Familiarity does not necessarily mean understanding. We'll look through the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan and come to terms of understanding Jesus' message of compassion and mercy of our neighbor. This parable isn’t defining who your neighbor is. It asks the question: "Are you a neighbor?" It’s not who is my neighbor i.e. who qualifies to be love-- It’s about am I a neighbor who loves in an unqualified way.
It’s fairly easy to follow Christ’s commands when the balance of the world is swinging in our favor. It’s when the bumps in the road come, the heavy storms, that we seem to waver. Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, so he got out of the boat to go to him. But he got distracted.
What is the process that God uses to mold our heart so that we can serve him? We are going to look at the life of Moses and see the hand of God transform the Prince of Egypt to the Shepherd of Midian to the Servant of Israel.
Jesus doesn’t play with sin. He goes as far as to suggest that any part of our body that causes us to sin needs to be removed. Those are drastic measures. He doesn’t recommend a self-help book or program. He wants total amputation of the things that are causing us to seek pleasure away from Him.
