THE JOURNEY » Blog Archive » Stopping is godliness

Posted By Gerry on June 22nd, 2010

I have Secondary Progressive MS and have lived with the disease for twenty seven years. I have been under the care of a physician and neurologist for the past thirteen years. To this day, the only treatment that I have received is medication to relieve pain. Every two weeks, $300 is spent at the Pharmacist. I take high levels of…

Stopping is godliness

Posted By Gerry on November 6th, 2009

Today I read Luke 10:25-37Luke 10:25-37
English: World English Bible - WEB
25 Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” ²⁷ He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸ He said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.” ²⁹ But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” ³⁰ Jesus answered, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹ By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, ³⁴ came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said to him, ‘Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.’ ³⁶ Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?” ³⁷ He said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

WP-Bible plugin for my time alone with God. It is day 20 in my 30 Day Challenge (see my website).

The story is about a guy, who thought he was very religious, and how he tried to trip up Jesus by asking a trick question. Tricking God is generally known as a general waste of time.

Within this dialogue, Jesus tells the spiritually ego-centric religious guy the story of the good Samaritan. Basically, a man goes on a journey and is beaten up, robbed and left for dead. Two guys from separate ego-centric denominations pass by the guy. They neither had time or interest. In addition, the near dead guy was wheezing and it sounded like the swine flu.

Along comes a third man. In the culture of the day, the Jews looked at him as being from the very pit of society. Yet, he was the one to demonstrate love and care. He was the one that took time out of his schedule and took care of all the expenses to help this Jew.

Authentic Christianity will always be looking for ways to bring Jesus to the needy around them.

Simply that.

I have an awesome Small Group where I get to teach the Bible. In the last couple weeks we talked lots about how our culture (North America) is marked by busyness. We don’t have time to “stop” and do the important things that Jesus wants us to do. We may be busy with Church but no time to read the Bible for 15 minutes let alone fit in time to help someone. And, don’t give me the dribble that “our church has a ministry that stops”. Jesus is talking to you and me.

Here’s my point: STOPPING IS NEXT TO GODLINESS. Find a way to try it this week.