Jesus's Journey, Part Seven

Matthew 7

Judging Others

 ¹ “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? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
   ⁶ “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Ask, Seek, Knock

    ⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
   ⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

The Narrow and Wide Gates

    ¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

True and False Prophets

    ¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

True and False Disciples

    ²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

The Wise and Foolish Builders

    ²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
 ²⁸ When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹ because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

Jesus

  In concern to judging others. . I have troubles with this from time to time. I have learned to judge with mercy. This is not the only part in the Bible that says you will be judged with the same measure that you have judged others with. Our human nature is to judge or analyze things. However we are able to control our actions as well as where our mind goes when we see/hear things. With practice we are all able to change habits.

 ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

This applies in every aspect of every one's lives. Please take a moment to remind yourself of this everyday.

Jesus fish symbol

    ¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

I am reading this and it reminds me of an old saying:
"The things that are easy, are not worth it. The things that you have to work for, are the things you need to strive for."
I am sure many people have said this many different ways. The mesage is still the same no matter how it is phrased. You don't want the easy road, that anybody can clearly see, the road to distruction. It would be most benificial for us all to search for the smaller road that you have to look for, that you have to work towards. Our faith and prayers are very powerful. Keeping your faith is working towards this smaller road. Anybody can dismiss their faith and anybody can take the easy road. Anybody can let the evil within themselves engulf their mind as well as their actions. Let us all continuesly try to let the Lord and his word prevail against the appareant evil that sarounds us all. It is an every day struggle yet one of the most important struggles of our human lives. .

   ¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Let's think of what 'fruit' you can see in false prophets..
Have you ever gotten one of those pamplets that is for a non Christian religon? It's usaully real shiney and bright colors of inspirational pictures placed in optimal viewing spots.. The words seem to flow naturaly, you're not hating reading this. Then you realise you don't run across something. Jesus Christ, our saviour, was humiliated, beaten, crucified, places in the tomb, resurected and bruaght back up to heaven..
PLEASE, I beg you all to understand this fully. Search in your heart. Feel the truth in these events.

 ²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

What a powerful and important mesage here. We must not only say things. We must do things as well, remembering that it's benifical to only do things with a whole heart and not just for others to see that we are doing it..

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

Where would you consider your foundation to be on right now, at this very moment?
Sometimes we might think we have our foundation on the rock, but we don't. Have you found yourself stressing out about your job or your bills or not being able to buy something you really wanted or not having a ride some where or the way people are treating you?
If your foundation was truly on the rock, you would laugh at silly materialistic junk. You would walk away from fools that Jesus says not to waist our time on.
I know a lot of people say, I have to worry about my job so I can keep my house, car and phone. First, it is obviously benificial to be cautious as well as consistant with our jobs.
 That is seperate from worrying about it.
When we truly believe, in our hearts as well as our minds, that the Lord will provide for you. That our lives are truly in his hands.. Then there is no reason to be stressed out about things that simply do not have relavence in the BIG PICTURE. The long run. Not mere instant gratification(easy raod).
 Let us all emerge ourselves into focusing on the things that pertain to our relationship with the Lord. I truly believe that when you work on your relationship with the Lord with a cencere heart, all other aspects (jobs, bills, relationships ect...) fall into place.
This will happen as a result of living your life in the way the Lord had inteded as well as doing things more intintionaly. You will find that when you are sencere about searching for the truth, you will start to see people as God sees them. Therefor you will do and say things more intintionaly. This is blissful, no chaos. Imagine, peace of mind..

Jesus in Prayer

 ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

This is the other side of my belief. When we lie to ourselves and think our foundation is on the rock(our faith is in God), when really our faith is in something far from the Lord, we will be told so when we meet our maker. You can lie to yourself, you can lie to other pepole yet you can never lie to God. That is who's opinion we need to focus on, not even our own opinions of ourselves matter next to the Lords.

 ²⁸ When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹ because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.


I pray for us all to be more intintional in the things we say and do.

                                      Stephie

P.S. Someone did their 'homework' and sent in some wonderful qoutes. This is one of those qoutes:

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
-Albert Einstein