Matthew 27:26-31

Sometimes people will hate you just because of who you are. The soldiers didn't really have anything against Jesus. They were just doing their job. They went further, though, and mocked Jesus. I don't think it's necessarily because they thought he was a blasphemer or anything like that, I think they were just sick of Jews. They were away from their homes, their families, and everything they knew that was familiar. It probably was relieving for them to take out their frustrations on a Jew, this one just happened to be Jesus.
Sometimes people will hate me just because I'm a Christian, or white, or whatever, but I have to keep that in mind and know that I might be starting off already losing with some people. JM

Matthew 7:1-6

Tonight at church I saw some people who didn't fit in. The guy had his lip pierced and was wearing a Raiders jacket. Our church is more of a clean cut, lacoste type of church. So this guy stood out pretty big. My first thought was "isn't that great that we are reaching people across socioeconomic boundaries". I had made several assumptions about him:

1. he is poor


2. he is a new christian


3. he had a "hard" life

Probably none of these are true. It's sad that I think they are, though. I mean, it's great that I didn't go "who let in the trash?", but my presumptions about this young man were still there. I hope one day I can get past all of my judging and just let people be who they are and let Jesus make the call.