Don't Judge Other People?

  One of the biggest objections that vocally appears when we are sharing the Gospel message with someone is that person telling us to not judge her, or him.

Here are Jesus' words on judging; “Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.  Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." Matthew 7:1-5 ESV

What is He saying? Here He is calling people 'hypocrites' because they have a log in their eyes.

What does it mean to 'judge'? In this case, it means to pronounce a judgment on someone else. It also involves the expectation to receive that kind of judgment in return on oneself. It is a form of looking down on others.

God has standards. No one, except the Son of God has kept those standards. Everyone else has failed them. The rules have been broken by us. And we reap the consequences for our wrongdoing.

In the passage above, a tendency we might have would be to see someone else who is in sin, and place condemnation on him or her. The problem is, we have our own sin issues that we have to deal with first, before we point out the sins of others.

But notice at the end of the passage. We are instructed to take the log out of our own eyes. That means we have to deal with our own sinful hearts before we do anything else. After that, we will be able to see the sins of others, and instead of using their sin against them, we will be able to help them out of their sin.

When people use this as an excuse for rejecting the Gospel, they misunderstand this whole section of Scripture. It is really a mask to protect themselves from hearing the hard truths of the Gospel message. Instead of being honest with themselves and wanting to deal with the sin issues in their hearts, they turn the tables around and accuse the person sharing the Gospel message with them of 'judging' them.

There is a difference between helping people see what God's word says about sin and judgment, and actually personally judging a person for their sins.

On Judgment Day, I am not going to be in front of the person I am talking to about the Gospel message. That person will be standing before God, not me. All I am expected to do is to help people understand what God says in His word. I am not God. I am not better than they are. If they don't see that, then I can't do anything about their response to the Gospel message.

Making people aware of God's standards is not judging them. They are already judged by God.
"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." Our job is to tell others what God says about their condition and to offer the hope of the Gospel message. God is the One who does the work in the heart.

Man In Hell Pleads For His Family To Not Go There

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’"

This man did not escape the eternal flames
Photo credit: Arabs for Christ/FreeBibleimages.org

This event was told by Jesus around 2,000 years ago. 

There is a lot we can learn from what happened here. So many things we can learn. 

One is that it is not necessarily wrong to have riches or to be wealthy. But almost always, wealthy people have a hard time understanding their need for God. If they do get the message of the Gospel, they have a hard time responding to it because they will not be willing to part with their riches.

On the other side of the coin, poor people are not automatically added to heaven. But being poor does have a good advantage, for, the poor person does not struggle with having to let go of his riches. He won't be worshiping his money, for he doesn't have much money to worship. That idol struggle will not be there.

Hell lasts forever. Once a person is there, he or she will always be there. It is a terrible place to be and no one should ever take the subject and reality of hell lightly.

People who are in hell cannot cross over to the other side. There is a big gap that is uncrossable between heaven and hell. Those in heaven also will not be able to cross into hell. 

Those in hell are wishing they weren't there, but, they are also wishing that their family members would not be there as well. They would do whatever they can to warn their family members about hell and how to avoid it.

There is one thing we will not have the opportunity to do when we are in heaven. There will be no need to preach the Gospel message and do evangelism, for everyone who is in heaven already knows the Lord. 

We should love people enough to tell them the good news of the Gospel. If we ourselves are saved, it would seem like our hearts would want everyone to come into a relationship with God through the Cross of Jesus Christ. If that desire is not there, something important is missing in our lives. 

Many professing Christians think that anyone who believes the facts about Jesus is a true Christian. But there is more to it than that. Some seem to think that God is all loving and wouldn't send anyone to hell. While God is love, according to what the Bible teaches, God is also just. He does love. He loves us so much that He gave His only Son to live a perfect life, and die a horrible death to pay for our sins. We must repent of wrongdoing and selfishness, and trust in what Jesus did for us on the cross, 2,000 years ago. He not only died to take our punishment, but He also rose from the dead on the third day after he was killed.

If we could obey the commandments perfectly, we could go to heaven. But even with one sin that had been committed during our lifetime, that sin would send us to hell. We can look at the commandments and see how we have failed. Looking at the commandments reveals the condition of our hearts. 

No good work that we could do can take away any of our sins. Even if we lived a life where we continually serve people, we would still have to pay for our sins, even if we only commit sin occasionally. 

But we commit sin on a regular basis. That's why we need a Savior. We need someone who can cleanse our hearts from sin. But we also need a new heart that will produce good fruit. If we repent, and trust in Jesus as our Savior from sin, God gives us a new heart, and also the power to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

Life has many choices. Eternity has only 2! 

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God Is Sovereign Over Global Warming And Overpopulation

God calls the stars by name
“He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.” Psalm 147:4 ESV

God knows the number of hairs on your head.
“But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” Matthew 10:30 ESV

There are at least 6 billion people on earth today.
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

“And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 ESV

God holds all things together

“And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:16,17 ESV

Sometimes, we worry about the earth being overcrowded, or that there are too many people here. God knows the dilemma. He has a way of working through this situation. His ways are higher than ours.

People worry a lot about global warming and its affect on us. But many forget that God is still on His throne. In fact, God will always be on His throne. He has this thing all figured out already.

We can either trust Him and ask for His wisdom, or we can try to solve the problems on our own. Either way, God commands us not to murder.

We are only on this planet for a short time. Then each of us goes to one of two places; heaven or hell.

Jesus will be reigning in Heaven. Hell will be a Lake of Fire to punish those who do not trust in God, and haven’t repented of their sins and turned to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

God is sovereign over all the events in the world. God was kind to send Jesus to pay for our sins by His death on the Cross.

Our response is to turn to Him and trust in what He did for us on the Cross to pay for our sins.

Out of the 6,000+ billion people on earth today, all will die.

Life has many choices. Eternity has only 2!

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Your Sin Is No Match For The Power of God

"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV

There are going to be two groups of people who will be especially affected by these verses. One group will be those who are struggling with same-sex attraction, and who want to change. The other group is made up of people who don't want to have anything to do with God, and will probably think I am a bully for sharing these verses.

The first group actually has hope. Whether we have same-sex attractions or not, we all have our share of sinful tendencies that we struggle with. That is why we need a Savior.

Many think of a Savior as someone who just takes away our sins so we can go to heaven. While it is true that Jesus died to pay for our sins, so we could be forgiven and cleansed from sin, and be made ready for heaven, there is so much more depth to this. 

When Jesus died, the Powers of Darkness were disarmed. Satan tempted Eve to sin in the Garden, and she fell for the temptation. Adam joined her and he knew better. After that, a death sentence was pronounced on mankind. Every person born since that time has been born in sin, and has a sinful, selfish nature that can only be cured by the blood of Jesus Christ.

The second group of people who will see these verses and be angry with them, will not appreciate the hope that is given in the Gospel message. Many in this group are perverted, which simply means that, because of their rejection of God, God has turned them over to their wicked desires. They see things that are good, and from God, as 'evil', and things that are evil that God will eventually destroy, they see as 'good'.

Many of these people actually profess to believe in God. I think many of them are in our churches today as well. In reality, they don't believe in the God of the Bible. They have made up a 'god' that they worship, which is a god that is ok with their living in sin. These are the people who fight the hardest against truth when it is presented. 

If those who are in the first group listed here actually hear the Gospel message, and rightly understand it, they receive hope. The second group doesn't want hope. They will continue in their sin and living in their world of lies. 

God can save anyone no matter what kind of sin struggle they have. Their sin is no match for the power of God. 

But God also says that His Spirit will not always strive with men. In the book of Revelation, God gave Jezebel 'space to repent', but she never did repent. 

To those who do repent, and place their faith in Jesus Christ, God gives them a new heart. It is a heart that wants to do good. Not a heart that does good because it has to. There is a desire for Godliness in the new heart God gives.

God also gives the power to resist sin and to work through sin issues. He gives us the power to say 'no' to sin. He also gives us the power to say 'yes' to righteousness. 

Another thing God gives us is new eyes to see with. When we read the Bible, it makes sense to those who have turned to God in repentance and faith. A new understanding is there. We can also see into the spiritual realm and operate using the spiritual weapons God gives us to overcome sin and the Enemy of our souls.

Maybe you aren't a practicing homosexual, but perhaps you struggle with stealing or being greedy. God can change your heart and give you a new meaning in life. No one has to stay in bondage to greediness or stealing. No one has to stay in bondage to the world of lies we live in today. We can love the truth and be set from from deception and lies. 

The traits in the verses above show what those Corinthians were like before their conversion. But now they were washed clean because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Their sins were cleansed and they now had new hearts.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;  that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 ESV

Yes, your sin is ugly and evil, but it is no match for the power of God. Turn to Him now in repentance and faith, and trust in what Jesus Christ did on the Cross for your sins.