#condemn

Condemn

"No doubt the arbiters would put you away, after all the documents are signed. But I will have justice now." —Alovnek, Boros guildmage

Minnesota residents with loved ones who died at the hands of police spoke out Thursday about the state Republican Party holding a public prayer for Derek Chauvin, the former police officer in prison for murdering George Floyd. “You all had the opportunity to honor fallen soldiers or children who lost their lives,” said Courteney Ross, Floyd’s girlfriend and who was visibly emotional through…

What would you do, if you had all the time and help and resources that you needed to succeed?

Who could you be, if you knew you couldn’t fail?

It’s a classic thought exercise. One that can be truly eye-opening - if you take it seriously.

Because if you really spend some time with it, you can learn a lot about who you really are.

Depending on where you are in life, what you’ve been through and what you’re dealing with, it can also be incredibly hard to do.

Because when a lot has happened to you – especially when you’ve done a lot of it to yourself – it can be hard to not let those things shape you. When they do, it can be hard to see past them, even if it’s just for a thought exercise.

The thing is, no matter how hard it is for us to see past the things that have happened to us, no matter how long it’s been since we’ve seen who we really are, none of that matters to God.

As Jesus shows us in today’s Gospel (with the woman caught in adultery), when God looks at us, God always sees who we could be.

No matter what has happened to us – even if we’ve done it to ourselves – God never loses sight of who we really are.

More importantly, God doesn’t look at who we could be, then compare it to where we are now so that He can remind us of how far off the mark we are.

God wants to lift us up. To help us become who He made us to be. If we’ll let Him.

This is what’s behind it all. This is why He says to her,

“Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”

God sees us where we are now. But God never loses sight of who we could be.

God meets us where we are. And loves us too much to leave us there.

For God So Loved

16 God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. — John 3:16-17 | God's Word Translation (GWT) The Holy Bible, God’s Word® Translation Copyright 1995 by God’s Word to the Nations Mission. All rights reserved. Cross References: Genesis 22:2; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:18; John 3:18; John 3:34; John 3:36; John 3:40; John 5:36; John 5:38; John 6:29; John 6:38; John 6:57; John 7:29; John 11:25

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Thoughts on Today's Verses… God is not the big Scrooge in the sky, critically looking down on his flawed children waiting to condemn those who mess up. Instead, he saw how broken, flawed, and messed up we were and entered our world to save it… to save us. God's purpose in sending Jesus is our life and our salvation.