Giving Your Love Away

Matthew 22:39

"And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Our Savior’s teaching, while it is practical, is also always evangelical. He calls believers away from being content with the mere decencies of life and the routine of outward religion, and challenges them to seek after the highest degree of holiness—indeed, after that excellence of character which only His Grace can give. Loving our neighbor is not a condition of salvation, but as a fruit of it. Thus, we give our love away in service.

Jesus’ instruction is also new because it raises the standard. Loving others as ourselves means following the pattern He set for us, and putting the needs of others above our own. That is, loving ALL others, not just friends & family, but everyone. Talk about taking it to a new level of Christian living!

Thing about it in these terms, which Christ taught through the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) -

1. THE WORLD IS FULL OF AFFLICTION. This story is just one among thousands of modern stories that you chance upon, glance or gloss over as you scan the newswpaper, news websites or on television. These are unfortunate occurrences. The happen on short jaunts to the grocery store or on long treks. Life can be lost on the road. We are never secure from trouble—it meets us around the family hearth, walks into our work place and follows us on the road. Again, the daily news attest to this reality.

In the case of the assault victim in the parable, the thieves confronted him and demanded his money, and that when he made some little resistance they wounded him, stripped him and left him half dead. How could he be blamed? It was to him a pure misfortune. Believe me, there is a great deal of sorrow in the world. Some of it is caused by our own doings; other instances, it arrives just because it is part & parcel of living.

The man in the parable was quite helpless. He could do nothing for himself. There he lay dying. Those huge, gaping wounds must've been draining his life away as he bled from his injuries. He probably couldn't even groan, let alone speak, to call out for help. He couldn't even dress his own wounds, much less arise and seek shelter. He was bleeding to death among the pitiless rocks on the descent to Jericho and his was left there for the buzzards and crows to feed upon unless some one came to his help.

But who, pray tell?

2. THERE ARE MANY WHO NEVER RELIEVE AFFLICTION. Our Savior tells us of two, who at least,who passed by on the other side and I suppose He might have prolonged the parable so as to have mentioned 2 dozen or more souls who just walked on by if Christ had chosen to do so.

Note that 2 religious men - a priest & a Levite - pass by the suffering man on the opposite side of the road. Notice that these two men were on the same road going in the same general direction. If the  one couldn't offer aid then certainly 2 could've rendered assistance. Think about that for a minute, Reader! When you're not able to help someone in need, look around because there might be a fellow believer passing by who can help make the difference.

Friend, to know to do good and not do it is a sin (James 4:17). What a tragedy of eternal proportions! Here you have an opportunity to glorify God and instead you become a turtle, tuck your holy head inside your shell and walk on by, doing nothing. Can I ask you something, Reader? Do you even bother to pray for these lost souls? Do you even do that?

We are to relieve real distress irrespective of creed, as the Samaritan did. Let this thought settle in your mind for a little bit. The Samaritan, whom the Jews considered dogs, crossed the invisible line of cultural differences and help the Jew.

Wait!  How do I know that the poor victim was a Jew. In verse 30, he's referenced as traveling from Jerusalem (where the Holy Temple was) to Jericho (probably home). The priest and Levite also both traveled down from that same route. However, the Samaritan journeyed. You see, the Samaritans did not worship in Jerusalem. They were nature lovers, so to speak, and erected altars out in the mountain sides. Even Christ told the woman at the well that the Samaritans did not know what they worshipped (John 4:5-26)

Thus, the Jews were great haters of the Samaritans and, no doubt, this Samaritan might have thought, “If I were in that man’s shoes and he in mine, he would not help me. He would pass me by and say, ‘It is a Samaritan dog, let him be accursed and die like a dog.’” The Jews were accustomed to curse the Samaritans, but it did not occur to the good man to remember what the Jew would have said. He saw him bleeding and he bound up his wounds.

Our Savior has not given us, for a golden rule, “Do unto others as others do to you,” but “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The Samaritan went by that rule in spirit and though he knew of the enmity in the Jewish mind, he felt that he should help, that he can help and that he must help. What motivated him to do such a thing? There must've been something that moved his heart to show compassion on another human being. And so, he went straight away to his relief.

Listen, Believer, the poorest of the poor can help the poor. Even those who feel distress, themselves, may manifest a generous Christian spirit and give of themselves what little they have. Because a little bit in your hands is more than sufficient in the hands of the Almighty God. Do so as you have the opportunity.

Read the last part of verse 34, "...and took care of him."

Admire that little sentence, because in it you see what little he had, he gave. Once he had taken care of the poor soul then he sought the inn keeper to "take care of him.” What you do yourself, you may exhort other people to do.

3. WE HAVE A HIGHER EXAMPLE - JESUS CHRIST. Jesus saw our own sin-racked bodies and the condition of our heart (Jer. 17:9) and had compassion on us. God gave us His Son so that whoever believes on Him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

I had asked earlier who, pray tell, will help?

Reader, it's you. It has to be you. You cannot wait another day. Reach out, Believer, to a dark and dying world. Someone needs to hear about Jesus Christ today.

Seek, then, to be true followers of your Lord by practical deeds of kindness and if you have been backward in your thinking about whom to approach, draw a needful reproach from the Master. Don't with-hold blessings from those who are different from you. Take the initiative by praying for grace to cross the racial, ethnic, cultural, political, socio-economic, etc. barriers. The biggest gap of all - the sin chasm which Christ bridged for you at Calvary - has been closed. So, these other gaps are nothing in comparison for the Lord.

The goal in loving is not to evoke the response you want from another person, but to do what the Lord commands you do. Your willingness to love must never depend upon another person’s ability to give love back to you.

Your challenge as a Christian is to love others even if they don’t love you back. So, you are never without someone to love. Reciprocity is not required for this kind of love. The only thing that is required is your willingness, your desire, and your commitment to open up and give others the love of Christ that dwells in you.

There's someone out there right now as you read this post who needs to know that somebody loves them unconditionally. Christ loves you that way. I'm sure that brings a comfort to your heart, doesn't it? Isn't it time you took that next step of faith to reach out to someone who needs that same comfort? Yes, it's time.

Finally, if you're not saved, Friend, you are missing out on the greatest love known to human kind. Make that decision today and know that Jesus Christ loves you. The proof is at the Cross!

Jesus Paid It All For Me Because He Loves Me!

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

Your Own Personal Gethsemane

Matthew 26:36

"Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder."

The word Gethsemane is Greek in orgin; in Hebrew, gat shemanim. It's an ancient oil press; that's the meaning of the name. And a garden bears its name. You could even say that the milling stone that was used to press the oil out of the olives was the Gethsemane Stone. The garden was located on the Mount of Olives across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem. It is here that Jesus prayed on the night before His death.

In the Garden, Jesus struggled, knowing His impending crucifixion meant separation from His Father. At no other time in the Gospels do we see the Son of God more brokenhearted than in these last few hours of freedom before He is seized by the Temple guards. In fact, Christ was at the point of physical exhaustion in the Garden of Gethsemane. He cried out until His sweat became like drops of blood in the agony at Gethsemane.

Try to imagine the great, immense pressure on the Christ. The weight of the world's sins would soon be consummated at Calvary. And the worst part of Calvary (ie, Golgotha) is that Jesus knew what would happen there; He'd be separated from God.

In anguish, Jesus would cry out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). As the full weight of humanity’s sin fell upon Christ, the Father withdrew His presence, since He does not remain in the presence of sin. Jesus had never known a moment of separation from the Father, until that very moment when Jesus took on our sin. That rejection was agony for Jesus.

Jesus was willing to be forsaken by God in order that we could be accepted by Him. Talk about the Passion! Who else could loves us to the point separation from the Father and dying a horrific death? No one but the Son of God!

But in Gethsemane, the Son did not plead for release from the pain; instead, He prayed three times that the Father’s will be done.

Have you ever prayed with a brokenness for His will to be done in your life? Giving up your desires and willful ways brings turmoil and pressure to resist because the flesh is at war with the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). But, whatever besetting sin is causing a break in your walk with Christ, take it to Him in prayer.

If we follow Jesus’ example and release ourselves to God’s will, then inner turmoil is calmed by a sense of peaceful contentment. External circumstances may be unchanged, they may even worsen, but in our inward Gethsemane, we have a peace that surpasses all understanding because a loving Father gives it to us (Phil 4:7).

Jesus promised in John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

Jesus left the garden a prisoner, but at the same time He walked out triumpant because He had submitted to His Father's will.

What about you, Reader? Have you experienced you own personal Gethsemane lately?

I'd like to know more about Jesus: The Plan of Salvation

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
Refrain

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He Carried Our Sorrows and Sin

Matthew 26:26-30
"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives."

On a night like tonight, 12 men met to observe the Passover meal. One man would betray another, the God-man, the Lamb of God. On this night, thousands of years ago, the men observed a memorial that the LORD had commanded the children of Israel to keep. It was an event, too, that had happened thousands of years ago. In both of these events, they spoke of the same Person, Jesus the Messiah. Examine Exodus 12:5-14,

⁵Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

⁶And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

⁷And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

⁸And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

⁹Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

¹⁰And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.

¹¹And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's passover.

¹²For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

¹³And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

¹⁴And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

God judged Pharaoh and Egypt experienced the greatest plague it had ever seen: the death of their firstborn. Meanwhile, death passed over the household of the Israelites (i.e., the Jews) because the blood was on their doorposts. What God did for them, Christ also did for the world. That is, He died on the cross and shed His precious and holy blood (Heb. 9:22) so that all those who believed on His name (Rom. 10:9-10) would not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16, 36).

But, before Christ died on the cross, He was severely beaten and tortured and bruised and battered. As Isaiah prophesied in that Old Testament book in chapter 53:4-5, 10, he spoke of the Messiah.

⁴Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

⁵But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

¹⁰Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

If it hadn't been for God reaching out to a lost and dying world through Jesus Christ, all of us would have been condemned to hell, and rightfully so. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).

What about you, Reader? Are you saved and glory bound? Or, are you condemned to hell and the everlasting place called the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:12-15)? It doesn't have to be that way, you know. There's a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. Make your peace with God now before it's too late.

Click here and settle your sin debt with God: I Don't Want to Go to Hell. Save Me Now Jesus!

Judgment is coming, all will be there,
Who have rejected, who have refused;
O sinner, hasten, let Jesus in,
Then God will pass, will pass over you.

When I see the blood,
When I see the blood,
When I see the blood,
I will pass, I will pass over you.