Self Love

the enemy gives you conceit and selfishness and narcissism. And that's not what I call you to, that's not what I want. But there's there's this attitude that, well, if you love yourself, then you're being focused only on self. And I'm telling you this that if you love yourself properly, as First Corinthians thirteen says, that talks about being kind with yourself. Okay, because this is talking about love. Remember, love is patient, Love is kind, Love does not envy

or boast. Well, think about it this way for yourself, that you are to be patient with yourself So many times I will talk to someone on the air or receive an email about someone who's just not patient with themselves and what you're growing through or learning, and being kind to yourself, not being envious about other people's selves, certainly not to boast, not to be arrogant or rude. This is interesting that love, as it says in one Corinthians thirteen, it does not insist on its own way.

What does that mean if you're talking about loving yourself, Well, it's about understanding that not everything you want for you is healthy or good. It's why you yield to the will of God and not your own will. And that's part of loving yourself is understanding that God's will is better for you than your own. That love bears all things, and with that is embarrassments and mistakes and things that you will go through in life. And you know what,

everybody else goes through them too. Believes in all things. It says about love in one Corinthians thirteen. You have to believe in yourself as well. And that's not some self help thing. That's not some you know, mamby pamby kind of here here is some candy for you to chew on and feel good about yourself. No, it's about knowing that God created you with purpose and skills and abilities, and you need to believe in those things, those tools that God gave you. That's all part of who you are.

Be hopeful for things, endure all things, and know that the love that you have in life is given to you by God and it is endless. Scripture also says that the more you know about God, the more you'll know about yourself. Firse John three to one. See what kind of love the Father has given to us? That we should be called children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that they did not know him. This is saying that the world can't even love you because they don't know

and love God. Similarly that you, the more you know about God, the more you can love yourself. The more that you understand that the Creator has given you this life and all the things in it, and that the trials you go through are there for you to strengthen yourself, to endure and to hone that love. If you get that thing, if you take that with you today, that knowing that to know God more, spend more timeliness in his word to spend more time with his people, spend

more time in prayer. Then you'll know yourself better. You'll be able to love yourself properly when you know God and love God. Romans thirteen eight and ten eight through ten have an interesting description of the fulfillment of the law. It says, oh, no one anything except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. I'll pause for a second. And how are you supposed

to love another like you love yourself? Goes on to say, for the commandments you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does not wrong a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. All of the ten commandments, it's saying here, every single one of the ten commandments are fulfilled in that concept

of love, true love. Yet it says again that you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. Love does not wrong a neighbor. Love should not self, love should not wrong itself. The fulfillment of the law. Do you realize that you cannot break any of the commandments if you do everything in love. And that's what it's saying here.

It's very easy to get caught up in life. You see these, some of them quite horrible reality shows, and the way people treat one another, and the insecurities and the ugliness, and the way the producers and the cameraman and everybody else do their part to try and cap sure the ugliest part of humanity. And you'll find it it's not hard to capture. You don't need producers, even

you don't need any of that. People can be very ugly to one another, and it's hard to remember not to be sometimes, but it usually stems from not knowing yourself and not having a healthy love for your own self. You need to understand who you are and that I made you, The Father made you in his image, And

what is that? Does that mean two legs? Two? I know that means intellect, will, and emotion, and that you have those things, and that you are designed to be a creature of love, both to others and to yourself. And the world will tell you that love is sex, and the world will tell you that love is power, and the world will tell you all these things, and it's not it's understanding, its appreciation. It's a true knowledge of who God is and who you are through God.

And the proper application of those things is what will make you healthy. And I will tell you there is. Can you imagine walking into a filthy restaurant with a lousy sign outside. Nothing looks clean, no one looks like they care. Why would you want to eat there? You wouldn't.

And it's the same with how you present yourself. If you crawl into a hole, if you stay in the dark, if you don't explore your own curiosities and wonderment with this world, if you don't want to explore on your very own, the assumption will be that none of that will change with a partner. If you're curious and excited about life, if you are not feeling good in the place that you are, your first response is to quit,

that's a problem. If your first response is to well, then I'm going to climb out of this hole and I'm going to find a place where I am exhilarated and stimulated and excited by the things around you. I mean, when you walk out and you see a different moon or a big harvest moon or just a tiny little sliver, or you see the way clouds roll in or roll away, or the way the sun rises or sets, the way the ocean comes in and out. Where you find the simple little things in line that can bring so much joy.

When you find that person in your life, you'll find that this is always interesting. The things that your partner finds about themselves that they don't like usually will be the things that you do like and that drew you to them. The strange, funny way that they curl their lip when they talk, the slight pigeon toe of the left foot, how it just slowly inches in like a child when they walk, the big eyes, the beauty mark,

whatever it might be. I guarantee the things that you love about your partner they despise, they don't like them. So what I ask of you today is to look at yourself and to look at yourself through the eyes of others, to find that that beauty, that wonderfulness, that comfort and who you are. And I will tell you the world will be a tre to you. And that's not the goal. That's the result of healthy people living in a healthy environment around other healthy people, loving yourself

self love. It seems contradictory to Christianity, and it's not. As a matter of fact, Scripture says in Leviticus nineteen eighteen that you have to love your neighbor as you love yourself. And those are strong words. That's God saying that. Listen, you need to have a structured understanding of who you are that allows you to appreciate who you are in the context of this life and the context of serving God. So it's not about conceit not about narcissism, not about selfishness.

It's about understanding who you are, me first, not me only, and I love how concise that is not necessarily true about the me first in the sense that there is kind of a selflessness that goes with it. But the balance that is should be achieved is about knowing who you are and appreciating who you are, because no one else will appreciate you if you don't appreciate yourself. And so God says to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

So you have to love yourself first, but not in the way that you push everybody out of the way. It's to help things move along, it's to help society. It's to help your relationships. So really it becomes an act of selflessness and not selfishness. So what is love, well, One Corinthians thirteen. If you've ever been to a Christian wedding, you know this. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is

not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice and wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes, all things, endures all things. Love never ends. It even says one Corinthians thirteen that prophecies they will pass away, tongues they will cease, knowledge it will pass away. But love stays consistent. And so all these things should be things that you apply to yourself. But the way you love yourself is to be patient and kind, not

only with others, but with yourself. I've met some incredibly loving people who are so kind to others and yet can't be that way to themselves, don't know how to be kind or patient with their own selves, their own learning their own path. It's not about how bragging, not about boasting, not about envy. Oh they're more when it comes to this love, the self love that I want you to have much more. Marty, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.

And as though there were an evil something looming over us, even though you've been so faithful to be there every step of the way for us during this trying time and so I'm confused why other believers would I would say that or question that, or.

here on earth. There is a purification process that goes through this life, and every Christian in this life that you're going to experience. Romans five three says more than that, rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. So those those trials that suffering one Peter four twelve, beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange

were happening to you. You shouldn't be surprised. It shouldn't be out of the norm for a Christian to go through things through garbage. And it's the old bumper stick because you know how Christians love the little sayings, the old bumper sticker. That's not what your future holds. Who

holds your future that's important is really the key. And either there's some misunderstanding as to that concept of spiritual battle, but really you should want to welcome it in the sense that it's part of the purification process that God is with you through throughout the entirety of it. Rejoicing in those things are good because in those trials is

where God reaches in and has glory. I mean, listen to the tone of your voice when you talk about the things that God has done in your life, you know, and those times when I've stepped in and those times where you felt My presence and all of that is you can only talk about that because there are trials in your life. If everything was perfect, you know, what are you going to say? We life is great, and

God is good and everything's fine. You know, how dull is that the things in life that are commonly referred to as trials are the things that make your life unique to you, and your experience is unique to you, and your endurance and strength and spiritual growth unique to you and your family in this case, and that's not a bad thing. It's bad in the world. You know, we were having this discussion earlier about what's bad and what's good, and the world gets confused about those things.

There are many things that are painful and that can cause pain or turmoil that are good for you. And so I wouldn't look at that as a as a pejorative or a negative term. When someone says spiritual battle, I would look at that as you know, you go through Ephesians and you see where it talks about the armor of God. What do you think the armor of God's for spiritual battles. Spiritual battles exactly to protect you

from evil. And if you could see what's taking place on a daily basis in the spiritual realm around you, in the battle front, and angels with swords drawn to defend and all these things, it's quite fantastic. Beautiful and terrifying to those who don't believe. But you're a believer and you're covered in that. And and if somebody says you're going going through a spiritual battle, you look at

them and say thank you. Yeah, God, God sees you in the light that you are worthy of protection, you are worthy of refinement, you are worthy of being in a place that you can glorify God. And that's what comes from trials.

comes in times of pain. It's an understanding that God is there and that God provides, and it's a constant, and you're gonna have highs and lows, and there's gonna be good things and bad things that happen to you by the world's standards, But ultimately you keep that attitude, Marty, that God is with you and that it's all to glorify God, and you're ahead of the game. People misunderstand things. I think about this for a second. Every time you

refer to someone as courageous. You know, if you think of firefighters or law enforcement or military, or any of these people that put their life on the line for you on a daily basis, for your freedoms, for the peace of mind, all of these things, your protection. That the very things that you call them, the very attributes that you find noble or heroic or courage just don't exist without turmoil, without fire, without gunfights, without you know,

ugliness and adversity. That really it's that purification. It's those trials that really show the character of an individual. Or shower show that the true faith and makeup of somebody. And this attitude, not that you certainly don't have marty, but this attitude that I've heard from time to time with Christians, that it's Christianity is supposed to make everything okay, and that you're always fine and there's never a problem. More,

there aren't these tests. No spiritual battle is true. But every Christian should be going through spiritual battle of one kind or the other. And I'll tell you something, the closer you get to God, the more that you might experience, because it's like the hotter the fire, the more refining

that fire, the hotter will get. One Peter one point seven says, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The purification of gold goes through a heating process and a process of trials, if you will, And Scripture talks about the dross being scraped off the top and thrown

to the side. The dross is the imperfections, it's the it's the oils or certain minerals that shouldn't be there, or whatever dust that during the heating and purification process, that which doesn't burn out, that doesn't just burn up, goes to the top when you're heating these metals and

getting them pure. And you see those stamps on the side of metals, whether it be jewelry or what have you, that talk about their purity that comes from the heating, that the processing of those metals to get them to a point of perfection in the eye of the maker. And if you're a believer, you should be going through

these things. You should be going through experiences that are tough, that are testing, that that are purifying who you are and what your faith is, and that you shouldn't be surprised, as it says in one Peter four twelve, you shouldn't be surprised about fiery trials in your life. You should be content with God's grace and you should know that

you're going to go through these tests. So if anyone comes up to you and says that you know and uses it as a as a negative term or says that, oh, like it's some weakness in your faith, on the contrary, it could very much be due to the intensity of your faith. The enemy putting special attention on you, and I want to attack you because of the intensity of your faith, and that should be understood. And don't take it on yourself and the weight on your shoulders as

if you've done something wrong, because that's not the case. Jim, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.

God for eternity. So in the case of speaking about the Book of Revelation and the things that are talked about there, that really the sign or this symbol is about rejecting God in totality. It's not just about exchanging things or for money or using it for commerce. It's not about that. It always comes down to the one unpardonable sin spoken about in scripture, and that's rejecting God. It's rejecting technically, rejecting the Holy Spirit, who brings you

to Me, who brings you to the Father. So if you are at that point where you do what is spoken about in scripture, and keep in mind in the Book of Revelation, it's not very specific. It's a sketch of something that will take place. Many people thought that that was going to be credit cards. Some people thought it was social Security numbers. People have thought all of these things, that it was going to be some sort

of this is the mark of the devil. But it's not about, oh now I've got a tattoo, or there's this mark on me, I'm doomed to hell. That's not how it works. It's not some weird technicality that God's looking for to boot you out of heaven. It's a specific and wilful act of rebellion, turning away from God, flipping God the finger and saying I don't want you in my life. That's very specific and that's done with will and intent. It's not accidental. It's not all well,

I needed to buy bread for my children. So there may come a time, trust me, things may get worse, and there may come a time where you have to make a decision between your existence on earth and the pleasures on Earth and God and so what you see as just simple commerce. There may be a time when things get to a place where you will have to make decisions against certain pleasures or certain experiences on Earth.

I mean, you do that every day with girding yourself and making sure you're in line with the word of God, rather than in doing whatever you want. So there may be this time, and this is speculated by different theologians, where you'll have to make decisions against things that you think are normal everyday comforts. But is it about some sort of weird technicality. No, it's not about that at all.

It's the rules stay the same through the entirety of scripture, and that is that as an act of rebellion, if you get to a place where you reject God and you say, essentially I don't want to be with you here on earth. I want to do what I want. I want to do it when I want, and I don't want you looking over my shoulder. I don't want you guiding my life. I don't want you involved in my life. Then God will say okay, and then in that process you have essentially severed your relationship with God

unto death. Keep in mind that you know, people make decisions all throughout their life, and you can make a bad decision and make a good one, but unto death, at that point of death, it's done. It's like the bullet leaving the gun and entering a body and you kill them. You can't go oh, now, the consequences look too harsh. I want to reverse it. It's done. So essentially it comes from the love of God saying either you say that my will be done, or I look at you one day and say thy will be done.