What I've Been Pondering

Vermilion Meadow
by
Robert Striffolino

"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 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."
Luke 6:37&38 NIV
(cf.Matthew 7:1-5)

God has had me meditating on these verses for a couple of days now.I am sure,without a doubt,that there is a lesson in it for me to learn and live by.Jesus speaks very clearly here...If we want forgiveness we must forgive others.Do not judge others or we too shall be judged.Do not condemn others or we too shall be condemned.I have,at times,and more often than I care to admit,come across to others as judgmental and condemning.Sometimes the person involved told me that.Other times I was disciplined by God Himself on it.Having a strong sense of what's right and wrong can make a person come across that way.But I am learning that often times God wants me to be silent.To pray instead of preach.For me I must listen closely for that still small voice of His Holy Spirit.I must forgive when He says to forgive.I must not judge another.That is God's job.I must not condemn another for as long as there is life in that person there is hope that they can change and become the person God created them to be.To live in this way I must daily ask Him for mercy,compassion and forgiveness.It is then that I can offer it to another.

He then goes on to say give and it shall be given.Now I don't think He is saying we are to give so we can get.I think what He is saying that if we give we will get.Now it may not be in this life on earth.Or it may not be in the way we thought.But we will receive back in one form or another.I know for me often the gift I receive from giving is simply knowing I have listened to God and helped meet a need that was expressed in some form.We live in a world that is the opposite.Greed abounds.If giving is done it is done with mixed or impure motives.But God sees and knows our very hearts and why we do something.And I don't think He delights in impurity of motives anymore than impure behavior.He digs deep,this God we serve and love.He goes on to say that when the giving comes back to us it will be abundant.Pressed together.Good measure.Not paltry.Pressed down.This reminds me of when I bake cookies for our granddaughter Hope.The recipe always calls for firmly packed brown sugar.I add some to the measuring cup and tamp it down.I add more and press down more.It has to be firmly packed and has to be the right amount.So I keep adding and tamping until I have the right amount.This is what I see this verse as saying.That God will give to us a good measure,firmly packed.Running over.What a giving God we serve.What a mighty God we love.It takes faith.It takes hope and it takes commitment to Him.But we can do all things,ALL THINGS through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Blessings~Sharon