August 10, 2005
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I will try to get to your sites today. It has been rather hectic during the summer, but you are in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you for your prayers for Jim. Pastor Don prayed for Jim last night at Bible Study, and we are believing for a speedier recovery. There is fishing to be done this summer~!
Here is Friday 7/8/05 Bible Study.
Someone asked a question about judgment.
First Pastor Don said that many people of the world would say that all prophets and ministers of the Gospel are operating under a functional insanity. That we are following instructions from an invisible person.
Matthew 7 is Jesus’s word on judgment.
God doesn’t say it is a commandment to not judge, he says, Matthew 7:1-2 “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
Matthew 7:3-5 (about the plank in your eye). Jesus said don’t judge people in areas you are struggling with in yourself. Yet, Paul says that we are called to judge. We seem to have a different idea about judgment, we are not to judge the judgment of condemnation. No one but Christ can make that call.
We are to judge with love and we will be judged with love.
If we judge with harshness, we will be judged with harshness.
If we judge with condemnation, we will be judged with condemnation.
Even though we can keep the law outwardly, what about heart issues?
v. 5 Hypocrites. guilty of something, but accusing others of being guilty of the same thing. For example, the woman with adultery. Jesus would have been the only one who could cast the stone, yet he did not judge her to condemnation, he told her to go and sin no more. Jesus knew she was guilty, but he released her to sin no more.
Determination of outcome is a negative judgment. Some judge and then describe the final outcome.
If you do this…..then that will happen. It is a form of manipulation.
Parents often do that with kids.
Matt. 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”
When you become a believer you have discovered something holy, righteous, and good. Pearls of value. Don’t give what is holy to dogs.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
It is God who does the completing. God set us apart and made us to be special. We haven’t had to do anything, it isn’t works. Our whole spirit, soul, and body will be preserved blameless through the marvelous work of Jesus Christ. And God is the one who will do it, not ourselves.
Galatians 5 covers the gifts of the Spirit, and one of those gifts is patience. When problems come our way, everybody will suffer, it is a lot harder to suffer in the flesh, than it is to suffer as a Christian.
We must be patient and with a good attitude.
Romans 2:1-5 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
If you walk in the Mind of Christ, God is longsuffering. He waited 6,000 years for man to get it together and for His Son to reign.
God’s plan for you is better than your own plan. The only way to true happiness is God’s path for you. God will always give you the strength to knock down any door you think is in the way of His plan.
Sometimes a door is there so you go to the left or to the right.
We must be patient and wait for God’s direction.
James was a Jew’s Jew. He spoke of faith without works being dead faith. He was speaking to the heart of Judaism. Under the New Covenant, the emphasis is different. If we really do have faith in Christ, and love Christ, the fruit of our lives will show it. But the emphasis is the fruit is produced because of our love for Christ and what He did for us, not because we are trying to earn our way into God’s grace.
If you really do have faith, you have fruit, the fruit God prepared for you in advance. It is not of us, but of God.
Romans 14:10-14 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, Every knew shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way. I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Sometimes we don’t look at the phrase BORN AGAIN as if there has truly been any change in us.
Pastor Don has written a book on this subject that will soon be published called Don’t Let The Devil Steal Your Joy.
Hope this has been a blessing to you. I know that it is so easy to fall into judgment of others, especially when you are a parent. Yet the only one who really has the whole picture is God, and we are to love each other. Judgment has to be able to build a person up, not tear them down or we are judging in error.
I have to say, that I am glad that God withheld his judgment on me until I was able to find Christ, or I would have sunk. If I am thinking right, I just have to remember what I have been saved up, and extend the same compassion and love that Christ gave me to another.
I know that when I was fully in sin, I knew what I was doing was wrong, and when people told me that it did not help to bring me closer to God, but when the Holy Spirit began to stir my spirit, then I could be more receptive to my need for a savior. It took love to bring me to God, not condemnation.
I often wonder why Christians are so hard on each other. We are all sinners, and we all make mistakes. I sometimes wish we would cut each other some slack.
Have a blessed day!
Heather
Comments (19)
Very good message, thank you. You’re personal insights are great!
What a beautiful way to present Godly judgement, thank you for sharing.
God’s peace,
Maria
it has been kinda hectic hasn’t it? i’m trying to keep up myself! how are things going on the patience and ankle fronts these days?
-bette
RYC: Congrats on the new skirt size! Your triumph is encouraging to me!
Great post. I think,we as Christians, have a sense of judging others when we first see sin in a life, we get angry, mainly cause we want the person to understand what they are doing is wrong. So we jump out there with judgement and sometimes hurt them…and then after the fact our brains kick in and go “Duh…lets try a little tenderness(wait isn’t that a song)….well anyway…we dont think before we act, or speak and i think it harms the witness so much with people. Did that make any sense at all? I am not sure that my brain is functioning as well as it should today. I am glad that your husbands ankle is better and that the swelling is down, for sure prayer works. Hope your patience is strong during this time….have a great rest of the day…yer ol bro. (m)
It is so hard not to judge, although I find that while I do fairly well at not judging others overtly, I often find myself judging them in my heart. Something I find I must continually work on.
u r right…christians can be very hard on each other…
thank u for ur comments…
i want u to know, because some people have the assumption…i am now a reservist…
i was in iraq back in 2003 with 1st MARDIV
Hi Heather! Just stopped by to say hello, and noticed your post.
I just posted something about this subject last Friday, the 5th. Blessings to you!
Amen. We all have received ‘grace upon grace’—and we need to remember it, amen? Good post. Peace to you.
i noticed you were from New York… whats it like there?? i heard its always everything you expect and always a little more.. Lol.. put yea, just stoppin bye, talk to ya later.. Krissy
Hi, Heather! Nice to hear from u. Hope everything works out for Jim.
Love Getty
Ahhh yes … the turquoise food bowl…..No home should be without one…Except ours was for the water bowl. He liked the biege one for food. Always played keepAway with me in the mornings. Great dog. Rest well….and dont kick your husbands bad ankle. (m)
Had a similar post on judgement awhile back. RYC – Yeah. It’s evident what parents have done to their children when you spend a lot of time counselling. That’s why we’re to cast down thoughts that are contrary to scripture immediately. It’s so difficult to root them out once they become ingrained.
Thanks for dropping by.
I don’t know if cutting each other some slack is exactly how I feel about it, because I am a firm believer in accountability – and daily subject myself to being held accountable… but I do agree that we beat up each other in the church all the time, and it makes me sad and frustrated, because that is the furthest thing from Christian love. Accountability doesn’t mean throwing stones.
BE blessed!
Steve
Amen! I guess that at times we Christians are hard on each other to spur each other to greater devotion. But that is the good kind of “being hard”. At times we may not appreciate this because of our pride and we think it is judgment. We have to be careful not search our hearts and not have this victim mentality. Often I try to still search my heart and ask God, what led this person to say this? They may be harsh and judging me, but did I contribute. If I did, then the right course is to repent and ask for forgiveness from the person. Whether they judged me or not. When you look at Jesus’ words, He is not talking about what we think others are doing to us. He says, “judge not….” He is directing the command at me. He is not saying, discern whether you are being judged or criticised. We are too full of ourselves. The focus is still too much on ME. Often we try to read what’s in people’s hearts. I think we should remove the straw from our own eyes and God will deal with the others as well. Only God can read the hearts of men and we should not draw conclusions about their motives. We are the ones who feel the condemnation and the judgment so we should look for the problem from within. Why do I feel this? At times people do not mean to judge. They have viewed the situation and felt the need to say something. Sometimes it is meddling, but they reacted to something So we should find out why their comments have produced such a reaction. Once again, the answer is in our hearts. If they hurt us, we should tell them so with love but accept their correction. They had a reason for saying it…. Be it a wrong judgement or evaluation of situation on their part, we should tell them… with humilty. Now this is tough. Our nature is such that our reaction is to cry injustice, get angry, allow pride to come in, refuse to examine our hearts or to question ourselves and thereby end up grieving the Holy Spirit. Well, that’s a bit of my thoughts….
God bless, Sof
RYC: Good job!!! I got so many neat interpretations of it!
RYP: Ya know, all sin is sin in God’s eyes. We’re the ones who put a ranking system on them.
Thanks and blessings to you!
thank you heather, for your terrific thoughts concerning unity this afternoon. i do believe that we can make great strides in this if we allow ourselves to listen and trust…..rather than condemn,judge, etc. i sometimes think that the biggest procrastinators are the ones who have head knowledge and no heart knowledge. god designed unity, man fouled it up. i hope that we can have a positive impact.
I think this is an especially important line: “Judgment has to be able to build a person up, not tear them down.” As Christians, who are trying to help each other be more Christ-like, to those close to us in particular we don’t want to ignore sin, which separates us from God and ruins us, but any addressing of that should be to help build a person up and not just to “correct” them or point out how they’re screwing up.