paravanes:meditations

 "Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand." -- Romans 14:4. "Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way." -- Romans 14:13  It's pretty simple: if you are a Christ follower, you must disqualify yourself from judging other Christ followers. Feel free to give advice (if advice is requested).  If you feel a fellow believer has "missed God", pray for their restoration. That's where your authority ends. Because you cannot guarantee another person's salvation, you cannot judge them or where they are on their path. Because you cannot cancel another person's salvation, you are not qualified to judge their salvation.  Relax.  As the Apostle Paul writes: "Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification

This is an encore post, originally published in September of 2018. I believe these ideas are still relevant and important because, at this time, many people are praying more than they have ever prayed. Some of the prayers are made in desperation, others in faith, others as a last ditch effort to make things work out favorably. As you can imagine, everyone will not receive everything they ask for. What does it all mean? Are prayers always answered? Continue reading... **************************** Yes, your prayers are always answered. How can you be certain of this? You can be certain because God invites us to pray and God never invites us into a meaningless, useless experience. Not only does God invite us to pray, but during his time here, Jesus gave direct, easy to understand instructions to his disciples who wanted to know how to pray. Jesus begins his instructions by saying "Pray like this..." Note that he doesn't tell the disciples to say the exact words he spoke. He

 This isn't one of the Ten Commandments. You won't find a distinct directive to "honor the body" anywhere in the Old or New Testament, except for Paul's directive to avoid sexual relationships not protected by a covenant.  These books were written in a time when most people did a lot of physical work or manual labor.  Overeating wasn't a option unless you were very wealthy. Food was not readily or easily available for most people in the ancient world. Maintaining your home, fields, work place, finding and preparing food, making and repairing clothing and similar tasks involved physical work and took most of your waking hours. The average person had very little leisure time. For many of us who live in North America or certain other parts of the world, we have a different problem. Our work often involves little movement, or involves a single solitary and repetitive movement in a shop or on an assembly line. Perhaps we work in offices or classrooms where most of