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Leviticus 19:18 Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.
Who is your neighbour? That is the first thing we ask when we read s verse like this, and, depending where you are in your relationship with God, your answer will differ...
God does not want to set limits for our relationships, not with Him or with anybody else. The Jews were taught how to refocus on God by keeping to themselves.
Only then did they get sent out by Jesus to tell the rest of the world about God and Jesus.
Love your neighbours by first making sure you love your God and yourself!
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- Written by: DJ Dave
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Luke 5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
What do you do when you want to pray? Where do you go to pray?
These are often questions we think of and don’t know how to answer because we are taught, as Christians, to lift up our prayers to God no matter where and when we are.
Whilst this is true, sitting and waiting on God to answer prayers is better done when we do not have the mad distractions of the world taking us away from God’s Word.
Take time out just as Jesus did to be with God your Father.
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Luke 5:11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
You may be surprised to find God calling you to do something different just when things are going right and everything seems to be falling into place...
God calls you where you are needed and not where you think you are doing the right stuff.
God wants us to listen to Him and to obey Him so we can be used to the best of our abilities where we are needed most of all.
The world around us is constantly changing and we don’t always see the need from where we are sitting!
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Luke 5:5 Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’
How far are you willing to go when God asks you to do something? Are you willing to try something you have failed at time and time again just because God asks you?
Sometimes the trials are part of our growth and part of our learning because God wants us to do the right thing at the right time.
Obeying God every time He asks us to do something is the way our faith and strength grows.
Pray and Obey.
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Matthew 22:40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
I love the way Jesus drills home just how important it is to love God and to love your neighbours stating every other commandment hangs on these two.
The more you are able to love God and to love your neighbours, the more you will be able to keep the other commandments.
The more you are able to keep the other commandments, the easier you will find it to love God and love others.
This is why Jesus came to show us how important love is – because everything hangs on that love!
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Matthew 22:39 And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
When we get our head round how much we need to love God in our lives, this commandment should come easy!
We need to share this love we have with God with the people around us. Not just to say we love our neighbours, to give to foodbanks or to go to church, but to really care for them!
Our neighbours may well be the people over the road who don’t live like we do, who struggle with addictions or alcohol. Our neighbours are the people God loves, not the ones we choose to love.
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Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
When the Sadducees tried to trip Jesus up in the words of the law, they did not expect the answer He gave them – and answer we still need to live up to!
Our first commandment should be to love the Lord our God with everything we have, every part of our being and without limit.
This way we get to have a much closer relationship with Him than we could through ‘being a good Christian!’
God wants us to love Him, because He loved us first!
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Ephesian 6:11 Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
How often do you want extra protection so you can do something dangerous or difficult? Would you like to have some serious heat protection so you can see inside a great fire?
When we think of protection we normally think of physical protection and here we are given words to apply physical protection so we can stand up against the devil; because it allows us to realise we do need protection!
When we do things for God, we need spiritual protection against the things the evil one is going to throw in our paths just because he does not want us to succeed.
Fully Rely On God.
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Romans 15:1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.
Throughout His last days on earth, Jesus remained strong and continued forward with His task in hand. Without Him we would be lost in our sins with not a lot of hope!
Jesus was made strong through the power of God and through that strength was able to bare the weight of our sins on His shoulders.
Sometimes we may well be a little stronger than our neighbours and we should step forward and make sure we can help, following on in the steps of our Saviour Jesus Christ!
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Hebrews 12:3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
We really are not alone when we face opposition! God is with us!
Just because we cannot see Him there standing next to us, does not mean He is not there. He may well be standing in front of you deflecting the fiery darts being shot at you!
Always involve God with your decisions. Always involve God in your life. Always assume God is with you. Always listen for His instructions!
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Matthew 27:30 They spat on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.
Jesus did not simply accept all the mocking, spitting and beating because it was the Christian thing to do...
Christ allowed all of this to happen to Him because He wanted you to know how much He loves you and how it is unconditional!
God knows what we go through, and He does care for us – even when we think He is not watching and doesn’t care.
Don’t just put up with things because you think you should. Do it for a valid cause and know God is with you!
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- Written by: DJ Dave
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John 13:5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him.
What would you do if your boss came to your house and wanted to wash your feet? Pretty crazy!
This was a statement from Christ to show us He was willing to be a servant to us all; someone who was willing to put aside everything to show His love!
We don’t have to rush off and find someone who has dirty feet to wash, but we must be willing to do what it takes to show the love of Christ to the people in our life... even the most annoying people... even those ones who mock and ridicule us...
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- Written by: DJ Dave
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Matthew 21:21 Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig-tree, but also you can say to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and it will be done.
We have many examples of Jesus saying something and it happens; miracles happening just because Jesus spoke the words...
We need to have the faith Jesus showed in God the Father; absolute, unending, unerring faith!
When we can believe with that much faith, Jesus says we can do amazing things, just as He did.
It is hard to have faith like that without seeing something first – because we are weak and don’t want to believe something just because it is written down...
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- Written by: DJ Dave
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1 Timothy 5:5 The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
So many times in our lives we take things for granted and go about our lives as if we had no cares in the world!
We need to take notice of those who are desperately in need and see how much they have to depend on God for... that is the amount we should be depending on God as well!
Don’t wait for you world to fall apart before you start really depending on God – depend on Him now and allow Him to guide you every day!
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- Written by: DJ Dave
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1 Samuel 16:4 Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, ‘Do you come in peace?’
What do you think about when a vicar or pastor comes to your home? Do you get worried about what they have to say?
If we are getting worried about things then we have things to hide and we need to do something about that.
When we are worried about things, we need to open up to God about it and allow Him to guide us in either resolving the issue or putting it behind us.
Sometimes that may mean someone else doing the helping. It’s good to talk
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- Written by: DJ Dave
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Isaiah 45:17 But Israel will be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation; you will never be put to shame or disgraced, to ages everlasting.
So many times, we read in the bible how God has promised to look out for the Jews. No matter what they get up to, not matter what goes wrong, if they are willing to come back to Him, He will forgive them!
Jesus extended that promise to us – whomever calls on His name will be saved!
We just have to call on the name of Jesus to get Him to deliver our promise to us – a ‘forever promise!'
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- Written by: DJ Dave
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Nehemiah 1:11 Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favour in the presence of this man.
As we think about how we should know God is speaking to us, let us never forget we are the ones who must be willing to listen!
As long as we want something from God, we must be ready to listen for His instructions and be ready for them no matter what he asks of us!
It may sound easy to say, but when push comes to shove, God may ask you to do something outside of your comfort zone, something He knows is needed and you can do!
Listen to God and learn!
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- Written by: DJ Dave
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Deuteronomy 18:21 You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?’
This is one of the questions I come across most in discussions with people who are trying to find some sort of order or meaning in their lives…
We all like to have someone in our lives who is able to tell us what should or should not happen – because it makes our lives easier; we don’t have to make the difficult decisions!
God has already put the right people into our lives who have answers to our questions, but so many times we choose to continue ignoring those people and those directions.
Stop and listen to God!
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- Written by: DJ Dave
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1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us.
Have you ever tried to pin down where love came into your own life? The answer to everyone’s love can be traced back to the originator of love – God!
We have learned how to corrupt love, how to abuse it, how to take it for granted and even how to fear it… all because we have left God out of the equation!
The more we focus on keeping God in our lives, the more we are able to focus on love in our lives and the greater chance we have of succeeding with love.
Leave behind the worldly definition of relationships and focus on the love God had before we knew Him; bring that to the front of your life!
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- Written by: DJ Dave
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Matthew 16:16 Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’
When someone asks you about Jesus, how do you try to describe Him?
Do you say He was a prophet who taught us the ways of God? Do you say He was a messenger from God? Or do you admit He is the Son of God?
We need to admit Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, God incarnate who came to live amongst mankind as a human being!
Jesus wants the truth to be told by us – not some watered down story, but the real gospel story!