Monday, June 22, 2009

Devotional 220609

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Thank God for Monday. The weather was gorgeous and the beauty of our Creator God just fills the air. There is no limit for those who eager to serve the Lord. Opportunity to serve Him is everywhere, if we change our inward looking mindset to a more outward looking attitude. Let the passions of Christ fills your heart today so that you will no longer live for yourself but for Christ alone. Amen?

"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Matthew 7:2). This statement is not a haphazard guess; it is an eternal law of God. Whatever judgment you give, it is measured to you again. There is a difference between retaliation and retribution. Jesus says that the basis of life is retribution - " with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." If you have been shrewd in finding out the defects in others, remember that will be exactly the measure given to you. Life serves back in the coin you pay. This law works from God's throne downwards, just as the Psalmist said, “To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd” (Psalm 18:25-26).

Romans 2:1 says, “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.” Applies the teaching of this whole chapter of Romans to any situation you are in, and says that the one who criticizes another is guilty of the very same thing. God looks not only at the act, He looks at the possibility. We do not believe the statements of the Bible to begin with. For instance, do we believe this statement, that the things we criticize in others we are guilty of ourselves? The reason we see hypocrisy and fraud and unreality in others is because they are all in our own hearts. The great characteristic of a saint is humility - Yes, all those things and other evils would have been manifested in me but for the grace of God, therefore I have no right to judge.

Jesus says - "Do not judge, or you too will be judged " if you do judge, it will be measured to you exactly as you have judged. Who of us would dare to stand before God and say - "My God, judge me as I have judged my fellow men?" We have judged our fellow men as sinners; if God should judge us like that we would be in hell. God judges us through the marvelous Atonement of Jesus Christ.

We fall into this temptation too easily. We always use a magnifying glass to see others; we easily criticize other’s behavior and question other’s motive. But we seldom apply the same standard to ourselves. I totally agree with Brother Chambers that we have full potential to commit the same “sin” as those whom we criticize. When we passionately criticize our pre-Christian friends of their “immoral” acts, we ask God to forgive us because we could have done the same thing if it were not the grace of God in us. In this way, we turn our focus not on other’s problem but on our own. Then, we will also change our attitude to plead for God’s mercy for ourselves as well as for our pre-Christian friends, knowing that they would suffer even more in the hands of Satan, if they do not know that their Only Way to escape judgment is through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ask the Lord for more patience to deal with your own sanctification (becoming holy) process, as well as your attitude toward your pre-Christian friends or coworkers. Redirect your energy from critical or judgmental reactions to short mental prayers for mercy and thanksgiving. Seek the Lord to “strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph 3:16-17).

Love you by His mercy,
Lawrence

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