Romans 8:1

Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee glory! Is that good news or what? No condemnation. Once we receive Jesus (confess with our mouth, and believe in our hearts Jesus is Lord, and that God raised Him from the dead Romans 10:9) all our sins are completely erased. They are forgiven and forgotten. Oh, our friends and family may never forget, and may even jab us once in a while with comments regarding our past.......but God never will. It's done......it's over with. Never to be remembered by Him again. And the great thing about the blood of Jesus is, it's perpetual. It forgives yesterday's sins, today's, and will forgive tomorrow's!!! That's not an excuse to go buck wild or anything.........but it's a comfort we have in Jesus. None of us is perfect, and as long as we're on this planet we never will be. I really dislike it when folks belittle others and say "If you do this......you're not being a very good example!" (And believe me.....I'm guilty of doing it.) Peter cut off a dude's ear.......now we all understand why he did it.....but did Jesus pull him aside and say, "Peter, you're not being a very good example of a follower of Me."? No, He didn't. So what gives other Christians the right to do that, and say that? Nothing!!! Absolutely nothing. God is dealing with us all in different ways, and at different levels. Could we be better examples at times.......sure. Do we blow it from time to time? Sure. But we're all learning, and growing at a different pace. Eventually we will grow into what we should be.......and as long as we're reading the word of God, and talking to Daddy on a daily basis.......we're going to change. A little bit every day. The Holy Spirit will see to that. We don't need other folks putting us down, or comparing us with others. If you don't like the way another servant of God is behaving.......talk to God about it. I guarantee you if you do.......you'll get an answer. But it may not be the answer you expect. Maybe you (or I) need to change......not them. See, I've fallen into that trap. I'm confessing here and now that I used to look down upon other Christians who acted certain ways, or who didn't act the way I thought they should. I guess I thought I was the "Christian Police". Boy oh boy did I get a stern talking to from the LORD. He let me know in no uncertain terms that He was the Judge of all, and if I didn't like it, that was just too bad. And who did I think I was, trying to do the Holy Spirit's job? Were they serving me, or Him? Oh man.......I only say this to keep you from having that "talking to" from the Lord that I had. Yikes. It was no fun. We should not attempt to condemn anyone who's following Christ. Now if someone is openly sinning you can go to them privately and minister to them. But belittling them or condemning someone for where they are in their walk with Christ is not helpful to anyone.

It is my goal to go through this entire chapter, one verse at a time. I did not intend for this message to be this long. I'm sorry I babbled on so long. I just see it as a sad thing, that the army of God is the only army that kills its wounded. It shouldn't be that way. Have a great night/day and God bless. :-) James