Michael Harrison's e-devotion

Romans 15:7  NASB Therefore,   accept   one   another, just as Christ also   accepted us to the glory of God. One of the things that our church has tried to make sure is part of who we are and how we respond to others is in the area of being accepting and loving.  That is what Jesus did.  That means we should do it too. If we aren’t careful, we will turn from accepting people to judging them.  In fact some of the things we do, not spoken and very casual, will help us become more critical of others and less helpful.  Take a look at your feelings.  Get honest about the way you think of others when you see them out around town or when you see their posts on facebook. Let me remind you and me that we can inspect things. In other words when something looks like an apple it must be an apple, but that doesn’t mean we should turn away from people or treat them inferior.  This is how ...

When we deal correctly with lies, our own truth will change quickly.   But the choice is ours.   What will we believe?   What will we hold on to? Psalm 19:14   NASB Let the word s of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. Our heart, our beliefs guide all we do.   If we don’t believe there are consequences to our actions, we will act differently.   If we believe that there is some desired outcome, we will respond differently.   Our actions and our words are living billboards, announcers if you will, of what we believe in our hearts.   That is why we have to make sure our words help make people better, lift up instead of tearing down and demonstrate care and wisdom.   Words are intended to be used between people and to share thoughts, ideas and desire.   Yet when our words are full of poison or negative, the results will not be what helps everyone. Ephes...

Matthew 7:2   NLT For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. At the core of our church’s DNA and desire is to accept everyone we come in contact with.   That in no way means we agree with a person’s choice to live in sin, but we wholeheartedly want to demonstrate God’s love for every person we can. This is not the easiest thing to do and has been proven for centuries by the people who are part of the church as we draw lines, separate ourselves and look down on people who are not like us.   It might be that we sin differently (believing we are all sinners) or that we simply agree on a person’s choices (we are all entitled to our opinions). The final judge is God.   His truth/word to us is the Bible.   The only way we are to communicate this difference is to share in love (Ephesians 4:15) when we believe someone is living in sin.   That is why I have chosen to t...

1 Samuel 16:7   NASB But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart .” One of the places that I find myself, and you might as well, is looking at people and shaking my head.   That is when I don’t understand the decisions they make or the reason for the situation they are in.   On Facebook I saw this comment, “don’t judge my entire life book only based on the chapter you walked in on.”   That means it is hard to deal with people based on only a small portion of their life.   As humans we have a tendency to judge, to think we completely understand and more.   Often that is the place where I realize my job is simply to follow God in obedience and the love the people that I meet on my journey.   People shouldn’t judge me, and I should not judge them.   ...

Joy or sorrow.   Happy or sad.   Those seem to be the stance that most people take as they look at the people around them, but what I want to draw out attention to today is the fact that God is the one who ought to set our feelings as well as our faith. Too often we allow others to determine how we feel about ourselves and about life.   Take this a step further and notice that when we are not feeling good that taking our feelings out on others through our words or our actions is not a good thing.   When we aren’t happy with ourselves, it is easy to let that determine how we treat others. 1 Samuel 16:7   NLT … The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them.   People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart .” Jesus told us that some people will try to remove a small sin from another person’s life before removing the big sin from their own life.   That’s a bad deal.   By focusing on others we are drawn away f...

John 3:17   NLT God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world , but to save the world through him. The case is settled when it applies to Jesus.   He became a friend of sinners so that he could deal with sin in the most proactive way.   He takes sin, forgives sin and forgets our sin.   That makes Jesus not a judge, no ones judge. Since Jesus is our example to follow.   Far too often when our lives are off center or not focused on Jesus we become a judge.   It may seem innocent, but easily we become judge, jury and jailor when we look at the faults of the people we deal with.   That cannot be good. If we deal with people the way Jesus dealt with them, acceptance becomes our calling card.   It is my desire to err on the side of grace.   Loving people means that acceptance is a big deal to us. James 2:13   NLT There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to other s.   But if you have bee...