SAMARITANS AND SISTERS

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

You know the story of the “GOOD Samaritan” right?  If you don’t, check outLuke 10.  I am sure you will recall the story once you do.  In a nutshell a guy at the wrong place at the wrong time on the wrong road gets “wronged”.

Possible help in the form of the “religious” comes along and does nothing.  Possible help from the "culturally biased" comes next and does nothing.  Then the unexpected candidate with every reason to do nothing actually does “something”.  

He “rights” the wronged.

Jesus uses the story to TEACH us who our NEIGHBOR is and how we are too respond them. We are to love them. Care for them. Sacrifice for them.

1 Peter 4:8-9 (PHILLIPS)

Above everything else be sure that you have real deep love for each other…Be hospitable to each other without secretly wishing you hadn’t got to be!

Yesterday must have been the day I needed to be reminded who my neighbor was. This story from Jesus was offered not just once but twice during the day.

But I will be honest, benevolence ministry can be a little “trying” at times.  The “neighbors” are many and sometimes the “Samaritans” seem scarce. And if I am not careful I can get a little “religious” or worse yet, a little biased. I too need to remember to be HOSPITABLE with NO “SECRET WISHES!”  

Amen?

But sitting through a little lesson yesterday from a true SAMARITAN, Pastor Herman Jackson at the THIRD BAPTIST CHURCH in Xenia, reset things a little for me.  Pastor Jackson challenged all of us to be focused on LOVING GOD and being open to always sharing love with our “neighbors.”

Jackson drove the point home when he told of his relationship with someone he called Sister “Don’t Like Me”.  Sister “Don’t Like Me” was a co-worker of Jackson, a “neighbor”, who was not enamored with him and certainly not neighborly in the least toward him. 

She wanted nothing to do with him, his gapped-toothed grin or his bubbly demeanor.  

Yet Jackson was reminded daily to LOVE HER.  She was his neighbor. 

So he offered donuts when he had them and offered lunches and the like.  All were summarily rejected.  Yet Jackson continued to love Sister "Don’t Like Me".  Then one day when Jackson’s day needed brightening and when he needed a little “neighborly nourishment”, who do you think was first with a comforting arm around the shoulder?

You guessed it.  That Sister!

Jackson loved because he was called to love.  GOD did the rest and both were blessed.

Proverbs 11:25 (NIV)

A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

The thought today is NOT a new one.  

The Samaritan story (which some believe was an actual occurrence) has been told, dramatized and narrated more times than any could count.  But the message of loving our neighbor never grows old.

It needs daily embrace.  It needs daily application.

In fact, I love my “new neighbors” at THIRD BAPTIST.  They plan to love me in return at the JEREMIAH TREE. And I am sure we will BOTH continue to be refreshed and blessed as we minister as new "neighbors”.

“We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves. We do it for people like us, and for people whom we like. Jesus will have none of that. By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need - regardless of race, politics, class, and religion - is your neighbor. Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor.” ― Timothy Keller

I love you all!

Freedom Church