During the month of February we’ve been talking about what Jesus said was the two MOST IMPORTANT things we can do in life:
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Mathew 22:37-40
Simple. Just two things on our to-do list. Love God …Love People. If we do those two things everything else falls in place.
If loving God “with all your heart” seems difficult, loving “your neighbor as yourself” feels nearly impossible sometimes. Loving those who “love us back” in our families is one thing, but loving your neighbor (who Jesus defined as anyone you came in contact with btw) completely raises the level of difficulty.
Last week I challenged everyone at actionchurch to find ways to show love to our neighbors…whoever they happen to be. Ironically I have personally had the great pleasure and challenge of meeting “new neighbors” who were drunk, angry, demanding, and/or mildly frightening :-) (Yeah, I know God has a sense of humor) How did your week of loving your neighbor go?
Loving people gets messy. Things get messed up. This week @ actionchurch we’ll talk about loving people when things get messy. How to break through conflict by Loving God AND loving people.
Between Bluefrom Delaware will be on stage as our “musical guest”. Make plans to bring a “neighbor”.
My co-workers!!!!!!!!!! ARRRRRaaarrrghhh!!!
Can you make next week’s challenge easier? :)
okay. Now that i had time to take a deep breath,(get off work and home with my family) here is what I know. It is not easy to love people when WE think they don’t deserve it.
The devil makes it hard. He makes it hard to love people thinking we will give up. He makes it hard because he is scared. He knows that if we love God – we will want to try to love people. And if we love people enough – we might just change the world (like Don says) and THAT would really scare Satan.
So I think he throws problems in our way on purpose. Never give up trying to love your neighbor.
Wow…exactly. Maybe you should preach tomorrow:-) Exactly what happened to the first followers of Jesus…and exactly what happens today. The good news is that it’s all part of God’s plan. As Jesus Said in Mathew 5
46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends,[t] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that
Keep it up…little actions done with great love DO change the world!