Musing – Who is My Neighbor?

 

Hebraic Musing – Who is My Neighbor?

When God gave us the command to love our neighbor, which definition was He using?  According to Webster
   (1) one living or located near another;       (2)  FELLOW MAN (per Matt.19:19 KJV)
So even the dictionary recognizes that a neighbor is more than “the guy next door.”  Our neighbor is “Fellow Man” or a fellow being!  That’s a much more encompassing definition.

In the OT, respect for our neighbor is stressed in two well-known commandments.   “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.  You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor's house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Deut.5:20-21 NIV   

And Leviticus 19:18 warns us “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” 

And Proverbs 14:21 tells us “He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who is kind to the needy.” 

BTW How we treat our neighbor must be important to God since he references or relationship to our neighbor(s) over 100 times; and most of those relationship mentions are in the OT!

In the NT, Jesus had to remind a “teacher of the law” that the most important command, is the “Sh’ma” from Dt.6:4  which is recited at least daily.  “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mk 12:29-30  But Jesus continued with a statement summarizing the second half of the “Ten Commandments”   “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no commandment greater than these.”  That raises a challenging question – How much do we love ourselves?

Upon hearing this, the “teacher of the law” summarized Jesus’ words -“To love him (God) with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  Mk.12:33   He recognized the importance of loving your neighbor! 

And the authors of the epistles also understood.  Here’s just a sampling:

·      Romans 15:1-2 “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.  Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”

·      Galatians 5:13-14  “…serve one another in love.  The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

·      Ephesians 4:25  “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.”

·      James 1:8  “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”  you are doing right.”

Have we answered these two questions?   Who is my neighbor?  How much does God love my neighbor?

Points to ponder

When you pray for names on your prayer list, are you loving your neighbor?

Where do your neighbors live?

Are we to treat our family as we do our neighbors?   
and/or     Are we to love our neighbors as we do our family?

♫ Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world. Red & yellow, black (brown*) & white,
            They are precious in his sight. Jesus cares for all the children of the world. ♫

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                      July 27, 2021
Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith”
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”  Weekly “Hebraic Musings”   insightsbyyosef.blogspot.com/

*   Our Filipino fellowship always added “brown” to the lyrics.

Greek Insight* - GODLY SHARING (Acts 4:32-35)

 

Greek Insight* - GODLY SHARING  (Acts 4:32-35)

In Acts 4:32-35 we read “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.  There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” NIV

Acts 2 tells of the Spirit-filled church. Its marks are three: signs and wonders; evangelical outreach; and sharing all things (not only sharing possessions, but also sharing teaching, food, and prayer). These same marks appear in this passage and also in Acts 5:12-16.  Thus, we are not looking at just any church, but at a church that is filled by and responsive to the Holy Spirit of God.

Note the underlined sentence in the passage. Now read the passage without including that underlined sentence.  It seems to flow better, doesn’t it?  It almost seems as if that underlined sentence doesn’t belong there.

Well, it does belong there, and the connection is the Holy Spirit.  That sentence reveals the result of a congregation under the power and trust of the Holy Spirit.  With the Spirit there is the experiencing of powerful evangelism, the experiencing of grace, and the presence of signs and wonders (miracles).  There was also the experience of a potent loving community, a place where one belonged, a place where defensiveness and posturing would be out of place, a place where Jesus was Lord not only in their words but also in their deeds; not only in their heads but in their hearts.  W C Kaiser comments on the generosity that springs from such congregations saying “They achieved Deuteronomy 15:4-5a. (^…there should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, ^if only you fully obey the Lord your God…)  To hear of a need was to search one’s heart to see if one could meet the need.  The Spirit had removed their possessiveness and joined them in heart to their poorer fellow Christians.”

That underlined sentence also implies the congregational situation when the Holy Spirit is ignored.  Without the Spirit there is tepid evangelism at best, little if any experience of God’s grace, and the absence of signs and wonders.  There may be pockets of loving community in the congregation, but there is also stress, discomfort and dismissiveness in many of the congregational relationships.

There is also in this passage a very important distinguishing of the God-ordained means of sharing (i.e. the Spirit-led means) vs. those alien means devised by man.  The key here is that there is sharing by individual volition, individual by individual.  The only superior authority in the process is the Holy Spirit Himself, under whom each individual lives.  Thus, all shared gifts are shared with delight that the sharing is possible.  And 100% of what’s shared goes to the need.

Governmental mandates and ideologies, on the other hand, lack individual volition.  When you’re told to “share” and forced to do so you are not experiencing the will of God’s Spirit—you are experiencing socialism or communism.  Many would say that such mandates are necessary—otherwise those in need would have nothing!  I would say that that’s because humanity refuses to submit to God, to be saved by His Son and to be guided by His Spirit.  Kaiser writes that the principle of Spirit-guided sharing is “that there might be equality.”  The key here is to recognize that the criteria of equality are not how men might structure them (i.e. same income, same medical coverage, same education, same housing, etc.) but how the Spirit of God sees fit to allocate that which is shared.

Blessings, Kurt*

Points to ponder

Is Our Church or Your Church experiencing
Powerful Evangelism?      Spirit-Guided Sharing/Grace?       Signs & Wonders (miracles)?

Does the Holy Spirit or the Government do the best job of determining needs?

♫ Spirit of the Living God, … Fall afresh on me…. Melt me, …Mold me,… Fill me, … Use me,
                        Spirit of the Living God, …Fall afresh on me. ♫ 

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                          July 20, 2021
Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith”
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”  Weekly “Hebraic Musings”   insightsbyyosef.blogspot.com/

*  From my Brother in the Lord, Kurt Johnson, who publishes Greek Insights weekly; Available on request.

Musing – What Do I See On My Daily Walk?

 Hebraic Musing – What Do I See On My Daily Walk?

My daily walk could be boring, except that I start wondering “Who created all this stuff?”  I see trees, roadways, cars, houses, appliances, boats, etc. etc.   Somebody made or created all that stuff!  In my life I have created things, books, relationships, etc. etc.  Where did I, or any of us, get that creative ability?

If I go way back to Genesis 1:26-27 we see that God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule …  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;…” NIV   And God had just told us how He created the heavens, earth, light, sky, water, land, vegetation, constellations, animals and then God created man in His own image! 

So if God created everything and created man “in His own image,” is it logical that we were given some creative abilities?  And the creations that man has come up with are amazing when you look at all the things our eyes behold!  BUT all that stuff is nowhere near as amazing as the world that Our Creator God set up and put into motion some 6,000 years ago.

The concept of us being created in the “image of God” explains another powerful gift or ability we’ve been given!  Fortunately or unfortunately we are like God, our creator, in that we have the power to choose!*   So God has also given us the power to choose.  As a result, mankind has created things that are helpful and useful to themselves and/or each other.  But man has also used his creative juices to wreak havoc on people, places and things. 

I sometimes wonder why God created us knowing that we would partake of fruit from the “…tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”?  Gen. 2:9   As a result, “…every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Gen 6:5  Unfortunately, that is what ultimately became of man, God’s treasured creation?  

Key question – Why would God create man capable of choosing good or evil on a daily basis?  I think the answer is in the simple story of Pinocchio that has preached to me over the years.  Pinocchio’s creator was his father Geppetto who created a puppet called Pinocchio and he could make his puppet do anything he wanted it to do.  BUT Geppetto was not satisfied with an inanimate puppet; he wanted a boy.  WHY?  – Geppetto wanted Pinocchio to be a boy whom he could love.  And more important, Geppetto wanted a son capable of choosing to love him!  Thus the boy Pinocchio was the fulfilment of his father’s desire.  So Pinocchio had to be given the power to choose!

When I started in first grade our first lesson in the Catechism started with three questions and these were the answers that I never forgot:

1.      Who made me?                       A – God made me.

2.      Who is God?                           A – God is a supreme being, creator of all things.

3.      Why did God make me?         A – To love and serve Him and give Him glory forever.

Maybe this is why my all-time favorite Bible verse is Joshua 24:15 – “…then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…”

Points to ponder

How many times a day do we exercise our power to choose?

What’s the most important choice you made in life?

♫ I have decided to follow Jesus; No turning back, no turning back. ♫ 

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                          July 13, 2021
Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith”
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”  Weekly “Hebraic Musings”   insightsbyyosef.blogspot.com/

*  J. Martin Hohe’s “Your Greatest Power,” influenced me years before I chose Christ!

Musing – This is the Day that the Lord has Made…

 

Hebraic Musing – This is the Day that the Lord has Made…

As the Israelites were told to look at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal (representing blessings and curses) the LORD told Moses to tell them – “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—  the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today;  the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.”  Deuteronomy 11:26–28  NIV  

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, an Hasidic master, once said, “In this world, a person has only the very day and very moment in which he finds himself. Tomorrow is a completely different world.”  We’ve heard about the importance of living in the present, but Rabbi Nachman seems to elevate this idea to another level.  Today isn’t just important; it’s a world unto itself.  Tomorrow, it will be gone, and another one will take its place.

The Jewish sages talk about this idea in terms of “sparks.” They explain that each day has its own “spark” – its own opportunities and challenges; its own potential for greatness and also for failure; the possibility for new blessings and also, heaven forbid, for curses.  Once the day is done, that spark is gone forever, and with it, all the options that were open to us just that very morning.  With this understanding, we can have a new appreciation for the opening verses of Deut.11:26 – “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse….”

According to Jewish tradition, every word of the Torah bears unfathomable significance.  Not one word or letter is extra.  In these verses, the word “today” could have easily been omitted without changing the general meaning of the verse.  Yet, the word is used, not once, but three times.  The word “today” beckons us to look a bit closer.

It’s not just that we have a choice in life whether or not to follow God and bring blessings or curses into our lives; it’s that we have the opportunity and duty to do so every single day.  It doesn’t matter how righteous we were yesterday; we need to choose God all over again today.  In the same way, it doesn’t matter how miserably we failed yesterday; it is a new day, and we can choose God today.

At the funeral of a great rabbi, his son remarked that his father had “length of days.  ” Someone remarked, “How can you say such a thing?  Your father only lived 66 years?”  The son replied, “Length of years he did not have, but he did have length of days.”  The son’s father had made every day count by choosing God every day of his life.

Friends, choose God today and every day.  ♫  He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me…♫

Have a good day.

Points to ponder

♫ Every day with Jesus  Is sweeter than the day before
Every day with Jesus I love Him more and more. ♫ 

 “…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,…
But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”  Josh.24:15

Why is daily prayer important?

Let’s make every day count! 

♫ This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. ♫   Psalms 118:24

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                      July 6, 2021
Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith”
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”  Weekly “Hebraic Musings”   insightsbyyosef.blogspot.com/

Note - Inspired by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein “This Is the Day”   September 1, 2016