He Meant That

"Refuse to judge anyone."

There is no "MY WILL be done on earth as it is in heaven." We lay our will at His feet and obey.

I learned this in recent years and discovered how much I like to do things the way I have always done it. Those who know me let me, or I can say it this way – they don't argue. But God is a glass of chocolate milk for breakfast when I wanted juice. Nothing wrong with chocolate milk except I haven't drank so much in my entire lifetime.

(Sets this down to go pour juice.)

I've kinda felt like I lost my identity, as small as that is, and that unhappiness surprised me because God is for me and not against me (Romans 8:31). But here's the thing. God is God. Now, I don't mean that all James Earl Jones. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are gentle and kind, more than you can imagine. I cannot say that enough. The church's image is too harsh and severe. But being God, They are unbendable when it comes to plans and purposes.

I like to back up when I'm uncomfortable and return to my safe place. Yeah ... no, God erased it. The tree, the bench, the shade, all gone, and I'm shoved forward where I don't know where to go. Which is the point. I must trust Them. They are so trustworthy and this saves my mind. It gives me peace. But this new path also requires me to learn, to obey, and to be patient. Colossians 1:11 in the Moffatt translation says, "May his glorious might nerve you with full power to endure and to be patient cheerfully ...." That's a huge thing. We tend to be impatient crabbily.

God's plans are tres specific. His plan for the salvation of mankind was like one of those motion machines where the ball rolls, and dominoes fall, and gears turn moving platforms that shift more things to specific locations to do specific things, and it all builds up to a fantastic conclusion. Not one element can be out-of-place or the whole thing fails. God never fails, and what He plans comes true. From Genesis to the Gospels and Jesus' birth, life, death, and Resurrection, all that He set into motion happened exactly as He said it would. So I can relax on what He has set before me.

We must stop redesigning the wheel. Stop reinventing the church. Stop redecorating the pulpit to suit our personal tastes. Stop calling God a spade when He's holding the entire deck. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:13 says, "I teach spiritual truths to spiritual people (T4T)." In other words, both the pastor and the congregation are led to speak and enabled to listen by the Spirit within us. We can both preach and hear correctly. In verse 15 it says, "We who have God’s Spirit can judge correctly the value of all truths that the Spirit reveals." He causes us to know when we are hearing error, and we can know what is God’s truth. He convicts us for saying what wasn't from Him and forgives us when we say, "I'm sorry," from a sincere heart.

We wouldn't need to be forgiven if we had done it His way and not ours.

Only praise should come from the pulpit. Only encouragement and words of thanks should ever come from our lips. We should preach "stay in the yard" exclusively and avoid "don't go in the street." What does that mean? It means, give people the goodness of God – in teaching, in church events, in people. Let the Spirit teach the don'ts, and refuse to ever judge anyone. The image we paint of God should be love. There are green pastures and still waters and a table set before us. His goodness and mercy follow us every day of our life. How other men speak, how they dress, how they work, what they do and how they choose to do it, are only points of prayer for them and never the sermon. Unless they are shown by us to be beautiful, we hold silent.

“She (LOVE) knows how to be silent. She is full of trust, full of hope, full of patient endurance.” (1 Corinthians 13:7 WMTH)

Because this is how God is. He says nothing in response to the devil's constant chatter. The devil is unending talk, to get attention, to elevate himself, to gain underhandedly what isn't his. God defeated him, so to God, there's no need to respond. Except to rescue you and me, which He will always go to the farthest length to do. We should set this in concrete and know any thought that paints God as uncaring is from the devil.

Any thought that points arrows at people for their mistakes, actual or simply in our personal opinion, is the devil's too. There is only one body of Christ, and it has many members (1 Corinthians 12:12). When we all get to heaven there will be no strife or separation. So let's not make one on earth. This is God's desire. When He said WHOSOEVER, He meant that.

“Let us therefore cease judging one another, but rather make this simple judgement: that no obstacle or stumbling-block be place in a brother’s way.” (Romans 14:13 NEB)

“Yes, God has tempered the body together, with a special dignity for the inferior parts, so that there may be no disunion in the body, but that the various members should have a common concern for one another.” (1 Corinthians 12:24-25, Moffatt)

Dog Image by Vilius Kukanauskas from Pixabay
Sky Image by Enrique from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com