Old Neighborhood

Love your neighbor as yourself.  Matthew 22:39

Along my journey, I have been blessed with some wonderful neighbors in all of the various places I have lived.  Many of those neighbors have also become lifelong friends that I absolutely treasure.  It’s made it particularly hard to move to another part of town or different city/state.  The same holds true here in Knoxville and one of the most appealing parts of the neighborhood for our family are the people who make up our community.

Jesus said that loving your neighbor as yourself is the second greatest commandment, after loving God with all of your heart.  That must make neighborly love pretty important, right?

We all have a natural and fleshly instinct to look after ourselves first, but it's when we look to meet the needs of others like it's ourselves that we begin to fulfill Jesus' commandment.

This world is in desperate need of love and it just can't be overstated enough.  Love directed inward is useless, but love directed outward can help change this world, one person at a time!

Too Fast For Love

'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."  Mark 12:31

You may or may not be too familiar with much of God’s Word, but I believe it is safe to say that most every adult has heard God’s greatest commandment at least once during the course of their lifetime.  In fact, when we talk about loving our neighbors, it’s so ingrained in our minds that the term almost becomes second nature.  The thing about it is that I don’t think many of us understand what this verse actually means.

Loving your neighbor is not just loving your ‘good’ or ‘close’ neighbor, but actually loving the neighbor that may drive you crazy. Or it could mean loving the neighbor you try to avoid at all costs.  We are so focused on caring for ourselves before others that most people never actually get around to do it.  To truly understand loving our neighbors, we must look at Jesus who loved people “not only because He genuinely cared for them, but also because He brought glory and honor to His Father in Heaven.”

Loving other people sounds so simple, but in reality, it is sometimes very hard to do.  It is obviously important to God as this second commandment follows the first commandment: “LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, MIND, SOUL, AND STRENGTH.” If you think about these two commands for a moment, both hang the law and the prophets.

Although it may be difficult to love another person as we love ourselves, we can all do a better job of learning how to ‘live in love.’  The best part about it is that you don’t have to be a Bible scholar or theology major to know much about loving other people.  Just think about how different the world we live in today would be if more people actually obeyed God’s command to love others as themselves…As a Believer and follower of Christ, loving others is not just important or the right thing to do-it’s our reason for being and our purpose here on this earth!!

People Are People

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  1 John 4:11

I am amazed by some of the posts I read on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. There are times when I can easily become disenchanted with reading my news feed on Facebook because it is full of negativity-no matter what your political affiliation happens to be.

Despite my own personal, religious, and political convictions, I realize and respect that other people hold different and opposing views than me. Too often, people feel that they should only mesh with people who are of similar belief, culture, nationality, race, gender, or income level.

The truth is that God wants us to treat EVERYONE with the same mercy, kindness, forgiveness, civility, and compassion as Jesus did.  And what about good manners?  I am not sure if it’s because I am more in tune with what people say to each other now that I am 'plugged in', but where has the common courtesy gone to these days?

I realize that I personally have a lot to learn and am not being self-righteous; I guess I am just wondering why people can't try to get along more often; we just aren't living together the way God intended us to....

Too Fast For Love

'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."  Mark 12:31

You may or may not be too familiar with much of God’s Word, but I believe it is safe to say that most every adult has heard God’s greatest commandment at least once during the course of their lifetime.  In fact, when we talk about loving our neighbors, it’s so ingrained in our minds that the term almost becomes second nature.  The thing about it is that I don’t think many of us understand what this verse actually means.

Loving your neighbor is not just loving your ‘good’ or ‘close’ neighbor, but actually loving the neighbor that may drive you crazy. Or it could mean loving the neighbor you try to avoid at all costs.  We are so focused on caring for ourselves before others that most people never actually get around to do it.  To truly understand loving our neighbors, we must look at Jesus who loved people “not only because He genuinely cared for them, but also because He brought glory and honor to His Father in Heaven.”

Loving other people sounds so simple, but in reality, it is sometimes very hard to do.  It is obviously important to God as this second commandment follows the first commandment: “LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, MIND, SOUL, AND STRENGTH.” If you think about these two commands for a moment, both hang the law and the prophets.

Although it may be difficult to love another person as we love ourselves, we can all do a better job of learning how to ‘live in love.’  The best part about it is that you don’t have to be a Bible scholar or theology major to know much about loving other people.  Just think about how different the world we live in today would be if more people actually obeyed God’s command to love others as themselves…As a Believer and follower of Christ, loving others is not just important or the right thing to do-it’s our reason for being and our purpose here on this earth!!

Too Fast For Love

'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."  Mark 12:31

You may or may not be too familiar with much of God’s Word, but I believe it is safe to say that most every adult has heard God’s greatest commandment at least once over the course of their lifetime.  In fact, when we talk about loving our neighbors, it’s so ingrained in our minds that the term almost becomes second nature.  The thing about it is that I don’t think many of us understand what this actually means. 

Loving your neighbor is not just loving your ‘good’ or ‘close’ neighbor, but actually loving the neighbor that may drive you crazy or loving the neighbor you try to avoid at all costs.  We are so focused on caring for ourselves before others that most people never actually get around to do it.  To truly understand loving our neighbors, we must look at Jesus who loved people “not only because He genuinely cared for them, but also because He brought glory and honor to His Father in Heaven.”

Loving people sounds so simple, but in reality, it is sometimes very hard to do.  It is obviously important to God as this second commandment follows the first commandment: “LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, MIND, SOUL, AND STRENGTH.” If you think about these two commands for a moment, both hang the law and the prophets. 

Although it may be difficult to love another person as we love ourselves, we can all do a better job of learning how to ‘live in love.’  The best part about it is that you don’t have to be a Bible scholar or theology major to know much about loving other people.  Just think about how different the world we live in today would be if more people actually obeyed God’s command to love others as themselves…As a Believer and follower of Christ, loving others is not just important or the right thing to do-it’s our reason for being and our purpose here on this earth!!