There’s a Latin phrase that’s appropriate as an introduction to my commentary today and it is SUI GENERIS. It simply means “unique genre” or “one of a kind”. In essence it is saying that every one of us has a unique relationship with God and only God knows what that is so get off my back and quit judging myself and others. God knows! You don’t! 
None of us knows the true background of another.
A person may do something traumatic because of a brain disorder. Another my act out of very serious wounding while another can’t get the chemical balance of their hormones right. So, BACK OFF! In fact, it’s really not our place to be JUDGE. What could make us think we’re capable of judging another or would even want to………other than our religious bias and training?
We need to be very cautious that we don’t try to ADD things to GRACE!
Our relationship to the Christos must be without supplementing THINGS about the Christos. When a pastor, priest, or minister begins telling us what we need to ABSTAIN from as a means of getting our relationship with God right, he’s entered dangerous territory and we’re about to become the victims thereof. You mean that it’s wrong to preach the Ten Commandments?
Absolutely not!
However didn’t Jesus take us to a higher level when he said that what LIFE really comes down to is loving God and loving your neighbor? Isn’t the central theme of the Gospel to BE LOVE and to give love OUTRAGEOUSLY! God is love. We are His children. We ARE love whether we recognize and demonstrate it or not. But when we start THINKING that warning people about things that we see in their lives (other than those very, very close to us) that are destructive IS LOVE, we’ve missed it and we’re partaking from the Tree of Good & Evil.
The Gospel according to OUR TREE!
Give it up!
Maybe we cant truly have grace for others until we accept it for ourselves. Ive heard it say we can forgive others but not ourselves. Maybe not as I’ve thought about it all week. It is stupid to be hard on ourselves. When we do that, it’s another way of thinking how we did before we knew him, like saying we’re wise and God is foolish. Like God did it all wrong, or he couldnt possibly have meant it this way…
Grace is a HUGE gift, and at times we’re so used to it we might not even notice it’s there. Some of us still have trouble with accepting it. Its not rebellion or stubborn or hard hearted, it is really just not understanding yet. Still, grace all over us. We’re covered in grace like a big blanket spread out on a sleeping baby. A was baby can’t pull a blanket around it when it gets cold. Learning to love ourselves (accepting GRACE) is being aware that someone came in during the night, while we were cold and asleep and covered us up. Waking up feels kinda good when you’re warm. Maybe my problem at times, is I quit being childlike and thought I should be able to keep myself warm. I vaguely remember being 4 years old, and in middle of night feel my mom or dad, put an extra blanket on me or sometimes laying my coat on top of my blanket. Because I had been asleep, I didnt realize how cold it had been, but I became conscious a little when I felt the added warmth.
Maybe I can kick the covers off in my sleep, but I can never get away from his grace. Being warmed under grace is my true nature.
Great post Ernie! This immediately reminded me of when I met Lyn at Diamond Shamrock and how she felt she was sent by God to “save me”. She was. Just not in the way she thought. And the laughs we had when she found out i was a Christian already. I know it made her doubt than that she heard wrong, but she DIDN’T. I didn’t even know it THAN that I was just hiding and being secret about my christianity for fear that some Christians will attack me and tell me AGAIN that i am doing something wrong, or not doing enough to get my healing. Huh? And to think that i believed what “they” were saying and therefore created an unhealthy reality. What freedome when I was FINALLY showed what God intended Christians to Show. LOVE. Not JUDGEMENT! And boy did i turn my life around……
So yes…. Lyn was sent to save me all right. She was sent to SHOW me the real thing I needed in my life which I never had before. She was right on target following Gods plan to bring me to LEARNING to accepting LOVE, to ALLOWING Him to continue to grow me in becoming the person I AM INTENDED to be. I am greatful that she wasn’t “on my back” with judgements and this is the way you “should” do things. She was there to do the real Christian way. LOVE me for who I was, what I was, through what I was, and is still HERE NOW to just LOVE ……. Like a parent or friend and most DEFINITELY a TRUE CHRISTIAN should. No judgements. No consequences….. No ones expectations to meet…. Just purely LOVE. So thanks Lyn for allowing God to send you and show His LOVE through you even when you got tired of the coffee
I know that judgements of myself and others surely does make for a heavier backpack than necessary. Matter of fact, like what Jane mentions above, I have not realized how much extra weight I have been carrying around until it is gone; in other words, until I have forgiven myself, others, and cease to try to be the HS for others….
I am enjoying the growing space of grace and all of its beautiful “lace”! What is the lace you ask? Well, it is all of those wonderful and magnificent details of life, people, and therefore God that I missed before b/c I was so anxiously focusing on the wrong things and moving to quickly to slow down, lose the frown, and stop and look around!
I am grateful for our God, the ever guiding Spirit, who is allowing us to find his prescence in all things and people!
To live and let live is so beautiful. Not only setting others free of your judgments but setting yourself free. I was harder on me than anyone else. I thought God required so much of me. That old to whom much is given much is required. Now I feel like I gave myself completely away and it has taken me the last four years to discover what I really want. And I am not denying myself much. Now don’t get religious on me. “You are to deny yourself daily”. I am denying that old self with all of your rules and boxes inside of boxes to reveal a new free confident female who lives life in a faster lane and allows the I AM to express itself through her to show unconditional love and acceptance by simply being vunerable and transparent herself. When you live like this you get lots of times to excercise forgiveness because people will not always understand. But it is OK! You see I have been set free of caring what others think of me. People pleasing is a tormenting ordeal. Enjoy who you are and allow others to enjoy who they are even if they don’t know who that is yet. Did that make sense
Medatation brought about by this article.-Love has a chance to be found almost anywhere. But truth is most often in the most uncomfortable of places and might take the better part of grace.-
There was an across the way neighbor of mine named Angel, whom has Cerebral Palsy and would ask for my help often. On one of those occasions while in his apartment I found myself singing a commercial jingle from my childhood. Do you remember the old Latter Day Saints commercial where there was a man under a dark bridge with his flashlight shining on his face. It went something like ‘You tell one lie it leads to another, and you tell two lies to cover each other, then you tell three lies oh brother…..’ each time he sang a new line the man under the bridge would multiply. And even though I liked those Latter Day Saint’s commercials that one scared the daylights out of me. For years afterwards didn’t like it when people held flashlights in there hands for fear they’d start singing that song. But on one occasion I found myself singing that song and asking Angel if he remembered it. I remember him not recieving the prompt to the memory well, although he recognized it and wondered why? Later on that day a couple of his friends on separate occasions came up to me and told me not to hang out with him for he had lied unto them. I had no idea of the backlog with Angel and his friends, niether really did I want to know nor did it change my relationship with him. But it did enlighten myself on how God works through us in many ways unbeknownced to us. In all things be blessed.