Shalom,
Psalm 86:5:
5 For You, O Lord, are good, and ready to forgive [our trespasses, sending them away, letting them go completely and forever]; and You are abundant in mercy and loving-kindness to all those who call upon You.
Our God is "good", the Hebrew word "towb", which means: good, better, best, pleasant, agreeable, excellent, rich, valuable in estimation, appropriate, happy, prosperous, bountiful, cheerful, joyful, gracious, kind, loving, merry, precious, beautiful. He stands READY to forgive! He WANTS to forgive us when we miss it! As always, the choice is ours! Use 1 John 1:9 and confess your mistakes and He WILL forgive! Then move on, getting to know Him more every day! Verse 15 is another encouraging verse about how ready He is to get us back into fellowship with Him!
15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness and truth.
There is no excuse for being out of fellowship with the One, True, Most High, Living, Almighty God of the Bible! He has made it SO easy! JUST DO IT!
Romans 14 is all about NOT judging other believers. Verse 4:
4 Who are you to pass judgment on an censure another's household servant? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he shall stand and be upheld, for the Master (the Lord) is mighty to support him and make him stand.
We will never find someone that we agree totally with over everything we find in the Word of God! It won't be until we all see HIM face to face that we will know where we have ALL missed it in our own interpretation of the Truth! In the meantime, celebrate our unity IN HIM, praying for each other! We cannot fail when we do things God's way!
Speaking of doing things God's way, Numbers 15-16 covers yet another time when the Israelites questioned Moses and Aaron, thereby questioning God Who called and anointed them! It has been very interesting to go over these things again in the Spoken Word Bible Reading Plan this year. It has really helped me to realize how very much we must depend on the Holy Spirit in order to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12)! Do we REALLY think we would have always done differently than they did? How many times do we get side-tracked or distracted from the things of God by our busy lives? And we DO have the Spirit of God living IN us! They DID NOT! Let's realize that we are of all people MOST BLESSED, and get about our Father's business with the freedom and joy that being in fellowship with Him brings! AMEN! Here is Hillsong's "We Will See Him"!
Shalom in Him!
