For your Neighbor

who is my neighbor?

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

“But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?”

Luke 10:29 CSB

I really love moments like this in Scripture, because it shows the nature of what sin can do to us. This person asking the question of “who is my neighbor” to Jesus, is an expert of the law, a person who knew the old testament deeply. This question comes after the expert is trying to trip Jesus up and asking what the way to eternal life can be found, to which Jesus replies that we are to love God with everything, and love our neighbor (my paraphrase of Luke 10:25-29).

Then the expert follows it up with a question that I used to judge, but I now realize is something that we all do, who exactly is my neighbor? And he asks this because we don’t want to love every person around us, and that’s exactly the call of who Jesus tells us to love.

We are called to love everyone, no matter what.

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Who is My Neighbor?

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

Well, it’s been a bit of a challenging past two weeks. We’ve seen a lot of great first steps towards justice and choosing to recognize that there is still a deep problem in the world.

How is it hard to choose to support and lift up the voices who are unheard? For my fellow believers, how are we not at the forefront of loving others?

We must all continue to look at ourselves and see how we can be a positive voice for the unheard. What I have seen is what happens time and time again; we are choosing to look for other narratives because the current makes us uncomfortable. It’s easier to look at a small issue, rather than address the hundreds of years’ worth of hate and prejudice.  

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Empowering Someone Else’s Dream

/ Joshua Thomas / 3 Comments

One of the most impactful things that has happened in my life, was when my middle school youth pastor, Marshall, brought me into his office and told me I was a unique kid that was going to do great things. After that he brought me with him to a low-income school on the south side of Greensboro. The school was filled with kids who came from broken homes, newly immigrated to America, and were in a rough side of town. We set up a mini carnival for them, playing games and handing out candy. The smiles from the kids gave me a hope for the future. I was an awkward middle schooler who loved comic books and had anger issues. I was given a chance to reach out to young kids who needed help, they needed the love of Christ. I was able to give that to them in the form of fun childish games. I felt like I wasn’t going to amount to anything, but Marshall empowered my dream to be a hero to others like I read in those comic books. Marshall spoke life into me.

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Disciples of all Nations

/ Joshua Thomas / 1 Comment

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19-20

One of my favorite things at my home church is when we get to have baptism Sunday. Baptism is a public declaration of the choice to follow Christ in your life. It’s an incredible picture of our walk with Christ, dying to self and laying down your life for a bigger purpose. I absolutely love the Sunday’s where this happens, because you get to hear the stories from the lives of people all around us in the church. This last week where we had baptism was one of the best days, because I was given the opportunity to baptize my little brother. Now he isn’t my brother by blood, but the brother of one of my best friends. I’ve known since he was in third grade, and in the past year have been able to hang out and mentor Jack. Then a few weeks ago he asked me if I would baptize him, he told me that he a had made a commitment to Christ, but it was time to make it known. That’s the cool thing about baptism, it shows that we aren’t turning back. Even when life gets hard, we have this moment in time where we make it public with our intentions, and we have fellow believers help us in the hard times.

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