30 New Days - Day 3

The 3rd day of a 30 day devotional book by the Rev. Tracy A. Siegman, Senior Pastor FCC, Covington, KY.  Shared with her gracious permission.

Day 3
30-day reading plan: Matthew 16 – 22

Daily Verse: Matthew 21: 31b
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

Many are not excited to have a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on their door. The JWs believe differently than we believe and typically talk of doom and gloom in their visit. Plus, they come knocking on the door at the most inconvenient time. But, I have a special connection to JWs, because my great grandparents were JWs. When they bring me a copy of their magazine, the Watchtower, I feel a special connection to my great grandparents.

The JWs that usually visit my home like to interpret the “signs of the times” as a warning that the end is near and Jesus is coming again. They can be real Debbie Downers. The 2 women who came to visit today were different. They were concerned about the state of the world believing the world was not headed in the right direction – not toward the Kingdom of God. But, they weren’t worried about our imminent demise.

We decided that if every person in the world respected every other human being and recognized him/her as a child of God then there would be an end to the world as we know it. Perhaps the end will not come in fire and brimstone. I hope the Kingdom of God will come in an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it transforming of our minds in which we will all finally recognize that each person has the life breath of God within him/her and is worthy of our love.

The second greatest commandment is “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22: 39). The Father asks His children to do the work of loving our neighbors. When we stop judging others who are not like us, stop perpetuating all the –isms and love others because of our differences, we will be able to say we did what our Father wanted.

Question for reflection:
What 1 thing can you do to increase the love you show others?