Community Harvest Church: Love for all 24/7 (We’re not just for Sunday’s)
We believe that its God’s will for Christians to always love everyone no matter who they are, what they’ve done or where they’re coming from, and we should show them love even when it’s inconvenient to us. We’re to love everyone 24/7 and not just on Sundays.
Jesus taught this radical principle of love when He was on earth. In Luke 10, Jesus affirms the greatest of God’s commandments, “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.” In Luke 10:29 we find a religious leader of Israel, a lawyer who wanted to make God’s Law fit his own life, testing Jesus about who he should love. Wanting to limit his love to the people he liked and to when it fit his own schedule he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus answered him by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. Samaritans were descended from Jewish people who had married non-Jewish people. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time despised and rejected them. They wouldn’t talk to Samaritans or enter a Samaritan’s house; they wouldn’t give them the time of day. The religious leaders considered the Samaritans as outcasts that were unrighteous and cursed by God. Jesus, wanting to show the religious lawyer how far he was from God, told the story of a Samaritan who actually fulfilled God’s law of loving his neighbor by caring for a poor man that was beaten by robbers and left for dead. Importantly, Jesus showed the lawyer that his neighbor was anyone who was in need of care. The lawyer was forced to admit that to be a good neighbor he had to show mercy to anyone in need (Luke 10:37). Jesus told him to go and do the same thing the Samaritan did – show mercy to those needed it.
This principle is taught throughout the Bible – not just in the Old Testament Law. Paul wrote in Galatians 6:9-10, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” God is telling us through Paul that whenever we have an opportunity, 24/7 and not just Sundays, we are to do good to all people, and all means everyone.
We desire to create a culture of “Love 24/7” at Community Harvest Church by meeting physical needs of people in our community. We want our neighbors to know that we genuinely love them because God loves them and that they matter to God and to us. We want them to know that the love we have for them doesn’t come from within ourselves – we cannot obey God’s command to love in our own strength – but it comes from God Himself as He ministers through us. We hope that the love of God that we demonstrate will glorify God, magnify Jesus and be used by the Holy Spirit to prove the truth of the gospel we preach so that people will come to have a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Will we be perfect in showing God’s love on earth? No, but we trust God to work through imperfect people and an imperfect church to draw people to Himself. But make no mistake, the imperfect people who know God personally will be made perfect in love when we see Jesus face-to-face. Until then, we will “drop the ball” from time to time. If you desire to be part of a Christian community that seeks to love our neighbors as ourselves – if you desire to help us love 24/7 – then we invite you to join us on this great adventure. You can help us pick up the dropped balls!
RECENT NEWS STORIES
http://journalstar.com/articles/2007/08/08/living/religion/doc46a1197badc6b526008125.txt
http://www.kolnkgin.com/home/headlines/8501677.html |
