Who is my neighbor?

It seems that the Lord works in my life by bringing an idea to mind and then having the same idea come to mind through the messages I hear during the next week or two.
On my way home from work the other day, I heard most of a very good message on the subject of my duty toward my neighbor.
Speaking from Luke 10, the parable of the Good Samaritan tells us much about our personal response to need around us.
May I say in passing, that I have always admired the Amish for their loyalty within the family and their community. I have also admired the Mennonites and a few other groups for their care for the needy and those who have been struck by a natural disaster.
It is interesting that the lawyers of Jesus' day were conscience stricken at some of Jesus' teaching, and tried to knock Him down in other areas (logic, application, etc.) in order to justify their own lack of action on behalf of the ones who could not protect themselves.
It was on such an occasion that Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. The setting is that of a person who has been attacked, robbed and left for dead (not exactly one who is able to do for himself). Jesus tells of the reaction of three different people when they see this terrible scene.
The first, a priest (equivalent roughly to a preacher in our day) saw the scene, crossed over to the other sidewalk and continued on his way. Today it might mean moving over several lanes on a highway in order to avoid doing something about someone in an accident, or moving to another neighborhood in order to avoid seeing the sights altogether. He may even have had the cleanest of motives, such as the need to keep himself available to the people he was headed to minister to. God forbid he should be laid up for a week until he could be cleansed of the uncleanness of having touched a body of someone who might just be dead. This would have interfered with his schedule. Or maybe he was already running late, and he figured someone else would take care of him, a layman, perhaps?
The second, a levite (roughly equivalent to our deacons and trustees) whose job was to take care of the business of the temple. His response="Not my JOB". Once again, he may just have had the interests of the temple in mind, and felt his job there was of utmost importance, and therefore he could not spare the time and effort.
The third, a Samaritan, despised by the Jews for being a half-breed, product of an interracial marriage, and not a follower of God as prescribed by the Law.
His response was amazingly simple: "Here's a man in need... here I am... I've seen the need... I'm able to help... I will help... "
The speaker pointed out that there are several negatives this man had to overcome to do this.
1) The person in need was Unknown. The idea that we are only responsible to our family is not biblical, for we are challenged to care for our family first, and then others, especially those who are part of the family of faith.
2) The person in need, if able to, would have been Unkind. He was going from Jerusalem to Jericho, so it can safely be assumed that he was a Jew who resided in Jerusalem, and had business to do in Jericho.
3) To help this man was Inconvenient as he, too, had business to transact, or he would probably not have been out on the road exposing himself to the weather and the possible attack of highwaymen.
4) To help this man was definitely Unprofitable. His reaction could have been very different. He could have said "I should do something about it? I don't work for a Non Profit Organization!!" In stead he put his own personal time, money, and provisions into the act of helping a person in need.
I'm sure the Samaritan was no more excited about seeing a person all covered with blood, lacerations and bruises than I would be, but Scripture tells us that he "had compassion on him" that is, he cared about him, felt for him. Then he did something about it. After disinfecting them with wine, and soothing them with oil, he bound his wounds, then he lifted him onto his own donkey, and walked the rest of the way leading his donkey until he arrived at the local inn, where he made him as comfortable as possible and then made arrangements personally with the innkeeper to take care of the man until he could personally come back and check on him, promising to pay the difference when he arrived back from transacting his business. Then, and only then, he went on to do his own business.

Lord, help me not to lose sight of people and their needs. Keep me balanced, clinging to the truth, but also being willing to invest in others who have needs that they cannot meet.

As the song writer said "Lord help me live from day to day in such a self-forgetful way, that even when I kneel to pray, my prayer shall be for others. Others, Lord, yes others, let this my motto be: Help me to live for others that I might live for Thee."

A Pile of Rubble

With folks missing at work, and one very important night shift gentleman going on vacation next week, I began last week to feel somewhat like the Israelites did when they were in the process of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah 4:6 says "So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart." But the time came when opposition, through agitators, ridicule, criticism, and outright hostility came into play in the form of a group of renegades who did not follow God's way, and the Israelites began to be worn down. Fear came into play, the magnitude of the job seemed greater than they could bear, and their enthusiasm began to wane. It all looked like "heaps of rubble", and they became discouraged. Their work suffered, and they were compelled to take inventory of what they had available to them, and this drove them to turn to God.
Though I had no hostility displayed toward me, and my fellow workers have been more than kind to me, there was something inside me that was eating away at my "heart". I was beginning to be disheartened because of the "pile of rubble" (backstock) that was building up. I had to take inventory and I realized that I had more on my side than I had thought. God was answering my daily prayer that I might "honor and glorify" him in all that I do. My surroundings hadn't changed (I was still working in a cooler at an average temp of 43 degrees), my fellow workers had not changed (they were still cordial, helpful, and cooperative), the work load hadn't changed (I was still moving about two tons of milk, cheese, yogurt and juices a day--a veritable 'heap of rubble'), but my attitude had changed (I was once again 'shining forth Jesus Christ') and that made the difference.

Planting Trees

A couple of weeks ago a young couple (and they do look young to us now!!) presented their baby for dedication. Those of us who have participated in such a ceremony know that the dedication is, however, a Parent Dedication.

Pastor Felber's challenge that morning was a call to plant shade trees. He suggested that parents (and I see this as extending to grandparents) need to plant at least three kinds of shade trees in our children's lives. These are:

• The truth of God's Word. He pointed out that to plant this kind of tree: (Ps. 119:105 & Deut. 6)

1. --We need to be consistent in our personal devotions.


2. --We need to be consistent in family devotions.


3. --We need to be consistent in teaching God's Word to our children.

• The discipline to do right. (Prov. 23:14,15)

1. --We must practice discipleship (modeling and training)


2. --We must teach them to obey immediately and happily. (Eph. 6:1-3)


3. --We must help them learn to honor and respect others. (Mark 12:30,31)

• The right atmosphere in which to learn. (Col. 3:21)

1. --In order to do this, we must win their heart.

a. We dare not embitter them by changing the rules of the game constantly so that they become disheartened. ("lose heart") This would cause them to have a listless, moody, sullen frame of mind.

b. The twig is to be bent into shape and it must be done with caution, lest we break it.

2. --We are responsible for our own attitude. It must be just as good as that which we demand from our children.

He concluded by challenging us to consider what kind of shade we will provide, and how we will shape the little twigs that are our responsibility.

Though my children are all grown and on their own, I had to think seriously about what this meant to me as a grandfather and a role model. A huge challenge indeed!!

Surround Sound

One of Michael's desires, even when we lived in Acworth, was to have a "man room". He had something of the sort there, but there were also many other things in there, such as two large bookcases filled with Mary's books and mine (mostly mine).
In this house in Monck's Corner, he has a room specially dedicated for that. He just recently purchased a "surround sound" system, and today the installers installed it. It is amazing. We thought "stereo" gave us the feeling of solid sound, but with five speakers and a "subwoofer" this is truly unbelievable sound. Watching a DVD (Marley and Me) tonight I was amazed at the realism and the sense of being in the middle of the action.

This got me to thinking about the announcement of the rapture in I Thessalonians 4:16 "...for the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God..."

This loud command will come at any time. When you are watching a movie, you have a good idea when the loud sounds are going to come, but the coming of the Lord Jesus will not have the visible signs to go with it. True, there will be many events that will happen and are already happening which let us know that it can happen at any time, but even the Lord Jesus did not know the exact time when this would happen because, as a man who had laid aside the independent use of his divine attributes (Philippians 2:6-11) he only knew what the Father revealed to him while he was here on earth.

The loudness and the commanding nature of the announcement of His second coming for His saints, together with the element of surprise, will be far and away more impressive than "surround sound."

It is for this reason that it is important that we be ready at all times to present ourselves before the Lord, not so that we may be worthy of being in His presence, for that is already taken care of by the cross work of Christ, but in order that we might be able to stand before Him unashamed.

My constant prayer is that this may be my state of preparation. It would be so much better than to be saved but "so as by fire". May that be the desire of each of us who call ourselves His children.

See the New Blog

We have recently moved from Acworth, GA to Moncks Corner, SC , and I have chosen at the same time to change the title of my blog to "Comments from the corner." You can now find a somewhat more newsy blog at www.commentsfromthecorner.blogspot.com

A new name for a new location

Well, here we are, three weeks into our status as South Carolina citizens. We are now living in Moncks Corner, SC. If you'll e-mail me, I will be glad to send you our exact address.
Speaking of moving, our Bible reading yesterday was the introduction to the book of the Recapitulation of the Covenant (otherwise known as Deuteronomy). In this chapter, Moses gathers the people and prepares them for a reminder concerning what lies ahead by giving them an outline of their history since they left Egypt, and reminding them of God's sovereignty and their need for His guidance and protection.

The history points out how God has dealt toward them by showing His power in discrediting the gods of Egypt and bringing them out of their slavery. He brings them to Mount Sinai after miraculously opening up the Red Sea so that they can cross on dry land. He then tells Moses to make the preparations for entering the land of Canaan.

As I read this passage, I was surprised to see a detail which I had not seen before-- the idea of sending spies out to check out the land was not Moses' idea nor God's, but it came from the people. Another detail was that they all came back with a very good report.

So, how come they did not go right in and conquer the land immediately? It was a conflict of WILLS. It was GOD's will vs. Israel's will. Moses points out that "you were unwilling to go up: you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God." (Deut. 1:26) This was not an intellectual battle. They had seen God's work, so they knew He could do what He promised. They had seen the land, so they knew that the land was good. But there was another force at work here: There was a total lack of trust in God. Only two out of twelve were willing to trust His promises. Instead, the other ten led the chorus of "grumbling", an undercurrent of insinuations and detractions which questioned God's good will toward them. The result was that the people were discouraged (they lost heart), and a whole generation lost out on God's blessing. They saw enemies everywhere, but did not take into consideration the huge advantage they had by having God on their side. Nothing Moses could say was able to dissuade them. They were not about to trust. They could not see the truth of what Moses said "...God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place." (1:31) When I read this verse, I was reminded of the poem which many of us have read, and which has brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion-- "Footprints" describes in the form of a dream this very fact. When we can only see one pair of footprints in the sand, it is not because God has abandoned us, but rather because He has picked us up and carried us through a difficult situation.

As we enter this new phase, I pray that our precious Lord will make each of us aware of His daily presence in our lives, and that we will be willing to follow Him here in the Corner--not hiding away or grumbling, but valiantly forging ahead in the confidence that He is with us at all times, and will pick us up and carry us when the circumstances seem unbearable.

Have a wonderful day trusting Him, and depending on Him!!

Is God's Second Best Good Enough

Sears may have started it in the area of merchandising, but many other retailers have followed. They offer the GOOD, the BETTER and the BEST. Of course, when it comes to merchandise, we all want the BEST, and whether we get it depends on what we can afford.

But in the lives of the Israelites God was willing to give them the BEST. When Moses sent out the spies to look over the land, Joshua and Caleb came back telling of the prospects. They even had to enlist some help to carry the huge bunches of grapes they picked in the Promised Land. But Israel chose to be a "democratic" society and not listen to the two spies who were in tune with God's BEST. The majority ruled, and a landslide at that. After all, the prospect of going out to fight for a land that God had promised was not exactly exciting. Someone might actually get hurt!

So they chose the BETTER. Yes, it was better than being slaves in Egypt, though that was GOOD for almost 400 years. But the quality of life there had deteriorated as Egypt found that the Israelites were hard workers, and decided to get more and more out of them--production, production, production!

Now, because Israel chose not to forge ahead and achieve the BEST, all the men of military age at the time of the spies' report would not get to enter the Promised Land.

Almost forty years later, after camping out in the desert for most of that time, Israel was faced with the prospect of actually being allowed by God to enter the Land of Promise. Numbers 32 tells us that 2 1/2 tribes of Israel (Reuben, Gad and Manasseh) had decided for the BETTER, leaving the BEST to the other 9 1/2 tribes. When Moses tried to dissuade them from that plan, they would not reconsider. So Moses pointed out that the choice was not going to be that easy. The men of military age would still have to go across the Jordan and help the others conquer the land, but they would not be able to inherit the Promised Land. They would stay at the threshhold and achieve only the BETTER.

Normally we could not make these applications, but both Moses and the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews make the application, so we are more than justified in doing so. Many followers of Jesus Christ (which is GOOD) stop short of the BEST by choosing the BETTER. Rather than letting Him have all of themselves and the bountiful goods that He supplied them with in the first place, they choose to hang on to the BETTER and get into a daily routine of sameness--same job, same services attended, same niceties said to fellow workers, etc. Their theme--and I confess it is tempting to fall into this rut-- could be:

About evangelism: "I'll help pay the salary for a Minister of Outreach"
"That's what the pastor gets paid for."
"I'm not gifted in that area"
About missions: "I'll support our church's missionaries."
"I'll go do support work so that the missionaries can do the work they were called to."
" I can support a national for much less than it would cost to keep me on the
field, and he can do the job so much more efficiently."
"I'm a farmer--I can teach them to support themselves by farming."
About personal growth: "I am what I am--it's in my genes--there has been much improvement,
but I can't see where I can change who I am."

While many of these statements are true, they fail to take into consideration one factor: What is God's BEST for me? They also fail to take into consideration who it is that will effect the change in our lives and in the lives of those whom we touch. Our job is not so much to DO what God wants us to DO, as it is to BE who He wants us to be--the doing will be the result.

If you feel like I'm preaching at you, be aware that I'm really preaching at myself. It is impossible for me to recount the number of times I have chosen the BETTER and missed out on the BEST.

So as I go along I will try to remind myself of the importance of weighing the possibilities and choosing the BEST God has for me.