Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
(Acts 2.38 NRSV)

---

Ellsworth Kalas tells about a sunswept October afternoon in 1932 when he came bounding home from school, eager to tear off school clothes and put on playground stuff. But to his great surprise, he discovered that his father was home. It was unthinkable that his father would be home at three-thirty in the afternoon. "Why are you home, Dad?" young Ellsworth asked. He remembers his father being generally slow to speak, but especially so at this moment. His mother quickly replied, "Daddy's lost his job."

Until then Ellsworth did not know anyone who was unemployed. "I didn't know that good people could be unemployed," he admits. "I thought only lazy people were without jobs, people who wouldn't apply themselves or who didn't deserve a job." Young Ellsworth's attitude changed considerably in the next eight or nine years when more and more persons from his neighborhood found themselves unemployed.

It is amazing how quick we are to judge other people's situations. The Bible teaches us that only God is qualified to judge. He sees the heart. He knows the inner person. And when God renders His verdict, "Forgiven!" it is total and absolute. Since none of us are deserving of such a verdict, all of us are deserving. God's grace is equally poured out on us all whether we've worked twelve hours in the heat of the day or whether we've worked only one hour in the cool of the evening.

---

Dear God, thank you for forgiving me. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

---

Help Promote Devotions.Net | Past Devotions

---

| Home | Bible | Devotions | Humor | Visitors | Links |