Tag Archives: Neighbor

Humbled and Blessed

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Moments with My Father
 
It’s a summertime Saturday in Idaho and I am thankful this day for so much. I am especially grateful as I read in the Psalms today about how our Father does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities, even though He hates sin and desires for us to live holy as He is holy. As high up above the earth as the heavens are, that is how great His love is for those who fear Him or stand in awe of Him. It is pretty easy to stand in awe of Him just by looking up to the heavens. His creation alone cries out how great He is and worthy to fear. He is perfect in every way and the only One who is qualified to be a judge of any of us and He is capable of taking any of us out at any moment into non-existence anywhere. Yikes!! I could be scared, but because He is perfect love, His perfect love drives out ungodly and unhealthy fear. Because He is compassionate towards us as His children, He has proved His love to us in sending Jesus into the world to make the sacrifice needed to cover our sin so that we can be reconciled to Him, the Holy God He is, who has no association with sin. He did what it took to have a healthy relationship with you and me instead of just writing us off. I am so thankful for that! As imitators and models of Him, so we should put forth the effort to go the extra to have a healthy relationship with others. We all struggle in life with imperfections. It seems that in this day and age, people repay people by giving up on relationships far too quickly when someone doesn’t live up to their expectation(s) or desires all the while they are forgetting their own falling short. A whole new perspective comes to view when we reflect on how our Father treats us and His Word that tells us to love our neighbor as our self. While I do not take lightly His desire for me to be holy as He is, as my self, it makes me very thankful to know my Father loves me and accepts me as blameless through Jesus even though on my own I’m not perfect as He. If two people both look to the cross work done for each one personally, it greatly provides the humility and the comforting love needed to keep a relationship going. I stand humbled and blessed by the cross. “Thank you, Father.”
 
Psalm 103:8-22; 1 Jn 4:13-21; Jn 3:16; Col 1:21-23

Blessing Dad’s Socks Off by Sheila and Dad

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It’s wonderful doing Wednesday with ya! As we walk through this day together, here are the thoughts on my heart as I reflect on Mark’s account of one of the life experiences of Jesus while He was at the temple in Jerusalem. Carrying off where we were yesterday in study, Jesus is being questioned by the Sadducees and today we see that one of the Jews present had observed the debate and saw that Jesus had given good answers. Therefore, he sought to ask Jesus the question heavy on his heart. Jesus rocked and He had what it took to make a difference in people’s lives because He abided with the Father. He had the right connection! May we do the same as it’s such a happy abode that not only blesses our Dad, but us and others as well. Our relationship with Dad and others is the most important thing in the world and this is what Jesus told the questioning Jew who was struggling in trying to follow all the religious Laws. There were 613 individual statutes in the Jewish Law that they were constantly trying to live up to and they were always questioning which of the Laws were the heaviest or most important and which ones were the least in importance. Yikes – it sounds awful! I can understand why it would’ve been heavy on this man’s heart. Hence, this was their question to Jesus: “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus replied that the most important was all about relationships – to love the One True God as the number one priority of one’s heart, soul, mind and strength and secondly to love one’s neighbor as oneself. The man’s response to Jesus’ answer must have been very refreshing to Jesus because the man actually agreed with Him. Whoohoo, Jesus must have thought! I imagine if Jesus wore socks with His sandals that they were probably blessed right off of Him with His excitement over this. Jesus probably said something to Dad like “Dad, did you hear that? He got it! I’m so happy for us, Dad!” Then all composed, to the man’s answer, Jesus replied “You have answered wisely. You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” (The Kingdom of God being the spiritual rule of God over those who relate to Him by faith.) Because Jesus answered the man so skillfully, nobody dared to debate Him with another question. So to all of this, I ask “Can you and I relate?” I ask you as I ask myself: “Does God rule in my life as number One?” “Has He completely won over my heart?” This is the most important thing to remember – the key to the good life: If we make God number One, seeking Him above all (making Him our abode) and we let Him love on us and pour into us, then He will enable us to love our neighbors (those around us). In so doing, we will have done it all. We will have got it! Oh, that just blesses the socks right off of our Dad which is a real good thing! So this is my prayer: “Daddy, my heart wants to love you with all I got so please help me to do so and to love others with your same love that you show to me.” Well, I gotta go for now, family, but I’m sending much love to you!
Mk 12:28-34; Ro 13:8-10; 1 Jn 4:16-21; Lk 10:25-37; Jn 15:1-17