Marching Through Madness Lance Ryan

Judge not is something that we are often told when we attend church or Sunday school but the reality is that the Bible is actually quite clear that while we are to not judge non-believers (for that is solely the job of God), we are in fact called to judge fellow believers from a place of grace and love to ensure that the church remains pure.

We are called to live as citizens of Heaven because ultimately that is what we are.  We are not of this Earth.  We need to live in a manner that is pleasing to our God and we need to live in a manner that shows others WHY God is a life-changing God.

Just like any other relationshop that we have, our relationship with God needs to be a two-way street.  We cannot simply receive his forgiveness and not give forgiveness to those who commit sins against us.  The Bible is very clear, we must forgive others in order to receive forgiveness from God.

Experts say that we live in a time where our mental, physical and emotional health take more of a beating than at any other point in human history.  That is why we need to remember that we are not the sins that we have committed and we are also not the sins that have been committed against us.  We need to learn to embrace the forgiveness from God and we need to learn to forgive ourselves and others as God has forgiven us.

God has called us to be completely different than the world around us.  To stand out.  We should do that in hopes of people wondering WHY we are different and WHAT had happened to make us different and most importantly WHO has made us different.God can and will transform you into a being that spreads his holy world all over the world.

Almost every single decision that we make in our lives is based upon joy.  Whether that is our personal joy as we look out for our own well-being, the joy of others as we do things for them or the joy of the Father as we follow his will and we follow his word and callings within our lives.  This week we will centre in on what makes God joyful and what makes us truly blessed here on Earth.  Perhaps, not shockingly, it runs counter culturally to what our flesh and the world call us to seek and desire.