Series: Love
Mark 12:29-31 ESV
There are times in life when we think we “know” something and invariable something will happen that makes us realize we know very little.
Just this week I was listening to an online sermon and the pastor was relevant and he spoke well. Being a Speech Communication major from a large university automatically makes me cognizant of the manner of speaking.
He was a good communicator.
But then he told a story about a person who came to his church who was a man dressed like a woman. I know there are specific words for that but because there are now so many words I choose not to use any of them.
What I heard is that he was a person.
Mark 12:29-31 tells us, “Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
I was reminded of this verse.
Love God.
Love people.
We have two commandments.
New Testament words spoken by Jesus.
Love God. Love people.
Now…understand I am a simple person. I have friends who are all manner of Christian, friends who are Muslim, friends who are Buddhist, and friends who were raised in many other faiths.
Love God. Love people.
The loving God part has always been easy for me.
Even when I was very young I knew that God/Jesus loved me. Jesus was my best friend. The Spirit of God/jesus was all around me. I didn’t know it at the time but that was because my dad prayed that God/Jesus would fill our home.
Many children have imaginary friends…mine was Jesus but he wasn’t imaginary. He was with me.
In my search for truth on earth I’ve been with or sat with people from just about every denomination and people from every faith. The strange thing is that while I sat with them we never really talked about our differences. I think maybe that’s because when we talked about faith I looked for similarities.
I looked for the tie that binds us.
There were times when there were many similarities and times when I had to intentionally look for them by asking God to show me “the connecting point”.
A few times I’ve come across someone and I instantly knew there weren’t many similarities. It didn’t take long for me to realize we would not find similarities.
That’s because they sought envy, strife, blaming, and hatred. The first time it happened I tried to talk about love but the longer I sat with them I discovered I was having trouble breathing.
Fortunately I now recognize evil and I pray for protection. I pray that The Spirit of God will pursue them to their very last breathe with His love, and I walk away.
There have also been many times when I’ve met someone and I instantly knew God’s love poured out of them like a fierce waterfall.
They love God and people with all their soul, mind, and strength,
They are a bright shining light.
They are the people who give me hope. They give me hope for our world.
Last year I met a woman who is vivacious and love pours out of her. She is a bright shining light. Even though our sin color is not the same, even though we grew up in vastly different worlds, even though we worship in different ways we agree on everything that matters.
We believe in love. God’s love matters.
Loving one another makes all the difference.
I saw her this morning while I was walking my dog and I heard her from across the parking lot yell, “you’re such a good mom!”
I smiled because I really really didn’t want to take “me pup” for a walk when it was twenty degrees out with a blustery wind.
I smiled because she SAW me and she loved me.
I prayed for her and loved her back.
The greatest gift we have been given is the gift of the Spirit of love. Because God didn’t leave us alone we can ask and the Spirit of Love answers.
Every time God hears and answers especially when we ask to send love to someone.
It’s absolutely the ‘quickest’ way to give someone a blessing. They can be halfway around the world and we can send the blessing of God’s love.
Spiritual Practice: a Blessing
Send at least one (if not all hundred) blessings today.
In God, Deborah
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