WE’RE CALLED TO LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR.  HOW DO WE DO THAT?   #386

Good Day, Meetpastordan Readers…It’s Monday, around 12:00 noon, and I just published my weekly blog a few hours ago. I had some plans for today, but I have been strongly led to start another blog, so here I am again. I believe this prompting is rooted in yesterday’s message at SeaGlass church, because the topic was, “Loving God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. I’ve continued to think about that message since I left church, and quite a few ideas began to take shape in my mind. So, I’m going to be obedient and start writing. Let’s see where this takes me.

Whenever the term “love” is used in the Bible, it designates the highest form of love…Agape Love. This form of love is unconditional, unending, unfailing, self-sacrificial love, the kind of love that Jesus demonstrated when He was on this earth.  He healed everyone that came to Him; He championed the poor and the oppressed; He demonstrated Kingdom principles by the way He lived His life, and He gave all honor and glory to His Father by stating, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He does what the Father tells Him to do.” (John 5:19) Everything Jesus did when He was on earth was intended to be an example for us to follow.

In fact, since we’re now under the New Covenant rather than the Old Covenant, Jesus took advantage of this by raising the bar at this encounter. When challenged by an important religious leader, who was hoping to entrap Him with His answer, Jesus was asked, “What is the greatest of the 10 Commandments?” He 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 teachings of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22: 37-40)

This distinction is important because under the Old Covenant, Man tried to earn God’s favor through his own effort. That was a miserable failure! (Ref. Romans 5:6) Under the New Covenant, we already have favor with God because we’re in Christ. Now our good works ARE NOT to earn His favor; it’s our way of saying “Thank You, Jesus” for what you did for me! God has now empowered us, through His Gift of Grace, with the ability to do things we could never have done before through our own effort. Take for instance Jesus’ call: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  “Love him”, you retort; “I don’t even like him!” I’ll never be able to do that!”  Well, let me give you some encouragement.

One Scripture that gets miserably misquoted is 1 Corinthians 10:13: “Remember the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted (or challenged) He will show you a way out so you don’t give in. That is the truth!  However, the popular misconception of that Scripture is, “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.” Wowzer-zowzer…try loving your unlikable neighbor, or forgiving a former foe, or resisting that lustful glance at a sexy attraction. As promised, God will give you a way out, if YOU get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit guide your steps, or give you the right words. “And how do I do that”, you ask? You first humble yourself and say “Holy Spirit, give me your wisdom, your courage, your strength, your patience, your words to speak – whatever it is you need to empower you to bring honor and glory to God, and every promise in the Bible says He will answer that prayer.

All of what I have just written is a prologue to what I believe is my message for the next few weeks. I want to focus on “loving my neighbor” and what that may look like from my perspective. A few months ago, I wrote a series of nine blogs to Unbelievers entitled, “Don’t Miss the Great Feast; All Are Invited!”. I enlisted the help of Believers who are Meetpastordan Readers, and asked them to forward these blogs to Unbelievers that they know. Their response was quite good. Therefore, I would like to use that same procedure for disseminating the “Good News” in this series.

Since I have this platform, I want to use it to further God’s Kingdom in this fallen world. Romans 10:15 tells us: “How beautiful are the feet of the messengers who bring good news”, or in this case, “proclaim the ‘Good News” (my edit) When the chips are down, or if you prefer, at the end of our journey on this earth, only one decision made during this lifetime will matter: Did you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?” If YES, you will spend eternity in Paradise with God, Jesus and the heavenly host. If NO, you will be condemned to eternal separation from God.” How horrific!  It breaks my heart to know that people will be condemned just because they may never have heard the Truth of God’s Word – “The Good News!” This series of blogs is rooted in my intent to show my love for my neighbor.

I want to do everything I can through these blogs to give Unbelievers the same opportunity I had for redemption. (FYI…I was an Unbeliever and an Atheist for 25 years.) I hope you will take five minutes to read each of the blogs in this series. If you are an Unbeliever, and you don’t understand the references I’ve made, I would suggest going to my website and clicking on “blog”, (www.meetpastordan.com). Scroll down the list of titles in the right-hand column until you come to, “Don’t Miss the Great Feast…” You will probably find the answer in those nine blogs. If you have questions (or criticisms), please respond to me at drpresgr@gmail.com , or you can call me at 314-799-7075. What have you got to lose? (well, actually…you’ve got “salvation” to lose!)

So, let’s start at the beginning with a few basics, then I’ll make a giant-leap forward to what happens at the end of this life’s journey. We are told in the Bible that “long ago, even before He created the world (and Man(kind), God had a plan for Man’s (our) redemption.(Ephesians 1:4)  You see, God knew that Man (we) were going to sin at the first opportunity. That happened in The Garden of Eden when the first inhabitants, Adam and Eve, “sinned” by being disobedient to God’s directive. Therefore, that Spiritual connection that originally existed between God and Man, (us) was severed, leaving us to wrestle with the dilemma of overcoming sin through our own best effort.

Romans 5:6 is our report card on that effort. “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time to die for us sinners!  In other words, when we proved our inability to save ourselves, God sent Jesus into this world to shed His blood as payment for OUR sins.  IF WE accept this Gift of Grace, WE WILL BE SAVED!  If YOU are saved, YOU WILL inherit eternal life. I’m telling YOU this so YOU won’t miss out. The fun really begins in the New Jerusalem, (the re-created world; the fulfillment of God’s promises; Paradise), and it will last FOREVER!!!. Do you ever wonder about all of the galaxies out there? Hmm.. I sure do…  Hope to see YOU next week…and I hope to see You in the New Jerusalem.  (Believers…please share this Good News with Unbelievers.)

Feel free to respond to this message, and please share with other social media friends.

May God Bless You abundantly,

Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)

 

 

Leave a Comment

*