In reading Romans 9:10-21, I pondered… Christians in general need to be aware that we are not “owed” anything by God. God is merciful and just. He can show mercy toward some people that we do not understand why He extends it. Sometimes He may not show us mercy that we “think” that we deserve. We need to understand that we don’t “deserve” and mercy. We do not “deserve” grace. These are gifts from God that only He can comprehend, and only He can give. Too many times Christians have a self righteous attitude in dealing with people of different beliefs. We have a tendency to present our beliefs as if, “I am right and you are wrong.” End of story. Paul demonstrates so much love for the non believing Jews in this chapter. Paul offers himself in a sacrificial way, as to suffer the consequences for the Jews non belief, if it would save them. If Christians in general would be as sacrificial and loving toward unbelievers the world would be a much better place, and Heaven would have a lot more souls.

When I saw the subject line I immediately thought of Job 40:6-8 and I'll quote it as it reads in the New Living Translation. 6) Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind: 7) Brace yourself, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. 8) Are you going to discredit my justice and condemn me so you can say you are right? I first saw this verse 25 years ago and it always comes to mind when I hear the words "I'm right and you are wrong." In Job chapters 38, 39, 40, and 41, God asks Job many questions, all of which gives the reader an entirely new perspective about the argument of who's right and who's wrong. I was floored and awed by these chapters. God's wisdom clearly shows through in his dialogue as he opens up this perspective to the human mind. I have to say that I truly felt love for God when I read these chapters because I learned that he is truly interactive with us. I'm still in awe of them. The one who is right in any matter is God.

[b]MaddMatt wrote:[/b] [quote]In reading Romans 9:10-21, I pondered… Christians in general need to be aware that we are not “owed” anything by God. God is merciful and just. He can show mercy toward some people that we do not understand why He extends it. Sometimes He may not show us mercy that we “think” that we deserve. We need to understand that we don’t “deserve” and mercy. We do not “deserve” grace. These are gifts from God that only He can comprehend, and only He can give. Too many times Christians have a self righteous attitude in dealing with people of different beliefs. We have a tendency to present our beliefs as if, “I am right and you are wrong.” End of story. Paul demonstrates so much love for the non believing Jews in this chapter. Paul offers himself in a sacrificial way, as to suffer the consequences for the Jews non belief, if it would save them. If Christians in general would be as sacrificial and loving toward unbelievers the world would be a much better place, and Heaven would have a lot more souls.[/quote] Jesus commands us "Love your neighbor as yourself" .In the OT the same commandment is only meant to be done on a level of the immidiate communities.But in the new covenant in the Christ its meant on universal level which means everyone in the world. Granted its not always easy to love on that level but in the grace God it can be done.Sometimes we all fall out of His grace. Its quiete simple if someone is being self rightous he/she is not producing fruit of the spirit and as fallen out of God's grace.This might be a temporary situation for the person we don't know this,it might a habit from the person,a personal weakness ect..we really don't know these things unless you in close relationship with the person. You have to realise as christians that we all start with a seed planted in us.Sometimes this seed takes a long time to grow into a tree that will bere fruit.Sometimes the seed never grows.And sometimes the seed just dies.This depends all on how much were willing to die to the self and be let transformed into the new person in Christ.And thats why we all need each other to help us grow,intersceding in prayer for each other,admonishing each other with charity ect.

[size=2][color=#000080]My favorite song is an old hymn called 'They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love.' I know it's a long title, but this song really touched my heart the first time I heard it some many months ago. Jars of Clay made a CD of Redemption songs, which was a collection of hymns that they pretty much modernized. This song was the last song on there. Every time I hear about people getting self righteous and having that attitude that they are always right, it reminds me of this song. The song goes something like this: Verse 1: We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord (X2) And we pray that our unity may one day be restored Chorus: And they'll know we are christians by our love, by our love Yeah they'll know we are christians by our love Verse 2: We will walk with each other, we will walk side by side (X2) And we'll spread the news that the Lord is in this place Verse 3: We will work with each other we will work side by side (X2) And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride Always in Christ, Talitha Rize[/color][/size]