50 Ways to Love Your Neighbor

What does it mean to love your neighbor? Scripture talks about this concept over and over. The Messiah mentioned these words just following his proclamation that loving YHWH is the most important commandment. 1 John 3:18 says that our love should be more than just words, it should be seen through our actions. Too often the action of this instruction gets lost to good intentions or busyness. Here are some practical ideas on how to show love in your community.

Fifty Ways to Love Your Neighbor:

1. Smile, wave, and say hello. Cultivate a friendly community atmosphere.

2. Look for opportunities to do good, especially to those who share a common faith with you.

3. Take a walk through your neighborhood and pray for the health, safety, and well-being of the residents.

4. Holding a grudge? Choose forgiveness and let go of that.

5. Encourage someone and build them up.

6. Say nice things about your neighbors. Cultivate an atmosphere of kindness over gossip or slander.

7. Visit orphans and widows. Offer support to those without family nearby. That could mean supporting a children's home, visiting a nursing home, becoming a foster family or adopting a child, sponsoring a child, checking in on elderly neighbors, etc.

8. Have things to downsize from your home? Offer them to friends or family, or donate items to a good cause. Thrift stores are an option but donations are also accepted by homeless and women's shelters, schools, ministries, and so on.

9. Support your local farmers. Get vegetables from a produce stand or a nearby farmers market.

10. Bring in a healthy snack to share at work or congregation.

11. Take groceries, a gift card, or a meal to a family in need.

12. Get the door for someone with their hands full.

13. Spread the word about garage sales and local businesses.

14. Volunteer at a charity working in your community.

15. Pay a visit to an elderly neighbor or nursing home.

16. Plant flowers in your yard. They brighten days and feed the bees.

17. Keep your home exterior and yard tidy, and pick up trash when you see it.

18. Be considerate about when you make a lot of noise. 

19. Make conversation with people you see regularly.

20. Ask people questions. This develops relationships and can be the touch of kindness someone needs in their day.

21. Did you get great service somewhere? Offer a tip, leave a positive review online, or speak to a manager or owner about what a great job an employee did.

22. Pay someone a sincere compliment.

23. Make it a point to welcome the new person at work.

24. Send a note of encouragement to someone.

25. Celebrate someone else's good news.

26. Write an uplifting Scripture in sidewalk chalk on your driveway to encourage those who walk by.

27. Offer an evening of free babysitting to parents who could use a break.

28. Start an informal community watch group in your neighborhood to keep things safe.

29. Are the neighborhood kids playing in the street? Talk to their parents about your concerns for their safety.

30. Send a card or care package to someone away at college, stationed overseas, or serving as a missionary.

31. Offer to help an elderly or disabled neighbor with yard work.

32. Thank a teacher, pastor, coach, fire fighter, coworker, volunteer, etc. for how the impact they have made in your life.

33. Host a potluck to get to know neighbors better.

34. See someone who is being treated unfairly? Stand up for them.

35. Make it a point to include a shy or unpopular person in conversation and events.

36. Shop locally before heading to a box store or ordering online. Visit locally owned restaurants before heading to a chain.

37. Pray for insight on how to best show the Father's love to the people in your life.

38. Offer to pray with a friend when they share a need or concern.

39. Share your resources or knowledge with someone who could use a hand on a project.

40. Drive safely!

41. Invite someone you don't know very well for dinner or over for coffee.

42. Treat strangers and foreigners with kindness and respect, whether that's a refugee or someone who just moved from the next town.

43. Did you attend a community theater production or watch a high school basketball game? Offer sincere compliments or encouragement to those involved.

44. Share info about nearby job openings for those in need of employment.

45. Invite someone to join you for congregation or Bible study.

46. Set up a place for free stuff at your office or congregation, or host a clothing swap.

47. Use your social media to share truth and encouragement.

48. If a friend or neighbor loaned you something return it within a reasonable time frame, in good condition, with a thank you.

49. When you talk to others, speak the truth to them.

50. Offer mercy to those who wrong you. Pray for them and remember that everyone has bad days.

There are so many ways to love your neighbor! Sometimes what a person needs is an uplifting conversation, other times bringing a meal over speaks volumes. What are some ways that you have felt loved by your community?

Dear Torah Keeper

Dear Torah Keeper,

I am proud of you.

What you are doing is beautiful. You have chosen the narrow road. It takes a strong person to reroute the course of their life. It's not easy to stand up against centuries of tradition and loads of cultural pressure. But you're doing it! And doing so well.

I am proud of you when you mark the days on your calendar for the set apart times...even when you're not sure exactly how to celebrate. I am proud of you when you work to have a restful Shabbat again this week, even though last week didn't go how you wanted it. 

I'm proud of you for having those awkward conversations where you explain that you don't eat pork or that you can't eat leavened bread one week a year. I'm cheering you on when you have those tough discussions with your family about why you're not celebrating Christmas or Easter anymore. When you comfort an upset child because they feel different than the kids in their class or on their team...you are doing a work that will transform the Kingdom.

When you get those looks, those judgmental comments, when you are misunderstood, when you feel scrutinized or not good enough because someone else keeps Torah differently than you, I am proud of you for putting what you do know into practice. While you might beat yourself up for stumbling along the narrow road, all of Heaven cheers as you work to follow the instructions of your loving Father.

You're doing great and godly things when you rearrange your life and your work in order to honor the Sabbath. These are the kind of actions that will make our world a little bit closer to what the Creator intended. I am proud of you when you share what you've learned with people who don't agree. You're shining a light that will show many people the truth.

I am so proud of you for walking on this road. For keeping the commandments even when it's hard. I'm proud of you for trying your best. YHWH sees what you're doing and it's beautiful and precious to him.

You can do this.

First Fruits Celebration

This time of year I usually post pictures from Passover but I thought it would be fun to mix it up and share some from a First Fruits celebration I attended. First Fruits is when Israel historically presented the first of the barley harvest to YHWH, and it is also when Yahusha was raised from the dead. What reasons we have to celebrate this Biblical holiday!

It was a simple get together; just an informal 'bring a snack or dessert.' We turned on some music, ate and chatted. Then talked about the Messiah's resurrection and read Scripture related to that.

Since the omer count begins on First Fruits, some sort of omer counter makes the perfect party favor! You could also make your own counters at the party for a fun group activity.

Here's a great idea for Matzah Week: if you're making homemade matzah, try rolling it into smaller pieces to use like you would crackers. It can still be soft or you can bake it longer to have it be crunchy. It's great with hummus and other spreads like this smoked salmon dip.

I love getting to celebrate this truth with a group of believers and would definitely encourage everyone to do so as well! Messiah rose from the grave = best day ever, right?! As Paul said, "Let us keep the feast!" (1 Corinthians 5:8)

Do you guys know about resurrection cookies? They are a meringue cookie and each step of the recipe symbolizes the story of the Messiah's death and resurrection, like beating the walnuts to symbolize how Yahusha was beaten by soldiers. You leave them in the oven over night and then they are empty when they are finished. I can share the recipe if anyone is interested.

Happy First Fruits everyone! What do you guys do to celebrate?

Five Things Every Believer Should Know About Easter

Here are five things every Believer should know about Easter:

1. Easter is not mentioned in the Bible. Literally the word 'Easter' is not found in Scripture. If you have a version of where e-a-s-t-e-r appear and are not followed immediately by an N, that is a bad translation. The Greek word that some Bibles use for 'Easter' is pascha, which means Passover. Easter is a different word entirely. And is a separate, man-made holiday which is not interchangeable with Passover.

2. The Messiah was not killed or resurrected on Easter. He was killed on Passover and resurrected on First Fruits. While these happen around the same time of year, they're not the same. Christmas happens near New Years Eve, but no one would say those holidays are interchangeable or the same. Easter was never intended to accurately represent the time of the Messiah's crucifixion or resurrection. It is a simple change to make to reschedule celebrations of the death and the resurrection of the Messiah to their Biblically appropriate feast times.

3. Many of its traditions are expressly prohibited by Scripture. Reading through Ezekiel 8 one time as a teenager it was eerie to realize what was being described sounded exactly like every Easter Sunday church service I had attended. A sunrise service where the sanctuary was filled with unclean animals. Those bunnies that are used to decorate churches and Easter baskets are unclean animals and do not belong on the house of YHWH. Ezekiel 8:17 says that the sunrise service is a "disgusting practice." The traditional Easter ham dinner is forbidden by Scripture, and the idea of an egg-laying bunny is anathema when Scripture says that animals shouldn't be mixed.

4. Scripture does not tell us to celebrate Easter. Nowhere in the Bible does it give us instructions to celebrate Easter. We are not told to color eggs or to teach children about a gift-bearing bunny. Nor are we told to call the Messiah's resurrection day Easter. The Messiah did not celebrate it and neither did the Disciples or anyone else in Scripture. The Bible contains over 31,000 verses, ample space for someone to mention this holiday, but it never comes up! However from Moses to Paul Scripture tells us to celebrate Passover. Learn the difference here.

5. The compromise of Easter undermines faith. What happens when you exchange truth for a lie? Does it matter if you swap out Passover for Easter? Romans 1:28 tells us that this exchange leads to a "reprobate mind, to do what it improper, and being filled with wickedness." I know none of us want that for ourselves or our families, so that's why it's important that we pay attention to the details and do things the way Scripture instructs. There is enough hypocrisy among believers, it's time to stop pretending the traditions of Easter are in the Bible and instead celebrate the death and resurrection of the Messiah when it actually happened and how Scripture instructs. Refuse to compromise on truth.