Leave the Judging to God

April 26, 2013

Opening Hymns:
73 Oh worship the king http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh073.sht

Scripture Reading:
Acts 11:1-18

11 The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. ² So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him ³ and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

⁴ Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: ⁵ “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. ⁶ I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. ⁷ Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’
⁸ “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
⁹ “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ ¹⁰ This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
¹¹ “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. ¹² The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. ¹³ He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. ¹⁴ He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’
¹⁵ “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. ¹⁶ Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with^[a] water, but you will be baptized with^[b] the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷ So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”
¹⁸ When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Message:
Who are we to judge others? This scripture is the prime example of that. The only one who was sinless among us was Jesus.  The only one who has the right to judge is God. Yet, we still seem to overlook that from time to time. If we see someone who is begging for money on the side of the road we may immediately think they are a drug addict. If a student is failing out of their class we may think they don’t care or they aren’t trying. We may think a certain religion is better or worse than ours without knowing anything about it. All of these are judgments.

Today’s scripture calls us to put aside our judgments of others and welcome all into the family of Christ. The person on the side of the street may have just lost his job and needs some new clothing so he can interview for a new one. The student struggling in school may be having a hard home life, and needs the extra care and support to get through the semester. When we let go of our judgments we are able to open new doors of acceptance and lend our assistance to those in need.

Time of Prayer
Dear Lord, as we go about our week help us focus our minds and our hearts on You. We are all Your children, let us treat others with the same love and acceptance that You have given to us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen


The Lord’s Prayer


Closing Hymn
561 Jesus, United by Thy Grace http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh561.sht

May the Lord bless you and keep you: May the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you: May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace." Amen.

Go in peace, serve the Lord
Thanks be to God