God of healing and wholeness, bless this dear reader with what it is s/he needs this day. Bless also the loved ones who need the same. In Christ Jesus' Name, amen.
I remember the times I awaited judgment. I knew I had done wrong. I had already been tried once by my mother, and her promise had been, "Wait until your father gets home!" Gosh, so early in the day yet, and I have to pass the rest of this glorious day with that cloud of doom following me around? I usually forgot that something awaited me until I knew it was getting to be the time of my dad's arrival. I especially knew it if I had hit my sister because she knew exactly what time to turn on the water works, then she would add the wails of pain and agony, and she would be the first to go and present my case before my dad.
Paul writes today about a greater judgment, if you can imagine that. It is a judgment that awaits those who care little or nothing about how they are living their lives away from God. In the passage from Romans 2:1-16 we read:
1 Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. 2 You say, "We know that God's judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth." 3 Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 For he will repay according to each one's deeds: 7 to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality. 12 All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God's sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. 15 They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them 16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.
I find verse six especially troubling, "For he will repay according to each one's deeds." Just prior to that Paul speaks of the "riches of (God's) kindness and forbearance and patience" yet we find it necessary to "despise" these? In other words, it's our choice. For all the bad and wicked things we may have done, God's love is such that God can and will forgive us. Yet, why is it that some of us still care little or nothing about asking to be forgiven and be made right in our relationship with the most high God? No one will escape judgment. Why choose to stand in line up therer awaiting the judgment of that which down here we could have avoided by simply asking to be made right with God.
PRAYER: Loving God, forgive me my sins and let me forgive those who have sinned against me. Make me right in our relationship. Let me be a person of solid thinking and right living. Let me be a blessing to others. Let me sow love in fields of hate. Let me sow peace in places of discomfort. Let me sow hope where people have none. Let me sow the life You have shared with me, with those who are dying. I ask this in Christ Jesus' powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord.
Eradio Valverde
