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May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit Rom 15:13 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Thursday, September 11, 2025
Today's Passage : Today's Passage:I Came Not to Judge the World, but to Save It BibleVerse:John 12:44-50 (ESV) "And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” " Message:
One of the biggest criticisms of Christians and Christianity by non-Christians is that they are judgmental. People are very sensitive to perceived criticism, and it makes them defensive. And all too often, the criticism is justified. I'm human. I get angry at people who do bad things and I condemn them. Sometimes I feel like I hate them.
But Christians are not morally superior to anyone. If that sounds disturbing, let me repeat it: Christians are not morally superior to anyone. An attitude of moral superiority is diametrically opposite to Christ’s teachings.
Oil painting of penitent girl-right|Pietro Rotari +
The Penitent
Pietro Rotari (1750)
Judgment for sin is God’s sole right. Yes, people who do not avail themselves of God’s grace will face eternal darkness, or hell, or damnation, or however you might picture the fate of the unsaved after the death of their body. But this is the natural order of mankind. By our nature every one of us has sinned, again and again, and are doomed to eternal darkness when our bodies die. The Bible tells us it is impossible for us to live a life without sin.
When Christ says that he came to save, not to judge, we might think that there was nothing for Him to judge. Everyone was “guilty.” Christ came to show us a way out, a way to avoid the darkness that every human faced at the time of death. He didn’t come to criticize some people and not others; He came to tell us that we are all in the same boat. Murderer and holy man, street thug and soccer mom—all of us are sinners.
Being a better person is, hopefully, one effect of taking Christ into our hearts, but it is not the cornerstone of what it means to be a Christian. We cannot become perfect; we fall short of the glory of God, and all of us are doomed by our sin. So when Christ said, “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world,” about all we can say in our favor is that we have been smart enough, or blessed enough, to accept the gift of grace that Christ brought to us. It does not make us morally superior to our neighbors who have not accepted the gift, because a feeling of moral superiority is itself a sin: the sin of pride.
Meditation : “Satan wants us to underestimate the compassion of Christ.” Prayer : And now, as a little child, let me abide in you all this day, oh Christ, so that when you appear I may have confidence and not shrink from you in shame at your coming. For I know that you are righteous, and I am sure that I will be made righteous only by my life in you......Amen. |
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