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--- jn_en_2019_05_13 [2019/05/13 08:03] – potthast
+++ jn_en_2019_05_13 [2019/05/13 08:21] (current) – potthast
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-====== The Center ... ======
+====== Love ... ======
-Monday, May 13, 2019.
+Monday, May 13, 2019. Many people know that Jesus commands his disciples to love their neighbors
+as themselves. It is recorded in the New Testament, and it is part of this new covenant, rooted
+deeply in the cross of Calvary and the forgiveness which is proclaimed with the death of Jesus!
+However, the command to love your neighbor as yourself is not new at all. It is, indeed, one of
+the old commands, given together with the 10 commandments when Moses brought the people of
+Israel out of Egypt.
-{{2019:2019_05_09.jpg }}
+{{2019:2019_05_13.jpg }}
-**  ... **
+** An Old Commandment ... **
+Let us have a look into the biblical book Leviticus, the third book of Moses. Here, it is
+written:
 <color #aa0000>
+You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
-</color>(from )
+</color>(from Lev 19)
+Let us try to understand the overall framework of the command. Where does it come from, and
+why is it so important?
+The bible describes God, the creator. He is. He has been ever since, he was before time, he
+is above time, and he will be when time has ended. We call it eternity. He is also acting within
+time, he is there in the middle of human history, and in the middle of your day.
+God is father, son and holy spirit. The biblical books find the one God, the only God, but in
+three persons. God in himself is community, he in himself is love. This is, indeed, good news.
+Good news in the sense that God is to great, that humans find rescue and a home in him.
+The most important point: God created humans to be with them. He created them in his image.
+We are made to live with God, to have him as our heavenly father, and to be his children. He
+created us with the desire to know a great God, a loving God, the ultimate reference point as
+well as living father day by day.
 {{ 2019:2019_05_13_2.jpg}}
-**  ... **
+** With him ... **
+We are made to love God. We are made to discover his purity and love, to experience it, to
+live in intense community with him through the holy spirit. Without this spirit we are empty
+and lonely. There is a place in our soul, the most important place, which is made for him
+to be God and love and center to us.
+When he, the eternal God, is missing in our soul, we start to fill the place with other
+things. But these are not made to be there. They are things, not God. We give them a role,
+which does not fit and does not work. The bible calls it idol. When ever something in
+our life gets to the place which has been created for God, it becomes an idol. This is how
+it is.
+But God needs to be in this place. He needs to be our God. And the connecting link is love.
+Without love, we are robots. Without love, we are not linked to him the way which would be
+adequate for him. He is love himself, the origin of all we know and feel and experience.
+Only love is the adequate and sustainable link to God. Only love can save us.
+When we are connected to the original love, we cannot but live his way. And his way is to
+love him, to love ourselves and to love all around us in an intense way. That does not say
+we should do all what people tell us to do - do not mix up love with stupitity. Our love
+should be real love, and real love will be very careful about how it treats people and
+what is does. True love is full of critical interaction, driven by deep friendship.
+What can we say? Just discover this love, which comes from the Lord, and is the Lord, today
+and tomorrow and for eternity!
 (Roland Potthast)
 [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/topics_collection_ix|... further texts]]