Title: The Core Values of Christians
Contents
John 21:15-17 “The Core Values of Christians”
The three great Russian writers are Dosdoevsky, Truniev and Tolstoy. .There is a novel by Tolstoy called 『What Do Man Live by?』. According to the contents, an angel named “Michael” disobeys God's command, loses his two golden wings and is expelled to the earth. God gave him three tasks, saying that he could ascend to heaven again by solving three problems.
First, what is in a person's heart? Second, what is it that people do not know about? Third, what do people live by? It was.
When Michael, exiled to Earth, died of cold and hunger on a cold winter night, he experienced the warm love of a poor shoe shop owner and insider. You will receive that love and you will receive the answer to the first task. I learned that the answer to the question of “what is in the heart of a man” is “mercy”.
After that, while living there, one day, when he saw a man riding in a gleaming golden carriage, unaware of the death lion standing behind him, and arrogantly asking for sturdy shoes that would not have any problems even after wearing them for a year, he said, “No one What are you living without knowing?” You will also know the answer to the second question (death).
Six years later, a middle-aged woman brought her beautiful twins and put her shoes together, and while listening to the story, it was the poor girls who forced Michael to disobey God's command.
Six years ago, God told Michael to bring back the soul of a woman who had just given birth to twins without a husband. At that command, Michael became pitiful and worried about the young souls and disobeyed God's command. The children were loved by the neighbor's aunt, and they were told to grow up cheerfully and beautifully. Looking at it, you will also know the answer to the third question. What do people live by? Love.
That's right. People are born of love, live by love, laugh and die because of love. Among the poetry collections published by Sangwon, a publishing house in 1991, there is a collection of poems by Kim Jong-suk and Park Jeong-suk called “When I Called You Flower”. In this collection of poems, the couple exchanged writings with each other when their wife, Jeong-suk Park, was stricken with laryngeal cancer and was bedridden for 13 years. Here is one of them.
“Today, I went to the ward where my wife was hospitalized. From the emergency room to the intensive care unit, and from the intensive care unit to the last isolation room, I crossed the threshold of heaven and held my wife’s hand… (omitted). .....Even if my wife leaves, I will continue to circulate as the blood of love in her body. No, I will become one body in her soul and will always be together. Knowing that I love my wife is not just for my wife. It was only today that I felt hot and hot.”
When you love, you have the ability to give up everything for the one you love. If you love something that might be a weakness in your life, it becomes nothing.
This is not just about living in the world. The same is true in spiritual matters. When a confession of love comes and goes between the Lord and us, great things happen in our lives. Since we were created with God's love and created to live in that love, we cannot live without love. No matter what situation I am in, as long as I open my heart and confess to the Lord, “I love you,” this single word can make amazing changes that cannot be described in words.
What do people live on?
1. We live by the love of the Lord.
If your relationship with the Lord is cut off, you cannot live. So, above all else, we need to restore our relationship with God. After the resurrection, Jesus came to the disciples and, after eating, asked Peter. “Simon, son of John! Do you love me more than these?” (verse 15).
When the same question is asked three times, anxiety begins to borrow from Peter's heart. “Are you sure you don’t believe me? Or do you think you are answering dryly now? With such an anxious mind, he gives a poor answer. Then why did Jesus ask the same question three times? The reason was to restore our relationship with the Lord.
What kind of life did Peter live after denying and cursing Jesus? Until he returned to Galilee, he had to confirm himself as a traitor and admit that he was a failure, and as a shameful being, his soul got sick and tired, and he came to Galilee. Jesus, whom he had denied, was resurrected and stood before him.
The reason Jesus asked the same question three times was not to accuse Peter of his past mistakes. Rather, it was to show how much the Lord loved Peter. You cannot ask if you love me unless you love the other person. Therefore, Jesus' question contained the meaning of "I love you very much." As he received these three questions, Peter's heart began to recover. After repeating the confession of love three times, Peter began to be healed. Deep wounds healed, and I gained new strength to get up and walk. Love has the amazing power to heal people and restore bad relationships.
“Lord, I am ashamed, but I still love you.” When we confess this, our wounds will be healed and we will taste the grace of renewal.
2. Second, what do people live on?
Man lives by loving his neighbor. Therefore, we need to restore the right relationship with our neighbors and love. After confirming his love for the Lord and healing him spiritually, Jesus asks Peter to “feed and feed my sheep.” What is my sheep? we are all Everyone on this earth is a neighbor. The concept of neighbor in the Bible is everyone except me. Not only my neighbors, but also my husband and wife, my parents and my children are my neighbors. The Ten Commandments are the ten commandments concerning the relationship between God, man, and neighbor. “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. This is the message of the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40) What do you mean? Love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable. It is said that loving oneself is the beginning of death, and loving others is the foundation of life. This is because loving your neighbor is the way of blessings overflowing with peace and joy.
Think of what happens when you don't love your neighbor. It would not be an exaggeration to say that all the tragedies and sorrows of human society, such as divorce between husband and wife, discord between parents and children, siblings, violence between people, rape, and murder, are caused by the failure to love each other. Aren't we forced to live without love? Why? Because they don't love their neighbors.
God first gave us the first organization, the family. Which of those families did you have as your head? Husband. But what are the weaknesses of husbands? It is not praying. He lost his spiritual authority as a priest according to the purpose God had created. In order to regain that spiritual authority, you have to cry, but most of the wives are crying. It seems that wives have become substitutes for their husbands' faith.
“Therefore, I want men everywhere to pray with holy hands raised, without wrath and strife. And in the same way, women also dress modestly, adorning themselves with simplicity and modesty, not with braided hair, gold, pearls, or expensive garments. “(1 Timothy 2:8-9)
The masculinity lies in restoring the initiative in prayer. Restore spiritual initiative, there will be a new change in your relationship, which is littered with many problems.
Men should make up for the weakness of prayer, and women should compensate for the weakness of emotionality and live a beautiful life. This is the principle of faith that the Bible speaks of.
Shepherding the sheep that the Lord has asked is not an easy task. When Jacob recalled the care of the sheep, he said, 'Likewise I have lived in the heat of the day, and the cold at night, and there is no time for snow' (Genesis 31:40).
If you are shepherding sheep, you will find unusual sheep. There are sheep who cannot stand still for even a moment. The same goes for your neighbors. There are lovely people, but there are also troublesome people. There are people who have trouble, and there are people who hate it and feel like going crazy. Some people are not human. But they are neighbors and sheep we all need to care for.
Dear everyone!!
Today, our closest neighbors, our parents and friends who should understand and help me best, rather become thorns and prick and hurt me, don't they? Aren't you in a situation where you want to die, where there is a shell of a family, but you are hurting each other without meaning, and living every day is so painful and you want to die?
Today the Lord is speaking to you. “Feed my sheep, cherish them, and love your neighbor.” Don't forget why you should love your neighbor. Because to love your neighbor is to love God. Let's live close by cherishing my husband and my wife first. Have more children. I hope you will love each other in the area that belongs to me. I hope that the saints will respect the saints with each other. This kind of love is only possible in the world when it is practiced in the church.
If you have lost mercy because of many wounds, I hope that the good things hidden in people will be restored. I hope you will live a blessed life by remembering God who created us in the face of death that we must experience at least once. I pray that God's love and distribution will become the basis of your life and that you will have a happy and enjoyable life that saves your neighbors.