Romans 14 Growing a Healthy Orchard With God

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Romans 14
The Danger of Criticism
1 Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.
2 For instance, one person believes it’s all right to eat anything. But another believer with a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables. 3 Those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don’t. And those who don’t eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them.
4 Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? They are responsible to the Lord, so let him judge whether they are right or wrong. And with the Lord’s help, they will do what is right and will receive his approval.
5 In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. 6 Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God. 7 For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. 8 If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 Christ died and rose again for this very purpose—to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.
10 So why do you condemn another believer[a]? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For the Scriptures say,
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,‘every knee will bend to me,and every tongue will confess and give praise to God.[b]’”
12 Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. 13 So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.
14 I know and am convinced on the authority of the Lord Jesus that no food, in and of itself, is wrong to eat. But if someone believes it is wrong, then for that person it is wrong. 15 And if another believer is distressed by what you eat, you are not acting in love if you eat it. Don’t let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died. 16 Then you will not be criticized for doing something you believe is good. 17 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. 19 So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.
20 Don’t tear apart the work of God over what you eat. Remember, all foods are acceptable, but it is wrong to eat something if it makes another person stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it might cause another believer to stumble. 22 You may believe there’s nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right. 23 But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.
Amen!
Footnotes:
Romans 14:10 Greek your brother; also in 14:10b, 13, 15, 21.
Romans 14:11 Or confess allegiance to God. Isa 49:18; 45:23 (Greek version).

~ Lena’s Journalin’~
We need to understand the word “condemn or judge”. It means issuing a verdict. It’s deciding on an irreversible charge.
It does not mean a check up, like taking your child in for evaluation and help for growth. You may “know” where someone’s is at, meaning you see the fruit that has grown up on their trees thus far, because you are a partaker of eating of their tree. You may know if there’s good fruit, bad, fruit, no fruit, fruit in abundance, sweet fruit, luscious fruit, but you cannot say, “this tree is done, has had it’s time and its time is over”, that’s judgment and condemnation. Only God can decide that about His orchard. Our casual or intimate observances are for the sake of being an orchard tender, a gardener. The only task a gardener has, as a servant of the owner of the orchard, is to nourish, and care for the trees. He plants, he waters, he fertilizes, he prunes, he cultivates, etc., as he sees fit through a caring observance, and a stewardship and desire to give a good account to the landowner of His trees. These trees are not his, he knows they belong to someone else. He wants that owner to have an abundance for His work.
So you see a tree is not getting enough water to its root systems. (won’t eat, doesn’t have much faith to believe yet, is young in the ways of “trees”), but another tree is getting more water (has faith in abundance, is exercising faith in action). The gardener may use the one tree as an example and do with the younger tree whatever he did to encourage growth of maturity in the larger, stronger tree. The “judgment” was not a verdict, it was a measuring gage to tell the gardener to get more water to this smaller tree). Prayer is a big source of building the desire for further growth in faith in a smaller tree. So you see one is immature. Pray for them to keep growing up in Christ. Say it to God in prayer, not what you see is right now, but using what you see right now as a gage to know there’s another target to hit on for further growth of that tree.
The point is we are alive and living to serve His purpose, becoming food for the healing of the nations! Pettiness and pickiness and criticism has no place in the tending towards that growth. It rather hinders the growth of valuable fruits.
Mutual respect for what God is doing with each believer and however He is effectively using them is so important, for we do not want the work of the Lord to be hindered at all. If one is being fruitful, why would you as a judge decide to cut their tree down? Now if there is no fruit, the Master may ask you to prune it, but that is to encourage further and stronger growth.
Can we agree we are serving Christ and God? Then lets’ do it in the spirit of Christ and of God, speaking truths for the sake of help of further encouragement of growth in love and let’s grow up, rooted and grounded in the security of the body we are surrounded by.

Daily Thought to Ponder -
“Oh Give Thanks to the Lord for He is Good!”