Good Morning Neighbor! It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood to love a neighbor as Jesus loves you! Amen! Who is the neighbor God has for you to love ? Ask Him and go love and love like Jesus. Check out Our Daily Bread below about that. What's God saying to you and what will you do about it? Who are your teammates to pray with and be accountable to?
Two quick updates and one more request to cover for me please...
Caleb is still struggling with a high fever and because of other issues regular treatment is not an option. Please keep him and the family in prayer for healing and wisdom and peace.
There is some confusion about worship...
St. Matts worship is at 4 with communion and followed by a quick dinner. We hope to exit the building by 6.
Adam Robert's house church will then be using the sanctuary for their worship service at 7.
Please pray for both churches to honor God, worship in Spirit and Truth and to attract some new neighbors to Jesus and our fellowships. We are one in Christ. We are two different expressions of worship and two different churches that will be meeting in the same building. Hope that clears up the confusion.
I begin homebound communion visits the next two days. pray for me to bless them all and to bring Jesus' love alive. pray for health and for Jesus to be the Lord of the schedules so that all will fit together before next week. Thanks to family Ministry and the gifts they made for the people I will see. May all be blessed and feel the love and hope of heaven found in Christ. Amen! We are the sending church supporting in prayer and use of our building for Adam and Michelle's church plant.
Time to move along to the next thing , my huddle with Adam, before heading out for the day. Pray God would continue to use me and lead Adam, me and our fellowships to Christ and to fulfill our gathered and sent purposes. He has plans for all of us and plans for each of our Bodies to go live and love like Jesus and to connect to neighbors and make disciples like Jesus, as we are and for such a time as this. Pray we seek Him and His plans and follow well. Pray for revival all around us to spring up and to start inside of us and our gatherings and to flow with springs of Living Water to our neighbors. Amen
Don't forget to pray for the Bread Ministry (Weis day) for workers and for love, hope, and help to come alive.
From her hospital bed, Marie Coble lit up when she saw the delivery driver whose help had likely saved her life. She’d fallen in her driveway and hit her head, causing a brain bleed. Seeing her injury, Raheem Cooper helped her while calling paramedics. Invited by family to visit her in the hospital, Raheem often brings sweet treats she enjoys to assist her recovery.
Their story brings to mind the parable of the Good Samaritan. The parable is Jesus’ reply to an expert’s question on what he must do to inherit eternal life. Do “what is written in the law,” Jesus said (Luke 10:26), including “love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 27). But the expert persisted, asking, “Who is my neighbor?” (v. 29).
Christ’s answer describes a man attacked by robbers, left half dead, and then ignored by two people—a priest and a Levite—who passed him by. “But a Samaritan . . . took pity on him,” “bandaged his wounds, . . . and took care of him” (vv. 33-34). Seeing the hurting man in need, the Samaritan’s help was active, urgent, and without bias—looking past race or creed to assist someone he could’ve ignored.
Thus, Jesus asked, "Which of these three was a neighbor to the man?" “The one who had mercy on him,” the expert said. Said Jesus, “Go and do likewise” (vv. 36-37). In Christ, we too can find the compassion to help a hurting person instead of passing by. It’s a lesson for all in sharing Jesus’ love.
By Patricia Raybon
REFLECT & PRAY
How do you need mercy? How can you show mercy?
Dear Father, may I look beyond differences to share Jesus’ mercy with others.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The key to understanding the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) lies in knowing how first-century Israel answered the question, “Who is my neighbor?” (v. 29). They’d distorted the command “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) into “love your neighbor and hate your enemy” (Matthew 5:43). The Jews defined a neighbor as a fellow Israelite, for gentiles were accursed. For the Pharisees (experts in the law), it referred to a fellow Pharisee, for those who knew nothing of the law were accursed (John 7:49). Jesus turned this thinking upside down by making a hated Samaritan (people of mixed race whom the Jews viewed as heretics) the hero of the story. The Spirit can help us to show compassion to others instead of simply passing by.
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