{"id":5365,"date":"2011-09-20T05:18:15","date_gmt":"2011-09-20T13:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=5365"},"modified":"2011-09-20T06:39:24","modified_gmt":"2011-09-20T14:39:24","slug":"the-divine-commandment-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=5365","title":{"rendered":"The Divine Commandment of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/embed><\/object>September 20,\u00a02011<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
. . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect \u2014Matthew 5:48<\/div>\n<\/h2>\n

Our Lord\u2019s exhortation to us in\u00a0Matthew 5:38-48<\/a> is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections\u2014 some people we like and others we don\u2019t like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. \u201cIf we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another\u201d (1 John 1:7<\/a>), even those toward whom we have no affection.<\/p>\n

The example our Lord gave us here is not that of a good person, or even of a good Christian, but of God Himself. \u201c. . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.\u201d In other words, simply show to the other person what God has shown to you. And God will give you plenty of real life opportunities to prove whether or not you are \u201cperfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.\u201d Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God\u2019s interests in other people. Jesus says, \u201cA new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another\u201d (John 13:34-35<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God\u2019s life in us expresses itself asGod\u2019s<\/em> life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian\u2019s life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God. And when we come in contact with things that create confusion and a flurry of activity, we find to our own amazement that we have the power to stay wonderfully poised even in the center of it all.<\/p>\n

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September 20, 2011<\/p>\n

Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n

Lord, sometimes I cannot muster the energy or focus to reach out to others in love. Sometimes I feel like my own stuff is too heavy to carry and as a result I am just too focused on my own needs. I find myself all used up trying to manage my own \u2026\u2026.. Ah ha\u2026Ok I get it. If I forget about my own needs, and allow you to meet all my needs I am free to focus on others.<\/p>\n

And God says\u2026\u201dYou are beginning understand. You cannot meet your needs\u2026..your needs will always be greater than your ability to meet them, as you have discovered over the years.\u00a0 This kind of plan helps keep you in a place of faith, hope and trust. \u00a0However, as you become well practiced, trusting Me to meet all your needs becomes second nature. You actually begin to EXPECT and count on Me to meet all your needs\u2026according to My riches in glory. When you expect Me to meet all your needs, according to My riches in glory, you are free to reach out to others, knowing you do not need to give your needs any thought. You are always free to focus on others\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 20,\u00a02011 . . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect \u2014Matthew 5:48 Our Lord\u2019s exhortation to us in\u00a0Matthew 5:38-48 is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections\u2014 some people we like and others […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5365"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5365"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5370,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5365\/revisions\/5370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}