confused?

I was just just reading an article by John Shore called "Are The Great Commandment and The Great Commission Incompatible?"
He breaks the two down as follows:

1. Fulfilling Jesus’ “Great Commandment” means loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.

2. Fulfilling Jesus “Great Commission” (”Therefore go and make disciples of all nations …”) means sharing the gospel with nonbelievers, in the hopes that they’ll really hear the message of Jesus, believe in Him, and become Christians.

3. Putting The Great Commandment into words means saying to a nonbeliever something that, in essence, amounts to, “I love you with all of my heart.”

4. Putting The Great Commission into words means saying to a nonbeliever something that, in essence, amounts to, “You should exchange whatever you believe in now for belief in Jesus Christ.”

5. Boiled down even further, “You should exchange whatever you believe in now for belief in Jesus Christ,” amounts to, “You need to radically change who you are.”

6. ”I love you with all my heart,” and “You need to radically change who you are” is a confusing, unhelpful message.

7. Maybe we should rethink how we do evangelism.

---------------

I think that as christians we've omitted parts of the great commission. The great commandment though remains what it is. The thing with the great commission is that it is the "sharing the gospel with nonbelievers". But we often forget what the gospel, which means good news, is in this context.

Yes, it is the gospel of salvation that says "we are all sinners and we are doomed to burn in hell, but jesus christ paid the price in our place, so that if we believe in him, our sins are forgiven and we can now go to heaven". What we often forget though, is that there's also the gospel that the kingdom of god is right here on earth or "at hand". What I mean is that in the context of "sharing" my faith with unbelievers, it is the kingdom of god shining through from the inside out that people around us notice and want to know "hey, you're different. why?". Or showing kindness to someone
who didn't expect it and then wonders why we do what we do.

So it is first the kingdom inside of us that is demonstrated. And then it is communicating the gospel of the kingdom, that this kingdom can also be inside of the unbeliever because of the gospel of salvation.

Now, here's the tricky thing: the great commission can only be fulfilled by fulfilling the great commandment. They MUST go hand in hand, or none of them can be effective.

What's REALLY going on in Israel

I found this quite interesting...

"The Middle East war is not now and never was a conflict between Israelis/Jews on the one hand and Palestinians on the other. In fact, the Arab-"Palestinians", while currently the perpetrators of most of the anti-Jewish atrocities, were never a very important part of the conflict. In fact, before about 1970, virtually no one in the world considered the Middle East conflict to be one between Israelis and Palestinians.

"The term "Palestinian" itself had referred to Israeli Jews back in the 1940s, and had been slowly deconstructed and redefined to refer to the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza. The Middle East Conflict was always a war by Arabs against Jews, not a conflict between Israelis and "Palestinians." The war was repackaged as a conflict between Jews and Palestinians as a public relations gimmick by the Arab fascist regimes. These regimes had never had any interest in "Palestinians," in creating a "Palestinian" state, or in "Palestinian nationalism" before 1967. That is because Palestinian nationalism did not and DOES NOT exist. The Palestinians were a regional group of Arabs having virtually no cultural nor national distinctive traits separating them from Syrians, Lebanese, and Jordanians. They are all basically Arabs!

"The bulk of what are called "Palestinian Arabs" are members of families who migrated into the Land of Israel beginning in the late 19th century. Palestinian nationalism is a mislabeling of Arab nationalism. Arab nationalism exists, although it is closely bound up with Islamic nationalism and even Islamism. Palestinian nationalism, however, is a phantom. It is nothing more than genocidal hatred of Jews.

"The Arab assaults and aggressions against Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1968, and 1973 had nothing to do with Palestinians. The Palestinian terror campaign would itself be easy to suppress today and eradicate if the Middle East conflict were really a Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israel would simply obliterate the terrorists and expel their supporters to Syria and Lebanon. The Middle East war continues because it is really an Arab-Israeli war, not an Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In many ways it's an Islamic religious jihad against the Jews."

You might be from San Diego if:

(got this from a friend on facebook)

Every street name is either in Spanish or Spanish related, and you're surprised when other areas don't have this.

You can determine the accuracy of someone's "i'm ghetto" claim by knowing their high school. For example, El Camino High School, Hoover High School, or Crawford High School

You see weather forcasts for four different climate zones in the same county, and aren't remotely surprised.

You routinely go or have gone to Pat & Oscar's solely to get breadsticks.

You've ever gone to Downtown San Diego and marveled at the homeless people mingling with the rich young urbanities.

You've gone to Mt. Helix in July and known you still need a jacket.

You've tailgated at Qualcomm Stadium, and for bonus points, also tailgated when it was Jack Murphy Stadium

You've been to the Wild Animal Park but can't remember the last time you went to the Zoo.

You've ever been on a field trip to see an Imax movie at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.

You still call it the Del Mar Fair.

You say "i'm going to the track" and people know what you mean.

You understand what May-Gray and June-Gloom is.

A famous skateboarder/surfer lives in your town.

There's a North County, a South County, and an East County but no Central County.

"Mossy Nissan! Mossy Nissan! Mossy Nissan Moves You!"

You know what it means when two guys are walking in Hillcrest.

You know what it means when a girl in a short skirt is walking on El Cajon Blvd.

You've gotten stuck in the Horton Plaza parking structure traffic after a Padres game.

You know what "The Merge" is, and will plan your entire day around not being on it during rush hour(s).

You've ever been to Belmont Park and rode the Big Dipper.

(For North County) You remember the days before the all the big movie theaters opened. And when they did. First the Edwards in San Marcos, then the Regal in Oceanside, then the Krikorian in Vista, and finally the Regal in Escondido.

You've ever taken the Coaster and laughed at people sitting in traffic on the 5.

You know the difference between Clairemont Mesa, Kearny Mesa, and Mira Mesa.

You can correctly pronounce Tierrasanta, La Jolla, Rancho Penasquitos, Cabrillo, Jamacha, San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, and El Cajon.

You've ever gone to Sea World on a warm day and sat in the first few rows at the Shamu Show to get cooled off.

You've ever been delayed at the Border Checkpoints on the 5 and the 15.

There are more bands than people.

Your house doesn't have air conditioning.

You know it's San Diegan, not San Diegoan, or San Diegoite.

Everyone has their favorite beach.

No matter what the weather is, there is always someone walking around in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops.

You live on, near or are surrounded by hills.

You hate tourists and their bad driving. GET OFF THE ROAD NORTH DAKOTA, NOBODY WANTS YOU HERE. SERIOUSLY. GO HOME.

You have family and or friends that have moved to Arizona.

There are four distinct seasons: Nice, Nice, Nice, and A Little Chilly.

Your house is worth more than the GDP of some small countries.

You know what MB, OB, and PB stand for.

You used to, and sometimes still do ride the carousel at Seaport Village.

You know someone who doesn't own pants, and have a neighbor who doesn't seem to own a shirt.

Your high school had a surf team.

You know what Santa Ana's are, and that they have literally nothing to do with the city of Santa Ana.

You know what a California burrito is.

You never, under any circumstances call it anything other than "the Gaslamp."

You never, under any circumstances call it anything other than "L.A."

Julian Pies.

You're shocked when you find out people have never been to the beach, and even more shocked to find out some have never seen the Ocean.

In elementary school you were forced to do countless "duck and cover" earthquake drills.

Your childhood dream was to become a dolphin trainer at Sea World.

You know or have known countless guys under 5'9'' tall that own huge lifted trucks to account for their shortcomings.

You love driving on the 52, just for those crazy bumps that they always try (and fail) to smooth over.

You know someone who knows someone who knows Reggie Bush.

You remember where you were the day of the Santana High School Shootings.

When you were a kid you thought the Mormon Church was a castle, or Disneyland.

You know what this sign means:
http://www.trafficsignstore.com/W54.jpg

You still call it Christmas on the Prado

"Nobody beats, El Cajon Ford!"

You've never had a snow day, but you've had a week off for fires.

Every time there's a major snow storm in the Midwest or the Northeast, the next day's newspaper has a picture of children playing on the beach on the front page.

You remember going to the WB store at UTC as a kid and playing in that tunnel thing they had.

Everytime you watch the weather you expect to hear "and here's the KUUUUUUUUUUUUUSI forecast" and/or "no flipping!" because of John Coleman.

You know the worst traffic in the world is Saturday morning-afternoon going south on the 5 and Sunday afternoon-evening going north on the 5.

You remember when 619 was the only area code in San Diego. And you get a little excited when you see Reggie Bush put 619 on his eye black.

You can surf and snowboard in the same day, but you've never felt like actually doing it.

You know the difference between UCSD and SDSU.

You know all the places where "Bring it On" and "Top Gun" were filmed.

Pretty much every area has a high school with "Rancho" in the name.

You've heard the phrase "Spring comes in Summer, Summer comes in Fall, Fall comes in Winter, and Winter not at all."

You've talked about going to Vegas when you turn 21 for like 5 years.

You've had Carne Asada Fries.

You've watched the Prep Pigskin Report, and most likely know someone on it.

You remember Premium 92/1, Q106.5, Star 100.7, and my 94.1.

You know that Cal Worthington will never die.

You went on a field trip to Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma.

You know what "The Turko Files" are, and are still a little afraid of his mustache.

You know what Lou's Records is, and that they have EVERYTHING.