Jack’s Winning Words 2.20/17
“When I do good, I feel good.  When I do bad, I feel bad.  That’s my religion.”  (A. Lincoln)  Although Lincoln was not a conventional Christian, he was a deeply moral person and knew the Bible well.  If someone were to ask me about my religion, I’d probably say, “…to love God with all my heart and mind and to love my neighbor as I love myself.”  Theologian Karl Barth quoted “Jesus loves me, this I know,” to explain his religion.  How would you describe yours?    ;-)  Jack

FROM LG IN COMMERCE:  "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."  Deuteronomy 6:4-9  Amen!====JACK:  Sometimes we see more of a separation in our religion(s) than there really is.

FROM TARMART REV:  The greatest commandment--loving God and neighbor, with all my heart and soul . . . and only by His grace!!====JACK:  I wonder if you do more religious things outside of the church building than in it?

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Love. Love, Love..unconditional love, such as the Father God has for all of us. He told us to Live Love, which is not as easy as it glibly rolls off the tongue!! But he does give us the strength and the power to try to do that!  Abraham Lincoln did it as best he could in such devastating times as the Civil War!  It is amazing (and awe-ful)to see how those war years aged him. :-( ====JACK:  The love you are writing about is called, grace...love that is given, but not deserved, like God gives to us.  After the Civil War some northerners wanted to punish the South, but Lincoln believed in reconstruction, a kind of grace.  The Marshall Plan, after WW 2, was kind of grace, too.  I think that it was Lincoln who said, "The way to get rid of your enemy is to make him your friend."

FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  Actually, Abe Lincoln's religion speaks to me today. On Sunday our Gospel was on love your enemies, walk two miles with them, give them your coat as Jesus taught and so forth and Pastor Jackie sent out her "sermon teaser" to us during the week so we were thinking about the scripture and then she preached on the "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect" or something like that and, as I struggled with the Gospel all during the week, finally came to the conclusion that I will never be perfect but that already all my life long--so far anyway--have been living "seeing through the cross". When I don't love someone am not getting along with, I feel bad and am at the cross. When someone asks me for help and I reject them, I feel bad and am at the cross. When I don't give up my resources to someone who needs them to survive, I also feel bad and am at the cross. Sometimes, I am able to do all these things, only usually with sincere heartfelt prayers for strength to be able to think of the other person's needs instead of just my own, but--for the times when I don't do the good and am so bad and am at the cross, I trust God is working out His best solution for both me and the other and that it will result in more faithfulness and justice in this world
and healing and forgiveness for both of us. Pastor Jackie found that "perfect" in the Greek means "teleos" and that it is more a word that "points in a direction to a desired goal" than a final destination--if I remember her sermon rightly. So anyway, I'm right there with Abe Lincoln and his WW today. Thanks for sharing them.====JACK:  It's good for a pastor to know that the people in the pews are listening.  I think that your response to me...and the other responses...should be shared with your pastor.  The pulpit can sometimes be a lonely place.