Dear God,
So many sides to you. Judgment and wrath, kindness and patience. (Even tolerance, which some don't believe! Ok, it's to a point...) Basically what I need to work on is not judging people, and letting you do the work. Persist in good, and gear up for battle day. Aka today. Woot!
Love,

Romans 2:1-11
You,
therefore, have no excuse, you who pass
judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is
based on truth. So when you,
a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you
show contempt for the riches of his
kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that
God's kindness leads you toward repentance?
"Therefore"- (Looking to Romans 1) All men do evil. Even you. So therefore you can't judge others, because you do the same things yourself. If you judge someone else about something, then you're judging yourself for the same things. Then you say, "But I've never murdered anyone or done drugs, but this man has!" --but if you hate someone, you've murdered them in your heart. If you have gone to things other than God--like an idol--for happiness, you've done the same as that man.
"Judgment"-to form a judgment or opinion of; decide upon critically. This one is the one Paul's talking about. All the other definitions give the idea of trying your best to judge fairly, looking at the evidence, etc. But most of the time, when we judge people in our minds, it's based on very little evidence, and what mood we were in when we first met them, etc. Hardly ever is it based on truth or objectiveness. Sometimes we think we're allowed to judge people, especially if it's someone on the news that have done something really bad, but here it says we're not.
"Based on truth"- God's judgment is based on truth. We know he's going to judge everybody by his objective, high standard. No one can pass it. Except Jesus. Thank you, God, that I don't stand in fear and trembling for that day. I know it might be a bit unpleasant, but the verdict will be awesome! :-)
"A mere man"- We are mere men. We are not anything really important. We like to think we are, but that's not the case. God made us so we would have the choice to be imperfect. We took that choice. Now here we are, judging other people for what we do ourselves. I'll be honest, sometimes I have problems with this. I'm not saying, "man, those people who judge others are so stupid, they are always wrong." Where would that put me? Judging others. Hehe.
"Show contempt...kindness tolerance and patience,"-When we judge others, we are actually showing contempt for God's kindness, tolerance, and patience. God is being merciful and giving many people the chance to turn to him. He is waiting. When we judge others, we are basically saying "We don't think you sould wait. Bring the Day of Judgment NOW!" Is it just me, or does that sound a little Jonah-ish?
"God's kindness leads you toward repentance." - A couple of things here. First, like we said above, God is being kind and waiting. When he is kind (which, might I add, is all the time,) he leads us toward repentance. I love that it doesn't lead us TO repentance, but TOWARD it. Big difference. In the end, God made it our decision of what we do.
But because of your
stubbornness and your
unrepentant heart, you are storing up
wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his
righteous judgment will be revealed. God "will
give to each person according to what he has done." To those who
by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality,
he will give eternal life. But for those who are
self-seeking and who
reject the truth and
follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for
every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for
everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
For God does not show favoritism."stubbornness...unrepentant heart,"- God waits, but if you are stubborn and unrepentant, you are in trouble. Lord, make my heart soft and repentant. Let me be willing to yield to You.
"WRATH"- God's day of wrath is coming. It'll be a crazy day. Wrath-strong, stern, or fierce anger; deeply resentful indignation; ire.
2.vengeance or punishment as the consequence of anger. I don't think people have enough fear of God's wrath. When you take the definition of wrath and then hold it up to God, it should be terrifying!
"Righteous judgment will be revealed." Even though it should be terrifying, it is a righteous judgment. God knows what is right. His standards don't change for anyone, as we shall see later.
"give to each person according to what he has done"- Some would say that this shows that we can get to heaven through works. But no. He'll give to each person according to what he has done. If you sin once, you don't get into heaven. So you're sunk. There's only one thing you can do to "do good, seek glory, honor and immortality" and that is by accepting Christ. Then you will look perfect at judgment day.
"by persistence"- Doing good takes persistence. Lord, help me remember that. Doing good isn't always easy.
"Eternal Life"-Yessss.....
"Self-seeking, reject truth, follow evil"-Three things to guarantee you wrath and anger and judgment. Do you know how easy it is to be self-seeking? I'd say it's easier than breathing.
"EVERY"-Every person who doesn't know Jesus receives judgment. No exceptions--not even if you were the philanthropist of the year twenty years running.
"For God does not show favoritism." There's the whole deal. God has the same standard. He doesn't lower it, not for anybody. Not even his own son. The difference is, his son can pass. :-)
Revelation 1
"Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches."
This is Jesus talking. He says that he is going to show John a ton of awesome things, things that go on now and things that happen later. Now, I suppose, would be the letters to the churches.
"The seven stars that you
saw in my right hand" ok, maybe he didn't have the stars in his hand still when he reached out to John. Haha.
So. The stars are the angels of the churches, and the lampstands are the churches. Does that mean every church has an angel? That would be sweet. After all, churches are kind of the different stations of different squadrons of Christians fighting evil. Lord, protect us from apathy and indifference! Make us bold for you!
.