New Neighbors Have Moved In...

On Thursday I will be giving a message in class, and it's a message that God has really laid on my heart this year, even though we're just two months in :)

It's this idea of loving our neighbor - and I'm going to be referencing the story of the Good Samaritan in my message. I did a research paper on the parable of the Good Samaritan last semester and after I finished that paper I now have a greater understanding of what God was trying to say to his audience with this parable.

Skip forward to the present time now and here I am sitting at Kava House prepping for this message that is two days away.

I'm sitting here thinking about the word love and the word neighbor and what Jesus meant when He says we are to love our neighbor.
Questions immediately fill my mind...
Do we love our neighbors?
Who is our neighbor?

As I keep on meditating over the passage and trying to understand what Jesus was trying to say to that culture I come to the conclusion that
A Neighbor Is Anyone Who Is In Need.

So now that I have this new understanding of who my neighbor really is it starts to sink in that when Jesus says we are to "love our neighbor as ourself"(Matt. 19:19, 22:39; Mark 12:31,33)
We are called to help everyone who is in need!
Jesus isn't calling us to just love those who think, look and believe like us.
He is calling us to love everyone.
Like the Samaritan did.

So now more questions arise...
are we going to love with no boundaries, like the Samaritan?
Or are we going to try to make excuses and try to justify ourselves and not love those who are in need?