Quote from Forum Archives on March 21, 2005, 10:49 am

Posted by: bigguyhereagain <bigguyhereagain@...>

"Don't Judge"

 

 
I watched a local church service on TV recently and I would like to share with you the story that was told. The pastor, Dr. Flamming, spoke of a Sunday where an infant cried during almost the entire sermon.

 

The mother sat up front and her crying child was very distracting to him. The only time it was quiet was when she breast fed the baby. Right there in church...during the sermon...a televised sermon!

 

It is common place to see public breast feeding in many countries but to see it happening in church during a sermon was shocking to say the least. Since the child was so disruptive, many had started paying attention to her and had witnessed this spectacle.

 

Can you imagine what you would of thought and felt if you had been in the congregation that day? I would of been annoyed and shocked to say the least. I imagine many tongues were wagging and judgement was being passed.

 

The child's mother came forward for prayer and when she did, as Paul Harvey says, you got the rest of the story. Come to find out she was staying at the Ronald McDonald house. The next morning her child was to have a life threatening surgery and she wanted to have him in church to be near God and to have her child prayed for.

 

Does knowing this change your thoughts and judgement about this mother? It did mine. All to often we jump to judge a person or situation when we don't have the whole story. We need to remember that God is in control and only he can sit in judgement.

 

The annoying people around you, the ones that shock you, may be there because they need you. Don't sit in judgement and miss an opportunity to help them. Had this church asked a deacon to quietly go to this mother and ask her to take the child out, she would not of had the support and prayer she and her child so desperately needed.

 

Don't close the door on your heart. Don't sit in judgement. You might be turning away one in need. You might be turning your back on a blessing meant for you. Don't close the door that God opens. Walk through it and take those around you with you.
From Shirley

 

 

"DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT"

 

 

 There are five qualities of friendship.

 

1. Harmony. We are to be of one mind, not necessarily singing
the same note, but complimenting one another.

 

2. Sympathy. We hurt when friends hurt. The world is looking
for friends like this.

 

3. Fraternity. We are to love one another like brothers.
There is no brotherhood, like the brotherhood in Jesus Christ.

 

4. Pity. If you want to be a real friend, you're going to have
to feel deeply. You'll need to put yourself in the place of the
other person.

 

5. Humility. Genuine courtesy is thinking of the other person's
needs before your own. You are less concerned with your rights,
and more concerned about the relationship. Begin to develop
these characteristics of friendship in your life and watch God
change your world!

 

ACTION POINT: Are you lonely and in need of a friend? Ask
God to build these characteristics in your life and to lead you
to someone with whom you can be a friend. Then, be a friend.
In your weakness, He will show Himself strong.

 

 

Have a Blessed Day

Dave and Barbara

 

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