TWO VERY, VERY COSTLY WORDS

Love the Lord your God, with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength... "Go" and "do".
Love the stranger, as you would yourself and your own... "Go" and "do".
Die to yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Me... "Go" and "do".
Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God... "Go" and "do".
Be holy, as your Father in heaven is holy... "Go" and "do".

Raise up a child in the way he [or she] should go... "Go" and "do".
Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church... "Go" and "do".
Wives submit to your husbands as unto the Lord... "Go" and "do".
Husbands and wives submit one to another... "Go" and "do".
Children honor your parents... "Go" and "do".

Pray for the leadership God has permitted... "Go" and "do".
Honor those whom you govern, and those who govern you - "Go" and "do".
Pray for all the saints with all supplications... "Go" and "do".

Let your light so shine before all people. "Go" and "do".
Forgive [having been forgiven]. "Go" and "do".

If the faithfulness of God in Christ Jesus has influenced and affected us radically such that 'in Christ' we are a new creation, transformed by His presence, then certainly the trajectory of our change should boast in kind a higher heartfelt thanksgiving that is lived out loud. We ought to 'go' and 'do' differently. We ought to show the lifestyle of a 'separated walk' because of what we've become: bright with love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. Big hope, upon glorious change! And big enough hope to touch the lesser matters gloriously. [Thank God for 1 John 1:9]

Our "Go" and "do" borrows from the text that is home to the vignette called 'The Good Samaritan' by many, in Luke's gospel, chapter 10. And what better time to pause with this, than this season of Advent, nearing Thanksgiving and approaching Christmas. Let's dive in [a lil bit].

Be it news, or parable, Jesus describes a man on the road, badly beaten and robbed. He is observed by a priest and a Levite passerby, receiving no aid or attention. Then there arrives a stranger, a Samaritan [one of 'those people'] who shows compassion and dismisses his own plans [as well safety] to help this man on this road. His help is not only lifesaving, but redemptive being comprehensive…the matter an illustration of love in action for the audience Jesus had with a lawyer, and others listening, wondering about how one might gain eternal life. Love saves, love raises the stranger to being a neighbor, even family.

To address the self-righteous lawyer, 'Go and do thou likewise' with the love of God, all for the glory of God. It is very 'alien' for us to enter the woundedness and forsakenness, and observable difference of 'the other', and yet, the call is to be that alien, at work, in the classroom, on the basketball court, at the card game, in aisle 7 of the Giant, at home, in the line at the post office, at the party, on the bus, in the park, at the PTA meeting, across the fence with our neighbor, on the couch with the kids, hand in hand with our beloved, even around the Thanksgiving Day table... perhaps even this Sunday at church. As a popular song puts it, 'to be a little more like Jesus, and a little less like me.'  Probably, much as that lawyer, deep down, we know this. Let's exchange our 'knowing' for His... let us all dare to grow…to share our truest 'Jerusalem' enroute to our 'Jericho'... to Go, and do. Let us all dare to let love win!

PRAYER: Most gracious God, and Eternal Father. We come before you grateful, adoring, and asking Lord, please forgive us for our drifting sympathies and wayward decisions this week, and help us to be more like You, before others, in our daily walk, in the precious name of Jesus we ask it. Amen.
By Bro. McNeal Brockington