The Word - as I see it

In church today, someone was giving the talk before communion and said "Do you believe that Jesus is your Lord and Savior?"  and he continued to say if not, maybe you shouldn't take the cup and drink or eat the bread.  He continued on, to add, "Do people around you think of you as a peacemaker? Do people around you respect you most?"  And while I think its important to in all circumstances as much as possible bring a peaceful energy, I don't think that having a relationship with Jesus will necessarily always mean that people will respect you.  Jesus was, after all, a rebel.  He called out the Pharisees and the scribes and was shunned by rulers.  Some people respected him and some people called him a fraud.  While I don't believe we are all in the same situation, we are followers of Jesus and this calls us to follow him even when others don't respect our choices.  (And sometimes we are in such a difficult place in our lives that the respect of othe...

God says " “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." Matthew 7, 1-5. Last night I had a rough night.  I have given up chocolate for lent (I'm realizing that I am more of a chocolate addict than I thought) and also i had gotten up early for work and I was tired from the day.  And while I was at a store buying something, I asked the cashier if I could return a kind bar because i didn't like the flavor.  He must've thought I had taken a bite out of it and wanted to return it because his response was "w...

  I am grateful for Lent today.  I've decided to give up chocolate and today is day 2! (I had a jumpstart yesterday!)  Giving up things reminds me to be humble and grateful and I believe this brings me closer to God.  There is a pretty well known saying from the bible from Matthew 23-11.  It reads like this -  "The greatest among you shall be your servant.  12 For   whoever   exalts   himself   will be humbled,   and   whoever   humbles   himself   will be exalted.   13 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.…" Its pretty clear, right? But is it really that clear in our understanding? Okay, its clear that if we put ourselves on a pedestal and we do things to honor ourselves in the way of putting ourselves above God, then we will be humbled.  Humbled, to me, means we wi...

 One of the most interesting moments in the bible is in Mark 2, 3-12.  Men bring a paralytic to Jesus to be cured.  They could not bring the man right to Jesus because of the crowd so they removed a roof above Jesus and lowered a stretcher on which the paralytic was lying.  "When Jesus say their faith, he said to the paralytic: 'Child, your sins are forgiven.'  Now some of the scribes were there, sitting and reasoning in their hearts: 'Why is this man talking this way? He is blaspheming.  Who can forgive sins except one, God?' But immediately Jesus discerned by his spirit that they were reasoning that way among themselves, so he said to them: 'Why are you reasoning these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven' or to say 'Get up and pick up your stretcher and walk?' But in order for you to know that the Son of man has authority to forgive sins on earth-' he said to the paralytic: 'I say to...