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Jeremiah 32-36

Read these now with the BIBLE READER to the right of this post or at http://www.bible.com/.

DON'T LOOK FOR SAWDUST

I know what you're probably thinking. "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, CARLY?"

Will you be patient for a while, please? I'll explain in a little bit.

Sometimes blame people for things. Once, I heard this girl complaining about her "awful ex-friend who said bad things about her behind her back."

I couldn't help but laughing a little, because that girl was talking about HER friend behind HER back! It's totally hypocritical. Take this for instance:

I go to a meeting and endorse these "Go Green" water bottles. I accuse someone of being bad for the environment when they turn down my product, and on the way home... I throw a bottle out the window of my car.

What's the point in that, right? There's no point in being two-faced. And yeah, I realize that I'd be a hypocrite if I don't admit that I sometimes do things I shouldn't. No one is perfect, so every one's had a little hypocrite in their life. That's mainly what the devotion is about today.

We shouldn't accuse someone of being a bad person if we share the same bad trait. We shouldn't persecute someone because of something we're holding them from. Does that make sense? In the Bible, God saved Israel out of the hands of Egypt. Remember that, a long time ago?

God saved all His people, and in today's reading, those same descendants were putting others in slavery. Pretty hypocritical, I think. They were saved out of slavery, and how do they react?

They enslave other people.

Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom for your fellow countrymen. So I now proclaim 'freedom' for you, declares the LORD -'freedom' to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make
you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth...
Jeremiah 34:17

Believe it or not, this happens still today. Maybe you don't literally enslave people, but have you ever taken something God gave you for granted? God gave us everlasting love, no matter what we do. So why are we hateful to others for minor things?

Cut people some slack! Don't be a hypocrite. Because God can take our freedoms away just as easily as He put them there.

Now. About the sawdust. A verse in the Bible, and something my dad quotes sometimes:

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Matthew 7:3

It's easy to point out faults in other people. But maybe we can see things more clearly if we take a good look at ourselves. Think on that.

Peace.

Comments

Granny said…
You are so right on Carly. It is easy to blame others for faults, when we have just as many, and should not be judging.
August 14, 2010 at 8:18 PM
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