help

people need help....those of us so blessed can help in the simplest ways.  goin' thru the closet and donating what is really a nuisance to you is one example.  i understand it might not be something you want to spend time doing, but in reality it can take as little as 15 minutes.  in that 15 minutes you can provide a season of comfort for someone else!  i don't want to be that guy that bugs people all the time, but in this case, when it comes to this, i am willing to be that guy!  "so come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together try and love one another right now"!  :)

and hey, it's really nothin' more than puttin' warm clothes on cold bodies.....

heaven

so i was thinking about heaven and hell.  who would i expect to find in either?  would there be murderers in heaven?  i think so, King David was a murderer, Moses was a murderer, and i would expect to find them in heaven.  rapists, thieves, homosexuals, pedophiles?  i think so.  repentent for sure, but there just the same. 
now is it also the case that in hell i might find people who had never committed a crime while on earth that would warrant incarceration?  or maybe even something as minor as a traffic ticket?  could such a person be found in hell?  i expect so.
i can't help but think it's  your attitude toward God that dictates your place in eternity.  i want to work on my attitude, i want to be so in tune with God that his will runs thru my being 24/7.  i want to learn to love as He commands me to love.  i want to go to heaven!

....love your neighbor as yourself.

second most important commandment next to loving God...all the laws and prophets hang on this...so the bible tells us.  Jesus spoke many times throughout the new testament about how loving each other is what we are called to do.  love others as we love ourselves.  well how do i love myself?  for one thing i seem to always find a way to excuse myself.  i put myself first, even though at first glance it may not look that way.  i take care of myself, in particular my feelings.  i am careful to guard against anything that may challenge how i feel.  so, recognizing that is how i love myself, how then do i love you in that same way?  first off, it would seem that i must excuse you, even though i would much rather blame you. i must put you first, consider you first.  i must take care of you, in particular your feelings.  i should guard against anything that might upset how you feel.  i must treat you in that same way i treat myself. not necessarily in the way it appears i treat myself, but in that way i treat myself on a much deeper level, where i stand guard over anything that could potentially upset or harm me.  how would my behavior look if i put loving you first?  what kind of effect would loving you as i love myself have on how i feel?

when i do what i do to love myself the resulting feelings i have are often not what i would desire.  i am often left empty or at least with a sense of not being fulfilled.  so given that i search further for something that might make me feel better.  i often resort to judgement of others.  if i can see others as being less than i, then maybe from that i can find satisfaction.  seeing myself as a better person than so and so, a better christian than so and so, a better whatever!  and if thru this judgement i can get others to cosign then all the better.  we can group together, fawn over one another, excuse one anothers shortcomings, put our focus on those we judge, those not like us, those not "saved",  and what i end up with is being at odds with what Jesus taught, but at the same time professing my testimony of Christ in my life. 

so it seems that loving myself, at least in the way i presently love myself, leaves me empty.  encouraging me to act in ways at odds with the teachings of the gospels. 

yet i suspect if we love one another in that same way: putting others first, excusing others, considering others feelings first, guarding others against harmful things, we might expect to feel better ourselves.  so it seem that what are doing is not so wrong as is where we are putting the focus of what we are doing.  so perhaps when Jesus says, we are to love others as we love ourselves, this might be something of what he meant.  at any rate, as i read through the new testament i find consistently that above all we are commanded to love one another.  and the behaviors that at times seem to dominate our landscape: judgement, jealousy, gossip, etc. are a direct result of our failing to obey that very commandment.