Luke Chapter 6- Randy T

Verses 37-38:  " Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned . Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

If only we could take this to heart and believe it!  Just this weekend at Stone Mountain there was some type of confrontation between two groups with opposing views.If we could embrace what is said here, think how many problems would go away. Like so many lessons in the Bible, its easy to see how they should be applied to someone else, but that misses the point, the point is that they apply to me! And here, not only  do we have instruction ,but it comes with a guarantee- so why wouldn't I do this?  The other point here, its easy for me to think, well, I 'll just give to some charity, maybe some international charity, this isn't bad- but is it enough?  I think the not judging, not condemning, the forgiving, and the giving needs to be personal and close to us- we need to be a key player in the exercise. This is one of those verses I need to read daily, because I'm way too good at judging and condemning, I'm terrible at forgiving, and I just don't give enough to the people who are close to me.

Verses 46-49: "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? As for those who come to me and hear my words and put them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But those who hear my words and do not put them into practice are like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."

I have sat in thousands of church services and heard thousands of sermons. If the message is really, really good, it might impact my behavior for a couple of weeks, but not more than that. But I have been sitting in the these services for the wrong reason, like most, I've been going for the entertainment value, to do my duty of attending a one hour sermon weekly,  and maybe even give a little.  This text is clear, I'm to go and do, not to simply listen. Action is expected.I think it takes practice, to do the things God asks of us. I am a big fan of Alabama football, the coach for Alabama says he drive his teams extremely hard in practice, his goal it have them practice so much, that doing the right thing at the right time becomes habit or instinct. I think we (I) should aspire to the same goal.