{"id":21293,"date":"2017-02-12T00:10:11","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T08:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=10052"},"modified":"2017-02-12T00:10:11","modified_gmt":"2017-02-12T08:10:11","slug":"february-12-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/02\/12\/february-12-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"February 12, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cFor men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power\u2026\u201d<\/em> 2 Timothy 3:2-5a<\/span><\/p>\n

Self-Love<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Part 1<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

When I was a young adult, self-esteem was all the rage. We read it in magazines, heard it from friends, and were counseled on how to have it by professionals. For Christians, that concept was quickly put to rest by saying we should have God-esteem, not self-esteem. In other words, our worth is found in the fact that God has foreordained us, called us, and saved us by the blood of His own Son\u2014and not because we are such loveable folks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Honestly, I don\u2019t know anyone who doesn\u2019t do evil in at least one of the above ways. The longer I look at the list, the more I realize that everything on it stems from being \u201clovers of themselves.\u201d<\/em> (Please note an important distinction: Being a lover of self is different than accepting who God has made you to be. God has NOT made you to be unloving, unholy, a slanderer, and so forth.)<\/span><\/p>\n

If we are lovers of self, we will exhibit all the behaviors mentioned in the Scripture above. We will\u2026<\/span>
\n\u2026 Love money, because we want more and more so we\u2019ll have all we desire;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Boast, because we want people to esteem us;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Be prideful and think we should be allowed to do anything we want;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Slander and abuse others so we look better and exalt ourselves;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Disobey authorities because they impose limits on us;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Not feel the need to thank anyone because we bring good things to ourselves;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Be unholy, for we don\u2019t live for God but only ourselves;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Not love others in purity\u2014selflessly\u2014because it\u2019s all about us;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Not reconcile or forgive, because we\u2019ve been hurt and they deserve to pay for it;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Slander others so we\u2019ll look better than they do;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Have no self-control\u2014why deny ourselves anything we want?<\/span>
\n\u2026 Be brutal and mean, bullying others to get our way and stay on top;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Despise true goodness, because it makes us look \u201cless than\u201d;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Be traitors to God, the Word, and believers, shown by our lifestyle;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Be headstrong, willful, demanding our own way;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Be haughty, arrogant, and sure of ourselves, because we are \u201cspecial\u201d;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Love pleasure (it makes us feel good) instead of loving God;<\/span>
\n\u2026 Look spiritual and speak spiritual talk, even though we are fooling ourselves, because we have no real power in us\u2014we have to generate our own power, and we do it in all these ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tomorrow we\u2019ll twist this concept a bit, and look at it from a different angle. Stay tuned!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJesus, forgive us for being lovers of ourselves instead of lovers of God. Many of us have a lifetime of living only for ourselves. Teach us a better way. Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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