While researching the much-vaunted concept of compatibility in relationships, I came across the following article in oprah.com and wanted to share with all of us:
Which component in a romantic relationship is more important: attraction or compatibility? While many would argue in favor of compatibility, Rabbi Shmuley says it is attraction that is the lifeblood of a healthy, long-lasting and loving relationship. He talks about the true meaning of attraction and why it is at the heart of every great romantic partnership.
In today's society, Rabbi Shmuley says attraction is misunderstood and has been reduced to mean physical attraction, which is ultimately a fleeting force based on novelty. But real attraction, he argues, is much more. "Attraction is the inexplicable, mysterious, magnetic pull of polar opposites�of the feminine to the masculine, the masculine to the feminine," he says.
When a man is attracted to a woman, Rabbi Shmuley says there are five things that should constitute his attraction: Her scent, sound, mind, heart and, finally, her body. Compatibility takes precedence over attraction when these five senses are not fully explored and engaged, he says. "We've so reduced attraction to something so monolithic that it's lost its power, so we've had to fall back on compatibility," he says.
Attraction may create or lead to compatibility, but compatibility alone is not enough to keep a man and woman together for the long haul, Rabbi Shmuley says. Compatibility means having things in common�it means friendship, he says, and couples who embark on a lifelong commitment to one another based solely on the merits of friendship are bound to fail. "The insistence on compatibility as opposed to attraction is what's making relationships so weak these days," Rabbi Shmuley says. "They are so easily torn asunder because the force that binds them is actually a weak one."
Today's Shmuleyism
"In a relationship, common goals are much more important than a common origin. Where you are going to is much more important than where you are coming from."
Wrestling against "flesh and blood"(human beings) is exactly what you are doing when you attack fellow humans whose views are different from yours.
Spiritual warfare cannot be used as a ploy to attack people. Demons or spirit beings are without bodies and have nothing to do with the matter being discussed here.
Those who deploy scripture erroneously do not serve the cause of Christ. It's like using a grenade to kill a mosquitoe.
I will be more careful of a believer who uses the wrong scripture to attain a personal agenda or to advance an unpopular notion.
The freedom we have in Christ enjoins us to be broad-minded and to live peaceably with fellow humans who hold divergent notions from ours.
Our Lord Jesus even commands us to love our enemies and do good to those who despitefully use us.
If we call names and denigrate other humans just because their religious or spiritual views differ from ours, how then can we claim to be servants of Christ?
Those who champion such causes do not have the spirit of Christ and are self-serving.
My point is: do you think that what you feel about Oprah represents God's view of her? Do you think that your despiteful voice conveys the message of an all-loving Creator of the universe?
The answer is no!!!
You can't make a human being. You can't die on the cross for anyone. You can't even love or forgive those who crucified you.
Therefore, why should I accept your cheap attack on people who have done more for humanity than you have ever done?
Your scripture knowledge, if it serves to build walls of division instead of bridges of love, is nothing.
For God so LOVED THE WORLD that he gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him shall not perish. John 3:16
Judge not, that you be not judged!!!
A heart of love communicates our Lord's message better than hateful religious hearts that are intolerant of others.
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
I didn't proceed to call you a name, or anyone for that matter. I merely said you are posting "trash". That's exactly what it is, for anyone who knows remotely anything about this man, he's bad news and can be seen multiple times out right denying scripture.
I believe you're getting very emotional over an issue that is very black and white.
I will not proceed to address anything else you posted in your last response as you're trying to goad me into saying this and saying that, indeed you are misusing scripture a lot in your last response and it says a great deal more about you than it does about me. Grasping at strings to try to tear down my walk with the Lord won't make you feel any better, and it definitely won't make anything Shmuley says true, good or holy. I hope the Lord will open your eyes.
I guess Jesus sinned when He called people a brood of vipers? Ahhh seems a little different when put that way huh? Evil is to be called evil. Don't be mad that people didn't take it well that you posted things that aren't in line with scripture. Don't come back trying to act super spiritual on everyone else when you have shown little grasp of scriptural truths.
Your kind of christian is disrespectful to other people's personality and spirituality. That is not biblical christianity.
You speak neither with grace nor with love! And of course, the only one that merits respect is just your self and your egocentric views.
As a human being, you are entitled to your opinions about people who differ from you. Nonetheless, you do not represent Christianity in general or the Lord Jesus Christ at all.
Jesus Christ ate and dined with sinners, unbelievers, harlots, drunkards and despised tax collectors.
But self-righteous you will sit behind the comfort of your computer to spew out hateful and despicable things about other humans for whom Jesus Christ died.
Such attitude is not a true reflection of the Spirit of Christ.
Examine yourself in the light of God's word:
1 CORINTHIAN 13:
1. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
VERSE 5 says clearly that: love does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
A Christian view which dishonors others in the name of Christ is TRASH.
Apparently love is lacking in you, that's why you pour dry, bitter angst on whoever crosses your little spiritual worldview. What you have is exactly what you give. For, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
God and the Constitution provides us with freedom of speech and expression. But you have no right to denigrate anyone on God's behalf - whether you agree with them or not. You are not God's mouthpiece when you have not the spirit of Christ.
If you are saved by grace, then let no vileness proceed out of your mouth against any of God's children. Attack the issues, but respect the persons, because they are precious to God - just as you claim to be.
There's a variety of scriptures that denote and come against the angry banter of a proud man with itching ears, however I won't feed into this. You're not going to get what it is you want.
"because they are precious to God - just as you claim to be. "
I'd like to speak to the spirit behind that last thing you said, yes let's speak to the heart of the matter now that you've continuously insulted me and have tried to make me feel like a bad christian, and have lashed out at my inner most thoughts and feelings and have railed against me with false accusations.
