“If you . . believe in your heart . . you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 NIV
“The Gospel is simply one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.”
My thoughts today are about “good neighbors.”
Good news is for sharing. If the news is good enough, you can’t keep it to yourself; you will want to tell someone. When a person finds something new and wonderful, they naturally think of sharing it with a friend. Every business knows that the best advertising is a satisfied customer telling their friends. Every restaurant knows that word of mouth is the best advertising for new business. Every church grows by the testimony and recommendation of its members. I have often heard my stepfather, a minister for over 70 years, describe the Gospel in this way, “the Gospel is simply one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.”
If you knew something that would save another person’s life, would you share it with them? If you knew information that would make a friend happy, would you tell them? The answers are obvious; then why would a Christian have the greatest good news in the world, and feel awkward about sharing it? “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah.'” John 1:41 NIV. That is a great description of what my thoughts and comments are about today. Tell someone what you know about your salvation – and theirs!
My Dad was seventeen but had never yet been in a church. My grandmother had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. A neighbor in Buffalo, New York, invited my grandmother to come to church with her, sharing how God could heal and at her church they believed and prayed for people to be healed. Having nothing to lose, she went to her neighbor’s church one Sunday night and took her teenage son, Ray, with her.
That night the church prayed for her and a verified miracle of healing happened, and she and her teenage son were saved after seeing the power of God so real. “If you believe in your heart . . you will be saved.” That is as true today as it ever was. That teenager would later become my Dad, and much of who I am and what I do is because of what happened years before I was born.
My Dad pastored for more than 20 years, and now I have done so approaching 50 years – simply telling others what God can do. All because one lady took the time to tell her neighbor. Try to imagine how many people have heard Good News since that lady shared Jesus with her neighbor. I would not like to think what the Randolph family history might be if she had not made the effort to share.
I don’t know her name but mine and my family’s destiny were eternally changed because a woman next door shared Jesus with her neighbor. Maybe that is one of the practical ways you fulfill the commandment Jesus gave to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.“ Mark 12:30-31 NIV.
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A good neighbor simply does for another what they would hope would be done for themselves. To explain what a good neighbor is, Jesus told the story of a Good Samaritan whose kindness and practical help saved another’s life. Everyday you have opportunities to do that in one way or another as a good neighbor to someone else.
My prayer for you today is: prize the gift of life shared with you and give that gift to others.