Love is the most powerful force in the universe. Love is the only way of fulfilling a relationship. Without love, relationships cannot exist and without relationship, there is no need for love. For love to change the world, three relationships are necessary:
- Loving God
- Loving ourselves
- Loving our neighbour
Jesus was asked the question: “What is the most important commandment?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31 NIV)
God’s plan is to change the world in which we live. Not through exercising his power, not by commanding us to live better lives, not through fear of punishment but by using his love, enabling us to love him, to love ourselves and to love those around us. Continue reading “Love God, Yourself and Neighbour”
Compassion and Justice
This morning, at the meeting of our church, we sang an old hymn. “What’s so strange about that?” you may ask. Well, we normally sing more modern worship songs, and rarely sing what would normally be described as a hymn.
The other night I could not get to sleep for a while. I was thinking back over the last 70 years, and wondering, “Where has it all gone?” It has always been my passion to change the world and I have not achieved all that I set out to do. I do not want to minimise what has been achieved though the charity I founded, but I want more; I want my life to make a real difference!
It’s general election time! It is our opportunity to change the way the our country is governed. But as individual voters, how do we decide who to vote for? If we know some of the candidates, we can vote for the person, but most of us have never met any of the candidates. We could vote for the party with the leader we like, but that is dangerous because a party can change its leader at any time. We will probably vote for the party which most closely aligns with our own personal ethos.
We live in a capitalist economy, based on exchange of goods and services using the medium of money. When we buy or sell something, we make an agreed exchange of value. In theory nobody wins and nobody loses, but in practise the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Is there an alternative?
Compassion and Justice 