Romans 13:8-10 ~ love is fulfilling

Romans 13:8-10

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.


So Morality, surely an outdated word and some icky concept.

The problem in, a nutshell, is this. If you are loved, you are cared for. That's mostly the goal.
To love and be loved.

The problem with all this free sex is it's mostly a game of "Gotcha!" And usually, there is at least
one heart in the game that is going to be bruised. You wouldn't take your child and say "I love your depths" and then say, "But I think I could exchange you for a better model, maybe better hair, more money, better body, more interesting, less whiney, less needy, in general more fun to be with."

The next problem with "Gotcha!" is one of what happens to the hurt. What if that child says, "I can do this because if I'm not lovable, then I can color WAY outside the Circle. Way, Way."

And then that child feels more unlovable. And it's not as if this is the smelly bully sitting at the next desk over. This judgement came from being "KNOWN".

So the child self-corrects. "I'm Not doing that Again." Well, goodie, goodie, that wasn't really your friend, so the friend IS GOING TO TELL. And then the colored over circle is going to not have boundaries. Or shame is going to be produced, guilt.

So fie on goodness, fie. Shame is great for the Sunday Holy Rollers Right? No. God asks a sincere heart to say, "I'm SO Sorry." Shame is when the heart tells itself that perhaps they are very far from "being all that."

Oh the comforts of fitting in, except what is that child being taught? So much pain that chemicals are required to soothe the harshness of fitting in. Father Francis MacNutt says the problem with sin and our lives - they are so hidden. We think we escaped but like the 30 Churches of One Mission say, "All is not well behind the trees."

The problem with jollies, they will eat your lunch and look eventually to tear you down. The world says it operates one way and yet it operates in another.

A loved one was stable for years. With some quirks, men say, men will be men. His wanderings led him to not be surrounded by love and he chose to put his life down. It's rarely said, but suicide is the 13th leading cause of death.

Love up builds.

We get in such jams and if we are not quickly uncircled we can get into patterns of coldness. Into habits that abuse ourselves. We need a letter from God to say, "Hey that sin, that's not unforgivable. What really, really hurts ME and you is that - now you've forgotten in all that effort to shield yourself from being unloved, you've made yourself believe that you stand apart. That you must hurt before you are hurt. That you have learned mankind is so hurtful, strides are made to push out anything less than perfect. You have forgotten the joy in being who you were before you added on all this junk. Unwind! Rediscover! You are Loved. You will Love. Let Light grow Your Being!"

Life is stuck in a rut, stuck in a rut. Our culture needs help. We discuss TV as our entertainment. We sit in a darkened room, in a darkened house and we need to look to see what other cultures are doing that keeps them ALIVE. Spain expects to go out every evening after dinner - The Kids Go With. Tables expect to talk to the table next to them. Australians do this too - not to the same effect - Dads go alone. Let's nix that, we need the tribe to be a unit. Dads stick with those kids and wife. In South America, you have coffee. And neighbors drop in for a continual coffee feast. In the UK - tea - dessert will be shared. Houses are open - like we used to do in the 1970s and before.

People need good activities. Learn to make things. Bible Studies. Sports. Games that don't kill people.

The goal isn't to wound. Shame brings no worthy goal.

One Beautiful thing our culture has - we want to lift our children. If you wouldn't want something for your child - why would we do that to ourselves? You are a child of God. You are Loved.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

<><