Hello and welcome to the 13th Spark of Hope post. At a church I used to go to the pastor every week at the end of his service would pray the same prayer. The prayer came from Numbers 6:24-26. The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Then he would end it by saying "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Go Love Your Neighbor".
Now who is my neighbor? A man once asked Jesus the same question and Jesus replied with a parable. "In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have." Then Jesus asked the man "“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” and obviously the man said "The one who had mercy on him".
Now what am I getting at here? In 2022, which is prime with Racism and people hating First Responders, what if we treated everyone like our neighbor? Also something else I wanted to point out is nowadays we don't think about this very much but a denarii is worth 0.23 of a Us Dollar. Yet, back in those days a denarii would have been about 2 days wages. So the Samaritan just payed 4 days of his hard work to help someone that most people would say was their enemies.
Now Im not saying that you have to dump your bank account to help you neighbor, but seriously remember W.W.J.D. (What Would Jesus Do)
Until next time, God Bless
J.C. Bridgewater
94:18 Christian Studios
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