Trust God to Judge!

Good morning to all from Atlanta, GA! Boy did it rain here yesterday. The heavens opened up and down came the rain ans washed all the spiders out! Waine's brother Earl is here visiting their Mom. He is from Seattle and stated he had never seen rain like this. That's saying something when you are from Seattle. Freddie is in town getting oriented to his new job; we haven't seen him yet but hope to break bread with he and Aleron on Wednesday. ET finished his 4th course of chemotherapy yesterday and we are all praying that his CT scan will demonstrate shrinkage of his tumor with clean margins so that they can go in and cut it out. Keep ET in your prayers.

Medical  Note: 8 ounces of water within 30 minutes of awakening will get your bowel working and your metabolism going.

I am moving forward in Romans this morning, chapter 2 verses 1-16, "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. God "will give to each person according to what he has done." To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 1or God does not show favoritism. All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. Amen and amen.

You can really tell that Paul was trained as a religious scholar--he was schooled in basic Judaism and understood the laws of Moses! We are not to judge, lest we be judged! I am convicted. I must judge others 100 times a day and through my own, flawed vision and it is usually because I feel grieved by the behavior of others. Practically, how do your order your day so that you are not judging others. Do you ignore the behavior of others? Do you not even pay attention? Do you constantly pray when interacting with others? do you give the other person the benefit of the doubt? Do you keep those "rose colored" glasses on? I am sure Jesus had to pray constantly for the behavior and doubt of His disciples and yet without judging. I am sure He was in constant prayers for the multitude of people flocking to Him because they had needs and wanted them filled. Jesus continued to give despite the lack of gratitude and compassion from His followers. A friend of mine and I were talking yesterday about the behavior of a 3rd person and it dawned on me that when people are acting in a manner that grieves you, you should immediately begin to pray so that the confusion caused by sin can be neutralized through your prayers. I am going to practice that today, so pray for me because it is much easier said than done. If Christians really appreciated the LOVE of God we would indeed stop sweating the small stuff. The whole world needs Jesus and then this "mess" we find ourselves in would be neutralized and we could experience PEACE.

Have a GREAT and FORGIVING day!

Stephanie