Teenage Love Relationship We have spoken in the past of how, if we take an 'adult' approach to what might be called romance relationships (I use the term loosely), love can seem childish or even meaningless. But there are reasons why one partner may find a romantic relationship with another – for example, a mother who sees her child playing as she walks home from school and wants to keep them company whilst they do so; both parents wanting to spend time together outside their marriage at weekends due that such things become more frequent now but would prefer not to get too involved because it will affect all aspects going forward - whether he/she feels like becoming engaged late The prospect of your teen beginning to date is of course unnerving. It is easy to fear your child getting hurt, getting in over their head, being manipulated or heartbroken, and particularly, growing up and leaving the nest. But as uncomfortable or scary as it may feel to think about your child with a r
Egoism and the self-denying nature of Jesus. Whether or not Jesus is the way to salvation is a moot point and is open to debate, but even if Jesus was not, we do not have to be him, and we do not have to be someone, to point our way to Him. As a pastor, as a Christian, as a man, Jesus set an example of self-denial for us to follow. And so we do not need to become self-denying saints to glorify God, but we can be self-denying, self-denying servants of God. That is the ideal of the man Jesus described.
Self-denying servants of God are, ultimately, self-absorbed and selfish men, not self-denying saints. But our self-denial is not self-denying virtue and self-denying goodness. Our self-denying love of God is selfish and self-serving and false. Our self-denying love of Jesus is honest and genuine and true.
Self-denying saints of the Bible are, first and foremost, individuals. But self-denying servants of God are, ultimately, churches, like the church at Ephesus, and self-denying churches like the church of Ephesus are self-denying churches, not saints. Our churches must be deeply committed to self-denial, but we must not count on and aim our love of God at ourselves and the external behavior of our churches as the yardstick by which we will measure our faith and witness.
This is, in fact, our greatest temptation. It is what Jesus warned about in the Bible. It is what happened in that time when God gave the blessing, because of self-denying saints. It is what happens in the church when, contrary to their intended purpose, their goals become self-centered and they stop loving Jesus. Self-denying saints who are blinded by their own self-denying love of God, for example, will not do what Jesus commanded them to do: worship the Lord in faith.
Most of us think of discipleship in terms of love for Christ and service for our churches. But the greatest form of discipleship is the love of self, love for Jesus, and self-denying love of God. Because self-denying love of God does not require us to be self-denying saints.
Only self-denying saints can give up the self in order to please God, which is self-denying love because self-denying love is not the love of self. Self-denying love, according to Jesus, is the love of Christ. And Jesus is more than an idea or a figure. He is a man. And he is the type of man, self-denying, servant of God, that we are called to be.
The message of the Gospels is that you do not have to be self-denying saints to be, in the words of the old preacher, "the Christ who is in you." You do not have to put off self-denial, self-giving love for the Lord. You can love God, God himself, so deeply that you love Him more than yourself. You can give Him your whole heart. You can love God so much that you give Him all your love and devotion. Self-denying love is false love, it is selfish to love, it is, ultimately, self-denying. Self-denying love of God is a self-denying love and it is a true love of God.
Do not be deceived. We do not have to become self-denying saints to be, in the words of Jesus, "the Christ who is in you." We can be self-denying servants of God because God is self-denying. And he did not become self-denying in order to make you self-denying saints. He did not do it because he has a self-denying love of you, and so you must try to make yourself worthy by self-denying the love of God. But he gave self-denying love to you because it was the way that he could demonstrate the love of God for you and the love of God, his son.
Jesus is God in the flesh, God's son, but God is also self-denying. He did not want you to be self-denying saints, but self-denying saints, because he gave self-denying love to you. You do not have to become self-denying saints to love God, but you can be self-denying servants of God.
My beloved brothers and sisters, when you stand up to pray, begin and end your prayers in faith. You do not have to do self-denying acts to prove your love of God, but you can give him your love in faith. And God will love you in faith, just as you love him. And just as he loves you in faith, and because of the faith that you express through your faith, God will love you in faith, in his self-denying love. That is the kind of love that will never be self-denying in the sense that we are praising God for his love of us because, in our self-denying love of God, we are praising ourselves for loving God in faith.
If self-denying love is not the love of self if self-denying love is not the love of God at ourselves and the external behavior of our churches as the yardstick by which we will measure our faith and witness, then the true love of God is not our love of God, and self-denying love of God is not the love of God, nor is self-denying love of God.
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