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What is the essence of love? How does it manifest itself in all the circumstances? In John 3:16 we can find out the answer: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The essence of love is giving! Not some or most of it but everything. God gave His Son and in His Son He gave Himself for us! Don’t ask me to explain to you how this was possible because I don’t know to how to explain it. I don’t know also to explain how that God the Father was in His Son but I can show you what the Bible says: “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5,18-19. He was in Jesus Christ not just with Him.
This is what love is about: giving for the benefit of the others expecting nothing in return, as a personal gain! Living for others! I am not the center but the others. “For God so loved the world that He gave…” This is love, this is what God is! Love is about sharing, making others happy, trying to make others succeed. If my success can help them better then I’ll strive for it but if my suffering can make them better then so be it. God, the Bible and Christianity are about anything else but me. It is about giving all, living for the benefit of others! This is love! This is the essence of love. This is how God is! That’s why the Christianity it’s so wonderful!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Decoding Our Past, Undestanding the Present, the Future...?
Even after men chose a self-centered life/sin, God did not stop loving him. Just as the effect of love is life and happiness, the effect of choosing a self-centered life is death: “The wages/consequence of sin is death”. How that he was not dead? Because Jesus chose to come and die in his/our place. Somehow He was able to pay the price for our mistakes, to take the fall for us. And in the virtue of God’s unselfish act, Adam was still able to breathe. This is the reason for which even people who rejects God are able to breathe, think, walk, eat even say/write things against Him, do things against Him, and hurt in a way or another other fellow beings. Why is He allowing them to do these things? Because He wants them so badly to enjoy love/Him so that He gives them new opportunities to turn to the original way of living.
God tried to use different people as teachers for the others, people which can tell them how wonderful He is. But most of the people didn’t listen. Then He chose Abraham and through him the ancient Jewish people but even they failed to fulfill this mission. Instead of concentrating upon God they concentrated upon the tools to be used in describing God. They forgot that God is love and they started to represent Him as a deity thirsty for blood, as a cold, unsympathetic judge. And their life became similar to their interpretations. All the other people were pagans, dogs, unworthy of their attention. God tried to bring them back using all kind of means but they were stubborn in their choice: we want a self-centered life and not one based on giving. Happiness comes from getting as much as possible, they said.
One day God Himself, in Jesus Christ, came to live on our planet. And not as a king or a ruler or a leader but in such a humble state! And why? For us! For you and me! To show us how wonderful God is, to show us what love is, to show us what we can become if we choose to. But He was rejected. Man didn’t want this kind of life! He didn’t want humbleness but greatness among the rulers of the earth; he didn’t want gentleness but revenge; he didn’t want to live for his neighbor but he wanted his neighbor to live for him. He rejected love and chose again selfishness/sin which brings death. He rejected happiness and chose misery.
What did Jesus do after all this?
God tried to use different people as teachers for the others, people which can tell them how wonderful He is. But most of the people didn’t listen. Then He chose Abraham and through him the ancient Jewish people but even they failed to fulfill this mission. Instead of concentrating upon God they concentrated upon the tools to be used in describing God. They forgot that God is love and they started to represent Him as a deity thirsty for blood, as a cold, unsympathetic judge. And their life became similar to their interpretations. All the other people were pagans, dogs, unworthy of their attention. God tried to bring them back using all kind of means but they were stubborn in their choice: we want a self-centered life and not one based on giving. Happiness comes from getting as much as possible, they said.
One day God Himself, in Jesus Christ, came to live on our planet. And not as a king or a ruler or a leader but in such a humble state! And why? For us! For you and me! To show us how wonderful God is, to show us what love is, to show us what we can become if we choose to. But He was rejected. Man didn’t want this kind of life! He didn’t want humbleness but greatness among the rulers of the earth; he didn’t want gentleness but revenge; he didn’t want to live for his neighbor but he wanted his neighbor to live for him. He rejected love and chose again selfishness/sin which brings death. He rejected happiness and chose misery.
What did Jesus do after all this?
Friday, February 12, 2010
STOP Trying to Be HAPPY
Somehow this choice changed them. Now they were not like God/love but like sin/selfishness. The image of God, the love, disappeared and its place was taken by sin/selfishness. Now man become interested in himself and started to see the others as means which he can use to benefit himself; this choice led to so many crimes. This also led to unhappiness. And he thought that the reason for being unhappy was that he was not receiving enough so he tried to get more: more possessions, more attention, more respect, more everything. But the more he had the unhappier he became. Until, in his searching for happiness in selfishness, he became so degraded (which leads to unhappiness) that God was forced to put an end to his miserable life through flood.
Isn’t it the same today? Are we not trying to get as much as we can and give as little as we can imagining that by getting we will find happiness? Are we not thinking the same today that love is something that has to do with what other people do/give to us and not with what we do/give to them? Don’t we see love as something that has to do more with what we feel and less with how the others are feeling? We almost forgot that the more we try to become happy, the unhappier we will become. We almost forgot the fact that happiness comes when we try to make other people happy and not when we try to make ourselves happy. “For God so much loved the world that He gave…” all. Happiness is an effect of love which manifest itself through living for others!
This is what God is trying to tell us through nature, history, day by day events, and people around us. This is what He is trying to teach us through the Bible: it’s about giving, living for others. This is what the Bible is all about: LOVE. This is what Christianity is all about: LOVE.
I truly understand those people who don’t want to hear about Christianity. I would have exactly the same attitude if I look at the history of Christianity (in general), at Christianity today (in general) and at those who call themselves Christians (in general). If my choice of becoming Christian was dependent on these aspects, I would have never become a Christian. But I was privileged of being able to know about the real God, the God of the Bible and not the God of men’s desires. I chose to study for myself about God and not to allow others to interpret Him for me. And I can tell you, He is wonderful! Being a Christian is the best life that we can live! I am happy, so happy when I love, when I chose to be like God! I encourage you to do the same: stop looking at people and look at God.
Stop trying to be happy! Instead start trying to make others happy!
Isn’t it the same today? Are we not trying to get as much as we can and give as little as we can imagining that by getting we will find happiness? Are we not thinking the same today that love is something that has to do with what other people do/give to us and not with what we do/give to them? Don’t we see love as something that has to do more with what we feel and less with how the others are feeling? We almost forgot that the more we try to become happy, the unhappier we will become. We almost forgot the fact that happiness comes when we try to make other people happy and not when we try to make ourselves happy. “For God so much loved the world that He gave…” all. Happiness is an effect of love which manifest itself through living for others!
This is what God is trying to tell us through nature, history, day by day events, and people around us. This is what He is trying to teach us through the Bible: it’s about giving, living for others. This is what the Bible is all about: LOVE. This is what Christianity is all about: LOVE.
I truly understand those people who don’t want to hear about Christianity. I would have exactly the same attitude if I look at the history of Christianity (in general), at Christianity today (in general) and at those who call themselves Christians (in general). If my choice of becoming Christian was dependent on these aspects, I would have never become a Christian. But I was privileged of being able to know about the real God, the God of the Bible and not the God of men’s desires. I chose to study for myself about God and not to allow others to interpret Him for me. And I can tell you, He is wonderful! Being a Christian is the best life that we can live! I am happy, so happy when I love, when I chose to be like God! I encourage you to do the same: stop looking at people and look at God.
Stop trying to be happy! Instead start trying to make others happy!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Love at ... home!
The purpose of our blog is to help all of us understand (better) what is Christianity. Using simple words. Clear ideas. I have one word that will describe, at least for me, the meaning of love: ANA, my dear wife! Blessed is the man who has such a gift!
Thank you so much Ana for allowing God to live through you! By this I was able to comprehend more what is God about which is Love! Thank you and ... happy anniversary!
Thank you so much Ana for allowing God to live through you! By this I was able to comprehend more what is God about which is Love! Thank you and ... happy anniversary!
Friday, February 5, 2010
How Honey Became Vinegar
If knowing about love is not enough if we want to live it, what can we do then? In order to be able to answer this question, let’s make a short journey through time.
Let’s start from the beginning: Genesis 1:26-27 says: 26 „Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” What a wonderful description of man! What a great past is revealed here! Not according to chimps or other creatures but according to “Our likeness”! God made man in His image; God used Himself as a model. Although we cannot say that we were God, we can say that we were like God. And we have seen that God is love. So we were love too! This means we were living for others and not for ourselves.
What happened then? How that we are here, in this self-centered society? If man was created like God which is love which it manifest itself by living for the benefit of others, then how that we are living in a way that is exactly the opposite of what the Bible describes as the beginning? The true story goes like this: one day the man, the one created like God, decided to stop living for others and start to live for himself. He decided to stop listening to God and start listen to his/her desires, feelings, appetites. One day he decided that he will try a self-centered life. And … here we are. This is what the Bible calls sin. How do I know that this is sin?
As we have seen, Jesus summarized the whole Bible, including the law of God, in just one word, one command: LOVE. We have seen also that love manifests itself by living for the benefit of others. In 1 John 3:4 we are told that “sin is the transgression of the law” or “sin is breaking of the law”. And as the law (as the whole Bible) it’s a description of love/God so sin is the opposite of love, breaking of love which is self-centeredness or selfishness. This is sin: living for me and not for the others.
Have you ever seen the law as the description of love? Have you ever seen the law of God as love described by words? How that today our understanding of the law of God is so different from the way it is in reality? What do you think/know about this?
Let’s start from the beginning: Genesis 1:26-27 says: 26 „Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” What a wonderful description of man! What a great past is revealed here! Not according to chimps or other creatures but according to “Our likeness”! God made man in His image; God used Himself as a model. Although we cannot say that we were God, we can say that we were like God. And we have seen that God is love. So we were love too! This means we were living for others and not for ourselves.
What happened then? How that we are here, in this self-centered society? If man was created like God which is love which it manifest itself by living for the benefit of others, then how that we are living in a way that is exactly the opposite of what the Bible describes as the beginning? The true story goes like this: one day the man, the one created like God, decided to stop living for others and start to live for himself. He decided to stop listening to God and start listen to his/her desires, feelings, appetites. One day he decided that he will try a self-centered life. And … here we are. This is what the Bible calls sin. How do I know that this is sin?
As we have seen, Jesus summarized the whole Bible, including the law of God, in just one word, one command: LOVE. We have seen also that love manifests itself by living for the benefit of others. In 1 John 3:4 we are told that “sin is the transgression of the law” or “sin is breaking of the law”. And as the law (as the whole Bible) it’s a description of love/God so sin is the opposite of love, breaking of love which is self-centeredness or selfishness. This is sin: living for me and not for the others.
Have you ever seen the law as the description of love? Have you ever seen the law of God as love described by words? How that today our understanding of the law of God is so different from the way it is in reality? What do you think/know about this?
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