A Note from Tom: February 15th, 2011

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having an awesome, joyous day! And how could you not? With spring almost bustin’ out all over! And supposably, it’s gonna be this way all week! At least that’s what Todd the weatherman sa…

Opps. I just saw a mistake.

“Supposably” isn’t a word. It’s really “supposedly”. I know this because I just read an article about 25 things people say that they shouldn’t…those things we say all the time that are not really grammatically correct. Y’know…things like “irregardless” when you mean “regardless”. “Irregardless” actually isn’t a word.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, to tell the truth, I could care less.”

Actually, that’s not right.

When folks say, “I could care less”, they really should say, “I couldn’t care less”, because apparently the point is that you care so little about it, that your caring could go no lower than that.

If you say you’re going to “try and do better” in your grammar, your grammer’s not going so well. What you meant to say is “I’m going to try to do better”, not “try and”.

I know someone might be thinking, “Well, who cares?”

Or is it, “whom cares?” (I think it’s “who”).

(If you say you’re trying to “hone in” on the right answer to that one, you meant to say, “home in”.)

This stuff ‘s on my mind because I read something this morning that Peter said when he was sharing the message of Jesus with a highly interested person, and I thought, “Are you sure you wanted to say that?”

This Italian guy named Cornelius in Acts, chapter 10, had a feeling that Peter was coming to see him and share Jesus with him. Actually, he had a vision about it. When Peter arrived, Cornelius was waiting on him.

“Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us,” he said.

So, Peter started in. “Let me tell you all about the One you need to know, Jesus of Nazareth!...how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him. We are witnesses of everything He did… They killed Him by hanging Him on a cross, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day…He was seen by us who ate and drank with him after He rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead…”

Wait! You sure you wanted to say that? Judge? Jesus? Didn’t you mean to tell this dude that Jesus is appointed to be the Savior? Didn’t you want to say that He has come to be our Good Shepherd? And the King of the world? “God with us”?

“Jesus the judge”? You’ve got one shot at sharing with this guy and you’re going with that, Pete? “Judge”?

Jesus gave His life so we can be clean and new and His! Forgiven and free! In fact, Peter continues right on to say, “…everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Apparently, Cornelius got the point, because he opened his heart to Jesus, judge of the living and dead!

Come to think of it, there could be no better judge to stand before. There could be no one sweeter to measure my life! What could be better than to be evaluated by the One Who gave His blood so that ALL of my failings could be wiped off my record! What better One to stand before than the One Who took all my judgment for me! And Who now says of me, “And you are clean!” (John 13.10) What a beautiful experience to stand before the Judge of all the earth Who informed us, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be judged…will not come into judgment… but has crossed over from death to life!” (John 5.24)

Now that there is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8.1)…and since being declared already and freely righteous by faith, we have peace with God (Rom. 5.1)… all I really care about is how He sees me!

For some of us, it is suuuch a new, amazing feeling to think that for the first time in my life, I love folks, but I’m not worried about what they think of me. Or how some one might judge me.

In fact, irregardless of what someone supposably might or might not think, I could care less!

Jesus, the Judge of all, loves us!

Let’s just try and remember that!!