TIAI January 17
mjssoulmate
Posts: 820
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Galatians 5:13
For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.
Galatians 5:14
For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
But, I see today's redirect as insight. Martin Luther is lauded as a reformer and he fought for every person to have the freedom to, as Christians, commune with God directly in faith. His efforts are clearly courageous and transformative, which I respect, as it’s had a bearing on my life as a believer who cherishes a direct relationship with Christ.
Yet, Martin Luther was a complex man who’s freedom, I feel, ended up satisfying his sinful nature. Obviously, there was some important good that he did, but he could not overcome his sins for Love’s sake. To me, he is an example of what happens if you cannot “love your neighbor as yourself.”
I know that you can’t judge the totality of a person only on their mistakes or faults but I’ve never felt that Martin Luther’s accomplishments as a church reformer really outweighed the great harm he fostered, which, in my readings, helped to create a climate of extreme anti-Semitism, intolerance of religious differences, and a tacit nod to continued inservitude of the peasantry and the transatlantic slave trade.
<!-- s:arrow: -->:arrow:<!-- s:arrow: --> Interesting article: http://www.tentmaker.org/books/MartinLuther-HitlersSpiritualAncestor.html
Perhaps it is my own bias, but I cannot relate well to anyone who says they have a personal relationship with Christ, yet they cannot express basic decency, respect and humanity for “the least of these” or for those who practice a different faith tradition. In my opinion, Martin Luther did not practice LOVE and ultimately his beliefs veer far from the teachings of Jesus or Michael Jackson’s and Dr. King’s message of faith, hope, charity and justice for all.
(NOTE: As hoaxers, we have some difficult days ahead and when I think of loving our neighbors, I first think about the “non-believing” fans. What shall we do about them? What should be our guiding principle for garnering more support in the Army of L.O.V.E.? Where have all the supporters gone? Perhaps today’s redirect is one of the answers... Time is of the essence! Onward, Soldiers!)
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
But Martin Luther was the beginning of the Protestant church. All of the western world would still be Catholic if not for him. Jesus taught an exclusive belief system, believe in Him or...
MJ here through TS and Dr. King speak ONLY of selfless love for your neighbour regardless of belief.
God gave us FREEDOM, and the freedom of belief is an important one. Freedom is one of God's most precious gifts to ALL of us and we should have the right to enjoy this gift from God for free without being persecuted, hated, diminished because of the beliefs we hold, the religion we practice. We should not be accountable about our faiths before so called authorities who have no God-given legitimacy and for most of them have corrupted religions to serve their evil agenda. Therefore in order to fully enjoy this freedom we absolutely must think for ourselves because God gave us all the capacity to do so. By thinking for ourselves and making the choices we want in life we are free. If we blindly follow the crowd, the majority, or whatever else that can be followed, without using our capacities then we are not really free, or not free at all. Hence an important thing to do in the matter of faith is to study the scriptures ourselves and really make the effort to understand the message and not let others dictate and impose to us their, most often, biased interpretations. Open your heart to God and He will guide you in this journey.
This leads me to say that everyone is responsible for the choices they make in life hence the importance to think for ourselves and not let others choose for us...that's why freedom is a required condition, a God-given right so that the "thinking for ourselves" can be fully applied and enjoyed.
Now we must honor this gift of freedom and use it for the best purposes... as serving one another in love and by being good examples to others. If everybody followed this basic rule "“Love your neighbor as yourself” ... no matter who the neighbour is... there would be a LOT less problems on earth. Love is really what can make this world a better place. My love to you all. <!-- s;) -->;)<!-- s;) -->
Thanks for the redirect TS patiently watching and waiting for Michaels command to give my all. Its ALL FOR L.O.V.E.
God bless all.
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Thank you my dear <!-- s:) -->:)<!-- s:) -->
Thank you TS <!-- s:D -->:D<!-- s:D -->
everything lately has had me thinking about this song. from the last two redirects to esther to dancing the dreams michael did drink post from wow a couple of months ago.guess i have been thinking about it for a while now .
this is the whole law indeed........ if you hate yourself it's a different story......
So I guess we must love ourselves first and then love the others at least that much <!-- s --><!-- s -->
Thank you to all my teachers <!-- s;) -->;)<!-- s;) -->
hate computors
Hi Loyalfan
Happy birthday!!!
And soon you get an unforgettable gift!
no only you, but all of us here! <!-- s:P -->:P<!-- s:P --> <!-- s:P -->:P<!-- s:P --> <!-- s:P -->:P<!-- s:P -->
Cheers!!
According Sarahli well said. ! loyalfan Happy Birthday!!
And another person believes
If people were to get into a discussion on it, like what it has produced here, regardless of how it is interpreted by either parties, the statements from both of you are not a lie. Therefore it shows us that the words in the original statement were manipulated in a way to leave an open interpretation. One has the freedom to believe what they want to believe based on their own interpretations. It also, in a way, forces you to look at how the statement can be seen from both sides. If Martin Luther taught that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge and MLK spread the message of faith and justice for all we can see that the name Martin Luther could have a double meaning. In the aspect of how it plays into the hoax, since it was Jermaine that announced Michael’s death and not a doctor, most in the world interpreted that as being the truth that the Michael Jackson associated with him had died. But since it was not the doctor that announced it and he did not sign the death certificate of the real Michael Jackson, all of us here interpret that as him still being alive. We also have the different names used on the coroner’s report and the autopsy report. So when he did announce that Michael Jackson had died, and it was the terminally ill person that had his name changed, he was not lying. He left it open for everyone’s own interpretation. We could do this with everything that has happened because no body knows for sure what exactly happened. When everyone is in court and they are under oath of the bible being asked questions about the real Michael Jackson, they can give their honest answers of what happened prior to his hospital visit. If he indeed made himself sick that day by having Dr. Murray and himself administer the drugs to send him to the hospital that means everything that took place DID happen. Nobody is really lying if their answers are left with an open interpretation. AND since in the court of LAW the bible is used to get those to tell the truth, and the bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge and it says the whole LAW can be summed up as love your neighbor as you love thyself, they are not doing anything against the law. But this is just my interpretation.
No way, my neighbor is an asocial sour a**hole <!-- s:evil: -->:evil:<!-- s:evil: -->
Happy b-day Loyalfan!
In order to do that, first we need to define and agree on the concept of God and why it is neccesary for our existance to have the concept of God.
So far, after all that I have read, the concept of God is too abstract.
Civil, moral and ethic rules are shown in the bible (also in the Qurán and other religious philosophy), all based in being a good samaritan able to live within peace accepting rules and patterns of behaviour, at times based on fear and at times based on pure conditioning.
At the end, the aim is to achieve being a better person for yourself and others around you.
Do we need an outer reason (God) for that?
The truth is that the concept of God covers many fields. It is the resort for everything, but still, imo, it is placebo.
You are giving me a hard time Gema <!-- s --><!-- s --> the problem is that as far as I remember I always believed in God and was never teached any concept of God, it's like it was innate in me and my faith just evolved with time. If I give you the description of what I believe is God, like the Creator of all things, you included <!-- s;) -->;)<!-- s;) --> , will it be enough for you? Maybe not you will ask for proofs and I will answer everything around you and you will say <!-- s:shock: -->:shock:<!-- s:shock: --> LOL
We don't have to agree and define I think because this is God Himself who will guide you, not me or anyone else. So open your heart to God can mean study the question don't be oblivious about it and close your heart to the possibility. Because a lot of people just don't look further but I know Gema that you do look further, so in a sense you are aleady opening your heart to this avenue.
Absolutely, I need God to guide me and without God we would not be here in the first place, He created us, He is not an outer reason for me but a part of me. Well maybe that it does not make much sense for you yet. I hope you will find God, He is closer to you than you could ever imagine and only wants the good for you.
About the rules in the scriptures ... think about someone who creates a company, the director will certainly create certain rules so that the company is managed properly for its benefit or the company will sink, so the same with the company Earth <!-- s:D -->:D<!-- s:D -->.
God bless you Gema (I know you love that <!-- s;) -->;)<!-- s;) --> ).
Thanx TS for the redirect <!-- s --><!-- s -->