Love Your Neighbor

What the World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love!

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 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  John 13:34 ESV

Some years ago I worked trimming trees on a large estate in Katonah, New York. Since the work we did was usually done in the winter, it was a special blessing that tucked into one of the wings of the house was a green house with a small semi-heated area where we could warm ourselves at lunch. Though we rarely saw the owner or even the caretaker we were able to get in because the spare key was kept under the edge of the fountain. That key opened a little door marked, “Service entrance”.

That entrance always reminded me that God also leaves the key to His door under the fountain. At that fountain we find, not a to His service entrance door.

When Jesus gave us His new commandment He required that we love one another in the same way that He had loved us. Then, “How did Jesus love me?” we should ask. Was it not most love of all loves when He gave His life on the cross for our sins? What a mighty Savior who gave Himself humbly for us. If today we will pause at His fountain we will discover there in a hidden place the key to the service entrance to heaven. That key He gives us with His command to love God’s children from every corner of the earth!

Which Way to Go?

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But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. 1 John 2:11 NIV

Don’t you wish that following God’s guidance could be like entering an address into your GPS? Then knowing the right direction would be as simple as listening to the calm pleasant voice alerting us to turn at the next intersection.

smartphone car technology phone

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But finding the right career path, soul-mate or next apartment is not about knowing which way to turn. God’s word is clear that what matters to Him is in how we treat the people around us. In fact He tells us that we are stumbling through life because we are mistreating, manipulating or using others for our own advantage in ways that God calls hate. When we treat anyone with hate then we walk straight out of the presence of God and down a dark path. It reminds me of when we were driving home from Northern Vermont. The GPS in our car kept saying, “Satellite transmission lost”. We kept going the wrong way and sometimes even in circles until we stopped at a gas station and asked directions.  In the same way finding the right spiritual direction means following directions from someone who can show us the way. That someone is Jesus Christ, who loved us even when we were his enemies and showed us the way to His Home.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:11 KJV