Only God Can Judge Me (part 1)

Church - you know this is directed right at US don't you?!  I'm going to deal with this as though it were a shot gun.  Same deadly weapon - two chambers. 

They're right.  We are judging "them" and 90% of the time it is not with the heart we Want to approach these situations.  

1. "I just want to Help them!" .....

 Just stop it

I could spend time going over Why you should stop it but for now we'll leave it there.

2.  How will they know unless we tell them?

They'll know

3.  I was Really convicted about that a couple years ago and I think if people heard what God told me about that it would make a big difference! 

No it won't.  Do you want to know why?  They're not you!  God is an individual God!  This is inconceivable to most of the church of today, but if God required you to stop chewing blue bubble gum that's actually a level probably only you will get to know Him on.  Your personal convictions (placed by God) are just that - yours.  I know it's hard to understand, but most of the time God is perfectly okay with EVERYONE else chewing blue bubble gum. He just wants your obedience and He wants it without any contingency regarding making everyone else join you. 

4.  Well the BIBLE says you shouldn't do that!!!

Yes it does - but right now they're not here however you are so,  can we talk about your obsession for Rock Revival Jeans and Michael Kors Purses while you are late on that car payment? Also - Remember how you told me what the 2nd grade teacher was going through "so I could pray for her"?  You didn't stop and pray with me when you told me about her divorce.  I wonder if that was a sincere prayer request or was it a way to make your Need to tell me someone else's story sound Not like gossip?   

5.  Have you earned the right to say these things to someone?

99.99% of the time you will not be able to scripturally call things out in someone you aren't already mentoring.  Just to help you out and clear it up for you .... You're probably not the .01% either.  

The Bible talks about terrible judgement and the wrath that God pours out but we the church (myself included - don't jump me) have talked and/or acted as though We are the instrument of wrath God prefers or Needs to use! 

God "gives" each of us people to affect with our walk.  Sometimes it's a no-brainer, our children, spouse etc.,   But all too often we find ourselves treating the teenager with the pierced nose and gauged ears checking us out at the grocery store as one of our children and begin to ask him WHY he has done such a thing "Don't you know it'll be hard to get any job but Walmart looking like that? ...  God made you beautiful - why would you want to desecrate your Temple like that?"  There are some things I feel so compelled to it's like God has nailed me to it and I walk around as though it were a part of me.  This is one of them. -- Did you hear God Specifically say to speak to that young man?  Do you have a relationship with him?  Have you invested the time into his life to allow you the privilege to speak into him that way?  In all likelihood you have just made it SO much harder for the believer God DID ordain to reach this young man to have any success at all!  This also includes "discussing" it behind his back!  

Better yet - the Facebook "Friend" that we really only met one time - when they post a pro-life or pro-choice article.  Have you invested any time in their life?  Reading the scripture together? Praying together? Have you audibly heard the voice of God saying "Jump Them!!" ??  Because if not, chances are all you have accomplished is finding a 'justifiable' way to release some of that pent up rejection or anger you haven't dealt with onto some poor unsuspecting soul.   --  I'm just going to throw this in as a bonus.  Unfollow or Unfriend them.  Neither are a sin.  People unfriend me all of the time!  Recently, even though it pained me greatly, I didn't ask them why.  I waited.  Prayed about why it bothered me.  Told my husband I must need to pray about this because it hurts me!  But I treated them the same when I saw them in person.  This went on for about 6 months.  Then she sent me a friend request! BAM! (Do NOT tell my husband that I have found so much joy and comfort and peace from NOT confronting someone!  It'll seriously move his cheese!) 

We are to "judge" the actions of others Mostly for ourselves.  "If I do that will it bring glory to God?"  Once you have wooled this around in your heart and prayer life for a while then you do whatever God is giving you permission to do.  Sometimes God is giving you the discernment over others' actions for the lone reason that you can test it to find out the perfect will of God for Your life! Not so you can bully someone else into changing theirs. 

Romans 12:1-2English Standard Version (ESV)

A Living Sacrifice

12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Lastly, I think that the church of this age has hurt itself SO much by Assuming because it's in the Bible or because God has given us a conviction that He will not be able to get the message out without US!  Remember the bullet point above ... "How will they know if I don't tell them?"

John 13:35Amplified Bible (AMP)

35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.”

Matthew 7:16-20Amplified Bible (AMP)

16 By their fruit you will recognize them [that is, by their contrived doctrine and self-focus]. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?17 Even so, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the unhealthy tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

They will know by your fruit.  What is your life producing?  Are you spiritually at rest or are you always fighting something.  Some cause - Some social sin?  If you feel it is your personal job to verbally assault every homosexual you see but haven't heard the voice of God for that particular person - I mean you just jump them because "it's wrong - the bible says so",  .... Bear with me here and test this against your prayer life.... If you are the blanket confrontational Christian to all of the sin in the world, is it possible that you just don't believe God is big enough to get to the ones that should be saved without you?  I mean otherwise why would you need to jump every sinner?  (This includes you ... Do you Jump yourself and verbally call out all your sins in the mirror each morning?) 

When the woman was 'taken in adultry' and thrown before a crowd of church people with rocks in their hands, Jesus didn't whip out his latest leather-bound book of Leviticus and tell her all of the WHY's of how it was wrong.  Nor did he lecture her about the public would perceive it.  He said approximately 10 words. "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more." John 8:11 

He called her out and forced her to hear his voice call it sin.  But no lectures just Go and sin no more.  I do not think we have any more documentation about how she reacted, but I guarantee you - when he was hanging on the cross she was grieving.  "He was different, even from some of his followers!"   His fruit of loving one another that day was seared into her mind for eternity. 

That's how they will know.  By our love.  Once you have shown love, invested in their life, and given compassion, the ones God has assigned to you to make a difference in before the beginning of time - they will come find YOU.  And they will ask.  NOW - at this point.  This is where you are supposed to be ready.  In season and Out of season to give the story of the gospel.  When they come to you because they see the fruit of knowing Jesus in you.  That's when you've earned the right to call out What God Tells you to call out in them.  Most of the time, when you are a given jewel, God has already prepared their heart to hear what you would have to say. 

So judge away friends ... and change your life with the things you see and hear from God.  But wait!  Wait for the chosen ones who are ready to hear you talk about God to come to you!  Because they will - they know they have a God-Shaped hole that nothing else has filled yet.  They just need to see some people that He has filled it up inside of and they will want to know Him. 

The best thing you can do for the gospel and for the Lord is to discern everything, and use it to make yourself worthy of being called a Christian. Let God sort out everything else.  He's big enough for that.  I'm not advocating that we NEVER speak to anyone we haven't known for years at all.  I'm just begging you to be sure you have heard from God to do it.

As with everything else, there will come a point where God will refine this in me.  Make it better or deeper or say  "Sheesh girl - you got a lot of that right but you got some wrong too!  Lets walk this out one more time!" 

So if I haven't communicated it completely the way God wanted it - stick with me.  I Really want to be the daughter that receives correction or even teaching and finally "gets it"!  

Blessing for today ya'll!  We need them every day! 

Heather