Love your enemies

It's Friday!! Yeaa! How was your week? Was God good? Of course He was, but did we listen?

I was out of town Saturday, but the work of God never stops, so things were going on as usual. Basketball practice, bread wrapping, garden work, construction work, youth activities, visits to our friends homes, all continue through the hearts and dreams of all of you.

We continue to work in and around the center to get it back in shape. Things are looking better but still a long way to go. If you are looking for something to do, we could always use your help. Come by in the afternoons and find Joey to see what work needs to be done.

Tuesday evening, Rickie led our men's Bible fellowship reading from Luke 6 starting in verse 27, love your enemies. Ouch, sounds good but hard to do. How can we love someone who does us wrong?! Not natural, not possible? Only through the Holy Spirit working in us, will things happen.

Also on Tuesday evenings, you will find Vickie, Matt and Chuck surrounded by a group of young boys learning what it is to feel lvoed. What a great sight to see the boys engaged in conversations, learning team work and having a good time. They can always use your help, come by and see what you could do to help out.

Thursday evening got started off by a standing room crowd of chapel folks, singing with Ms Abbie and listening to the Word shared by Brother Chester. We were treated at the end of chapel by one of the community standing up, singing and praising God for bringing her back to life! What a special time. Pastor George's church helped with the meal and the serving. The clothing room and the Market were busy all night long.

Common Ground was one of 3 non profits chosen to participate in a Non Profit Board training program. The sessions are happening on Thursday evenings, so some of our leaders will be gone. We can always use your help, please come.

Prayers for Cari Bolinger fighting an infection and hospitalized at the moment. Continued prayers for Lisa's mom. She underwent a heart stint procedure this past week and still not feeling as good as everybody would like.

We talked about loving your enemies on Tuesday evening, Brother Chester led off his talk Thursday by saying we need love those who do us wrong, so I guess God is trying to tell us, lvoe, lvoe, lvoe is important.

It is easy to love someone who does you no wrong, looks like you, dresses like you, goes to the same church as you. In verse 32, Jesus says, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them." But God, don't ask us to love someone who cusses us out, talks behind our backs, does not do what we want, asks for more than we can offer, is disagreeable, hard headed, takes advantage of us. God, we can't do it! It's too hard! Won't make a difference! Please God don't ask!

In verse 35, Jesus says, " But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great and you will be children of the most High . . " Some of us in our journeys got started late in life. We did things then we are not proud of now. But when everybody else turned against us, who welcomed us with open arms?! If God can lvoe us, why can't we lvoe others the same way? If we do, then our reward will be to get to play with Jesus in heaven! Won't that be fun!

No better place to emphasize the spelling of "lvoe" we use in our community. We can not love our enemies, turn the other cheek, give them our shirt, expecting something in return on our own. Only through the Holy Spirit working in and through us will God's "lvoe" shine and allow us to do good to those who hate us. It is not us loving but God lvoing others through us. That is why God put the Holy Spirit in us to do the impossible! The world needs to see how this remarkable lvoe can change hearts and change the world. Amen!

Let's pray to God this week in a mighty way, to help us lvoe those who do not like us and let's see how God can change their life through us! What a testament to God's unfailing grace it will be! Have a great week. See you around the center.