Where do I draw the line?

John 12:47-50

47 "As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. 48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. 49 For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." -NIV

I was reading over this Passage the other day and just had to stop to let it soak in. Jesus says here that the person who hears my words but doesn't keep them are free from His judgement...WHAT?! You're trying to tell me when someone hears and doesn't obey that the King of kings and the Lord of lords doesn't zap them? He doesn't JUDGE them? Isn't God supposed to be punishing us when we do wrong?

I am kidding of course. I just want to point out something here. If we are followers of Jesus, then we should be in the process of becoming more like Him. If He doesn't judge then neither should we. I understand the motives behind so many in the church coming down hard on people who live in sin but the problem is it isn't Scriptural.

I have found recently that I get in more trouble for talking about the Love of God and this portion of Scripture that we are looking at here. The issue is people use guilt, shame, and fear to manipulate others to act the way they think they should. Oh, don't get me wrong, they are doing so with the best intentions. The only problem is...God doesn't do things that way.

God is sooo much better than we think most of the time. It is time the church truly repents. True repentance is simply changing the way we think. We need to start with changing the way we think about how we think God thinks about us. Wow, what a mouth full. This is the place we need to start...and I will stop here for now ending with this thought. If I am to moderate the actions of the people in my church then where do I draw the line of grace? How long do we put up with people's mistakes and bad decisions? When do I put my foot down? When did Jesus put His foot down? Spend some time on this thought. If you have something on your mind please share.

Justin

Whatcha lookin' at?

Often in our lives we are affected by people and circumstances that surround us. This happens to the best of us even though we are warned about the dangers of it by Scripture.

Isaiah 60:1-2

1. "Arise, shine, for your light has come,and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. 2. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples,but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.

Darkness covers the earth...that tells me that the earth is not the place I want to fix my gaze!

The point is that if we are looking at the world that is covered in darkness (disasters, famines, economic collapse...) then we are promised to be discouraged, depressed, and disheartened by it.  

When we live in that state we tend to only be hopeful for the next God encounter.  We come to church and other meetings to get a "boost" so to speak.  We have to have these encounters to lift us up.  Sounds good and sounds like we are "fighting the good fight" and "enduring till the end."  This is "survival" christianity.  Jesus didn't come and die for mankind so we could get by.  He made us more than overcomers!

This is why we are commanded by our God in Isaiah 60 to ARISE AND SHINE!!!  You see, our Light has come, the Glory of God is upon us.  Jesus is the Light of the world.  He tells us to let OUR light shine before men.  We need to come to each gathering with our heads already lifted because the Bible says He IS the lifter of our heads!  We need to come to each meeting not as though we need a "pick me up" but to get to the next level.  We are supposed to go on from Glory to Glory.  Not Glory to empty back to Glory.  Each encounter is designed by God to take us to a new height and a new level in Him.  We won't get to a new level if we keep going down after each encounter.

Don't allow the darkness around you to bring you down.  You may be saying: "that is easy for you to say..."  I would like to point out that the Bible says that we are to live by faith and not by sight.  We are never given permission to live by what we can see.  More times than not we are living by what we cannot explain much less see!  We have only one choice...look up!

Justin