Measured to you

I am still in chapter 11. "How I see it is not how it is; it is just how I see it. " That phrase has been rattling around in my head for some time now. Have you ever caused your own pain? Have you ever been at church and you passed the preacher in the hallway and said hello? He walked right passed you and he did not even acknowledge you? (Actually it could have been anyone) so then you are walking and then you begin to wonder "why" he did not say anything to you. You wonder "if he knew how much I tithed he would have said something or if he cared about the congregation or me he would have said something. As a matter of fact I don't think he even likes me. I am going to quit tithing. I have been going to church here for years. I don't think he has every liked me. All that negative self talk. You are even driving down the road talking to the preacher that hurt you that is NOT EVEN IN THE CAR!!!!!!! Oh my gosh. You have passed judgment on the preacher , attached the "why" and added significance to the other issues that you have conjured up in your judgment. All this comes from attaching the "why". Little did you know that the preacher had just got through dealing with a life or death situation and was just not paying attention to you. So you passed judgment and now you are offended, you have caused yourself all this pain. And on top of all of that now you are going around telling people how the preacher hurt you. So now, based on your Judgment, it is measured back to you as pain and rejection and you're offended

Matthew 7:2
For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.NKJV

Another test

Another test came my way. I did not score very well, but after a while I passed the test. What happen is I had asked someone to do something for me and this person said "yeah okay will see". After today "yeah okay will see" can mean several different things I found out. Three weeks have gone by and this person told me today that he didn't feel lead to do what I asked him. I have to tell you it really pissed me off. As I began to work through this I began to see where I had attached a "why" to his decision and when I did that it then had significance. So goes the Judgment again I recognized it quicker and was able to work through it faster. I actually made a couple of phone calls to two brothers. One who is also reading the same book.

I have finished the book and now I am on my second time through it. Chpt. Eleven is where I am tonight. I just so happens that today's nugget is exactly what happened today, go figure.
Quote from the book. "How I see it is not how it is; it is just how I see it." Reality is distorted by our perception. What I perceived today as reality was not reality at all but what I thought was reality. I had a revelation this evening with my wife. What I have and still learning is this; Most of us are very judgmental and we don't even know it, because it is our nature. I am so not alone in this. It is so prevalent that someone had to write a book about it. This is how easy it is to judge. I walked into Home Depot this evening and saw a cashier. She was covered in tattoos. The first thought that came to my mind was (Let's just say it was not good) She was actually very pretty … just had tattoos. For all I know she has been saved for years and leads a youth group. This is a whole new way of thinking and retraining of the mind. I believe if you have the mind of Christ and Love the sinner and hate the sin this will go away

1 Corinthians 13:3-7
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.

Love doesn't strut, doesn't have a swelled head,

Doesn't force itself on others, isn't always "me first,"

Doesn't fly off the handle,

Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn't revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything, Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best, never looks back,

But keeps going to the end. The Message

 

And I say LOVE does not JUDGE!

Kevin

Matthew Seven.4

Control starts with judgment Matthew 7:4
How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?NIV I never thought of this before but 9 times out of 10 I bet the plank is judgment.

God of my world is the name of this chapter. One part in this chapter that really struck out to me is where he says "judgment is the pathway to personal idolatry. When we impose our judgments on people it causes them to bow to our will. If you are the god of your world then most likely you are under a lot of stress. If you are the person in your home that imposes change through control, then you are the one that has to keep the changes in place. Have you ever had to say "I do everything?" I can give an example for me. I am not this way now but I used to be. It would happen when I would ask a child in my home to do the dishes or take out the trash and they wouldn't do it in my time frame so I would do it myself and then gripe about having to do it. Here is the part that really spoke to me. When we usurp the Lordship of Jesus in the life of another, It is impossible for that person to experience God's grace, (because we are in the way) which empowers him to make the needed changes. It is a cycle of failure. We want our friends to change and family to change, but we end up getting in the way or better yet we are getting in the way of Holy Spirit.

usurp \yu̇-ˈsərp also -ˈzərp\ vb to take the place of by or as if by force : supplant 〈must not let stock responses based on inherited prejudice usurp careful judgment〉 vi
: to seize or exercise authority or possession wrongfully The definition of usurp is very strong and I never real knew what the word meant So what happens next after we get in the way of Holy Spirit? Eventually, people fail to change and when they don't change then we create new judgments about why they are not changing. Then those judgments bring more pain and disappointment to our own lives. When we decide why they are not changing then we reach a verdict and begin our sentencing and then our judgment becomes reality.

Whew!!!!