tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454005356247379253.post8926627073979367651..comments2022-01-05T19:40:11.276-05:00Comments on Blessed Morning: God is lovedcsinsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03105880417580443102noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454005356247379253.post-63594181755118830852007-04-03T15:25:00.000-05:002007-04-03T15:25:00.000-05:00ps: i forgot to mention that I enjoyed this post (...ps: i forgot to mention that I enjoyed this post (though I do love to pick things apart too ;))<BR/>Thank you for posting.<BR/><BR/>pps: "this blog does not allow anonymous comments". liar. ;)Heatheryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00676399654320337086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454005356247379253.post-65242603215914289102007-04-03T15:23:00.000-05:002007-04-03T15:23:00.000-05:00Some (mainly nit picky) comments:I don’t think it ...Some (mainly nit picky) comments:<BR/><BR/>I don’t think it is quite so much God loving himself (though you can certainly paint it that way and it gets the point across) as it is that God is love himself. Therefore to exist, for God, is to love, not as a choice He makes but just a fact of who He is. And because God is inherently, and perfectly good, that is the entirety of what He loves. He can love no other. And it is in that you are entirely right: for Him to love something else would indeed be tantamount to calling it the greatest, the perfection of the universe (which is only God). Hence the sacrifice, which you mentioned. When, through faith, we accept Jesus, it becomes as though God has a set of Jesus colored glasses that He now wears when He sees us, seeing solely the perfection of Jesus. We are seen through the “lens” of Jesus, our old sin and corrupt nature no longer in view. He then, loves us as though we were Himself, not as a conscience choice, but as before, as a fact of His being. <BR/><BR/>What else is interesting (and I m not sure I agree on) is when you mention God as selfish. I feel like God cannot be ever classified as selfish atleast not in a worldly sense because that would imply a nature to God that is simply not there. That is to say, to be selfish is defined as “devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others.” and the implications are that God is concerned primarily for God at the potential harm of others. But because God is goodness in its entirety, wholly and completely good, He has nary a chance to “choose” Himself over any other; He can only love pure goodness, which is Himself. Were there something of a greater good than God, His love would be for that (and through all this, I believe we can find a clearer definition of love). That is why He cannot stand sin in us; for the sin is against the goodness, which is the entirety of God. But in being goodness He knows the good for our lives and (within the restraints He has sent by freewill) He desires and seeks that for us as well, being as you said “selfless”. Yet selfless and selfish imply a mutually exclusive alternative that does not exist with God; to be “selfish” and love only goodness is equivalent to being “selfless”, for the good He placed in each of us He does love, so much that He longs to make us entirely good. Am I making some sense here?Heatheryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00676399654320337086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454005356247379253.post-44591253982003936232007-03-13T08:51:00.000-05:002007-03-13T08:51:00.000-05:00Nice Dave. Reference 1 John 3:7-5:12 perhaps? No...Nice Dave. Reference 1 John 3:7-5:12 perhaps? Not that love isn't anywhere else in the Bible, but you just summed up those verses.Chris Bressoudhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11280246145324288562noreply@blogger.com