Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me

 Good Sunday morning. Uh Oh – here's one that we tend to fail in observing. Do not judge lest you be judged. It is easy to find the faults in others. Sometimes we look for them so that we don't feel so badly about the ones that we have. He/she is terrible for doing thus and so! We can pick out the tiniest detail where they have failed to meet the mark. Sometimes though, it is the mark that we ourselves and not God have instituted. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. We use a strict “ruler” to measure other people by; but we use a lax one to measure ourselves by. He then goes on to talk about the speck and the log in eyes. Do you need something – then do the following. Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. The margin notes that it means to keep asking and to keep seeking. Remember though what James says: you ask and have not because you ask with wrong motives. We should thank God that we have what we have asked for, even if we can't see it yet. Father thank You that the reader does not harshly judge others. He/she uses Your standard of measure. He/she asks, seeks, and knocks for what he/she needs and receives them.