Nuggets

“Fear not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matt. 10:31)

Heard someone ask the question:  How can a person love someone else, and not love him/her self? Things that make you go hmmm…yet it happens every day.  

Many fall head over heals in love with a person and still question the value or worth of him/her self!  Matthew 22:36-40 says “Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? (Some commandments are light…which are heavy?). And He replied to him. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you mind (intellect). This is the great (most important principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as (you do) yourself. These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (AMP)

What is strange here, is that the persons (Pharisees) asking didn’t love themselves and/or was full of themselves and wanted to plot, test and question God’s love of all people. Prayerfully we do not find ourselves in this situation when there is no greater Love than God’s Love. God’s love says you are of great value to him in Luke 12:7 “But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered (I know every thing about you, I know who you are). Do not be struck by  fear or seized with alarm, you are of greater worth than many (flocks) of sparrows.” Ps. 8:3-9 says “When I view and consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained and established. What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of (earthborn) man that You care for him: yet You have made him but a little lower than God (or heavenly beings), and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet;  all sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent (majestic and glorious) is your name in all the earth.”

God establishes us in Love through His Word to be able to give Love and to Love ourselves.  There is no one on the earth that can establish you in Love like God’s Word can. Out of all the romances you have had no one can say words like the greatest poet of all creation, God can.

So, how can you love God and not Love yourself or your neighbor (sister or brother)? I John 2:4 says “Whoever says, I know Him (I perceive, recognize, understand, and am acquainted with Him, but fails to keep and obey His commandments (teachings) is a LAIR, and the TRUTH (of the Gospel) is not in him.

How direct and in your face is God’s Word. Selah (Pause and think about that), while I continue this LOVE THING in the next Nugget!

Feasting in God’s Word Daily,

To God be the Glory,

Rev. Ortheia Barnes

“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.”

As we continue this “Love Thing” that should be the author and finisher of our life, let’s consider this thought: Many can say I love the Lord yet not commit to loving themselves let alone others and if we ever needed Love in this hour; we sure do need it right now. “Greater is He that is in me then he that is in the world.”  (I Jn. 4:1KJV). How great is God within us? I Cor. 3:16 says “KNOW ye not that ye are the temple of God” (the indwelling place of the Holy Spirit) vs. 11-12 says “For the foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ”. We can’t build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, stubble. We can’t build upon the foundation of Love: hurt, pain, anger, un-forgiveness, feelings of unworthiness and whatever it is that keeps us from loving ourselves and others. We can only build love on love!

Check to see if the heart is still fleshly or is it filled with the Love of God. Flesh and blood cannot reveal to us the spiritual things of God: I Cor. 3:1-3 “However brethren, I could not talk to you as to spiritual (men/women, but as to non-spiritual (men/women) of the flesh, in whom the carnal nature predominates), as to mere infants (in the new life) in Christ (unable to talk yet) I fed you with milk, not solid food for you were not yet strong enough (to be ready for it); but even yet you are not strong enough (to be ready for it) for you are still unspiritual, having the nature) of the flesh (under the control of ordinary impulses). For as long as (there are) envying and jealousy and wrangling and factions among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh, behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere unchanged) men/women?”

The Word of God says: Any man/woman seems wise (thinks he/she knows it all and still not have Love for God, himself/herself and others is a Liar. Let’s get personal for a minute: I had to really digest that Word of God to see if I was living in the truth/love I thought or said I was. Hebrews 4:12 (AMP) says “For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power (making it active, operative, energizing, and effective); it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and (the immortal) spirit, and of joints and marrow (of the deepest parts of our nature), exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.”  Well, I was exposed and sifted and found out even with my loving self, there was more love needed for the fullness of God’s love to work in me. I am building on the Love foundation 24-7! 

Many Believers set on the pews Sunday to Sunday and hate still remains in the heart, yet they say they Love the Lord. Jesus told ask Peter:” Do you love me”? Peter answered: “You know I love you.” Jesus said: “Feed my sheep.” You have already denied me three times Peter; so my questions to you still is: “Do you Love me?”  Selah (pause and think about that) while I continue this LOVE THING in the next nugget!

I am Feasting in God’s Word Daily,

Rev. Ortheia Barnes