JUST DO IT!

Don't you just love it when you are around people that accept and love you just the way you are? I read this verse in Romans this morning: "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." Think about youself for a minute - your failures, your mistakes, your attitudes...etc. Now think again about how Christ accepts you. Accepting of our sin - no - accepting of us - yes, despite our sin. Now by accepting another we are bringing praise to God. That is so cool to me.

"You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat." I am sure this is convicting for all of us. I challenge myself and you to make a conscious decision to pay attention to any areas in our life where we are doing this. Looking down on someone else...hmmm. I bet we have all done this. I heard the story of when a woman got on a plane. There was only one seat left and it was next to this big intimitating looking guy. He wore a leather jacket, rough looking appearance. She sat down next to him, trying not to let her arm touch him. She opened her bible to begin doing her work when he quietly said to her "Christian?" to which she said "yes". He said "me too, my wife and I lost our daughter and we travel around and telling people about Jesus." She realized she had judged him and they ended up having a great conversation the rest of the plane ride.

We will all stand before God so let us bring glory to him by loving one another forward as we want others to do with us. I love the verse later - "Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way." Make up your mind - those words make me think of JUST DO IT! Don't just keep thinking about it but make up your mind that you will. Since we are all brothers and sisters of Jesus and he loves us forward every day let us all do the same with each other, not passing judgement. I was thinking about the many things about myself in which others could easily judge. Pam is so...she...why does she...did you hear what Pam said...yuck! I even hate the sound of those words so why in the world would I put these thoughts in my mind about someone else, let alone speak them to someone else about someone else. I desire my mind to be Christ like and those things are not Christ like.

Let's all remember to accept one another just as Christ has accepted you/me and love each other forward.