Love 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.

Continue reading →

Love First

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

February is always a fun season. You get to see all sorts of pink Valentines stuff that no one really needs, unless it’s the heart shaped Reese’s candy. It’s a season of love, the end of the winter season is around the corner and we remember being in class and getting those great little paper notes. Love is so much more than this, it can often just be seen as the romantic, but the reality is that love is so much more than feelings toward another person, it is an action and one that should be our first choice.

I’m struck by how little love there is around us.

Continue reading →

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.  

Continue reading →

Love Your Neighbor

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

“I can’t breathe”

These were the words that came from a man who moments later was murdered. A black man. Another black man. I’m heartbroken to continually see black men and women murdered and abused simply because of their skin. I’m heartbroken to see the lack of response to clear and conscious acts of racism in our country. It seems like we have more outrage of wearing a mask than protecting the lives of the people around us, who are clearly being oppressed.

This must stop.

When is enough, enough?

At what point will we see this as a systemic issue that needs to be addressed?

Stop ignoring and choosing not to hear these stories; speak out, stand up.

Continue reading →