I have been in church all of my life!  I have been fortunate because most of my church experiences have been positive and for the ones that were not, the Lord allowed me to see things as I really need to see them, so that I would not get to frustrated and quit.  I love the church!  Not the buildings that we see peppered all across our country.  I love the church – God’s idea and concept!  What many of us call a church today is not really a church – not according to God and His plan!  The church is the body of Christ and this means that it is made up of men, women, boys and girls that have received Him into their heart as Savior and Lord.  The people that make up the church are not perfect, but we are forgiven and because we are forgiven, we are working, living and learning to become what God has created us to be.

Because I am forgiven – I am motivated to forgive and not judge others!  When one of us becomes perfect, then we can think about being a judge.  But when one of us become perfect, it won’t be because of what we’ve done, but because of what God has done in and through us.  So even when I get across the perfection life – I still want be qualified to judge.  I guess I’ll just keep living my life, not worrying about others, what they are doing and what they are thinking.  I’ll live my life and enjoy the forgiveness that God has given me and be thankful that He keeps giving me chances to get it right!

My office is filled with books – I would not even venture a guess as to how many.  One of the questions that I am frequently ask by visitors is:  “Have you read all of these books?”  To which I reply – “I have read some of most of them!”  At any given time you can catch me reading about five books.  I have books located all around the house, so that I can pick one up and get in a few pages.  I am not a great reader of books.  I enjoy reading, but the truth is – reading is something that I have to make myself do!

I was thinking about all of the books that God has blessed me with and it got me to thinking about the saying:  “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover!”  The fact is:  You can’t judge a book by it’s cover, but many people do!  We take one look at the outside and make a determination without giving any regard to what is on the inside!  I am not sure why we do this – I think it is probably laziness on our part, or maybe just the fact that judging someone else as inferior causes us to feel a little more important than we really are!  Whatever it is – we need to stop judging and start reading – we might just learn something!

By the way – I’m not really talking about books here, and if you thought I was, you mis-judged me!  Read, change and grow this week and just enjoy what God can do to and through you!