"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

Who are our friends??

And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?" And he answered, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."…          (Luke 10:25-27)

Who is your neighbor??

The story Jesus told of the Good Samaritan shows to love our neighbor, who can be anyone we may cross paths with, whether we consider them a neighbor or not, or whether we would consider them a friend or not.

Jesus gave His life for us on that hill at Calvary.  And yes, there is no greater love.

By looking at that verse first quoted above, about "greater love ..." from the Gospel of John 15:13, would we then say, if that is the greatest love, then what would be the greatest hate??

Would that be taking another's life??

Conversations of this nature may make you feel uncomfortable. You may feel even a bit more than uncomfortable ...would it be accurate to say, very uncomfortable?? Take a few deep breaths, and let it sink in. Are your defenses flaring up ...are you about ready to start criticizing, or perhaps poised to hurl insults?? "What do you know about love ...after all, you're nothing but an ignorant pirate!"

The fact that any of us are here ...tells me that someone cared enough, and more than enough.  More than just a little care is needed to keep a baby alive, and crawling to walking takes a long time coming.  Several months pass for each of us, before we can even do minimally for ourselves.

And that's not just a little care ...it is way more than that, and most of us would call it love.

How can we just erase that fact from our minds??

I don't believe we can.

To not acknowledge this takes quite an effort ...an effort of grand denial and deception on a grand scale.

And how can there be religions on his earth that greatly deny this fact, or work tirelessly against it??

All that early on effort it took to just keep us alive, you'd think would impress upon us the value of our life, from the very beginning ...so, at what point, and why would we think that would ever possibly change??

It absolutely doesn't.

The opposite of life is death.  It would seem the opposite of giving your life for another ...would be taking a life, one that God had brought into this world through the miracle of birth.  If sin can be measured, and it can't, but if it would be acceptable to ...and it's not, but most of us probably feel the worst is killing another person.

So, if we feel we've committed one of the worst sins ...in killing another person, then do we feel the only way to gain God's approval is to commit yet again the worst of sins??

Doesn't that seem insane??

We don't have an insane God, so that would make us a bit insane, wouldn't it??

If my Dad built a beautiful house for Mom and us kids, and during an insane moment of uncontrollable emotion, that I would perchance destroy his favorite room, the living room ...would he withhold judgment, waiting for me to destroy his and Mom's bedroom, then smile and say he is now happy because I made up for destroying his living room???

If Dad just bought a fancy sports car, and I took a sledgehammer to it ...would he then buy another brand new car, and hand me the hammer, wanting me to do the same to the shiny new car?? 

Jesus said, "He who is without sin, cast the first stone."  No one did, and no one should.  None of us are without sin.

So, what is the opposite of love??

Worse than feeling hate, is teaching hate.

Spreading hate, organizing hate ...it has happened throughout history, and it is happening now.

And the worst of it, is not just taking a life ...as terrible as that is.  The worst is telling someone their life is saved, their eternal life, through the horrific deception of leading them to believe God is pleased with that which is totally in opposition of what God wants for us.

God would that none would perish ...that we would all desire eternal life with Him.  Yet, at what point do we realize that there are those who claim to direct us towards Him, when they are in truth pointing us in the exact opposite direction??

And why are people deceived so easily??

Part of it is because we know we are not doing as we should, and instead of coming to Jesus for reconciliation, we seek additional ways to return to God's graces. 

No, we don't have to turn away from Jesus in our mind for trouble to begin.  We may feel we are even actually getting closer to God, by many external factors of what we may feel are the equivalent of graduate work for a college student.  But, the degree we obtain may be a slight degree of distraction in the form of an added attraction.

We may feel better about ourselves, and that is what we'd all like for each other ...but, it must be for the right reasons.  Our acceptance, inclusive of our perceived spiritual health ...must grow out of the Holy Spirit's work, not ours.

Of course, our good works ...whether Good Samaritan deeds, or of some other form, should be a result of God's growth inside us. Often we are led to do things because of us, not the Holy Spirit. And yes, there are some decent things we do, even if we admit our motives may be a bit selfish.  That's not all ...there can be even great unselfish acts performed by those who proclaim not to even believe in God.  But, sadly, they would not be able to share with you how Jesus unselfishly died for us on the cross.

It seems that often we have more confusion than help eager to lend a hand.  And there is a very scary condition that exists surrounding the very truth we need to accept.  We don't always get it right, discerning when the Holy Spirit is speaking to us. There are also many deceptive assertions that stand contrary to the Bible.

God gives us the Bible, the story, His story ...of Him leading His people.  God wants us to be clear about who He is, certain of His intentions for us, and informed of what we need to know to follow Him.

Last week one of the multi-state lottery games reached 1.5 billion dollars.  I've never played any of those gambling games, so my chances of winning is zero ...but, for those of you who had hopes of winning, if you had won, you'd likely reread the directions on how to go about collecting the money. Or you'd make a phone call or two to make sure things were done right, so you wouldn't lose out.

Well, the stakes are even higher for eternal life ...yet, the good news is that we can all be winners, and we all can have the grand prize.  And even better, the government can't take any of it from us.