Frost

This morning I walked out of my apartment to find my car. It was a cold crisp morning, the fresh air felt amazing, as it hit my face I knew it would be a good day. God has given me a new day to live, to breath, to express my gratitude to Him and for Him.

I found my car and climbed in and on the windows the frost covered them. Not a heavy fronts, but heavy enough. Yes, I could get out of the car to scrape the windows or I could sit there and let the defrosters do there job. I sat there and watched as the frost melted from the window. The first layer that melted was the thick stuff and the hard to see through layer, the second was the layer that if you run the wipers, it just wipes it away.

As I sat there I was reminded how it is easy to let life cloud our thoughts, it starts off slow as I am sure that frost did, it didn't just attach the whole window at once, it slowly covered the window. Just as in our lives it doesn't happen all at once but things start to creep in, they start to slowly invade who God has made us, they start to make it harder and harder to see the truth. It would be like me trying to drive with the frost covered windows. You are right that is crazy, but that is how we can live each day, unless we allow God to work in us.

It takes time to allow the frost to melt, layer by layer, inch by inch, but it melted. God is just the same way as those defrosters, He will melt away the frost that clouds our vision, but we have to turn on the defroster, we have to say Lord, please let me see through this garbage that has built up in my life. It comes down allowing Him to work. Stop looking for the scraper and ask God to be the defroster. Allow Him to work in you.

He love us so much. He sent His son to die for our sins. He has gone before us and prepared away for us, but first we have to trust Him. Is it time to ask Him to clear our windshields, to clear are windows so we have a clear view of Him and a clear view of ourselves? Isn't it time we not see ourselves as the world does, but as Jesus does?

Today take a moment and see that you are loved, not for your past, but for who you are. Allow Jesus to wash your heart clean as snow (not including our toxic snow...). But allow Him to make you new. I was reminded of a verse and a song.

The verse is: 2 Corinthian 5:16-17
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!
And the song: Hold Me Jesus

Well, sometimes my life
Just don't make sense at all
When the mountains look so big
And my faith just seems so small

CHORUS:
So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

And I wake up in the night and feel the dark
It's so hot inside my soul
I swear there must be blisters on my heart

CHORUS

Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight You for something
I don't really want
Than to take what You give that I need
And I've beat my head against so many walls
Now I'm falling down, I'm falling on my knees

And this Salvation Army band
Is playing this hymn
And Your grace rings out so deep
It makes my resistance seem so thin

CHORUS

You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

A Song for the day

33 MILES

Jesus Calling

What do you see when you look at your world today?
Is it so full of clutter that you feel like you're going insane?
And you can't fight back 'cause you're just too afraid
And it seems like the clouds in your sky don't wanna change

You see there's always another story, another side to every coin
And how you see your circumstance is all about a choice

When you see the rushing wind, feel the pouring rain
Hear the thunder now as the clouds roll in
You're blinded by the lightning
Do you also hear that still, small voice saying?

"It's okay, you're not alone
You may be scared to death but I won't let you go"

You may think the sky above is falling
But can you hear Jesus calling?

What do you see when you look at your world today?
Do you see a glimmer of hope or has it all turned to gray?
Well, start by counting your blessings one by one
And I'm sure right there, you'll start to see the sun

You see there's always another story, another side to every coin
And how you see your circumstance is all about a choice

When you see the rushing wind, feel the pouring rain
Hear the thunder now as the clouds roll in
When you're blinded by the lightning
Do you also hear that still, small voice saying?

"It's okay, you're not alone
You may be scared to death but I won't let you go"
You may think the sky above is falling
But can you hear Jesus calling?

Oh, calling out to you
Because the darker the night, the brighter He can shine

When you see the rushing wind, feel the pouring rain
Hear the thunder now as the clouds roll in
When you're blinded by the lightning
Do you also hear that still, small voice saying?

"It's okay, you're not alone
You may be scared to death but I won't let you go"
You may think the sky above is falling
Well, you may think the sky above is falling

But can you hear Jesus calling?
He's calling, He's calling
Calling out to you

Judging

What is judging?
judge
noun

• a public official appointed to decide cases in a court of law.
  synonyms: justice, magistrate, sheriff, jurist
• a person who decides the results of a competition or watches for infractions of the rules.
  synonyms: adjudicator, arbiter, arbitrator, assessor, evaluator, referee,ombudsman, ombudsperson, appraiser, examiner, moderator, mediator
• a person able or qualified to give an opinion on something.
  synonyms: adjudicator, arbiter, arbitrator, assessor, evaluator, referee,ombudsman, ombudsperson, appraiser, examiner, moderator, mediator

verb

• Form an opinion or conclusion about.
  synonyms: form the opinion, conclude, decide;
• decide (a case) in court.
  synonyms: try, hear;
• give a verdict on (someone) in court.
  synonyms: adjudge, pronounce, decree, rule, find
• decide the results of (a competition).
  synonyms: adjudicate, arbitrate, mediate, moderate

Is it alright for me to size someone up and make a ruling on who they are based on their looks, their beliefs, their sexual orientation, etc. The more I looked at what I do, the more I realized just how hypercritical I was being. I was basing my thoughts, my judgments on that person on their outward appearance, I can't see their heart, I can't see their struggles, I can't know the pain they have, just because they believe differently doesn't mean I am any better then them. But Jesus calls us to love one another. If I was judging that person how can I love them.

I realized the more I judge them, the more I was going to be judge. If I judged them on their looks, know what that means I will be judged on my looks. If I judge according to their beliefs, I would be judged according to mine, I tended to say it was alright to say this, because I was a Christian, but guess what I still bleed the same as them, Jesus laid down His life for everyone, not just the ones that would chose Him, but for all sin in this world. He calls us to absolute surrender, to stop making judgments on others, but to love them just as He did and does.

How dare I put myself before someone else. We are to walk and live according to how Jesus lived. My prayer was to make me more like you Lord, but when it came time to do that, I want my way. I have to tell people they are sinning, but is that my responsibility? It surely isn't mine when I have logs in my own eyes. How can I be the one to help someone when I fall daily, when I am blinded by my own logs?

I believe our call is to love the wounded, to bring food to the hungry, to love even the ones that are lost, because when we have done so and someone asks what makes us different then the ones that spit in their faces, what makes us the way we are. The answer isn't that I am better then you because I am a Christian, it is because Jesus has called me to lay down my life for even those lost.

I will tell you a story. I help a college professor, he is retired now. He is a homosexual, now if he is practicing who knows, not my concern. He worked for a christian college and went to church. He asked the church ministry group to help him move out of his upstairs apartment. They came and based on who he was, the clutter he lived in and many other things, well they where less then best. I was asked to help him, instead of rushing out of their based on the filth God called me to go above and beyond. Yes it was a struggle, it wasn't easy, but I heard God say that my reward wouldn't be here on earth, but in Heaven. This man was hurt by the men's group that had come in and judged him and the lesson wasn't in the judgments of his life style, but on how God calls us to love just as Jesus loves the sinners.

It is so easy to judge, but so much harder to love without judging.

Before I wrote this I read many others things and I stumbled across one blog that said we have to judge in every day life, it is just part of us. We judge the distances cars, or if someone is turning right or left and I realized that we are not talking about that, but the judgement that we place on others based on what they are, or who they are. I also read one that stated that judging is actually a way to make us feel better in our own views, religious choices, etc...

I want to challenge you to take the Geoff challenge. I am working on this myself. Love even the ones that we have judged in the past, not based on our thoughts, but based on what Jesus has called us to do. Love them right where they are at. Love them without judgement, let God minister to their heart, you just love them based what Jesus has called us to despite their past, despite what they have done, despite there sexual choices, despite what they wear, love them as Jesus does.

The choice is yours, either you allow Jesus to change your perspective on others or you do what you have done all along. Isn't it high time that we allow God to turn up the heat in our own lives to purify us.

Matthew 7:1-3

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 

2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

A thought this morning

This morning I am reminded of how life can throw us a loop. We are expecting spring and boom we get hit with over 6 inches of snow. We prepare for things and expect things to only have it get turned upside down. The lessons in this are huge, take for today for what we have, don't get lost in worry about tomorrow, for it will be here soon enough. Enjoy the beauty that God has given us, see it for what it is instead of expecting to change it or for it to change. Take each step and see it for a new step, a new way, take today for what God has given you and stop looking for it to change.

It all comes down to choices. Yes your choices. I have been reminded that days are what we make them. If we get up on the wrong side of the bed, make a choice that the day is God's not ours. I can only imagine that some days will be more difficult then others, but if we put Jesus first in all we do, how can the day be bad? When we change our thinking to this guy is really difficult, a pain and it is difficult to deal with him and we ask ourselves what would Jesus do? Do you think He would yell at the guy or love them?

We are to quick to jump at others, back down and remember what would Jesus do in this situation. I am reminded of this every single day at work. It is a choice, get yelled at we want to yell back, we want to hurt them how they hurt us, but is that the right way to respond? No, because Jesus says turn the other cheek. Isn't it time we did the same?

Our time is now, because Jesus says walk as He did and does. We are to love, not to hate, not to teach hate, but to teach love, to teach that Jesus wants everyone, but it comes down to choices. It comes down to the plain example of what Jesus did to the tax collector, or what about the woman that was going to be stoned for her sins? He knew she was a sinner and she said let only those who have not sinned throw the first stone. What does that say for us today?

Maybe we need to step back and see what the greatest commandment is? Isn't it to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and then the second one is to what? It is to love your neighbor as yourself. It is to love them, it doesn't mean we have to agree with them, but it does mean we have to love them with Jesus's love. People dislike this teaching, because it goes against what some say in the church, but what is more important, what Jesus says, or what the church says?

We need to remember those we disagree with, to pray for, to lift up before God and see how He wants us to deal with them. Stop reacting and start praying.

A song to think about in lines with this.

Degarmo And Key – Casual Christian Lyrics
Play Song On Your Computer
It's more than a wish, more than a daydream
More than just a passing whim
Yes, I've said this all before
A thousand times or more
I don't wanna waste my life in chains of sin

CHORUS

I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be a casual Christian
I don't wanna live, I don't wanna live a lukewarm life
But I wanna light up the night
With an everlasting light
I don't wanna live the casual Christian life

This life is filled with strong distractions
With pulls from the left one from the right
I've already made up my mind
Gonna leave this world behind
Gonna live my life a living sacrifice.