quote:

ORIGINAL: Prairiehiker

...all your mind and all your soul. What does that exactly look like? How do we do that? How do we manifest it in our daily lives? Do you find it difficult to do? I can't imagine that I've ever had an hour, never mind a day, that I loved God will of my being, and acted and thought as though I did.

quote:

Our love for God is so big, it cannot be contained. We must share Him with others. We must sanctify ourselves. We must give.

quote:

I can't imagine that I've ever had an hour, never mind a day, that I loved God will of my being, and acted and thought as though I did.

quote:

ORIGINAL: x_SoliDeoGloria_x

quote:


There are generally two ways that people deal with this command of Jesus and the other command that goes with it, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Many people say that Jesus wouldn't have given us these commands if he didn't expect us to carry them out, so we'd better get with it or else, because if we can't perfectly obey these two simple little commands, how can we consider ourselves to be saved?

But then Paul comes along and helps to clarify the difference between law and gospel, for example, Romans 3:20 -- "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." So, if we carefully examine ourselves, we see that we aren't really loving God with all of our being every moment of the day, and we aren't really loving every neighbor as much as we love ourselves every moment of the day. This forces us to rely on the righteousness from God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law." (Romans 3:28) Of course, having been justified by faith and not the law, the law is a guide for our sanctification, but most Christians see sanctification as an ongoing process which will not be perfected in this lifetime. Thus, even as justified Christians who "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand," (Romans 5:1-2) the law still leads us to daily repentance as we live out our sanctification.

This was beautifully stated. I couldn't say it any better.

_____________________________

"Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed: but he puts it on a lampstand, in order that those who come in may see the light."
Luke 8:16

quote:

ORIGINAL: x_SoliDeoGloria_x

quote:

I can't imagine that I've ever had an hour, never mind a day, that I loved God will of my being, and acted and thought as though I did.

There are generally two ways that people deal with this command of Jesus and the other command that goes with it, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Many people say that Jesus wouldn't have given us these commands if he didn't expect us to carry them out, so we'd better get with it or else, because if we can't perfectly obey these two simple little commands, how can we consider ourselves to be saved?

But then Paul comes along and helps to clarify the difference between law and gospel, for example, Romans 3:20 -- "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." So, if we carefully examine ourselves, we see that we aren't really loving God with all of our being every moment of the day, and we aren't really loving every neighbor as much as we love ourselves every moment of the day. This forces us to rely on the righteousness from God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law." (Romans 3:28) Of course, having been justified by faith and not the law, the law is a guide for our sanctification, but most Christians see sanctification as an ongoing process which will not be perfected in this lifetime. Thus, even as justified Christians who "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand," (Romans 5:1-2) the law still leads us to daily repentance as we live out our sanctification.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Prairiehiker

But we still should strive to love Him, don't we? Again, what does that look like? HOw does that feel like?

quote:

What does that exactly look like?

quote:

Only the other day I saw in an excellent weekly paper
of Puritan tone this remark, that Christianity when stripped of
its armour of dogma (as who should speak of a man stripped of his
armour of bones), turned out to be nothing but the Quaker doctrine
of the Inner Light. Now, if I were to say that Christianity came
into the world specially to destroy the doctrine of the Inner
Light, that would be an exaggeration. But it would be very much
nearer to the truth. The last Stoics, like Marcus Aurelius, were
exactly the people who did believe in the Inner Light. Their
dignity, their weariness, their sad external care for others,
their incurable internal care for themselves, were all due to the
Inner Light, and existed only by that dismal illumination. Notice
that Marcus Aurelius insists, as such introspective moralists
always do, upon small things done or undone; it is because he has
not hate or love enough to make a moral revolution. He gets up
early in the morning, just as our own aristocrats living the
Simple Life get up early in the morning; because such altruism is
much easier than stopping the games of the amphitheatre or giving
the English people back their land. Marcus Aurelius is the most
intolerable of human types. He is an unselfish egoist. An
unselfish egoist is a man who has pride without the excuse of
passion.
Of all conceivable forms of enlightenment the worst is what these people call the Inner Light. Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the god within. Any one who knows any body knows how it would work; any one who knows any one from the Higher Thought Centre knows how it does work. That Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones. Let Jones worship the sun or moon, anything rather than the Inner Light; let Jones worship cats or crocodiles, if he can find any in his street, but not the god within. Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain. The only fun of being a Christian was that a man was not left alone with the Inner Light, but definitely recognized an outer light, fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Prairiehiker

...... "all your mind and all your soul." What does that exactly look like? How do we do that? How do we manifest it in our daily lives? Do you find it difficult to do?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Prairiehiker

Are we sinning then on those moments that we're not loving God with all that we have? I think we do. That's why we need the grace of God. But we still should strive to love Him, don't we? Again, what does that look like? HOw does that feel like?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Prairiehiker

...all your mind and all your soul. What does that exactly look like? How do we do that? How do we manifest it in our daily lives? Do you find it difficult to do?

quote:

part of song (author unknown to me):

Moment by moment
One step at a time
He's changing my heart
And renewing my mind.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Prairiehiker

I'm looking for evidence in our lives that we love God with all that I have. I guess, talking about it doesn't do anything for me. Or showing pictures. But actual evidences, changes in how I think, do things, love people, that shows that my heart is developing this deep love for God.

I know that when people talk about sin, they talk about sinful acts like murder, or lying. But they people don't talk about the sin of not loving God with all that they have because this sin isn't so obvious.