Go and sin no more.

Is it ironic, paradoxical or just outright diabolical that we use this verse to justify judging others? Isn’t it what Jesus said to the woman right after he told the religious people not to judge her? Is it possible this statement indicates that her sin is between her and God? And isn’t it comfortingly amazing that just a few verses later He tells us “I judge no one.”?

God is Jesus

I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before. Oh sure I’ve heard “Jesus is God” my whole life but never “God is Jesus” and lately I’ve been wondering why. My conclusion is that “Jesus is God” leaves us a whole lot more room to make god in our image. We can fall back on thousands of years of misconceptions, hold  to misunderstood traditions and discount the very teachings of Christ by thinking Him to be just some portion of God that we can’t really understand.

Jesus said, “When you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.” And I think he meant it quite literally. One of (if not the) primary reasons for God becoming one of us was to show us who He truly is and to put to rest our wrong notions of Him. It’s very sad how soon we went back to them and created a good God/bad God rationalization. If you want to know God you need look no further than Jesus. He is the One and only God in totality.

Slow to Judge

The following had much to say to me today. I hope the same for you. It’s from an article by Paul Ford:

“I am often consumed with a sense of overwhelming love and empathy. I look at the other person and am overwhelmed with joy.

This is not a world where you can simply express love for other people, where you can praise them. Perhaps it should be. But it’s not. I’ve found that people will fear your enthusiasm and warmth, and wait to hear the price. Which is fair, we’ve all been drawn into someone’s love only to find out that we couldn’t afford it.”

Whisper

As I was praying for and thinking about so many of us that are waiting to hear God’s direction, I came across this today:

“I have faith that God will show you the answer. But you have to understand that sometimes it takes a while to be able to recognize what God wants you to do. That’s how it often is. God’s voice is usually nothing more than a whisper and you have to listen very carefully to hear it. But other times, in those rarest of moments, the answer is obvious and rings as loud as a church bell.” ― Nicholas Sparks

To hear a whisper we must be still and get away from distraction.

***Spoiler Alert***

Everything‘s going to turn out great. Just let God have His place in the matter.

The Plan

1Timothy 1:15, 16
This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.

Thank you for your patience with me Lord, help me share it with others today.

Worth the Wait

What God has for us is so much better than what we try to force ourselves. I heard a couple fantastic stories today that really demonstrated this. Folks who knew that change was coming and who were faithfully patient not to rush into the first thing that came along. They avoided multiple maybes along the way so that when the for sure came along, they were totally prepared. And in each case what God had for them far exceeded even their grandest dream. He has that for you too, hang in there.

Being not Doing

Who are you is a much more important question than what do you do. We’re told that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control are the evidence we’ll see in those filled with God’s Spirit. Notice this is not a list of grand accomplishments. It’s not a list of tasks to be completed, books to have read or written nor is it an inventory of disciplines to have mastered. It’s about who you are in your heart and is completely reflected in how you treat those around you.

Worry About This

We’re still discussing things we’ll never hear from God and “worry about this” is good one. It may even take many by surprise as so often we think that’s exactly what He wants us to do. Nothing is further from the truth. You see God wants us to trust Him in everything. He’s spent each moment since creation proving His trustworthiness and worrying is what we do when we don’t trust. We over think, fret, imagine untruth, entertain lies and sometimes take matters into our own hands causing harm. What God wants is for us to trust Him enough to give Him our worries. He’s not asking for us to forget what is going on, He’s waiting for us to turn our concerns over to Him, and when our thoughts about them turn fearful or head in an unhealthy direction to give them back to Him. If we will trust and be patient, He will always be true.

Check

Because of man’s selfish nature we should always examine those that are claiming to have a Word from God. This might seem like a difficult task but it’s not as hard as you think. God has given us The Bible for the purpose of checking out what people say. Some of you are thinking, “Hasn’t the Bible been misused by people too?” That’s for sure. However, in the book of Galatians we are given a checklist that is hard to fake. We’re told in Chapter Five that rather than focusing solely on what folks say, we are to look closely at who they are. You see a person that’s intimate with God, that’s led by the Holy Spirit and that knows Jesus is filled with: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. Whatever is presented as a word from God should be backed up by this list not only in the life of the speaker buy also in how it’s communicated.