Judging

1 Corinthians 4:4-6 4My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. 6Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.

Whether we like it or not, we judge a lot during our day. We look at other Christians and second guess whether they really are a Christian by their actions, by their words and how they treat others. I find Christians wanting to argue the Truths of the Word vs. actually digging deep into the Word and letting it penetrate them. People thirst for the Word but would rather hear it from a Preacher vs. reading it. It saddens me because I know what happens when I open the Word. The Word God gave us to know who He is. I heard someone say, the bible is, basic instructions before leaving earth. My dear brothers and sisters it is so much more than that. It is how we have a very intimate relationship with our awesome God, Creator, Friend, Healer and so much more.

What if we looked at David, at the office, who was just like the David we read in the Word? David did many things wrong but what he did right, he loved the Lord. He had a heart for the Lord. What would we say about David, if we knew him…adultery and all?

What if we looked at Paul, on the news who was just like the Paul we read in the Word? We would think crazy. The Lord wouldn’t want you to go through all of that. Prison? Come on. You are giving us Christians a bad name out here.

What about Jeremiah? Jeremiah was the last prophet to the decaying southern kingdom of Judah. He gave up everything all for the sake of calling the Jews back to God. But they didn’t listen. When he predicted the fall of Jerusalem, they had him jailed for being unpatriotic. He never saw the slightest hint that he was making a difference. What was the secret of his perseverance? He must have known that God didn’t require him to be successful only faithful. My point, he was doing things for God and being put in prison. How tolerant would be if we heard that on the news? What would we think of Jeremiah?

My mom after two years Feb 7th, is still battling cancer. Yesterday we found the chemo on the new found cancer is not working. My mom is very strong but this has been very hard on her. My dad thought, maybe mom is going through this because of his sin. He is sick with grief. He asks us, are we praying enough for mom? My dad then thinks, maybe mom isn’t praying enough. Maybe she isn’t doing her part with God because she isn’t getting better. Kind of reminds me of the blind man. We do that don’t we? Blame ourselves or others for the bad things that happen in our lives that are actually out of our control. I couldn’t sleep. Tossed and turned. And God reminded me of the verse my husband gave to me the other day.

Acts 13:48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

Even though, God made it clear to me the weekend my parents asked Christ to be their Savior, was all His doing…I still “worry” because what I think I should see to know, I don’t see. But then there are Christians that I know that love the Lord, but have a lot of things they need to work on. And for me, well, I could make a list of the things I know I need to work.

We are to share the Good News Of Jesus Christ. We should share the Truths about our Father. God came down in the flesh as Jesus Christ because we “are” sinners and He knew we were in desperate need of a savior.

My prayer is that we begin to look inside our hearts and ask God to cleanse us. That we ask God to give us more desire for Him and His Word so that we know the Truth and can share the Truth with others…with lots of love. The world needs His love. We need His love. I need His love. He had a book written so that we are without excuse. I pray that our relationship with Him get stronger and stronger as we help each other grow.

Tammy