Good Evening, Family!🛣
This week, we praise God for:
💟 we are all grateful for Seth and his willingness to say YES to the Lord! We are all so proud of him for the FANTASTIC JOB he did with the welcome! May God keep using Seth for his honor and glory!
💟 Doris praises Good for the health of her dear friend and his family. They have been cleared of Covid!
💟 María thanks Good for keeping Jordan safe while he's away from home, and asks that we keep him in prayer always!
We are also praying for:
🛐 Our brother, John Vega, whose surgery went well, but is awaiting serious test results. Let’s continue to pray for a full and swift recovery!
🛐 Diana, Leiana’s mother, as she grieves this unimaginable loss. Pray for all those who loved and knew Leiana, and will feel her loss in their lives.
🛐 Bianca, Vishal and Sebastian Suri. May the Lord shower their beautiful family with blessings from above.
🛐 Our sister, Evelyn, as continues to recover from her surgery. May she experience less pain with each passing day towards a full recovery.
🛐 Karina asked for protectiin and guidance as Perth Amboy returns to in-person teaching following spring break.
🛐 Micharen's grandmother, who has but been feeling well and the drs are unable to pinpoint the problem. May the Lord intervene on her behalf.
🛐 Robert Cartagena, the elderly dad of one of Carole's friends, as her is hospitalized with Covid.
🛐 Maria, who has been suffering from Tinnitus in her ear. She’s asking for prayer as she is going to see a specialist. Let’s ask for wisdom and for the doctor to offer her much-needed relief and healing.
🛐 Angelica, as she had been given new and exciting opportunities at work.
🛐Pat's dearest friend, Maria, as she is struggling with her health and things are not looking good for her. UPDATE : MARÍA IS AWAKE AND ALERT!!! PRAISE GOD!
🛐 Doris, and her daughters, Jackie, Amanda and their children, Skylar, Heaven Lee, Dorian, Zaire and Amir. May God keep working miracles in their lives.
✝️ Angélica's boyfriend, Michael, as he is going through a dark period in his life.
🛐 Seth...that God would continue to shower him with His goodness, grace and love. May God work out the NEXT MIRACLE in his life! May He also work out the issue with the needed MRI.
🛐 Anna Ortiz. Kristina provided us with this update: They found another lump behind her neck and she's now receiving treatment for that as well. Despite it all she's in good spirits and thankful for the prayers.
Luke 10:25-37
The Message
Defining “Neighbor”
25 Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”
26 He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”
27 He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”
28 “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”
29 Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”
30-32 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
33-35 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’
36 “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”
37 “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
For those who don't know, this is a parable Jesus told himself. It was in response to a question posed by a Bible time "smart-alec" who didn't want to think of CERTAIN PEOPLE as his neighbor. Perhaps he wanted Jesus to tell him with extreme specificity what exactly made someone his neighbor...if the person lived within a certain radius of his own house, went to the same temple, or shopped at the same Shop Rite of their day.
Jesus wasn't having it. He told a story that put the religious people and their hypocrisy on BLAST. More importantly, he told a story that painted their natural enemy as the HERO of the story.
Just so you understand how incendiary this was on Jesus' part...(And it was not mistakenly)
It would be like telling a hunch of Democrats that A REPUBLICAN was the HERO.
Or like telling a bunch of Trump supporters that BIDEN was the HERO.
Which is why this knucklehead tried to find a way to turn this around on (if you can believe it)...The Teacher. It kinda makes you scratch your head, doesn't it?
But nothing got (or gets) past Jesus. His response would be the same today, brothers and sisters.
“What do you think? Which of them became a neighbor to the unearned man whose neck was pinned by a knee for NINE minutes?”
..."To the man shot dead instead of tazed?"
..."To the woman who was shot dead in her very own home?"
..."To the man who was chased in the streets where he JOGGED and shot dead for no other reason than the color of his skin?"
The wise guy who asked Jesus the question wasn't the only one to roll his eyes or purse his lips or suck his teeth. He was just the only one who dared to speak up. I'm not naive enough to think these questions wouldn't get under someone's skin. That's okay.
It's just not okay to keep on pretending that Jesus isn't asking these questions. That he isn't hurt, heartbroken or disappointed by this current class of religious people trying to finagle their way out of being a neighbor to any of those victims...or anyone else who is suffering.
What's that?
It's too late, you say?
Not as long as you're breathing. Be moved to compassion. Be moved to action of some kind. Be moved to comfort those left behind. To teach those impacted, affected and those who can learn the hard lessons and avoid similiar fates.
Go and BE a neighbor instead of trying to figure out who QUALIFIES as your neighbor.
"Go and do the same," Jesus said.
GO MEANS MOVE...I heard it said in a Bible Study this week.
Go. Move. Be a neighbor.
Food for thought. Lord please help me move 🙏🏽