Sept 24

Luke 6:36-38

36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.
37 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.
38 Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”


The character on the children's television show Sesame Street often sang a song that went something like, "One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong." Viewers were supposed to pick out which item didn't belong in the group. Well, Big Bird's not here to sing for you (this is a pretty low-budget devotional), but let's play the game anyway. Ready? One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong. Which one is it? Cake Pie Pudding Motor oil One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong. Which one is it? Moses, Hootie and the Blowfish, Daniel, King David. One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong. Which one is it? Mercy, Kindness, Compassion, Unforgivingness. OK, so it's not as good as Sesame Street. But if you answered "unforgivingness" to that last question, you get the point: one of the main ways people fail to show mercy to each other is by refusing to forgive each other. Peter, one of Jesus' disciples, once asked Jesus, "How often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?" Jesus probably shocked Peter with his answer. "No!" Jesus replied, "seventy times seven!" (Matthew 18:21-22). The rabbis of Jesus' day taught that a person should be forgiven three times. But Jesus made it clear that we should never stop forgiving people. In many ways, mercy begins with forgiveness. If you refuse to forgive someone, then you are not showing mercy. Mercy means loving someone even when he or she has wronged you. Mercy means letting that person "off the hook." Mercy means letting go of your "right" to be mad or resentful. It's not always easy to forgive, of course. It's not always easy to show mercy. But it's always right.

REFLECT: Do you have a "forgiveness limit"? Is there someone you need to forgive? Perhaps there is someone you need to ask for forgiveness. "Lord, I'm sorry that I've had a hard time forgiving... Help me to show your mercy by..."

i am the type to forgive people easily once i clear my head, i dont really hold anything against them. however, if it is BIG then i find it hard to. God has forgiven us countless times for us and it isn't easy forgiving as easily as God. if we are forgiven for our sins from GOD, then why should we not forgive fellow humankind? we are all born as brothers and sisters of Christ...this reminds me of what Pastor Kye said at the retreat. he said that he hates when his children argue and fight, and so would God. in fact, God would hate it even more then our parents would when we fight with our blood related siblings. He has created us all and we treat others in a bias way from our own judgement.
that's it for now! have a great week!

Reminds me of the sahib that I hear all the time:
"treat others the way you want to be treated."

some people do good things just because the bible said so. But if we want to give freely with a pure heart, we must understand why we give.
Eversince I was little, I did things for rewards at my age it would be a ring pop, kinder suprise, you know.....etc. Even now I still do that. But god rewards later to those who don't just give because they have to, but because you want to. It's a bit confusing but I hope you get the point.

"keep on giving until it hurts!!!"

~Audrey~

38 Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”
this verse stood out to me alot because it is saying that whatever we give on earth, we will receive again in heaven. The last part really stood out to me "The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. This is really like inspiration because we know that whatever we do here on earth, we will gain more in heaven and we should really see the bigger picture instead of the short term happiness we get.

As well we have talked about this alot of how we shouldnt judge others. We dont know what the other person did, because he/she may have had a reason to kill or steal or etc... only can judge people because he can look into their hearts and we can only see their outside. Just like how we shouldnt judge a book by its cover we shouldnt judge a person by what they have done because we dont know the content to why that person did it.

I really got an important message from this devo.
My speed of forgiveness depends on my relationship with that person.
If I get into an argument with lets say, Audrey and Christine, I think for a bit and I realize I don't want to leave my Best friends that I've known for almost 11 years. It would be such a horrible waste to see our friendship die over one silly disagreement.
However, if I get into an argument with someone who I do not know very well, like an acquaintance, I really honestly don't care if we ever go back to good terms with each other. It's hard for me to swallow some of my pride and say "Sorry, I was wrong. Let's not argue."
I have a small moment where I think about apologizing and forgiving, but I instantly ignore that feeling and continue being bitter.
I should probably work on not holding grudges... and that is basically what I got out of the devo.
Good night!

Forgiveness...TOUGH to do and really important
Simply forgive because we would want to be forgiven
The significance of forgiving is because God forgave us first.
How can we expect to be forgiven if we don't forgive ourselves?
We'd just be taking but not giving then wouldn't we?
Everyone gets wronged at one point in their lives. It's how we choose to accept the wrong doings that matter.
Are we gonna hold that grudge and continue to be bitter people?
Or let those burdens go and do unto others as our father had done to us.

Sorry guys for not posting yesterday, slept over a friend's.

Anyone that is able to forgive is the strongest person that I know.
It's so hard for me, even to forgive family members.
Apart from Sarah, Its harder to forgive those that I know so well, but so easy to forgive those that I don't know much about.
I thought of this for a while.
I seem to forgive more often, as I am forgiven AND to be forgiven for my future sins by God.
I don't know if its the right way to roll because it seems really selfish, especially to my own feelings towards that person.
But He forgave us first, and as we're eternally saved, we should be able to forgive.
Easier said than done, obviously, but imagine all the pain that our God goes through.

Ugh, having a cold is honestly the worst....

Everything about treating others as you would want to be treated is obviously very important, but the thing I want to stress is that you have to do it for the right reasons! Don't think that by doing this is, you get the same done for you just like that.
Don't have selfish reasons for doing things for people.
God knows!

Personally forgiveness comes as an easy thing. Rarely do I find that I am holding a grudge against someone. But then that might all be because I don't care enough. Anywho, this devo goes over how important it is to keep level headed after, if not during any problems that occur with people. On the flip side of the fact that it's hard to keep me mad for a long time, I have a really short temper. That is something I wish I could change about myself. Inherited my short fuse from my mom, but somehow I have an even shorter one, so I'll be trying my best to restrict my temper but also to maintain my forgiveness to others.

What i got from this is that whatever you do, will backfire at you even if it is negative or positive.
36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.
37 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.

Also, the key message that the verses are trying to give is to forgive others.
We all have a forgiveness limit... but no matter how the situation might be to forgive someone, i think we should all be able to overcome that obstacle and forgive others no matter what.
Take God for example, we are sinners and forsake God, but He still loves us looks after us. We should be images of God.