So what is the connection between loving God and loving our neighbour? If there is real love of God, there will be love for ourselves, and love for our neighbour.

See how complete Jesus reminds us this love for God is meant to be: all our heart, soul and mind.

We are so often tempted to hold something back. We want to love ourselves on our own terms – to love ourselves fully, like we should love God. But that would lead to a world full of Gods, and how would that work out?

Or we are tempted to put these two loves in opposition. I can either be good, ethical, and law-abiding to love God, or I can just love people. The problem with this is that true love of our neighbour flows from the love ofGod. Our love for God leads to love of our neighbours, which leads us to want to act right toward them. Without love for God, and an experience of his love, we each have to define love for ourselves, and we all have different ideas about what love is!

We’ll see tomorrow how Jesus’ self-giving love sets the pattern for our love, while freeing us from the traps of loving ourselves first, trying to use others to earn our salvation, or any other attempt to manipulate God or others.

Question: Define love.

Ryan Sim - May 12, 2014

Monday - A New Idea - Pioneer Spirit

When did you first hear about life coaches? I hear about them all the time, but it’s a relatively new phenomenon. I had a terrible time finding its origins. A Google search reveals mostly ads. Searching through Huffington Post reveals article after article written by life coaches, but nothing about what that means. A search on Maclean’s, a reputable news source reveals mostly quotes from interviews with life coaches, and only two articles about the idea, including one about 25 year olds coaching each other through their “quarter life crisis”. This is when Millenials hit the workforce and find it’s not all they’d hoped for, and a lot of hard work. Some have decided to share these ideas with others for up to $70 an hour by becoming life coaches. In fact, a friend suddenly announced she was quitting her job and going to be a life coach. She tooks osme courses, but many don’t. More and more people taking on the title – pastors, bloggers, etc. as they find it’s something people want. The profession is not regulated – so anyone with advice to offer, good or bad, can call themselves a life coach, and if you’re willing to pay them, you can put your career and life in their hands. We do all need help – I meet with a mentor regularly, maybe you do too. We need doctors, psychologists, home inspectors, investment advisors, and so on. We need good advice. So how do you tell the difference? How do you know when you’re getting good guidance on your life’s mission? We regularly find that our little missions in life – to buy a house, to get a job, to be happy at work, etc. could benefit from some guidance. But we should be especially careful about the big mission – the reason God put you on this earth in the first place. That’s not one to take lightly. That’s what we’ll talk about this week – as Jesus’ followers were given a mission, and they weren’t going to be alone in doing it, they’d have the ultimate guide. Question: Who would be your ideal coach or guide in life? What could they do, say for you?

From Series: "Pioneer Story"

We read through the Book of Acts as a Pioneer Story for the church.

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