To love is to sacrifice self in order to unconditionally help others. Love for God, therefore, is not a feeling; rather, it is to dedicate our life to God by entering His life and forming oneness with Him.  Since God is love, to love God, is to makes love the desire of our whole being.  Similarly, to worship God is to offer our entire life as a sacrifice to Him.  As sinners we are incapable of making this sacrificial offering.  However, Jesus, who is pure and sinless, made a perfect sacrifice of His life to the Father on our behalf and allows us to join in His sacrifice by sharing His sacrificial body in the form of bread and His sacrificial blood of the new and eternal covenant in the form of wine (Matthew 26:26-28) with us.  Furthermore, He asks us to offer this sacrifice, so that His presence in our heart is never lost (Luke 22:19) and we may thereby have life (John 6:53). This fulfills what Malachi had prophesized (Malachi 1:11): “from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation”.  By joining in this sacrifice, we empty our lives completely, in order to love and serve others.  In this sacrifice, therefore, we have an intimate communion (1 Cor. 10:16) with Jesus. This sacrifice, therefore, is the wedding feast of the Lamb (Revelation 5:6) in which Christ unites with His people. 

To forgive is to sacrifice what is taken away from us in order to help those who hurt us.  For example if someone insults us we feel that our pride is taken away.  To forgive in such a situation is to sacrifice our pride in order to bring healing to the person who insults us. Sinners are people who disobey God and go against Him. Yet Jesus came into this world to bring healing to sinners (Luke 5:32). He forgave His executioners (Luke 23:34) and sacrificed His life so that they may have eternal life. He did this, because, His loved them unconditionally. He, therefore, was not concerned about Himself; rather, He was concerned about their eternal life.  Forgiveness, therefore, is an act of unconditional love. Jesus, therefore, tells us to, “Love our enemy, do good to those who hurt us and pray for our persecutors” (Luke 6: 27-36).

We must be merciful, just as our Father is merciful (Luke. 6:36), because, He is our God. If we truly are followers of Christ, we too will forgive as He does (Eph 4:32). He forgave by sacrificing His life for those who betrayed Him, were unfaithful to Him and killed Him.

As christians we live by the Spirit of Christ.  This means we should live, like Christ does.

Hello arunangelo,

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true that God hates divorce. Many of those who have gone through a divorce hate it as well.

Why do you think God divorce Israel seeing He hates it so much?

Jer 3:8 “And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.”

Have you ever wondered why the Word of God says Joseph was a JUST man when he planed on divorcing Mary when he thought she was unfaithful?

Mat 1:18 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19  Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.”

God bless
Pilgrim

The Lord told Hosea (Hosea 3:1), "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes." We therefore, have to be faithful to our covenant with our spouse, even when there is unfaithfulness and hurt; and bring healing to our spouse by our prayers, sacrifices and support.

Bethrotal was the firsr part of marriage, and was completed a few months later when the husband took the wife into his house.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you (Col.3: 13).
When we were unfaithful to Him, He forgave us. When we deserted Him, He forgave us. When we abused Him and killed Him, He forgave us. He forgave us by healing us. He healed us by sacrificing His own life.

With God's help we can forgive as He does.

Marriage covenant is a covenant of love.  Since God is love (1 John4:, it is a covenant of God.  No one therefore, can put aside the covenant (Matt 19:6). Divorce therefore, goes directly against God; and those who remarry after divorce commit adultery (Luke 16:18). God is therefore, not pleased with the offering of those who divorce their spouse (Malachi 2: 13-14).

  God always stays faithful to His covenant with us. When we were unfaithful to Him, He brought us healing by sacrificing His own life.  As believers, we are called to love our spouse just as Christ loves us (Eph 5:25).  The Lord told Hosea (Hosea 3:1), "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes." We therefore, have to be faithful to our covenant with our spouse, even when there is unfaithfulness and hurt; and bring healing to our spouse by our prayers, sacrifices and support.

    Divorce is absolutely prohibited by the Gospels (Mk 10:11-12, Luke 6:18; Matthew 5: 31-32). In Matthew’s gospel the exception is for unlawful marriages.  The exception in the Greek text is porneia (which means incest or fornication), and not moiceia (which means adultery). The exception is for marriages between close relatives, which according to Mosaic Law (Lv 18:6-18) were unlawful, because, they were considered as incest. According to some authors it also refers to Jewish betrothal process, in which, prior to the marriage, if it was discovered that the bride was not a virgin (had committed fornication), the groom could back out. Such was the case when Joseph had planned to back out, when he found out that Mary was pregnant with Jesus.

God compensated for our sins that we committed against Him by sacrificing His own life.  In other words, the victim compensated for the sins of His offenders.  This is a very important fact, because, this is true forgiveness. If we have to accept His forgiveness, we must believe in it by doing like wise.  In other words, we must not only write-off what our offenders owe us, but also put our lives on the line in the process of helping them to recover from their sinful ways.  If we do not forgive others in this manner, we will not receive forgiveness (Matt 18:21-34).

Jesus tells us that to be first, we should be last and the servant of all(Mark 9:35).
   Paul tells us “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better than himself.  Look not every man to his own things, but every man also to the things of others” (Phil 2:3-4). He tells us to be devoted to one another in brotherly love and honor others above our selves (Gal. 6:4).  He also tells us to keep away from strife (Phi.2: 3; Rom. 13:13; 1Cor. 3:3; Gal 5:20, 21); which is opposing, battling or competing with others.

We are created in the image of God (who is love) (Gen. 1:27) and are a product of God’s love expressed through our parents union of love (Eph 5:25).  Artificial insemination, in-vitro fertilization and cloning procedures therefore, dehumanize human reproduction, by taking the act of unitive love (Gen. 2:24) out of it and converting it into a purely cellular process. Furthermore, during in-vitro fertilization and cloning procedures, lethal violence is committed against many human beings, who (as embryos) are destroyed; thus breaking God’s commandment (Exodus 20:13). Some of these procedures also deprive the resultant human beings the dignity of knowing their origin (biological parents), causing them grave injustice and psychological trauma. 

 Unitive love, which is conjugal union in marriage, is inseparable from procreation, because, conjugal union’s physiological purpose is procreation. These procedures, therefore, dehumanizes unitive love. This causes division, divorce and turmoil.  During therapeutic cloning, human beings are cloned, then killed in their embryonic stage and then their cells are harvested for medical use. This procedure, therefore, is one-step up in its evil intend compared to the other type of cloning.

  Biologically, our humanity is determined by our genetic make up and not by our stage of development.  Furthermore, an embryo is a stage in human development; just as infant, toddler, youth and adult are. Therefore, to justify killing of frozen embryos, which are doomed to die from being discarded, is similar to killing prisoners in the concentration camp for research, because they are doomed to die.

Christianity has to do with redemption and redemption has to do with forgiveness. The whole redemption history revolves around God’s forgiveness. It consists of God redeeming us from sin, by compensating for our sins (we committed against Him) by His sacrifice.  Furthermore, it consists of healing, where God gives us His sacrificial body and blood as real food (John 6:55), so that we may eat it, and be healed (John 6:33).  It also consists of union with God (John 6:56) by us receiving His flesh and blood and by us being part of His body, His Church.  Forgiveness also has to do with, returning home, to God’s home and to accepting God’s Fatherhood over us (Luke 15: 11-32). By His sacrificial act Jesus brings us into the household of God. Forgiveness, therefore, is an act of compassion, mercy and true love. God offers us forgiveness, which we receive through baptism. It is up to us to accept it or refuse it.  We can accept it by making His forgiveness our way of life.  If we reject it we are rejecting God’s forgiveness.  This leads to eternal death.
   The scriptures are very clear about forgiveness and mercy.  In James 2:13 we are told that mercy is above law.  In Matt. 6:14-15 we are told that we would not be forgiven if we do not forgive others.  In the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 6:12) we ask God to forgive us the way we forgive others. In Luke 17:4 Jesus tells us that we must forgive others repeatedly. In Luke 6:27-36 Jesus tells us to love our enemy, pray for them, do good for them, if someone takes our coat, give them our shirt as well, offer the other cheek if someone slaps us on one, lend and do not expect it back and be merciful like our heavenly Father.  In Romans 12: 17-21 Paul tells us to not pay evil with evil, never take revenge, feed our enemy, not allow evil to defeat us and to over come evil with good.  He further tells us in 1Cor. 6:7 that a legal dispute is a sign of our complete failure; and that it is better to be wronged or robbed than to wrong others or rob them.

When we were unfaithful to Him, and deserted Him, God did not break His covenant of love with us. When we sinned against Him, abused and killed Him, He did not take revenge; on the contrary, He sacrificed His life for us, so that our sins against Him would be forgiven and we may have eternal life.
Are we true followers of Jesus, if our forgiveness is not similar to that of God’s?

To be born again is to be born spiritually in the Spirit (of Christ) (John 3:6).  In other words, to be born again, is to receive the Spirit of Christ in our heart (2 Cor. 5: 17) through baptism. We accept this life by living the life of Christ. Christ’s life is the life of unconditional love, purity, forgiveness and mercy.  Although we were unfaithful to Him and betrayed, abused and killed Him, He did not sue us, abandon us or back out from the covenant of love He made with us. On the contrary, He humbled Himself to take a human form and sacrificed His life in order to compensate for the sins we committed against Him. Therefore, those who accept His life accept holiness, purity and unconditional love into their lives.  Furthermore, they forgive their transgressors unconditionally; and do not back out from their covenant of love in the face of unfaithfulness, betrayal, abuse or hurt.   

     God is Spirit and Love (John 4:24 & 1John 4, 8).  Love therefore, is not a feeling or emotion, but a being that is God. The Spirit of God is like force or energy, which we cannot see; yet they control every aspect of our life and the universe; and are critical for our survival.  His Spirit however, is infinitely greater than just force or energy, because, He is intelligent, merciful, loving, forgiving and life giving.  In fact He is the creator of force and energy. His Spirit is Love, which speaks to every human heart, constantly persuading us to be selfless and righteous. His Spirit moves human heart to great holiness.  His Spirit is also the force that leads human beings to charity, mercy, forgiveness and hope; and the energy that sustains us during our trials, tribulations and works.
   
    We experience God, when we experience the spirit of love in human beings and in our own heart; we see God when we see acts of unconditional love in the world; we touch God when we selflessly reach out to others in love; and we communicate with God when our thoughts are fixed on love and forgiveness.  We see fullness of God in Jesus.  Although we were unfaithful to Him and betrayed, abused and killed Him He did not back out from the covenant of love He made to us. On the contrary, He humbled Himself to take a human form and sacrificed in life in order to compensate for the sins we committed against Him. Those who have truly accepted Jesus in to their life, likewise, are forgiving people who have dedicated their lives to serve others, and do not back out from their covenant of love with their spouse and commitment to others in the face of unfaithfulness, betrayal, abuse or hurt.   Their acceptance of Jesus sets them free from hate, greed, lust, anger, revenge and jealousy.


modified by me, to fix, the cool smilie back to 8
DW.

Emptiness comes from selfishness. Selfishness results from a sense of insecurity; and a sense of insecurity results from lack of faith in God’s abounding love and mercy.   Most of us know that there is a God and that He loves us.  However, many of us have never internalized the full extent of His love. Furthermore, we have never made His type of love, our love. For example, God accepted humiliation, suffering and death in order to compensate for our sins, which we committed against Him. In other words, He the victim compensated for our offenses that we the offenders committed against Him. Although our sins against Him included unfaithfulness, betrayal, abuse, torture and killing; because, of His infinite love and mercy, He sacrificed His life for us.  In human thinking this is absurd; because, we generally punish, hurt or hate those who hurt us and ask them to compensate for the wrong they have done to us.  Furthermore, we abandon those who are unfaithful to us and betray us. Now, if we can only internalize these facts, we would realize the depth of His love for us and feel secure even in our worst tragedy.  We would therefore, not be concerned about our own interest.  This would make us less selfish.  Furthermore, if we can love others like He loves us, by loving and helping those who are unfaithful to us, betray us, abuse us, torture us or try to kill us, we would be totally free of selfishness and find fulfillment in life. We would also then be true followers of Jesus.