Prayer: Father, You give definition to love, not just the word, but the practical application of love in action. May I heed Your words. Amen.
Reading: Deuteronomy 22 key: vs. 1-2
“You are not to watch your brother’s ox or sheep going astray and ignore them—you must certainly bring them back to your brother. 2 If your brother is not near you or if you do not know him, then you should bring it into your house and it will remain with you until your brother comes searching for it and you return it to him.
Attention: I can remember a time back in the nineties. I was living in an eastside suburb community of Seattle, Washington. At the time I was delivering newspapers to supplement my income, so I was up early so I could get the newspapers delivered to the subscribers before they awoke. I arrived home in time to observe an elderly man walking by himself. I knew he had dementia and I had lived in the neighborhood long enough to know where he belonged. Rather than risk alarming the elderly man, I walked over to his family and alerted them of his whereabouts. He had arisen earlier than the rest of the family and walked out unnoticed or detected. They of course were relieved to know of escape and were thankful no harm had come to him.
I used to see postings frequently by neighbors who had lost a cat or dog, seeking the help of others who might have seen their pet. In the neighborhood I grew up in as a child, everyone was watching out for each other as most of the families had children who played together with the neighbor children.
According to this passage, Adonai commanded that we watch out for our brother’s animals and return them to their owner’s or protect them until the come looking for them. Adonai initiated a community watch program before one ever existed. Have you experienced the panic of a child having gone missing in a neighborhood? High anxiety is experienced until the child is returned to their family.
I hope that everyone reading our journal today will practice love in action. Action in love is what Jacob (James 1: 25) is all about, “But the one who looks intently into the perfect Torah, the Torah that gives freedom, and continues in it, not becoming a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts—he shall be blessed in what he does.” The Torah is what we are studying and is what Jacob is referring too. Let us be doers, people who put love into action.
Action: I choose to be a person who sees a need and moves to meet the need of someone as a lifestyle.
Yield: I choose to be a love in action follower of Yeshua.
Engage: I choose to engage in being Christ to everyone.
Relationship: I choose to be in deeply, spirit filled relationship with Adonai.
Prayer: Father, I pray that as Your people, we will be moved to be Christ to everyone we encounter as a lifestyle. Amen.
Memory Verse: Jacob (James) 1:25 “But the one who looks intently into the perfect Torah, the Torah that gives freedom, and continues in it, not becoming a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts—he shall be blessed in what he does.”
Music Video: Hillsong—The Power of Your Love https://youtu.be/H9_0jiO5ZRM
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”