Date: 02 Sep 2002
Time: 21:58:18

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Last Saturday we took our daughter to college to begin her freshman year. The textual backdrop of Paul's exhortation lists to the Romans for communal thriving seems to resonate with the handouts and guidelines for getting along in college dorms and classes! Aslanclan


Date: 03 Sep 2002
Time: 07:33:34

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I am fascinated by the concept that we "owe" each other love. It is as though we are indebted, but to whom. Certainly if someone shows us love we are indebted to them, but what if they haven't. Do we owe a debt to the law still? Do we pay our debt to Christ through our love to others? There is a long sermon in the first nine words of this passage.


Date: 03 Sep 2002
Time: 08:42:41

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Oops, The last contribution was by RevIsrael


Date: 03 Sep 2002
Time: 09:48:23

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In response to "oweing Love to others" - according to the "New Interpreter's Bible" we are asked to consider the question to be "what is due them." Are not all people "due" love. Jesus tells us that we are even to "love our enemies." Not easy stuff this loving as Jesus teaches us to love. But for me it is the strength and power of the message of God as revealed through the life of Jesus and as I understand it Jesus and God are one in the same according to John. Love is not about obeying a law so that I will be "safe" but about giving up my life for someone else as Jesus teaches. The great and joyous discovery I and many others have made is that when we love others - no matter what- the flow of love and joy comes back into our own lives 7 fold!! My loving others is not "pay back" for what God has done for me, it is my way of loving God. Getting off from under the law means that we do not "owe" God - God's love in unconditional!! God's love for me stirs up my love for God and that stirs up my love for all people. Whew! I did not know I would go on so!! Love is a topic I LOVE!!

jmj in Montana


Date: 03 Sep 2002
Time: 15:02:36

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In regard to "Owe" - It is interesting that when we see or hear the word "owe" we connect it with obligation and law. Webster's has a most insightful meaning for "owe" - to have or cherish a certian feeling toward another. In Mortaon T. Kelsey's book "Caring - How Can We Love On Another?" he writes on page 15 "The love that we are talking about refers to that complex of emotions, attitudes, movements of will and actions in which we reach out to others in caring, concerned manner, desirieng to let other people know that we care about them and wish to facilitate the achievement of their potential. My love is neer complete until the other person feels more loved by me. Love is my total behavior (emotions, feelings and actions) directed toward making another person feel more cared for by me and by the Divine Lover who is at the heart and center of the universe." And on page 21 he writes "Jesus explained that the reason that we [are to] be loving is not only for the good it creates and the joy it brings, but because by loving we share in the very nature of God['s self]. We are to love with sincerity and sometimes that kind of love can only come from God to us. It comes when we Love God and are seeking to Love as God loves. It is gift from the Great Lover!!


Date: 03 Sep 2002
Time: 15:05:31

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Oh my!! New computer and it doesn't work like the old one. I did not see the posting, so made another after lunch. Sorry. But, there is some new material. jmj in Montana


Date: 04 Sep 2002
Time: 11:08:02

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Many of you may have seen, Mattie S. on the Larry King interview the other night... if not... I started trying to pick out those pats of the interview that I though were just great. Then I decided to send you the site and ask you to read it yourself. Please read Mattie Stepanek's views on peace, life, heart songs, war... etc.

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/02/lkl.00.html

KING: We're back with Mattie Stepanek. His newest is "Celebrate Through Heartsongs" and published by Hyperion.

How did you come up with this idea of "Heartsongs?"

M. STEPANEK: Well, the concept started when I started writing poetry, and I, my mom asked me what was a heartsong? And so I wrote a poem that's in the "Heartsongs" book called "Heartsongs," and it explains what a heartsong is.

And a heartsong is your inner message, it's your inner beauty, like what you are meant to do in life. My heartsong is to help others hear theirs again.

And all heartsongs are different and unique and beautiful. And even though similarities are good, it's the differences that make them special. And we should never try to force our heartsongs on others or have all the same heartsongs.

And it's sad that people who are fighting over whose heartsong is better nowadays, because they're all different and beautiful.

Blessings, remembering,

pulpitt in ND


Date: 05 Sep 2002
Time: 14:56:37

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Aslanclan, you are in my prayers. It is hard to send you kid off to college! All that freedom, I remember just praying that she would continue to live the teachings of Jesus. Nancy-WI


Date: 05 Sep 2002
Time: 21:55:52

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Nancy WI-Thanks for your prayers. Seems yesterday was a hard day and today was much better for our new freshman. She gravitated toward the campus ministry and there is finding a sense of familiarity and family. The wonderful web. Aslanclan


Date: 06 Sep 2002
Time: 10:17:52

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I often tell people you don't have to like me but you have to love me. there are some people I don't care to be around because of their life style. But that dosent release me from caring enough about them to pray for them and if there is a need to do my best to fullfill that need. To be down right honest we all probably have some church members we don't like but that dose not give us the right to not love them. Jesus said it this way, " By this people will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another."

Harold in Alabama


Date: 06 Sep 2002
Time: 13:36:38

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I always think of love, not as having a natural affinity for someone, or necessarily always getting along, but simply wanting the best for the other, regardless of whether or not we like them. "Love does no wrong to a neighbor" goes further by actually wanting God's will and good things for the neighbor. DGinNYC


Date: 07 Sep 2002
Time: 12:11:49

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Actually, simply doing no wrong to a neighbor is only a good beginning. Wanting and even praying for the other's best goes a step further. But if love is to be genuine we must go still further than wishing well. We must work for the best of others. To continually owe the debt of love in no way means to keep from paying on the debt. I missed a bill payment last week and had to pay a late fee. For all the love God keeps pouring into my life I'll be paying interest forever. tom in TN(USA)