{"id":4809,"date":"2015-05-15T12:17:25","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T16:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?p=2697"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:42:13","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:42:13","slug":"who-loves-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/who-loves-more.html","title":{"rendered":"Who loves more?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span id=\"en-NKJV-25237\" class=\"text Luke-7-41\"><span class=\"woj\"><a href=\"https:\/\/garycombsorg.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/05\/GaryErin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-2702\" src=\"https:\/\/garycombsorg.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/05\/GaryErin.jpg\" alt=\"Gary&amp;Erin\" width=\"267\" height=\"177\" data-wp-pid=\"2702\" \/><\/a>\u201cThere was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"en-NKJV-25238\" class=\"text Luke-7-42\"><span class=\"woj\">And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?\u201d<\/span><\/span><span id=\"en-NKJV-25239\" class=\"text Luke-7-43\"><span class=\"versenum\">\u00a0<\/span>Simon answered and said, \u201cI suppose the\u00a0one\u00a0whom he forgave more.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"text Luke-7-43\">And He said to him,\u00a0<span class=\"woj\">\u201cYou have rightly judged.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span id=\"en-ESV-25230\" class=\"text Luke-7-43\"> <\/span><\/em>(Luke 7:41-43 NKJV).<\/p>\n<p class=\"asset asset-image\">When my daughter was young we had a bedtime ritual that involved a competition of declaring who loved the most.<\/p>\n<p class=\"asset asset-image\">\u201cGood night Erin. I love you.\u201d I\u2019d say, beginning the nightly ritual.<\/p>\n<p class=\"asset asset-image\">\u201cGood night Daddy, I love you MORE!\u201d She\u2019d say, while leaning over my recliner to kiss my offered cheek.<\/p>\n<p class=\"asset asset-image\">\u201cNo, I love you the MOST!\u201d I\u2019d reply, quickly turning my face towards her, surprising her into kissing me on the lips (she still holds onto my face when she kisses me on the cheek to avoid this surprising possibility).<\/p>\n<p class=\"asset asset-image\">\u201cNo Daddy. I love you the MOSTEST! She\u2019d exclaim. \u201cI love you this much!\u201d She\u2019d quickly add, while extending her arms outward as far as she could reach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"asset asset-image\">Jesus once told a story about\u00a0the one\u00a0who would love God more. He said that the one who was \u201cforgiven more\u201d would love more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"asset asset-image\">According to Jesus, our capacity for love is measured by our receptivity for and awareness of God\u2019s forgiveness. When we recognize our own great need for forgiveness and receive the gift of Christ\u2019s atoning sacrifice for our sin, we become recipients of his great love. Receiving this great forgiveness opens our hearts to God\u2019s love for us, and through us to others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"asset asset-image\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Do you love\u00a0more?<\/p>\n<p class=\"asset asset-image\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>This is an edited reprint of my blog from October 1, 2009.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThere was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.\u00a0And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?\u201d\u00a0Simon answered and said, \u201cI suppose the\u00a0one\u00a0whom he forgave more.\u201d\u00a0And He said to him,\u00a0\u201cYou have<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,1,2062],"tags":[2069,2338,2045,2095,2070,2052,2072],"location":[],"class_list":["post-4809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs","tag-christ","tag-forgiveness","tag-fruit-of-the-spirit","tag-gary-combs","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-love"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4990,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions\/4990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4809"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=4809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}