Title: Love Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:May 7, 2015 Author:A K A Stone Post Date:2015-05-07 20:54:34 by A K A Stone Keywords:None Views:26315 Comments:69
Well .. let me tell ya 'bout love. The Christians hate the Jews for murdering Jesus Christ & the Jews hate the Muslims & the Muslims hate the Christians. Oh and the Christians hate the Muslims and the Jews hate the Christians. And the Muslims hate the Jews. And the world is on the brink of WW3 because everyone is just "lovey-dovey."
Basically there isn't much love beyond American politicians running for President or any other federal, state or local office giving all of us: the best days of our lives, or so they say as our taxes keep climbing while the fed prints all the money they want to cover the TRILLIONS of debt that has done nothing.
The Christians hate the Jews for murdering Jesus Christ & the Jews hate the Muslims & the Muslims hate the Christians. Oh and the Christians hate the Muslims and the Jews hate the Christians. And the Muslims hate the Jews.
As a Christian, I hate only those whom God has first hated. For as His slave, His bond servant, I not only serve Him I take on His loves and hates as well.
As an example, In the book of the prophecy of Jesus Christ, we read: Re 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. and again in Revelation 2:15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
There are more, but these are a clear example of who God hates, and should open a nice discussion on who the Nicolaitins are.
Bob, are you really capable of hating somebody because somebody else (including God) does, or loving somebody because somebody else does?
I'm not.
Love and hate are emotions. I am capable of mastering my actions regardless of my emotions. I am not, however, capable of creating emotions that I don't have. Nor am I capable of making emotions I do have vanish. I can control my actions, but I do not control my feelings.
Which is why I have some sympathy for gays. After all, I've had powerful crushes on certain girls that have lasted for years. I was not capable of creating a crush; nor was I capable of dispelling one. These things just ARE.
I've never had a crush like that on a male. But suppose I did? It's not impossible for me to imagine that happening. Apparently it does happen with gays. And when it does, why would I expect them to be any more capable of changing their emotions than I am? Obviously they can't. This is why I don't hate the gays for what they are - I can't help having crushes on whom I have crushes, and I would think they're no different...they're just crushing on- side, so to speak. I don't think they should be allowed to MARRY, because marriage is a specific thing with specific sacramental meaning. But I don't think gays should be abused either, or treated as subhuman. And I think it's silly to scream at them that they should change. How does one change one's emotions? I can't. How can I ask somebody else to do what I cannot do?
Likewise with this who notion of belief. I can't just "believe" something. I don't think that it's possible to just decide to "believe" something. I can reason things out. I can logically prefer one outcome over another. But BELIEF is like an intellectual emotion: the mind has emotionally accepted something as so. Demanding that people "Believe" - Muslims do that, so do some Christians. It strikes me as an idiotic thing to say. Put a plate full of liver in front of most children. You can make them eat it, perhaps. But you can't make people LIKE food they don't like. You might be able to make somebody SAY that he likes something, or loves somebody, or believes something, but saying it doesn't mean it's true. How can somebody be MADE to like a food he doesn't like, or be attracted to someone he doesn't find attractive, or believe that which he doesn't? It can't be done.
I don't know what the deeds of the Nicolaitans are. Nobody does. Scripture doesn't say. Lots of people use that as the opportunity to engage in adding to Scripture - by supplying the list of things they personally hate, and ascribing that list to God. That's nice, but it's not honest.
Whoever the Nicolaitans are, and whatever they were doing that was hateful to Christ, we don't know. All we know from this that Christ hates, and that he hates certain works, and that he hates certain doctrines.
What, exactly, those doctrines were, we can't know.
Love and hate are emotions. I am capable of mastering my actions regardless of my emotions. I am not, however, capable of creating emotions that I don't have. Nor am I capable of making emotions I do have vanish. I can control my actions, but I do not control my feelings.
Which is why I have some sympathy for gays. After all, I've had powerful crushes on certain girls that have lasted for years. I was not capable of creating a crush; nor was I capable of dispelling one. These things just ARE.
Agape love is a choice. One can indirectly master their emotions, however it takes time and effort to change the will.