osan57
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Virginia
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Message Posted: Jul 24, 2007 3:09:09 PM
If we have faith in Christ and believe all he has done YES I feal that we can LOVE someone that we have never met face to face! But if he is in your heart how can you nsay that you have NOT met him?
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PGM
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Message Posted: Jul 3, 2007 6:14:57 AM
David suffers long, and is kind; [No, not always]
David envies not; [Envy? I'd like the finer things in life at times]
David vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, [Yup, I fail at this sometimes]
David does not behave unseemly, [I'm good here I think, I'll ask my wife]
David seeks not his own, [I fail here]
David is not easily provoked, [We'll look back at old threads to show my failures here]
David thinks no evil; [We all fail here]
David rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; [I fail here once in a while]
David bears all things, [Not all]
David believes all things, [I'm not the most trusting person]
David hopes all things, [I don't always wish people the best]
David endures all things. [I admit I can be self centered]
David never fails: [but I do]
I guess I certainly have much for God to work on in my life. Thank God it's Jesus that works through me and NOT my own nature all the time.
[Edited by: PGM at 7/3/2007 6:19:45 AM EST]
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PGM
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Message Posted: Jul 3, 2007 6:02:32 AM
I've struggled a bit with the Christian lingo of defining love in exactly the context that's being described here in this thread. How can you love someone you don't know -- in the style that Americans/Westerners use the word love.
I don't think we (Westerners) can because we don't define love the same way the bible does. It requires an intamacy that the bible does NOT require.
We need to know people before we can really truly LOVE them. How can a person say they love me when they don't bother to take the time to know my problems. Or how can they say they love me when I have need of food, clothing, money, medicine, prayer, etc.... when they haven't taken the time to even look my way in church -- they simply do not love.
For the non-Christian people I apologize for the biblical reference to prove the point but the bible speaks to Christians and defines true LOVE.
1 Cor 13:1-9,13
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not **LOVE** (Agape Love, being typically translated "Charity"), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not **LOVE**, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not **LOVE**, it profiteth me nothing.
LOVE suffereth long, and is kind;
LOVE envieth not;
LOVE vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, {vaunteth...: or, is not rash}
Doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own,
is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil;
rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; {in the truth: or, with the truth}
Beareth all things,
believeth all things,
hopeth all things,
endureth all things.
Charity never faileth:
...
And now abideth faith, hope, **LOVE**, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE.
I suppose that if we closely examine this passage that most Christians will find it hard to love strangers in the American/Western way of thinking but in the biblical definition it is possible to express that love to strangers. But if you feel you agree, substitute your name in place of LOVE and see how you measure up to Paul's definition. It's difficult to accept that most of us in the church will be humbled by the fact that we don't measure up -- myself included.
[Edited by: PGM at 7/3/2007 6:08:30 AM EST]
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mexicomaria
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Message Posted: Jul 3, 2007 1:07:48 AM
I thought you were asking if it was possible to love someone you have never met.....A Christ one has met Jesus. I have lived before I met him and now I have met him. And there are no words that describe what meeting him feels like..the love that emotes. He is a true being but that is not something you know or feel until you have recognized or met him. All I can say is he elevated the word love...taint''''like nothing I ever felt on earth before .
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bryceisright
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Message Posted: May 9, 2007 3:17:24 PM
Anyone else experience or heard of this?
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diamondmike
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Message Posted: May 9, 2007 2:45:12 PM
No I have not heard this. They may be recognizing or just mistakenly calling a picture grampa. I do not know that this can't happen nor do I know it can. I do not believe it does because I have not seen it.
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bryceisright
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Message Posted: May 9, 2007 12:05:47 PM
This getting a little off topic but not far. Have you ever heard stories of babies recognizing dead relatives they never knew because the people died before they were born? When the toddler learns to speak they see a picture of grampa and points to and says grampa. When the parents did speak of grampa they would call him by name or dad not grampa. I know several people whose children did this when they first started talking.
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diamondmike
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Message Posted: May 9, 2007 10:17:28 AM
Love of a relative you never knew is different that of one you know personally and have interacted with. To me, it is not love. Nice try though. I am also not excited to see anyone in the after life since there will be no after life in my opinion.
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bryceisright
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Message Posted: May 8, 2007 5:01:31 PM
Okay how about relatives that died before you were born. If you've be told many times about them. You have their journals. You know everything about them and are excited to see them in the after life.
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diamondmike
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Cleveland
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Message Posted: May 8, 2007 4:07:25 PM
Yes you love your unborn children, but you have proof they are real.
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bryceisright
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Message Posted: May 8, 2007 3:59:57 PM
yes, when you have children born you love them even while in the womb. You do not meet them until they are born.
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diamondmike
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Cleveland
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Message Posted: May 8, 2007 2:46:44 PM
Not really. Since I do not believe in jesus, it does not help. It helps those who believe but have never seen even a shred of proof. It helps them believe they are blessed for believing in something without any proof whatsoever.
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torbarrie
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Ontario
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Message Posted: May 8, 2007 2:43:50 AM
John 20:28-30 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society 28Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
29Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.Hope this passage helps!
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diamondmike
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Message Posted: Apr 16, 2007 9:14:15 AM
no
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lefty78312
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Message Posted: Apr 11, 2007 7:06:07 PM
There are four words in the Bible which we translate as 'love'. Or as our pastor said during a recent sermon, "I love my dog, I love pizza, I love football and I love my wife. And there had better be a difference in the way I love each of them!"
But to say that we haven't met Jesus is a misstatement. We haven't met Him in the flesh, but we know Him in spirit.
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sissurf
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Message Posted: Apr 11, 2007 12:50:38 PM
Let's see how do we define LOVE?
Love is a strange thing.
It is a flower so delicate
that a touch will bruise it,
and so strong that nothing
will stop its growth.
Think how often we miss love
in a lifetime-by a wrong
gesture-by an unspoken word,
by not keeping silent at the
right time. We lose it by the
interference of other people;
by a lack of money; by a quarrel
over a trifle; and yet we
cannot live without it.
~ ♥ ~ † ~♥~
In short LOVE comes in many, many, forms.
God is LOVE
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Pastafarian
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Message Posted: Apr 10, 2007 3:00:39 PM
That's an interesting question, RedDruid. I'm an atheist, but I tend to believe people when they describe a subjective phenomenon like love. Since that takes place strictly between their ears, I wouldn't contradict it.
An interesting related question: I know it's common for born-again Christians to profess their love for God or Jesus, but I wonder what the results would be if you asked a large number and variety of Christians simply whether they love God and/or Jesus. Or if you asked believers of other faiths if they love their God(s). I wonder what results would you'd get from which demoninations.
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