"Who is my neighbor?" Maybe one of the most important questions asked in scripture.
This Sunday, I'm sharing about the Great Commandment. In Mark 12: 28-34, Jesus is in a discussion with a scribe about what is the greatest commandment. In this conversation, Jesus aligns loving the one true God with all of ourselves with loving our neighbor. He says, "There is no other commandment greater than these." When the scribe agreed, Jesus told him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."
So who is my neighbor? Who should I love? We know Jesus' answer from the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke.
However, I was reading further in Luke this week, Luke 14: 12-14.
'Then he turned to his host. “When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.”'
It is tempting in church planting to invite the rich, the people we know, the ones who have something to offer us, and to view others as "the mission field". This is something we are fighting back.
We know that God loves everyone. We know that God has a purpose and has called every single person to serve God.
This week we are praying that we would see our neighbors, all of them, with God's eyes, inviting everyone to the table, to the mission, to the kingdom work with us.
We want to be as close to the kingdom of God as we can get. We have set our hearts on loving God with everything we are, and we pray everyday that we can love our neighbors, all of them, just as we love ourselves.
Will you pray with us for our neighbors in Columbus? Will you pray with us for open hearts to the people all around us? Will you pray with us for courage and openness to extend God's invitation to all people?
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