Above All Love: A Micro Blog

O, please bring this to Scotland.

Jesus said, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' On these two hang all the Law and the Prophets.'" (Matt 22:37-40) #ThisIsJesus

"JOY: Jesus Others Yourself" holds truth. Love enemies, even love yourself (as Jesus does). Accept His love, be God's child, forgiven. True joy.

"Jesus said to love my enemies. So I did. I started by loving myself." - Anon

Know who you are in Christ, and accept His love despite our lack of merits.

Goliath gets a stone in the head from David and falls. He was a bad man and suffers the result in this the old way of conflict. In contrast, St Stephen, a righteous man, resists not evil, prays for persecutors. Takes stone after stone from religious. "Forgive them." The new way of non-resistance.

Young David of OT fame dodged a spear thrown at him by wicked King Saul.
In contrast, Jesus, son of David, takes a spear for us on the cross. Blood and water mingled down. In this kingly sacrificial act, He prepares the way for the day when spears become pruning hooks and swords become ploughs.

Anabaptists historically are radical, peaceful, and free. They try to avoid "pro/anti" traps. Pacifists of all sorts should nonetheless oppose all sides in all war, and if possible, aid victims. Anabaptists loved enemies, faced persecution, and pioneered liberty. This is an example to be followed.

Devotional thought:

Adam and Eve's sin led to banishment. Angelic stop sign: "Sin, no entry." Temple curtain: same message. Jesus' sacrifice: curtain torn. Now: "Come in, reconciled."

Prayer:
God of Love, bring peace. May peace prevail. Help us be your hands and feet, witnesses for peace. For your glory, improve humanity. Amen.

Flash Fiction:
Hilltop, kilted man weeps, "It's over." Shocked, he falls, pleads. Nuclear cloud, city gone. "No!" Scotland doomed. Unthinkable begun.

Action needed:
Be peacemakers, abolish war like slavery. Faith, hope, love, end war.

Bonhoeffer film uses "Sound of Silence" with Nazi imagery. "Darkness, my old friend" & "neon god" highlight sin. Light, scientifically indestructible, mirrors Jesus, the eternal light. In darkness, remember Jesus' light prevails. Be a beacon like Bonhoeffer, shining Christ's light.

1/"Yesterday's text for #lectiodivina is a long one but it was suggested by one of the participants. #Quakers This is the context: "Now after I had received that opening from the Lord that to be bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not sufficient to fit a man to be a minister of Christ" (G Fox Journal)

2/"I regarded the priests less and looked more after the dissenting people… As I had forsaken all the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those called the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition." G Fox Journal

I agree it should be taken seriously. Every bad thing Trump, Putin and the PM of Israel have threatened to do they have done or tried to. I remember sitting with a Polish friend chatting about Putins threats to invade Ukraine. We both thought and hoped it was all talk. Alas it was not!

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#DailyDevotional #QuakerQuote #Inspiration #Spirituality #InspirationalQuotes #Quotes #Christian #Quaker

Get Daily Quaker wisdom in your inbox: dailyquaker.com

A Reed Warbler in reeds with the quote: "Love can be a radical and subversive form of activism. It has the power to change us like nothing else can. It also challenges our selfish egos while emphasising connection and responsibility. Love is worth risking everything for." by Bayard Lay

"Love can be a radical and subversive form of activism. It has the power to change us like nothing else can. It also challenges our selfish egos while emphasising connection and responsibility. Love is worth risking everything for." Bayard Lay

The image includes the quote shared in the main post along with a picture of Jurgen Moltmann (an older white man with glasses, wearing a dark red shirt and a yellow jumper).

God allows himself to be humiliated and crucified in the Son, in order to free the oppressors and the oppressed from oppression and to open up to them the situation of free, sympathetic humanity.

Jürgen Moltmann - The Crucified God

In addition to the texts quoted in the main post (see below), the image includes pictures of Menno Simons and James Nayler. Now all people try yourselves, whether you be in the first birth or you be born again: there is a first Adam and there is a second Adam; and they who are in the first bear his image; and they who are in the second bear his image; and as is the earthly, such are they that are earthly; and as is the heavenly, such are they that are heavenly. And these are contrary one to the other: the one being from above, the other being from below; the one the seed of God, the other the seed of the serpent… Quaker, James Nayler The new birth is…a change in the inner nature, which transforms people by the power of God through faith from evil to good, from being fleshly to being spiritual, from unrighteousness to righteousness, out of Adam into Christ…The regenerated live out of the power of their new being, they crucify their flesh, with its evil desires, they leave the old Adam with his works, they avoid every appearance of evil, they are taught, controlled, and driven by the Holy Spirit. Anabaptist, Menno Simons

Being born against from a Peace Church perspective. Dying to the self-centered injustice and violence of Adam, and being born again into the self-giving justice and peace of Christ.

The image includes the text below along with a picture of a table with flowers, and a copy of Advices & Queries and Quaker Faith & Practice. We are called to live ‘in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars’. Do you faithfully maintain our testimony that war and the preparation for war are inconsistent with the spirit of Christ? Search out whatever in your own way of life may contain the seeds of war. Stand firm in our testimony, even when others commit or prepare to commit acts of violence, yet always remember that they too are children of God. Advices & Queries 31 (Britain Yearly Meeting)

We are called to live ‘in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars’.

"Hoy es siempre todavía".
Antonio Machado ✍️
#FelizDomingoATodos
#Hope #Esperanza

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A picture is a poem without words. — Horace
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#sunset #australia #sunsetphotography #photography #nature #afterglow #aesthetic #hope #peace #mothernature

Sketchbook containing a still wet watercolour sketch of a landscape on winter, bare trees, a yellow field cut short and some green grass.

Oh well… it could be a lot better, let’s be real.
Enough of politics, I’d like to thank all you lovely people for liking and following my little artistic endeavors. It really means a lot!!! ♥️ Let’s keep bringing art into our world! #urbansketching #watercolour #art #hope #landscapepainting

Close-up photo of an orange-and-pink flower backlit by rays of the morning sun.

"I'm up. How about you?"

#photography #nature and #hope

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Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
—Confucius
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#sunset #australia #sunsetphotography #photography #nature #afterglow #aesthetic #hope #peace

Hope. 🌼

#hope #life #calm #peace #nature #flower

For those looking for some #peace and #tranquility, here's some from #Panglao. Have a wonderful day!

#sunrise #ocean #beach #Philippines #cultureofnature #nature #photography

Divine sunset light illuminating Cappadocia beautiful geology…

#bluesky #photography #nature #art #landscape #sunset #geology

X marks the spot to be for #clouds like this on a #BlueSkyMonday

#nature #outdoors #LemaRanch #reflections #waterscapes

Unknown Photographer
#FoxCub #Photography #Nature