THE JUDGMENT WILL not be for the purpose of determining guilt or innocence…
A man commits a crime against the peace and dignity of the state; he is arrested by duly constituted authority, brought to court and tried before a jury of his peers. What is the function of the jury? To listen to the evidence and to render a verdict. What is the verdict? It is a determination of the innocence or guilt of the accused. After the verdict is in, the prisoner is brought to the bar, and the judge pronounces judgment upon him. What does the judge do? Does he ascertain innocence or guilt? No. That has already been determined by the jury. What does the judge do? He makes formal pronouncement of sentence. (Guy N. Woods)
KneEmail: “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing…” 2 Timothy 4:1a

YOU MIGHT ASK, “Why does God need to test us…?
Doesn’t He know everything, including what we would do in every situation?” Yes, God knows–but we don’t! God doesn’t test us in order to find out something He doesn’t already know. He tests us so that we can learn about ourselves and His love, power and faithfulness.
In Genesis 22, God tested Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac on a mountain in the land of Moriah. Isaac was Abraham’s only son by his wife, Sarah–the son God had promised to Abraham. By demanding that Isaac be sacrificed, God seemed to be nullifying His covenant of making a great nation out of Abraham. How could God’s promise be fulfilled if Isaac was dead?
God tested Abraham to reveal whether or not Abraham truly trusted His promise. Yes, God knew what Abraham would do, but He wanted Abraham to know as well. So God put Abraham to the test–and Abraham passed it. As Abraham raised his knife to sacrifice his own son, God stopped him and provided a sacrificial ram instead.
THOUGHT: Every test involves obedience in one way or another. When God tests us, He reveals the true state of our hearts. (Os Hillman)
KneEmail: “Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my mind and my heart” (Psalm 26:2).

AN ELDERLY GENTLEMAN was travelling alone on a train in France…
A much younger man, sitting next to him, watched the older man take out his Bible and begin to read. After a while, the younger man decided to strike up a conversation, and he asked, “What are you reading?”
The older man replied, “I am reading from the sixth chapter of John in the New Testament.”
“What does it say?” the young man asked.
“Oh, it’s the story of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. The Gospel writer tells us about a vact crowd that had followed Jesus because of the signs He was performing for the sick, and how Jesus preached to the crowd until it was dark. They were hungry, and with only five barley loaves and a couple of dried fish, Jesus fed the entire crowd of 5,000. And the leftovers filled twelve baskets.”
Scornfully and cynically, the younger man said, “Surely you don’t believe that!”
But the older man answered, “Oh, yes I do.”
To which the younger man said, “Well, I can see that you have been brainwashed by ancient superstitions. Not me! That could never happen to me because, you see, I am a scientist. The only thing I trust and believe in is what can be proven scientifically. The story you have read defies the laws of science, and therefore I can’t accept it. Give me facts, provable facts. As a man of science, i have no faith in miracles. But, of course, I can’t expect you to understand that.”
At that point, the train began to slow down. “Here is my station,” said the young man as he rose from his seat. “It was nice talking to you, Mr.–I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.” With that, the older man reached into his pocket and pulled out his business card. He handed it to the younger man. The younger man looked at it. Imagine his surprise; the name on the card was Louis Pasteur…one of the great scientists of all time. (James W. Moore)
KneEmail: “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in Hhis name” (John 20:30-31).

SO MANY DISTRACTIONS fill our lives that couples can easily drift miles apart, even while living under the same roof…
Healthy communication is essential for a healthy marriage, but it requires the full attention of both parties.
Dennis Rainey once confessed that he was distracted with a television program while his wife was trying to talk with him. Finally, in exasperation she walked over to his chair, placed her hands on either side of his head, turned it toward her, and pled, ‘Listen to me with your face!” She wanted heart-to-heart communication. )Tom and Jeannie Elliff)
KneEmail: “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19).

A YOUNG STRANGER to the Alps was making his first climb, accompanied by two stalwart guides…
It was a steep, hazardous ascent. But he felt secure with one guide ahead and one following. For hours they climbed. And now, breathless, they reached for those rocks protruding through the snow above them — the summit.
The guide ahead wished to let the stranger have the first glorious view of heaven and earth, and moved aside to let him go first. Forgetting the gales that would blow across the summit rocks, the young man leaped to his feet. But the chief guide dragged him down. “On your knees, sir!” he shouted. “You are never safe here except on your knees.” (George Vandeman)
THOUGHT: We must come to the heights of the Father’s throne (in worship) with reverence and humility.
KneEmail: “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all those around Him” (Psm. 89:7).

CAN YOU IMAGINE a world without measurements or weight…?
A world without systems standards of any kind? Think what would happen if there were no alphabet, no metric system, no currencies, no hours or minutes. Imagine if 1 plus 1 didn’t equal 2 but instead 3, 12.863 or 39 — and only on a sunny day.
Without these things, there would be anarchy. Commerce, science, music, medicine, engineering and almost all other disciplines would be much more difficult — if not impossible — to pursue. But more than that, a world without standards is really not a world without standards; it is — rather — a world in which there are many standards, defined by whomever, however he or she sees fit. For example, if I wanted to own your house, I could offer you my No. 2 leaded pencil because, hey, in my mind that pencil sure is worth alot. And if the words “muggleforth sienkleton ropersplatten” don’t make sense to you — well, that’s your fault, because they add up in my book.
Obviously, we need certain standards to function in life, whether those standards are time measurement, established rules for language, or simply the acceptance that a dollar is worth 100 cents. Without acknowledging and accepting these principles as truth, the world would be pretty chaotic.
THOUGHT: It is interesting that we accept this notion — that standards are necessary — in most every area of our culture, but that when it comes to the moral state of our culture, we are often quick to reject that standards are necessary or important. Even the most avowed secularist and relativist is likely to agree that certain mathematical laws are reliable across time and cultures, such as the Pythagorean Theorem. But often these same people will contradict themselves and say that there are no absolutes. They will say that morality cannot be considered absolute and unchanging. (Alex McFarland)
KneEmail: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).

IN 1997 THE JOURNAL of the American Heart Association reported on some remarkable research…
According to the Chicago Tribune, Susan Everson of the Human Population Laboratory of the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, California, found that people who experienced high levels of despair had a 20 percent greater occurence of atherosclerosis — the narrowing of their arteries — than did optimistic people. “This is the same magnitude of increased risk that one sees in comparing a pack-a-day smoker to a non-smoker,” said Everson.
In other words, despair can be as bad for you as smoking a pack a day.
THOUGHT: That is just one more reason to choose hope and and faith. The Christian life contributes to good health today, and eternal life tomorrow.
KneEmail: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).