Sept 12

Matthew 5:43-48
43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.
44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!
45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much.
47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.
48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Raybann and Soloplex, two of heaven's angels, exchanged high fives. "Yyyyyesss!" Raybann shouted. He grabbed Soloplex and started twirling him around and around in a dizzying dance of celebration in the thin air above the earth. "Did you see that?" Soloplex shouted. "Whoosh!" They turned and peered together at the scene below them. The Israelites stood, high and dry, on the banks of the Red Sea. They had just crossed to freedom and safety as Raybann and Soloplex, under instructions from God, had rolled back the waters of the sea. The Israelites had hurried across the channel on the miraculously dry ground, while the armies of Egypt pursued them on horses and chariots. Once God's chosen people had safely reached the opposite shore, Raybann and Soloplex released the water, and the entire Egyptian army had been drowned in the returning waters of the sea, prompting the delirious celebration of the two angels. Upon their return to heaven, however, Raybann and Soloplex were summoned into the presence of God. They were shocked to find the blinding light of his face dimmed and his expression sad. "Is the Holy One not pleased with our success?" Raybann asked, bowing before God's throne with his face to the ground. "You rejoice," God said. It was not a question. "Your people are delivered, and their enemies are dashed to pieces," Soloplex reported. God looked at his two messengers, and the sorrow in his expression turned their white robes to gray. "The work of my hands is sunk in the sea, and you rejoice!" That story is a variation on a tale that has been told by rabbis for centuries to illustrate the love of God. Although Pharaoh and his armies sought to enslave even destroy-God's chosen people, God loved them as he loves all his creation. And he makes it clear that he wants his children to display that same kind of love, even to those who are mean and hateful. He didn't say it would be easy to do those things, but he did say it is right.

REFLECT: Have you ever rejoiced at the fall of an enemy? How do you feel about that person now? Do you think Jesus' command to "love your enemies" instead of hating them means you have to feel love toward everyone? Does it mean acting in loving ways? Both? Neither?

PRAY: "God, thank you for your love and for reminding me that love is always right. Help me especially to love today... so that I may act as a true child of my Father in heaven."

i thought that today's devotion was really important and it stuck out to me a lot.
God has created each and every one of us. He loves us all equally and wishes for us to love others as well. When the Bible says to hate your enemies, I actually asked my mom about this and she said that it means that you should hate the evil and Satan not the person. you should hate the evil-ness in them that Satan has posessed them with. for us to love one another is hard. we need to treat others fairly and kindly just as God would want us to since all humans and living things are HIS creation. it's just like your parents wanting you to love your siblings; God is our father and we are brothers and sisters because of that.
okay, bye bye people! see you saturday!

Uhm. Well. Let's hope I'm not braindead yet.
Part of being a Christian is loving everybody you know, and at least, not being a sore bully. This one kind of hit me hard, cuz I was going through an issue like this right now. Having a rule that says; "Be friendly to anyone, and everyone" is pretty tough to follow.

Especially if it's somebody you find really hard to communicate with, insensitive, and always not aware of anything that's happening around themselves. Funny I had a conversation with my mom about that today.

You know...live by the motto.
I'm a bit confused right now. Sorry guys.

I hope you guys in the younger grades are enjoying your first month of school while I am, unfortunately, fully immersed in the art of grade grubbing and anti-socialism!
But enough about school.. let me get on to the devo! ALLONS-Y!

What a reminder... Recently, I came across a picture with the words "You have never really lived until you have done something for someone who could never repay you."
Being kind to someone who could never repay you, is one of the most selfless things you could do. Giving your time and energy to a person who could never give anything back to you.. This is what Jesus spent his time doing, when he came down to this earth and lived among our ancestors. He gave more than we could ever even think to give back to him.
Try to keep that in mind as you go through these weeks back in school... it's hard to be nice to everyone when everyone is so different.. but have patience and sympathy for the people around you because you never know what they're going through and we don't have a right to judge. The only thing we can do is treat them the way we'd want to be treat and hope for the best.

Ciao!
You now crave krispy kreme donuts like me. Ok. Bye now. LOL

This really reminded me of all the people i dislike and do not care for.
The two important commandments of God were love the lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength.. Also to treat your neighbours and love them the way you want to be.
I know it can be difficult to love your enemies but i believe that it should be done because maybe that can be the first step to introducing God into their lives.
Christian or not.
Thats basically what i got... I have lots of people i really dislike, but i will try to be more loving and caring.

MY NECK HURTS from looking in one directon too much....

uhh the main point i got from this was treat everyone even your enemies and the people you hate the way you want them to treat u.

verse 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
stood out to me because God is showing us that He himself treats everyone fairly. He gives sunlight to us meaning warmth and protection to both good doers and wrong doers. He sends sorrow, remorse to both good and bad people. No Matter who and what they are God treats everyone the same. What i got form this was that We should treat our enemies as we would treat our friends and etc.

Pa Ta Rick wrote:MY NECK HURTS from looking in one directon too much....

*looking at LOLOL

personally, i don't consider myself a mean person. I do joke around at times, but I don't go out of my way to make another person's life worse than it may be, regardless of how much I may dislike that person. However, I usually am not one to care much about problems people might have. Ierno why, I just have trouble sympathizing with people as well as expressing feelings :I

And I am trying to work towards being more caring and kind and this devo was good as a reminder to always be mindful that way

other than that, I needa sleep... early morning rehearsals for orchestra, yuck.

Hey guys!
I have a lot of homework, so I'll be doing this devo tomorrow and also tomorrow's devo at the same time!
Sleep tight!

46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that?

Dang I'm really liking this verse
Who gets rewards for doing simple tasks..? Rewards are for people who do tasks under hard circumstances.
Loving someone when they love us is a given, it just happens automatically most of the time.
Loving someone when they dont love us, when they mock us, or even hate us is a true task
A task that is worth being rewarded
For myself, loving someone who bothers me is EXTREMELY hard.
Even after reading this, I don't think I could do it. I know I should. I can't though
But those are another one of those things I can work on you know?

I've tried sending the same post four times now....it keeps on shutting down on me when I press send......I'm really frustrated right now.

Basically, this passage reminded me of the cross example that pastor Kay told us at this retreat. We must have the same level of love for people as we do with god. We need both parts of the cross. God loves everyone so share and spread his love to others arround you.

I'm going to try to finish my impossible homework now....
Audrey -______-

I apologize for not doing this devo yesterday but I did say I would do it today, so here it is!
One thing I never understood was why we had to love our enemies. If God truly wanted me to love them, then why did he make them so bad? And how am I supposed to care for someone who looks down at me? If they don't have any positive feelings towards me, why should I have positive feelings towards them? Do you guys kind of get my drift?
But for us Loving everyone is an absolute must. Love is what God gives to use everyday and we have to show others that too. Whether it be to your best friend, your siblings, and even your enemies.