But Pastor, doesn’t the verse teach that I am to love myself? Doesn’t it say to love your neighbor “as yourself?” Yes it does. So shouldn’t we then teach, as many secularists do that we cannot love others until we learn to first love ourselves? Answer: no. Because everything about the Christian faith is a death to self. 1 Corinthians 13:5, “Love “does not seek its own.” There is nothing supernatural about loving yourself. Jesus Christ did not deny Himself and give up Himself to make us learn to love ourselves more. He died because we already love ourselves too much! We are experts at putting ourselves first. Ephesians 5:29, “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.” So this is not a command for self-love. This is an assumption that we already love ourselves (not of which all is evil) and the way we love ourselves already is to be the example of how we are to love others.

Randy Smith

CATEGORY	CUISINE	TAG	YIELD
Meats, Dairy			1	Servings

INGREDIENTS

1	md	Onion; sliced
2	tb	Butter
3	c	Chicken or veal stock; or 3 bouillon cubes in 3 cups hot water
3/4	ts	Salt
		Pepper
1 1/2	ts	Flour
3	tb	Cold water
2	c	Drained cooked spinach; (2 pounds raw)
1	c	Cream or evaporated milk
		Croutons

INSTRUCTIONS

Saute' onion slowly in butter until soft. Add stock, seasonings and flour
blended to a smooth paste with the cold water. Cook over direct heat,
stirring constantly until mixture boils. Add spinach which has been finely
chopped or rubbed through a sieve and cream. Reheat to scalding and serve
piping hot with Croutons or crisp crackers. 5 servings
Posted to recipelu-digest Volume 01 Number 377 by [email protected] (Nadia I
Canty) on Dec 17, 1997

A Message from our Provider:

“The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.”

The next time your heart is indifferent toward sin, think for a moment of what sin cost your Savior on the cross. Think about His lacerated back ripped open to the bone from the Roman scourge. Think how He suffered for a breath of air as He extended His bloody body up the vertical beam of the rugged cross. Think about the splinters that dug deeper into His freshly cut wounds with every movement. Think about the large spikes that pierced His hands and His feet penetrating deeply into nerve endings. Think of the slow suffocation as Jesus hung there in the nude, mocked by the onlookers. Jesus didn't die for His own sin; He died for ours. '[He was] pierced through for our transgressions… [He was] crushed for our iniquities' (Isa. 53:5). Does the love of Christ compel you to turn from that which brought Him unspeakable anguish?

Randy Smith