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Romans 14:7-10

For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Personal Challenge

Once again, I am confronted in the Scriptures with the challenge to not judge my brother or show contempt for him or her. Why is this? If I am truly following the ways of my Lord then I am no longer my own. I have become His and in this transfer of ownership, I have also transferred my desires to judge another to my Master. Only God knows the nature of our hearts. Only He knows what demons each one of us is struggling with in our lives. Only He can apply the true love, mercy, and grace to each of us at the level which we need it at any given point in time. Besides, I have enough of my own stuff in my life that I can be judged for. I should be focusing on cleaning that up and not worrying about someone else. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

1 Corinthians 9:25-27

And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus:not with uncertainty. Thus I fight:not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

Personal Challenge

1 Corinthians 7:3-4

Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

Encouraging Words

What an interesting and special institution marriage is. It was created by God at the beginning of creation and it has been blessed by Him ever since. It is the true definition whereby two distinct and unique people come together to be one. Man and woman, individual yet one. From this point forward there exists a new identity comprised of the two. It is the only relationship where the two individuals give 100% to the other. It is not a 50-50 relationship. It is in this type of commitment that this passage makes sense. We give ourselves over to the authority of the other out of love. Glory be to God!

1 Corinthians 5:12-13

For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

Personal Challenge

Paul lays out here a very important principle of discipline and correction that has been overlooked by many modern churches. We are admonished to lovingly and with grace and mercy to bring correction to the sinners in our churches. This can only be done by also accepting correction for our own sins. This is necessary to help our community of believers grow in the image of our Lord. We are also admonished that it is not our responsibility or our right to try to correct those who are sinning outside of the church. That is God’s job. If we, the church, were to take this admonishment seriously we would stop condemning people in the world around us for how they are living their lives and show them the love of God by loving them where they are and as they are. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 2:1

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

Personal Challenge

As part of our modern day, “Me and my Bible!” approach to Christianity where I am an individual and I have the power to interpret the Scriptures the way that I want, we have become a religion that is filled with judges rather than nurses and doctors. We are consistently warned in these very same Scriptures to not judge and that we will be judged by the same measure that we judge and that it will be shown that our sins are always greater than the others. We are also admonished to love our neighbor and to be an active part of their healing in Christ. So why have we become so avid judges? As we have humanized God’s teaching and begun to believe that we contol what they mean, then we take the words out of the context of God’s love and put them in the context of sinful pride and selfrighteousness. This is why the Church, throughout its 2,000 year history has taught that the Church interprets the Scriptures and not the individual. The further one gets removed from the historical and catholic (not the denomination) Church the further one gets removed from the truth. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

2 Corinthians 3:1-3

Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

Personal Challenge

Usually, I see this passage used to show how each one of us who follow Christ as tablets of flesh that His love is written upon so He can be shown to those around us. This is true, however, today I saw something else in this passage. Just as the Apostle Paul staked his claim of who he was on the fruit of his labor by how his teachings were written on the heart of those whom he had served, so too do my actions, my words, my behaviors and attitudes written on the hearts of those in my life, whether permanent or transient people. The question for me here is, “What kind of message am I leaving behind?” Am I being loving to those around me or harsh and bitter? Am I encouraging and building up or am I discouraging and tearing down? Do people walk away from me with a small piece of the love of God on their heart or have I treated them in a way that their heart is hardened just a little bit more? These are tough and sobering questions. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

John 8:7-9

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

Personal Challenge

Jesus reminds us that we must certainly explore the depths of our own hearts and purge our lives of ALL sin before we can call out someone else for their sins. I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, this means that I will never be able to judge another for their sins because mine sins are ever present. What He would rather that I do is to love that sinner in the midst of their sin because that is what He does. Love is at the core of the incarnation of Christ. Love is at the core of all of the healings, teachings, and miracles that He did while incarnate. Love is at the core of His death, burial, and resurrection. His expectation of me is that love will be at the core of everything that I think, say, and do. Glory be to God!

Luke 19:45-46

Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves. ’”

Personal Challenge

Since Paul in one of his letters describes our hearts as the temple of God, I must examine my heart and ask if I have turned it into a ‘den of thieves’? Is my heart more concerned about the cares and concerns of the world than it is the cares and concerns of the kingdom of God? Can those around me look at the fruit of my life and see someone that reflects Christ or someone that is no different than everyone else in the world? Is my heart a ‘house of prayer’ or just my own, personal, self-centered house? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Luke 7:31-35

And the Lord said, “To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying:

‘We played the flute for you,And you did not dance;We mourned to you,And you did not weep.’

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by all her children.”

Personal Challenge

Just as the Pharisees in the day of Jesus were fickle in their religiousness to recognize either John the Baptist or Jesus for who they were because neither of them fit their vision of a prophet or the Messiah, so too do so many of us in the church today fail to recognize the hand of God around us or in our everyday life. We hold on so tightly to our own opinions, our own rights to do what we want to do, that we neglect the commands of our Lord to love God and our neighbor above ourselves. we claim that because we are free by modern American standards then we can do what want in our lives and that God, just like everyone else, must adjust their standards to fit ours. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!