The Commandments In A nutshell

Scripture

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

~Luke 10:27, NASB

Quote

Spiritual growth does not take place in isolation.

~Eugene L. Peterson

What does spiritual growth have to do with loving your neighbor? Everything! The monastic movement began in the 4th century after Constantine ended the persecution of the church. Unfortunately, when the persecution ended, the church began to take on the ways of the world and this was very upsetting to some devoted followers of Christ. Both the teachings of Christ and the ethical standards of Christ were corrupted by greed and worldliness. The Christian monastic lifestyle was simple at first and an effort to return to Christ and His ways, but it soon lead to gross misunderstanding and monks and nuns were living in caves, cemeteries and monasteries. All attention was on personal devotion to God {Love God will all your heart, soul, mind and strength} and no emphasis on loving one’s neighbor. The cloistered life makes ministry, missions, evangelism and loving your unbelieving neighbor impossible. The salt can not preserve unless it is in contact with that which it is to preserve. The result of this movement led to abuse and perversion.

Devotion to God is very important but there is another commandment and that is to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. This is impossible when we isolate ourselves from out neighbors. Peterson says, “God gives us various means to grow: prayer, scripture, silence, solitude, suffering, service and corporate worship.” You don’t need others to have a QT or a daily time of bible study. We do have a need for solitude and silence but we also have a need for corporate worship and service. Billy Graham said, “The gospel of Christ has no meaning a part from helping those who are in need.” The word translated ‘love’ in Luke 10 is agapaō and it is a verb. Love is not passive, it is active. The Apostle John said, “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” The disciples on the road to Emmaus said of Jesus, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people.” The cross is a symbol of balance: the vertical bar points us to heaven and our relationship with God. The horizontal beam points to those to our right and left and our relationship to others. The Jews were proud of their love for God and devotion to the law but they despised people. Their hate for Jesus is proof that they did not really love God at all. Again John said, “If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?”

The bottom line is that we need each other. God created us to have a need for HIM but He also creates us to need others. We need their love and encouragement. We need to help others and at times others need to help us. God created us with two hands: one to receive and one to give. There are times when we receive ministry from other believers and there are times we minister to other believers. If you isolate yourself from the body of Christ, you will become a freak with no people skills. Dwight L. Moody was visiting a man who had dropped out of Church. It was a cold winter day and they were setting in front of an open fire place. The man told Moody, “I don’t need church to be a Christian; I can worship God right here in my living room.” Moody didn’t say anything but he reached out and took the poker and he gently drug a hot glowing ember out of the fire and put it on the hearth by itself. The glowing ember soon darkened. Then Moody, took the poker and pushed it back into the fire; within seconds, it was glowing again.” The man looked at Moody and said, “I get the picture.”

Extra

Sarah’s COLS went well and we are thankful. I want to thank Mandy and the DBC ladies for a delicious meal. Ole Gregg and I had a pretty good time. Seriously, it was good to see Gregg enjoy a meal. They gave him a few days off from his chemo treatment and he has been able to eat for the past three days, PTL! We had a little roof top frost yesterday morning but my flowers look fine so maybe it didn’t get to low lying areas. This global warming is something!

Saw something yesterday that I’ve never seen before: the funeral procession was crossing highway 157 with about half of us already on yonder side when a four wheel drive pick up south bound plowed right through the middle of the procession. Thankfully, those in the procession saw that he was not going to stop and so they stop. There was a deputy in the other lane with his lights flashing.

I hope you have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.

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