NOVEMBER 4 "HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU LOVE JESUS?"

 I go to church, I pray from time to time and on the occasion, pick up my bible. I'm not perfect, but I do abstain from most obvious and premeditated sins. I wonder, is my love for God shown by being faithful in ministry, is it shown by my generous giving, maybe....I can guess and assume on these previous virtues, but here is one that I don't have to guess about, it's plain as can be, "For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers".  There it is, in writing, "you have shown your love FOR GOD, by caring for other believers.  We lose that vital link with God when we lose our heart for other believers in the church. Every relationship hinges on common bond in that relationship. Two people connect when they have a common idea, sport, hobby or passion that they share and connect on. Many couples divorce when the children have grown and moved out because that couple now realizes they had no other bond between them, other than those children, that are now gone, "what do we have in common now, nothing!" and they divorce. Our connection to Jesus, is our heart, our common bond for his people. Many religious people would attribute their love for God then, by telling us the good and how much they care for their families. This does not impress God that you would care for your own family, you are quite dysfunctional at best, if you don't care for your own family. God does not mince words. Our scripture indicates that we show our great love for Him when we care for "other believers", never mind your family. To illustrate this, Jesus gives us the parable of the Good Samaritan. What's good about the Good Samaritan? We know the answer, "that he cared", but the answer is not that simple, everybody cares, at least most normal people. I'm sure the priest and the Rabbi would have stopped if this was their mother or father on the side of the road. However, it was not and therefore;  they did not stop or care.  Yes the Good Samaritan cared, but what's more relevant is that he cared for someone that was not part of "his own". In Hebrews today we read that God attributes our love for him but loving other believers. "Give preference to one another" another scripture reads.  At the end of this we read a secret to keeping a passion in our relationship with God.  Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. 12Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent.  Christians who become dull are Christians who have no interest in caring for other people in the church. All they do is come out, hear the sermon and rush home, but are disconnected from other believers and are definitely disconnected from caring for other believers in the church. We often hear this comment, "I've lost interest in the Church, not God, but the Church, I just stay home and worship there".  Well the truth is, before they lost interest in the church they lost interest in the believers in the church. What do you really have in common with Jesus if you've lost interest in caring for other believers? How do you show your love for God? Any answers you come up with, that our contrary to our scripture today, are meaningless at best; and very deceptive and misleading at worse. We don't have to guess, we don't have to assume or wonder anymore about how we know we love God, it has been laid out for us today, we know we love God when we are actively engaged in the caring for other believers.