Do not Judge ~ Follow Me

Do we as women seek to usurp God's hierarchy. It appears so. We as women are guilty of demanding to be in charge of all things based on how we feel about things. And, we can be found criticizing and judging each other... who is doing what and where. We think that women must be superior to men and any tending to them is less than any job. We wonder why some women choose to stay at home to server their husbands and family and judge that they are not working. By whose measure do you use? Take the log from your own eye before you judge others ~ Matthew 7:3.

Jesus said "Follow Me". What does that mean? It means to live a spirit filled life, not one of the flesh. What does that mean? It means not to live in this world coveting material goods and engaging in fleshly indulgences ...bothering about things that don't matter for they will disappear. This is not easy to understand let alone embrace. It is difficult to know what we are called to do.

We are called not to judge and to follow Christ. We are called to live within God's hierarchy as godly men/husbands and women/wives. When we read Matthew 19 "The Rich Young Man", we can even become alarmed. Why? Because, Jesus tells His disciples that it is hard for a rich man to give up his wealth and things so that he/she can enter the kingdom of heaven. It is not only about having money. It is not. It is also about indulgences in things of the flesh and their idolatry. We should be and are alarmed. Not because we agree and think it is wrong but because we think that we must give up things we have to live in poverty and in our consumer society, this is not common among us.

We live in a consumer oriented world that is what is common to us. We base our life on accumulating things and indulging in things that bring brief happiness for ourselves and family,which includes buying label clothing, eating organic food, taking vacations, watching Hollywood films and doing all kinds of things that do not glorify God. We are called to follow Christ, to be in this world but not of it ~ 2 COR 10:3.

This is what we should understand when we read Matthew. You see, the message Christ gave us is not about having money as in being rich and that is bad. It is the idolatry we make of it. We have made idols of many things because of money. We consume and indulge in things that take away from following Christ, from glorifying God. Jesus answered Peter by saying that everyone who leaves houses or brothers or sisters or fathers or mothers or children or fields for His sake will inherit eternal life ~ Matthew 19:24.

For some, this maybe shocking and painful to reconcile with. Why would that be? Because, we as a consumer society we place more value on knowing the 'right' people, being in the 'right' places and buying the 'right' things. We value less glorifying God. Yet, if we want to inherit eternal life, we must follow Christ, we must live a life of salt and light; being at peace, in joy and at rest in trusting our Father in Heaven. This glorifies God our Creator and Savior everyday. This is what it means to be in the world but not of it.

We are not called to abandon our life and those things in it which we have here on earth. We are asked to live our life with those things differently than the world does. We are of it but not in it. We must not treat things including those nearest and dearest to us as primary and treat God as secondary or someone/thing we pray to on Sunday. How can we live differently? We can live differently by realizing that everything in this world including houses, family and children belong to God and with Him all things are possible ~ Matthew 19:26.