or we can choose to not let it rule. 

 

What does it mean to rule?

1.      One of a set of explicit or understood regulations or principles governing conduct or procedure within a particular area of activity.

2.      Exercise ultimate power or authority over (an area and its people).

3.      An accepted principal/instruction that states the way things are or should be donean ​ and tells you what you are allowed and not allowed to do.

 

We have the Word of God that is our accepted instruction that states the way things are and states the way we should do things and helps us to understand what we are allowed and not allowed to do.  Reading verses 12-14 helps us to see what these instructions are.  We have to let these have the ultimate power and authority over us. 

 

These instructions are to put on:

1.      A heart of compassion

2.      Kindness

3.      Humility

4.      Gentleness

5.      Patience

6.      Forgiveness

7.      Love

8.      Thankfulness

 

So, if we want peace in our lives, then we have to put on all of these.  When someone hurts you, put on compassion.  When someone annoys you, put on kindness.  When someone disappoints you, put on forgiveness.  When someone angers you, put on patience and gentleness.  When someone discourages you, put on love and thankfulness.  Not always easy but this is how to have peace ruling in our lives. 

What does it mean to be compassionate?

1.      Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. 

2.      A response to the sufferings of others that motivates a desire to go out of your way to help

 

On Sunday, Odon talked about Colleen and a dream he had regarding her ex-boss.  Colleen was treated badly by this woman but in Odon’s dream, this lady had to come to Colleen and ask for a job.  What awesome revenge!  How good would that feel?  If it were me, I would take my revenge and make her feel worse.  But, if we are to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, we have to be compassionate.  We have to go out of our way to help the person, even though they have hurt us.  Seems like that would make me lose peace not keep peace.  Yet, the truth is, when we are compassionate towards others, we gain peace and when we are cruel, we lose peace.

 

What does it mean to be kind?

1.      Wine mellowed with age is the same word used to describe kindness

When someone makes us angry, do we also rise up with anger and answer back with anger?  Or are we mellow like an old wine that has mellowed with age?  It’s hard to be kind when people are so unkind to us but if we want to keep the peace that God has given to us, we have to be kind.  We have to be extra, extra kind sometimes.  People can be rude for no reason but if we answer back rudely, we will lose our peace.  If we answer with extra kindness, we will keep our peace and that person will learn how to be kind also. 

 

Humility

Can you give examples of when pride took over, or when pride started to take a place and then you humbled yourself (or someone/thing humbled you). 

Last week, my boss told me to write a letter and he dictated a sentence which I added to the letter.  When he reviewed the letter, he told me to remove a particular word from that sentence (that he had dictated) saying the word was too emotive.  Then, he added that very word to another sentence later in the letter in writing.  I went back and made the amendments to the letter.  He reviewed it one more time and said, “remove that word, it’s too emotive”.  The word that he had dictated and then wrote down.  I felt like saying, “you’re the one who wrote it” but then decided it was best to be humble and accept to be wrong – even though it wasn’t me who was wrong.  I didn’t want to start an argument or make my boss think I don’t respect him, so I took the blame on me to keep the peace.

 

Sometimes, we will face that, we have to accept others to accuse us and we feel the pride rising up and we want to defend ourselves, but it’s better just to keep quiet.  Sometimes we can say something, if it is with a good tone and attitude but sometimes it is better just to accept to be wrong, even when we are right.

 

A good verse to remember when we feel pride rising up is, “humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He might exalt you at the proper time” 1 Peter 5:6.

If only I could do that every time.  Two days after thinking I was awesome for not letting pride get the better of me with my boss, I let myself down at home.  Odon was doing the dishes and I was very grateful so I said thank you very much for doing them.  He said, “you should thank Bertila for vacuuming”.  Pride rose up because I don’t need to be reminded like a child to thank people, of course I know how to thank people and of course I would thank Bertila.  Instead of being humble and saying, “definitely, I will, I’m very grateful to Bertila for her help”, I said, “You don’t have to tell me how to thank people, I always say thank you but no one ever says thank you to me” and then I went on and listed all the things I do without getting thanked.  Shame on me!  After I finished talking, I felt so ashamed of myself.  Where was my humility?

 

It wasn’t that I expect to be thanked, I just thought that if Odon is reminding me to say thank you, then he should remind the kids to say thank you to me for everything I do.  On one hand, that is probably true – we all need to be thanked and appreciated but on the other hand, I should be humble and wait for the mighty hand of God to exalt me at that the proper time. 

So, the moral of the story…let’s remember that we don’t always have to be right or acknowledged.  If we are humble, we won’t mind if people blame us or say things we know are not correct – we will just wait for God to exalt us at the right time.

 

The verse also says to keep peace ruling in our hearts, we also need to be gentle, patient, forgiving, loving and thankful.  Let's keep this in mind when we feel we are losing peace.  We usually feel that it's someone else's fault when we lose our peace (someone offends us or doesn't do what they promised to do or they annoy us). Let's be patient with one another and answer with gentle kind words, forgiving each other and let's be thankful for one another.

 

 

 

Love - the Good News!

By Angela Bhandal

 

Love takes on a whole new meaning when it’s written about in the New Testament of the Bible. It’s really exciting because it actually takes on the form of a man – the man Christ Jesus. Jesus is the picture of what true love represents and that is self-sacrificial love, or love that is given away and is other-centered. It is not kept for yourself. And this is exactly how Jesus ‘loved’. The Greek word for this form of love is ‘agape’, and it is quite different to other forms of love such as erotic love or brotherly love. “This is love”, the Apostle John affirmed, ‘not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). When we define ‘agape’ by Jesus’ self-less action, we realize it is completely different to the way we define ‘love’ in our human way. It keeps on caring, despite the flaws in others, it acts for the benefit of others even when they don’t deserve it and it costs the person who offers it everything.

 

This is how God showed His love amongst us: He sent His One and Only Son into the world, that we might live through Him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and demonstrated that love by sending His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

 

When I think of Jesus being born into Mary and Joseph’s family, I wonder if it was hard for God to give Him up in this way?  He’s kind of lending or giving away His much loved Son to another couple, who are going to raise Him according to their culture, traditions and beliefs. If I consider this act of sacrifice from my perspective as a mother, I would find it almost impossible to do this, to give away my baby to be cared for by someone else. (In another sense God gives us children and trusts us to care for them. They don’t really belong to us, but to God). In a similar way, God was trusting Mary and Joseph with this task. God’s plan for Jesus was that He would be fully human right from birth while also being God incarnate!

 

But God’s love for us didn’t start at the cross, it began way before this. I wonder at what age Jesus realized what His mission on this earth was. For example our daughter Eden who is nearly 3yrs old has no concept of “the big picture of life”, she has no insight into responsibility, the need to get a good education for a secure job later in life etc. and as a little, boy, Jesus would have been no different to Eden, except He was! For example, we know from the Bible that Jesus never sinned, not once, not even a little bit. Hebrews 7:25-26 describes Him as ‘holy, blameless, pure and set apart from sinners. Imagine having a child that never sinned! What a blessing He must have been to His Mum & Dad and His brothers and sisters.

 

When Jesus was 8 days old, he was taken to the Temple to be circumcised as prescribed by the law and Simeon (a righteous man), prophesied to Mary that her child would have an amazing future and impact on the nation of Israel (Luke 2:33-35). I wonder if she had any insight as to what that meant or if God had shielded her from understanding? As parents, we only want what is best for our children and to shield them from all harm, we want a happy existence for them and not one of suffering and hardship. But Jesus life was to be different from the very beginning, He chose to go and redeem people from bondage to satan and sin and the subsequent separation from God through spiritual and physical death.

 

The Bible only gives us a small glimpse of Jesus’ childhood in Luke 2:40, ‘...and the child grew…’ It says that when Jesus was 12 years old he went to Jerusalem with his family for the Feast of Passover and amazing to think that one day this would be fulfilled in His own death on the cross. He would be the human ‘Passover Lamb’. Human flesh and blood, present at the ceremony which commemorated what had happened in Egypt, 1400 years earlier. What amazes me though is what happened next. When the family returns home, they were unaware that they had left Jesus behind. They must have been travelling in a big caravan of people for them to not notice their 12 yr old son wasn’t amongst them! Three days later, they find him still in Jerusalem and mum gives him a ticking off! They were very worried and anxious for him.  As a parent I really can understand how they would have felt.  Now Jesus reply was simply quite beautiful – but his parents did not understand what he was saying (usually it is the other way around). Nevertheless, he was obedient to them and went home with them. And his mum, treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew…

 

In Luke 3:23, it tells us that Jesus began his ministry at about 30 yrs of age. There seems to be a gap between the age of 12 up to now at age 30 of his life. Any ideas of how you think Jesus filled his life during this time (18yrs)?

 

Jesus is baptized and thus His ministry begins. He is no longer a little boy, He is a man – the Son of Man – the purpose and reason for His life starts to take shape. The genealogy that is listed that Jesus hails from is pretty impressive ending in Luke’s gospel account of his Father’s name: God (Luke 3:37).

 

Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit meets with someone He would have been very familiar with  - satan. Satan was never a threat to Jesus and I’m sure satan knew this, but blinded by his own greed and pride and arrogance, satan tried to make Jesus sin, but he failed! And furthermore, Jesus overcame the temptation of satan with the Scriptures that He had memorized as part of His education. He who is described as the ‘Word’ by John 1:1, overcame with the Word that became flesh! Hallelujah. Similarly, we also can overcome through the Word, by the Word when we belong to Jesus.

 

When Jesus returns to Galilee after His time in the desert, His fame has spread and when He spoke in the synagogue, everyone praised him. They spoke well of Him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from His lips (Luke 4:23). And when He speaks the truth to them, it does not make them happy and from here on in, Jesus’ enemies and those that hate Him begin to grow. This is also the time that the Scriptures describe His miracles and His ability to heal the sick and do amazing wondrous things for people who sought him out. People were beginning to see that this man who came from the house of Joseph and Mary was different. He spoke with authority and had power in Him that could only come from God Almighty. Even the evil spirit in a demon-possessed man recognized who Jesus was, but Jesus told it to be quiet, because it wasn’t the time for Jesus to be revealed in this way.

 

Luke 4:43 tells us why, ‘But He said…’  and before He lay down His life willingly for mankind, He first needed to preach about the Kingdom of God which had drawn near – the good news, His good news – He was literally ‘the good news’ of forgiveness for sins and the granting of eternal life to all who would believe that Jesus, died, was buried and on the third day rose to life and lives for evermore! Amen!

Love Letter From God to You

 

 

My Child,

You may not know me,
but I know everything about you.
Psalm 139:1

I know when you sit down and when you rise up.
Psalm 139:2

I am familiar with all your ways.
Psalm 139:3

Even the very hairs on your head are numbered.
Matthew 10:29-31

For you were made in my image.
Genesis 1:27

In me you live and move and have your being.
Acts 17:28

For you are my offspring.
Acts 17:28

I knew you even before you were conceived.
Jeremiah 1:4-5

I chose you when I planned creation.
Ephesians 1:11-12

You were not a mistake,
for all your days are written in my book.
Psalm 139:15-16

I determined the exact time of your birth
and where you would live.
Acts 17:26

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Psalm 139:14

I knit you together in your mother's womb.
Psalm 139:13

And brought you forth on the day you were born.
Psalm 71:6

I have been misrepresented
by those who don't know me.
John 8:41-44

I am not distant and angry,
but am the complete expression of love.
1 John 4:16

And it is my desire to lavish my love on you.
1 John 3:1

Simply because you are my child
and I am your Father.
1 John 3:1

I offer you more than your earthly father ever could.
Matthew 7:11

For I am the perfect father.
Matthew 5:48

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand.
James 1:17

For I am your provider and I meet all your needs.
Matthew 6:31-33

My plan for your future has always been filled with hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

Because I love you with an everlasting love.
Jeremiah 31:3

My thoughts toward you are countless
as the sand on the seashore.
Psalm 139:17-18

And I rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17

I will never stop doing good to you.
Jeremiah 32:40

For you are my treasured possession.
Exodus 19:5

I desire to establish you
with all my heart and all my soul.
Jeremiah 32:41

And I want to show you great and marvelous things.
Jeremiah 33:3

If you seek me with all your heart,
you will find me.
Deuteronomy 4:29

Delight in me and I will give you
the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4

For it is I who gave you those desires.
Philippians 2:13

I am able to do more for you
than you could possibly imagine.
Ephesians 3:20

For I am your greatest encourager.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

I am also the Father who comforts you
in all your troubles.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

When you are brokenhearted,
I am close to you.
Psalm 34:18

As a shepherd carries a lamb,
I have carried you close to my heart.
Isaiah 40:11

One day I will wipe away
every tear from your eyes.
Revelation 21:3-4

And I'll take away all the pain
you have suffered on this earth.
Revelation 21:3-4

I am your Father, and I love you
even as I love my son, Jesus.
John 17:23

For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed.
John 17:26

He is the exact representation of my being.
Hebrews 1:3

He came to demonstrate that I am for you,
not against you.
Romans 8:31

And to tell you that I am not counting your sins.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

His death was the ultimate expression
of my love for you.
1 John 4:10

I gave up everything I loved
that I might gain your love.
Romans 8:31-32

If you receive the gift of my son Jesus,
you receive me.
1 John 2:23

And nothing will ever separate you
from my love again.
Romans 8:38-39

Come home and I'll throw the biggest party
heaven has ever seen.
Luke 15:7

I have always been Father,
and will always be Father.
Ephesians 3:14-15

My question is…
Will you be my child?
John 1:12-13

I am waiting for you.
Luke 15:11-32

Love, Your DadAlmighty God

Father's Love Letter used by permission Father Heart Communications © 1999-2013 www.FathersLoveLetter.com

Love does not Boast

26 March 2003

I Corinthians 13:4

The term or the key to boasting is to “sound your own trumpet.” You always want to elevate yourself higher than others. Someone who wants to love must humiliate his or herself. The dictionary meaning of boasting is to “glorify yourself or to impress others especially about oneself.” Love does not boast.

Jesus said that if you humble yourself you will be exalted, and if you exalt yourself you will be humbled, Matthew 23:12. When does someone boast? From boasting comes hidden pride and you want the glory to belong to you.

By boasting you want to receive glory. Proverbs 12:9

When did boasting first start in the Bible? Genesis 4. Cain was jealous of Abel and because he was the oldest, God was obliged to accept his sacrifice. Jealousy was present but really Cain wanted to boast, to show his brother He was someone and because of this Cain killed Abel. When God asked Cain, “Where is your brother,” Cain said to God, “I am not someone who is supposed to look after him”. Can you see Cain’s intentions? He thought that it wasn’t his work to look after Abel; he thought he was someone else, “My level is not to look after Abel God, I’m someone else.” If you are the oldest brother then you are to look after your younger brother, it is normal. But Cain wanted to prove to God that it wasn’t his place.

Numbers 16. Korah told people “I know what Moses is doing and it is not correct, I am also a Levite like others.” Moses became angry so God told the people to leave the area and the earth opened. God wanted to humiliate them. Many people of Israel wanted to prove that they were better than Moses, but God confused them.

In the church today we have this spirit. When someone enters a church the first thing that comes to mind is, “Where shall I sit”? If Tongans are that side you will sit on another side because you are black or white. Automatically you think you don’t belong to that race or class. Boasting.

Also when you pray people can feel that this person has studied, and because you have studied you want people to know who you are. People who boast always use the word “I” and never “We” or “God can.” Every glory belongs to this person. When you boast you are taking the glory from God’s hand. Before Satan became proud he wanted “glory” and when we want glory we start to boast.

Example: If you expect everybody to come up to you and say “your preaching was good”, and when they do, you feel good, but when nobody says a word, something in your heart will boil. So if nobody comes to you after giving an exhortation you will feel something is wrong, and it is a lack of glory especially when you are use to people glorifying yourself. In every activity in the church boasting is present.

If we give a lot of testimonies concerning ourselves the glory will go to you. It is better to take a testimony from the Bible. If all the reference goes on you, everyone will think that this man is special and follow what you are doing, which is not bad but people will forget about God’s glory. However, when people don’t come back to you and ask you for prayer or testimonies, it will be hard for you. When you see that people use to come to you but now go to someone else, jealously will arise. Boasting means you need glory. If you are someone that is use to glory and you see it going to someone else you will start to feel bad. This is dangerous because you could end up like Cain and become so angry that you kill someone (spiritually). Let’s try to remember all the glory belongs to God and we don’t need to be acknowledged for the work we do because it is God’s work, not ours.

Love Your Enemies and Pray

By Hayley Boud


Mathew 5:43-46, “You have heard that it was said, ‘you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy’ but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those you love you, what reward to you have? Don’t the tax-gatherers [non-christians] do the same?

Love your enemy? Who is your enemy? I don’t really feel like I have enemies. That is such a harsh word, I don’t really think I have enemies but I think that any person can at different points be an enemy to us when they do/say things that push us to sin. This can include our children, our husband/wife, our friends, our parents, our work mates. We love these people, we don’t hate them but from time to time they annoy us, or disturb us, or offend us, or disrespect us or don’t understand us. This makes us feel in our hearts (even just for a moment) that they are our enemies.

They are our spiritual enemy because they are pushing us to sin, to become angry or jealous or to complain but we have to remember in that moment that we must love them and we must pray for them. It’s important not to give in to that temptation to have negative thoughts or to complain or to become angry, even when they are pushing you to the limit.

The Bible is clear, we must pray for THEM. Usually when someone is disturbing me I pray for myself, “help me God not to sin, or help me to love them, or help me to not be sad/ angry etc” or if I do pray for them it’s so I can have some kind of justice or satisfaction. For example, “God, help him/her to understand how he/she is disturbing me” instead of praying genuinely for the person, “God, help him to feel your love, your peace, your joy, fill them with your mercy, your grace, your love, give to them everything they need.....” Praying for THEM will take your mind off yourself! Think deeply about what that person needs and remember that God likes to bring sun and rain on all of His children so pray for God to bless them.

Luke 6:27,28 But I say to you hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you
When somebody does something or says something that curses you, don’t curse them back but bless them. If your husband is home late for dinner, don’t curse him, “where have you been?” but bless him, “hello darling, how are you? I’ve missed you, I’m so happy to see you, what happened to make you so late, are you ok?”

When someone does something that disturbs you pray for them, pray for blessings. Don’t pray for revenge as we are sometimes tempted to do but pray for their protection, for God’s help over them. Bless them with prayers and bless them with your kind voice, don’t curse them with your harsh tone. If they talk to you harshly, don’t talk harshly back but talk with a voice full of blessings.

John 15:12,13, This is my commandment that you love one another, just as I have loved you. No greater love than this that one lay down his life for another
We are commanded to love each other, it’s not a choice and that means loving people even when they are not lovable, the same way Christ loves us. Christ loved us when we didn’t love him, when we didn’t respect him, when we betrayed him, cursed Him, dishonoured Him. We must continue to love others even when they don’t love us, or don’t respect us, or betray us, or curse us, or dishonour us or push us to hate them.

Laying down your life for someone doesn’t necessarily mean dying physically but can also mean dying to ourselves, our flesh, our own desires, our plans, our pride, our fears, our own needs and our need to be right or to win the argument. So loving others will mean putting our needs aside, just as Christ did. He left heaven where he was quite happy and He left His pride behind and humbled himself. He left His glory behind and accepted to die for people who didn’t appreciate it, didn’t care, didn’t even want to know. We also must lay down our own desires, plans, pride, fears, needs and comforts.

Romans 12:9, Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor evil, cling to what is good.

Our love must be genuine, not just pretend or acting. It’s not always easy, I know sometimes I pretend that I love someone but really I don’t even like them. But that’s when I pray for true genuine love for that person and it helps when I also pray for them genuinely, it makes me put myself in their shoes and understand them better and it helps me to love them sincerely.

We have to abhor what is evil which is sin. We have to hate the sin that people do but never hate the actual person. Everybody sins and we have to remember that the sins that they have done, those sins are to be abhorred but not the person who did the sins.

We have to cling to what is good. When God created the earth He said, “it is good” and that included us. He loves us and considers us as good in His eyes but not our sin. He detests our sin but He loves US and clings to US. We must do the same for others. Hate what they do but love them, cling to them, no matter what they do.

Mathew 22:35-39, And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? And He said to Him, “You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbour as yourself.
If we love our God and our neighbour as ourselves everything just falls into place.

First love God with everything that you have.

With all your heart = with all your emotions, with every feeling that you have – feel it.

With all your soul = with everything that you are, with all your personality, with all your life, all your desires.

With all your mind = all your thoughts. If we love God like that, then living with others is easier because we are convinced we are living in a right way with God and others. If we love God with everything we have, we don’t have anything left for ourselves so we become less selfish and less self-centred. If we love God enough to give our entire life to Him then we won’t really care when people abuse us, or annoy us, or disappoint us ‘cos our life belongs to Christ. If we give all our thoughts to Christ, then we won’t have negative thoughts when people do things or say things. If our thoughts are on God and His Kingdom then we won’t hate anyone or be jealous or angry or react in a wrong way.

If we love others as we love ourselves then this world would be a very nice place to live. Whatever I love for myself, I will do for others and whatever I hate for myself, I will NEVER do for others. If I like to eat, then so do those around me, so when I prepare myself something to eat, I should think of also preparing food for others.

Usually wives are good at preparing dinner for their husbands but they forget about breakfast, the husband has to get his own. The wife loves herself enough to make her breakfast so she should love her husband in the same way and also prepare his breakfast. Husbands also can remember that.

Whatever you would do for yourself because you love yourself, do for others. But don’t expect that it must be done back to you. Just do it ‘cos you love and for no other reason. Not to be thanked, or praised or recognised or rewarded but simply ‘cos you love that person as much as you love yourself.

From your example others will learn. E.g. my dad now can say “I love you”. My flatmates from when I was 18 have learnt to share ‘cos I started to share with them.

It’s easy to think how to love someone in that context ‘cos we all love ourselves. We all know how to take care of ourselves. Nobody here will choose not to eat for a week, or choose not to shower for a month, or choose not wear clothes or put on a jersey when it’s cold. We all know how to love ourselves.

I Cor 16:14, Let all that you do be done in love
That means EVERYTHING we do must be done with and in love. Is everything I do out of love for others or out of love for myself? Usually we love ourselves most of the time and are completely unaware that we do it.

E.g. a wife wants to study but the husband knows he will have less money and will have to help more with the children so he thinks of how much this will not be good for him rather than thinking of his wife.

E.g. a work mate tells you they are sick and you think, ‘oh, no, I will have to work in the weekend’ instead of thinking how hard it must be for your workmate to be sick.

E.g. a husband wants to go on holiday with his mates but the wife thinks how hard it will be for her to be at home by herself rather than thinking how her husband will enjoy.

E.g. your friend tells you excitedly he/she is getting married and you think how things will change for you rather than for her/him.

E.g. your flatmate tells you they are going overseas and you think about what you will do rather than being happy for them.

Often we also pray for others in that same light. Thinking of the benefit to me rather than that person. E.g. I used to pray mum would stop smoking so I would benefit rather than caring about her health.

These are all natural responses but they show that we love ourselves more than others sometimes. So everything we do must prove we love others more than ourselves and everything we do must be done in love. God loved us so much that He gave His only Son, He was not selfish, He thought of us first.


John 13:34,35, A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you....by this all men will know that you are my disciples

If we were to love others in the same way that Christ loved us, then we would be really different to the world and it would be obvious and a testimony to ALL – including people who we think are impossible to touch. When we don’t argue, or discuss or talk rudely but we are kind or peaceful or helpful or welcoming or servant- like, people notice.

How does Christ love us? Example: lady from England who is very wealthy and each year she rescues thousands of slaves in Sudan. She spends thousands of dollars for people she has never met, plus her time and her comfort. As she is very wealthy she could spend her time enjoying life back in the UK, enjoying her $ but because of love, she leaves her warm/cool house with hot/cold running water and her servants and she takes off her fine clothes and jewellery and puts on simple clothes and goes to a country full of sickness, sand, heat, corruption, smells, hunger, thirst, poverty and gives away her money to corrupt slavers to save people she’s never met.

Just like JC: He did that for us. He took off His glory and left His comfy heaven to live on earth with us. He left His place of honor with servants, with joy, with riches, with peace, and came to earth with sickness, corruption, poverty etc and gave His life for us slaves. We didn’t deserve it or even ask for it, but He just came because of LOVE.

When we pray for others we do the same. We leave our house, our comforts, and we give up our time (we could be studying/relaxing) our money (we could be working, we spend petrol, food etc to be together to pray) and we choose to go to another country – we are putting ourselves in the shoes of others. Jesus came as a man putting himself in our shoes and that lady comes to Sudan as a simple woman putting herself in the shoes of the poor and when we pray for others we are putting ourselves in the shoes of that person. We have to ask ourselves, how does it feel to be that person? We have to put ourselves in their shoes because of love.