love thy neighbor as thy self

[jainie marlena]

"love thy neighbor as thy self." the only way to love other is to love yourself first. let yourself go while doing everything for everyone else will lead to doing nothing for anyone. because we put are selves on the back burner for so long when we go to do something for are selve we get accused of being selfish. loving yourself is only wrong to others when it does not benefit them.

"no graeter love than this than a man lay down his life for his friends." believe it or not we are his friends. Jesus was a friend to every man.

"For God so loved the world." we all are a part of this world even though part of it does not want to see it. How does God love himself? the only way that God could show self love is to care for things that he creates (all things). more value than many spairo. All points of view are very importian in this because no one has the right to say that God is this or God is that until they know God.

what ever you do don't let other people tell you who God is or is not. Get to knw God for yourself.

[Duke T]

You know what's really funny? Many "Christians" forget that basic golden rule that Jesus taught, and instead quote more obscure and dated parts of scripture in order to justify hate. Where as REAL Christians know that love comes first always

[Kat_Misunderstood]

I've been thinking about this as well?  How can you tell me that I am wrong for being myself, when you won't even let be belong to the church?  How can a preacher turn his back on someone, just because he can't accept that I can not and will not change.  I honestly do not believe that god hates me and thinks I should go to hell for being born trans.  "Christians" have hurt me more than anyone else since I started to transition.  People need to get over themselves and remember to love everyone,  I do, as hard as it is sometimes.

Well I better stop before I get on a rant.....bottom line is, I think that some churches actually cause a lot of the hate in this world, not trans people.

[Alicia Marie]

  I have noticed in the scriptures that the same Jesus that healed and raised the dead is the same one that rebuked some and drove some out of the temple. This does bear witness to the scriptures that show what God loves and what God hates.
  The thing I have also noticed is that many that use them are just passing down traditions without looking any farther themselves.
  I am sure that some do mean well when they use scripture to try to warn what they believe and that is their form of loving their neighbor.
  I also believe that some use them in hate. There is no excuse for that. That is no where near Christ like behavior.
  On the internet it is hard to tell the type of heart the person posting has. Truly loving or hateful. The first easily mistaken for the latter.
  In my personal opinion I started out believing all that are not straight were bound for hell. That caused me great pain as I have my own issues. But, I still believed that the word of God was the final authority. It was hard to warn others when I believed that I was in the group heading to destruction.
  Over time I was able to learn quite a bit and don't believe what I did in my ignorance. I wish others would take the time to seek out a matter and learn before casting their vote, so to speak.
  While I still have my issues, I do believe that the Lord looks on the heart. I believe that just as there are straight people that will go to heaven and straight people that will go to hell, the same holds true for trans people depending on the heart, or faith they have.
  The bottom line is that those who claim to be Christians should seek out a matter first before blindly saying the things they think they believe.
  Loving thy neighbor can be a word of warning just as it can be refraining from speaking depending on the situation.

[jainie marlena]

Thank you for your point of view, Alicia Marie. One of the hardest things that I did was put everything that I believed in a box and put a label on it "Baptist". I was told to stay away from other teachings because they would lead me a way from God. I believed this for some time until something inside (I was thinking for myself) said that If I have the Truth I would be free. I did not feel free. I realized that God is like us in many ways. God is my neighbor and I am his neighbor. He created me to think about things not just except what I hear only. they would say "some don't believe in hell." Well, I wanted to know why they did not believe in hell or how they could not believe in hell and so on. Truth is something that makes sence to the person that understands it as truth. there is some kind of lodgic in every system or you would not be able to hold so many people together. I understand why baptist believe in hell, but I understand why some don't. "study to show thy self aproved unto God" is more than reading and believing what others tell us. Christianity varies in so many ways it would not be right to tell people stay in a box. each religion has something to hold it together and makes it diffrent from the others. I was told that you could not use the scientific methed on religion because it does not have something to study that you can see. Wrong, it has one of the basic elements need to study it. Humans. Each system came from people thinking about it and understanding it in a new way. It is not about what is right or wrong or the truth or lie. Human thought can be studied. to love your neighbor is to get to know them only then will you understand how they think. It is better to understand why then just asume anything. "the beganning of wisdom is understanding."