Without love, all is lost

We will be moving to video blogging in the near future, but I wanted to move forward and post previous text blogs to this page now for your enjoyment and edification:

REPOST FROM July 6, 2008

Love the Lord your God with all your mind, all your soul, all your heart and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.

These are the greatest commandments ever according to Jesus the Christ.

If you were to sum up Christ's ministry on earth into one word... that word would be "Love".

Why is it that "Love" is the single attribute that is missing the most among Christians? I don't care if you can call out judgements left and right, if you can call out any scripture to hold against your brother/sister, if you can tell about the end times, if you can provide for your family, if you can give a million dollars to the church, how many dos and donts you think you know, or if you can preach a mighty emotional sermon from the pulpit.... if you don't have love... then you've missed it.

Jesus didn't come to judge folks, show hatred, and condemn people. And for you to tell people that you are yelling at them, belittling them, and condeming them out of LOVE...to make them better... is a lie that you are telling yourself to make you feel better.

Another favorite of legalistic Christians is to quote scripture against people. Can you imagine? - using the Word of God to cut people down and to make them feel worse! Are you doing it in love? Really? Taking scripture out of context in order to pass judgement on someone or to make someone feel different in any way is characteristic of Satan. Not God. So many people quote scripture out of context, with no love in their heart.... it makes me sad. Jesus "could have" shouted judgements on everyone He met while on earth... but He didn't ... He ministered to them in Love. Because you "can" doesn't mean that you "should". Look at Christ's character.. that's our model.

Are you characterized as having love? Showing compassion? Or are you a red-flag man.... beating people down and having no compassion for others?