Mark 12:30-31 ‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Dear Friends, May God’s grace, peace, joy and especially love be upon you. Let me start by telling you that I love you. More importantly, God loves you. But, do you love yourself? Now, I want you to really think about that. Above you are Jesus’ greatest commandments… His only commandments, in fact. Read verse 31 – “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s not going to work unless you truly love yourself. I am not speaking in terms of vanity nor self-centeredness. No, sir! I’m talking about realizing that you are a child of God. I’m talking about caring about what happens. We all need love. But, in order to give love, we must learn to love God and come to the realization that we are a part of God and He is a part of us. Therefore, when we love Him, we love ourselves. For we were created in His image and should we choose to, we will inherit His mighty Kingdom. Wow! I love how God works. You see, if we truly love God, we will automatically love ourselves and each other. Amazing, isn’t it? God made it so that everything that is good is connected by love. I have tears of joy coming to my eyes just thinking about it.
I want you to ask yourself, “How can I truly love myself and my fellow human beings if I don’t love God???” God loves Himself, which is why He loves us because we are an extension of Him. Beautiful, isn’t it? Now, those of you that have children, I want you to ask yourself another question: “Can I truly love my children the way that they deserve to be loved if I don’t love myself???” Think about that. Look at your husband or wife and ask the same question in regards to them. Please, my beloved, listen to me. Love God and you will love yourself. If you don’t learn to love yourself, then you will never be whole. And, if you don’t learn to love God, then you will never truly love anyone – including yourself. That’s the truth. Do you hear me? We are so precious to God and anything that is precious to God should be precious to us. You need to understand that, my friends. I have told you before and I will say it again. Love is the key to everything. God is Love and Love is God.
I have been in a lot of jail cells in the past three years. The system has moved me around a lot. I have noticed something. In almost every cell, in every jail or prison that I have been to, the mirrors have dents in them. [They are made of metal.] These are not just any dents. These are fist marks – indents where someone’s knuckles made contact with the mirror. Suddenly, one day it hit me. Those marks were caused by people who didn’t like what they saw in the mirrors. It breaks my heart to know that so many people in here don’t love themselves. And you can be sure that a lot of them don’t feel that anyone else does either. It is one of the reasons that I love complimenting people. I want them to know that they are appreciated, loved. Let me ask you something: When is the last time that you complimented someone??? There is power in our words and gestures when we express them with Love. Something we say or do may be the turning point in someone else’s life. It may be just what they needed.
Love is a cure-all. It is just what the Doctor ordered – the greatest Doctor of all time, the Doctor of love, the Almighty God! Praise His name! Shout Hallelujah! Amen! God is great. Wow! If you are ailing from a lack of love, on behalf of my Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit and my Father in Heaven, I am going to write you a prescription. Take one dose of God’s everlasting love and you will be cured. I promise you. Where do you fill that prescription? All you’ve got to do is get to your nearest Bible, consume the Lord’s message and submit to Him. It won’t cost you a dime. You’ve heard of “ObamaCare”? Well, that ain’t got nothing on “Jesus Care”. He is our insurance and by His blood we are covered. Hallelujah! Praise His name!
I want you to do something for God, for me and for yourself. I want you to learn to love the person in the mirror. I want you to get to the nearest mirror and say, “I LOVE THE LORD GOD AND HE IS A PART OF ME, SO I LOVE ME TOO.” Then, I want you to learn that He is not just a part of you, but a part of everyone and everything; which means you must love all that is of the Lord – especially His children. Now, you see that right there; what I just said? That is the cure for everything that is wrong in your life and this world. Do you know who taught me that? JESUS! He taught me through His word and through the beautiful people He has put in my life. God has taught me not only how to receive love, but to give it freely.
Let us pray: God, I need You to teach me how to love You, so I can learn how to love myself and then spread that love to others. Lord Jesus, You are the way, the truth and the life. Teach me how to walk with You and help me to teach others to do the same. We pray this in your Holy Precious Name, Jesus. Amen!
Thank you for praying for me and thank you for reading this. It is my great hope that God has used me to help you. I love you so much, friends. Now please, love God, yourself and each other.
Love is the foundation of everything. It is important that we even love our enemies as we love ourselves. Recently, the Governor of Maine made some terribly racist and ignorant comments. Drugs and drug crimes affect everyone and are perpetrated by every race on the planet. Teaching people to hate and fear those who are different than themselves is a sign of weakness and evil intent. I believe that Governor LePage is lacking in love. Well, I want him to know that I love him. My grandpa, Norman Tibbetts, was from Monson, Maine. When he retired, he came back to Maine to live out the rest of his days in his beloved home state. Though I am bi-racial, my grandpa loved me with all his heart. [Consequently, my earthly father never used or sold drugs.] They were good Christian men, my grandpa and my dad. My former lifestyle would have broken their hearts. Grandpa was one of the first to teach me the love of Jesus. He was a wonderful, kind and loving person and I know there are many like him in Maine. Grandpa used to say that we shold think about what we say before we put our foot in our mouth. I encourage the Governor and people like him to build a real relationship with Jesus so that they can learn to love God, themselves and each other. Albert Einstein said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” I wish that the Governor and the powers-that-be would understand that when it comes to policy. Do you know the definition of insanity? It is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. But, I digress. All of these problems can be handled with love. That is the key. Any great leader must know how to love. Only God can teach how to love. Love God, love yourself, love each other.
May God bless and keep you! May you learn to love God! May you learn to love yourself and each other! Amen!
Love in Christ,
Randall
(A man who loves God, himself and all of you!)