We’re all in the same boat…

My oldest son has just hit puberty…

With all the challenges associated with it…

As I was reflecting on this today I realized that truly we’re all in the same boat…

God deals with us each individually…

And the lessons He teaches us can’t be ‘passed down’ from generation to generation – they must be learnt by each proceeding generation…

I can’t take out of my brain or heart what the Lord has taught me and inject it into my son thus making him a clone of myself – in a good way – but unfortunately in a bad way this is exactly what happens with sin being passed on at conception…

So we’ll all in the same boat – in a bad way – whilst in a good way we’re all in our own boat receiving from the Lord what He gives to each one of us in our new selves…

The real point of this blog was to say that judging others is inappropriate as ‘there is only One lawgiver and judge the One who is able to save and destroy’, so again as the scripture says, ‘who are you to judge your neighbour?’…

God works in His way to reveal things to His people, to their own Master (the Lord) they ‘stand or fall’ as the scripture says…

I know when I went through puberty I was strangled sexually…

I was in a climate where there appeared to be a huge fear of sexuality…

It stuffed me up…

I’m endeavouring not to focus on this with my oldest son…

I’ve been telling the younger three children (who are still living at home) that the Lord deals with us all in His own timetable and there’s nothing we can do to ‘help’ ourselves to ‘get better’ and it’s better to focus on the ‘positive’ or good things which the Lord is doing than to focus on the ‘negative’ or bad things which ‘sin within me’ is doing…

What we focus on defines us…

Forgiving others for the ‘negative’ effect they have in our lives is better than trying to control them into having a ‘positive’ effect in our lives…

I’ve been seeing this in my family relationships…

I love my children…

I don’t love them because of their performance…

I love them in spite of their performance…

I love their individuality…

They are all so unique…

All five of them…

I see their future…

I see their future with God…

Where they are ‘at’ right now does not concern me…

I see their future with God and it is a good future…

A very positive future…

I love You Lord…

Discipline is from the Lord…

Judgement (i.e. condemnation or expectation to ‘sort yourself out’, ‘you should know better’, ‘shame on you’) of a fellow believer in the Lord is not permitted by the Lord for fellow servants to do to each other…

We just aren’t that powerful, none of us have that power over another fellow servant…

No matter how holy the Lord has made us there is only one Source of that holiness – the Lord Himself – we had nothing to do with it – this is what the word says, ‘Apart from Me you can do nothing’ and ‘according to the Grace of God which works so mightily in me’ as Paul said…

As we ‘look over’ at our fellow believers it’s easy to see the speck in their eye and ‘wax lyrical’ about it not realizing that this means we have a log in our own eye – that of condemnation and judgement (expectation)…

People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones…

Jesus protected a woman whom the Pharisees wanted to throw stones at…

Jesus protects us when people want to throw stones at us…

“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17 NASB)

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed…

The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13 NASB)

If you’ve truly been delivered in an area – or even partially delivered, i.e the layers of the onion thing where God goes deeper and deeper and deeper removing more and more and more – then you have empathy for others going through similar experiences…

Some of us have no experience at being enslaved to various sins and so we have no empathy for others in those areas, we just can’t understand…

It is wise to be aware of what you’re unaware of (smiling, laughing)…

Obviously this is a ‘blind-spot’ for all of us as none of us is probably enslaved to every single possible variation of sin which is ‘out there’ at any one point in time…

We are all enslaved (or have been) to at least one sin but not all enslaved (or have been) to the same ones (so we need each other’s testimonies on these to get the empathy we each lack – if that makes sense)…

God is in the restoration business – that’s why I love God – He takes us from where we are and He makes us better – a better version of ourselves – and one which we can more readily live with…

Love You Lord…

Bless my son I pray – give him Your peace and freedom – set him free of all sin in Your time and let him be a light for Your Glory in this world…

In Jesus Name,

Amen