Keep Christ as He Keeps You
How do you protect what is most valuable to you? Your family and personal security are likely behind a locked door, maybe a security system. If you don’t lock your doors, then you probably live in a remote and secure location. We keep our money and investments behind a phalanx of security protections including physical safes and government rules and regulations. We want cyber-protection and fraud guarantees because we worry now about getting hacked more than anything.
Medieval security was different. They didn’t have banks and had to provide their own security.
A town may seek to have a wall, with a gate. That would generally be sufficient to protect it from a roving band of outlaws, especially in hard times.
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Love one another, as I have loved you.
Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) He said it here in chapter 15, and he has said it a dozen times or more either exactly that way or in other words just in these 5 chapters where John recounts what Jesus said the night before he died. And it’s all through all 4 Gospels. “Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemies. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you love me you will keep my commandments.” It undergirds most of his parables and, honestly, most of his healings.
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Seek Love, for God is Love.
Things change rather dramatically from one generation to the next. For example, Johnny Carson was a very big deal for much of my life. He began hosting the Tonight Show just after my first birthday in 1962. For my first 30 years, Johnny Carson was a big deal. His place in television was unique, enormous and there hasn’t been anyone like him since.
He retired from that show in 1992, just a couple of weeks after our son Philip was born. How could I possibly explain Johnny Carson to Philip? Even if I shared video clips, his jokes were on contemporary events from then, his interviews were of celebrities from then. How could Philip ever really get that? And if I tried to explain it to our grandchildren? They are so polite. They would patiently wait for grandpa to finish his, “Back in my day…” story then get on with their lives, their times, their interests, as they should.
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