Saturday, August 9, 2008

SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY: Romans 14:13-23

PSALM OF THE WEEK: Psalm 115

HYMN OF THE DAY: CH#453 “Called as Partners in Christ’s Service” [No link available]

VERSE OF THE DAY: Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead to never put a stumbling block in the way of another. Romans 14:13 NRSV

 

Judgmental people and judgmental churches have been a stumbling block to people, and have discouraged many from joining any church and truly discovering the joy of a personal relationship with the Christ.  I know a pastor who calls himself a “recovered victim of the church”. Many years ago, when he was having a deep personal crisis, his pastor at the time told him that God wouldn’t save people like him and he wasn’t welcome in church anymore.  It took years before he discovered that God does truly forgive everything, even what he did, and that he could be part of a church.  Today he has a wonderful ministry ministering in Christ’s name to people going through what he went through.  We all have been forgiven of all of our sins.  We need to realize that all our fellow Christians have been too. Therefore, we can’t judge anyone.  That is God’s job, and God’s alone.  If we try to do God’s job, then we are “playing God”, which is another name for blasphemy.  It is far too easy to accidently place a stumbling block in front of someone by judging them. Instead, we should try to reach out to the down beaten, the disheartened, and the unconvinced.  If we truly love our neighbor as we love our self, if we love one another as Christ loves us, then we can’t judge them anymore than we would want them to be judging us.  To fulfill that commandment, we must reach out to everyone with love and forgiveness, not judgmentally.

 

PRAYER: O God of Justice and Forgiveness; thank you for forgiving all my sins, and the sins of others.  Help me not to judge them for what you have forgiven them for, but to reach out to them in love.  May my attitudes, my words, and my actions, never be a stumbling block for someone else trying to reach you, but instead, be a guiding beacon that leads only to you. Amen.

 

See you in Church Sunday,

Pastor Sandy

 

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