I've been thinking lately about God's greatest commandment to us as believers. The Bible says we are to "love the Lord our God with all of our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength." For this is the most important. As an outpouring of our love for God, we are also called to "love our neighbor's as ourself." This is the second greatest commandment. I witnessed this first hand last week while on a mission trip in West Virginia.
I had the privalege of joining a youth group on a mission trip last week as we ministered to people in WV through backyard Bible clubs, and youth revival services. I was the worship leader, and had an incredible band playing with me! We had the best time. Throughout the week, stories after stories came from the kids about how they were seeing God move in the lives of the kids they were ministering to at the backyard Bible clubs. One story in particular involved my friend David, who was my bass player for the week. His Bible club was in a low-income area of houses, right on the river. It was a beautiful area to have a club, and kids were so excited about having club in their neighborhood. One morning, David and a few others were rounding kids up for the Bible club and walking them to the site. They approached one home, and there were 6 boys in the trailer, and neither parent could be found. All of the boys wanted to come to the club, but the youngest said he couldn't go because he didn't have a shirt to wear.
You can imagine how broken your heart would have been if you were in that situation. What do you do? Surely you couldn't leave him behind while his brothers go and have fun.
So, David calmly took the shirt off of his own back, and gave it to the little boy. The boy's face lit up knowing that he could now go and have fun with his brothers! David, thinking nothing of himself, was a living testimony of our greatest commandment. He knew that he must meet the need of this little boy before he could share the gospel with him! Of course David had another shirt to wear. But because he gave up himself, that boy was able to experience Jesus. I thought it was a wonderful story of how we are to love God, and love our neighbors!
Look for ways to meet the needs of those around you, and look for ways to love them like God would love them. We are examples of Christ, and may be the only Jesus some people will ever see! Heart, soul, mind, and strength....and love your neighbors as yourself! This is the greatest commandment.
Love is beautiful,
Brad
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- A Snap Shot of Brad...
- Athens, GA
- I have been leading worship for 10 years. I travel across the southeast with my band and we lead students in worship. Some of my best friends in the world are in my band, and we have the opportunity to impact students and point them to the one who can change their lives!
The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both. -- James Michener
1 comment:
I go to that church & youth group (ABC), and when they returned from the mission trip they told that story. I really do wish that people would demostrate a Christlike character like that not just on mission trips, but in everyday life. Imagine how many lives we could touch just by showing others Christ through our everyday actions! :)
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