True Judgement

The Father's Principles:  True Judgement

Scribes and Pharisees.   I know we have all heard of these two groups, but in the interest of accuracy, let's go through a quick refresher so that we might have their role and function firmly in our minds as we proceed on.

Scribes:  Had knowledge of the law and possessed the ability to draft legal documents such as needed for marriage, inheritance, and the like.  Each village had at least one scribe.

Pharisees:  Members of a party that believed in resurrection and in following legal traditions that were not of the Bible but "traditions of the Fathers".  They were also well known legal experts which is why there was a partial over lap of the two groups.  According to Rabbinic tradition, Pharisees were small land owners and traders, not Scribes.

I am sure many of you have heard multiple times over the years of the false judgement both groups were known for.  The false judgement was further encouraged from a sense of false righteousness.

The matter of judgement is so important to Christ, that He chose to close what is likely the most well known of all his sermons, the Sermon on the Mount, with a discussion of judgements.

In the Sermon on the Mount, there is covered three different judgements.  So let's begin our journey and see where God will take us.

Our Judgement of Ourselves
Matthew 7: 1-5

Oh goody <insert heavy sarcasm here> ...   ha ha ha.  I couldn't resist.  As in most things, God instructs us to begin with ourselves.  We must be willing to examine our own lives, hearts, and thoughts before we can begin to judge others with wisdom and with love.

God did not forbid us to judge others.  Think about it.  Careful discrimination is essential in the Christian life.  Christian love is not to be blind.  We are taught this in Philippians 1: 9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.
The person who believes all that they hear and accepts everyone who claims to be spiritual will come to experience great confusion and spiritual loss.

However, before we judge others, we must first judge ourselves.

Verse 1:  New Living Translation (©2007)
Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.

Note that the word is past tense here:  judged.  This verb tense signifies a once and for all final judgement.  If we first judge ourselves, then we are preparing for that final judgement when we face God.  One of the failings of the Pharisees was in that they played "God" as they condemned others but did not consider that one day God would judge them.

Verse 2:  New Living Translation (©2007)
For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

When we look at this verse it helps to also consider the parallel passage in Luke 6:37-38
37“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Not only will God judge our actions at the end, but people, today, are judging us and we receive exactly what we give.  The kind of judgement and the measure of judgement we heap upon others comes right back to us.  The phrase " reap what you sow" comes to mind here.

Verse 3-5:  3“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

There is a purpose for self judgement and it isn't so that we may castigate ourselves.  Far from it.  The purpose of self judgement is to prepare us to serve others.  We are to help each other grow in grace!!  When we fail to judge ourselves, we not only hurt ourselves, but we hurt those whom we could be serving.

Consider this:  Pharisees judged and criticized others to make themselves look good ( Luke 18:9-14 ).  As Christians, we should judge ourselves so that we can help others look good.  See the difference?  That is huge.

So we will pause here in order to consider what has been shared thus far and allow God to speak to us as He will.   I know that I, myself, have much to learn and put into practice in this area so I vote we proceed in small increments in order to leave much time for God's voice to instruct our spirits, mold our thoughts, and conform us more and more to His beautiful image.

Hugs going out to each of you as we begin another day in His presence.

katrina

Judgement

Judgement

So often it seems that when God brings you to something, in this instance sharing about judgement, that the enemy is equally quick to bring you to a situation that will lead you to the perfect opportunity to either stand strong on the tenants of Christ or have actions make a lie of what your mouth says you believe.

No sooner did I send off yesterday's study - than I found myself slap in the middle of a situation which was painful, fighting the desire to stand in judgement and cause hurt to another.  I am way too emotionally entrenched in the situation to accurately assess my performance but my fervent prayer is that I allowed God to be fully God in the situation.

Onward we march my fellow soldiers!  In chapter 7 of the book of Matthew we find that God has given us the guidelines that we need in order to walk justly in wisdom.

Let's begin with a quick over view of the book of Matthew and the historical settings so that we can accurately discern all that we are reading.  Knowing that as we are diligent to seek His face, that He will reveal himself to us.

When we look at the over all structure of the book of Matthew, one can find much evidence as to the purpose of Matthew's writings.  The book of Matthew groups the teachings and the deeds of Jesus Christ into five divisions.  Five divisions were common in Judaism and may have been Matthew's way of showing Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law.

Prologue:  Chapters 1-2  Matthew shows that Jesus is the Messiah by linking Him with the promises made to Abraham and David.

First division:  Chapters 3-7  This contains the Sermon on the Mount and reveals Jesus' description of how people should live under God's reign.

Second division:  Chapters 8:1-11:1  Jesus' instructions to the disciples as He sends them out on their missionary journey.

Third division:  Chapters 11:2-13:52  Records several controversies which Jesus was involved in, seven parables describing some aspect of the kingdom of heaven, coupled with necessary human response.

Fourth division:  13:53-18:35  Concerns the conduct of believers within the context of Christian fellowship

Fifth division:  19:1-25:46  This narrates the final journey of Jesus and His climatic conflict with Judaism.

Remainder:  26:1-28:20  Shares the events and teachings pertaining to the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and the Lord's commission to the Church.

With the exception of the beginning and the end of the book, Matthew does not list events in Chronological order.   Instead it is written in such a manner as to show that in Jesus, Judaism finds the fulfillment of it's hopes.

With this background information, we are now firmly grounded to begin our journey into all that God has revealed for us regarding judgement.

As the morning unfolds in front of each of us, let us remember that God is standing with us through all that comes our way today.  We are strengthened by His might through His word.  There is nothing that comes our way, that has not been filtered through His love.

Blessings to you all, my friends.

katrina

Judge not... or should we?

Day - # today.....

<Smiles>  Now just so you know, I have not finally fallen off the edge.  We are however, about to take a detour.

Please hear my heart now, before another word is shared.  I readily include myself in all statements which will follow.  There is no judgement intended nor inferred in regards to anyone other than myself and society as a whole.  My heart has been breaking for a while now for the hurt being lived by so many - and being lived so needlessly.  With that having been said, let's begin.....

As I have been listening to conversations among fellow believers and conversations among those who are not believers, one universal topic seems to arise often:  the matter of judgement.

Matthew 7:1  New Living Translation (©2007)
"Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.

This verse seems to be a favorite among people everywhere and is quoted often.  Each time I have heard this verse referenced or judgement spoken of, my heart has become a little heavier.  Each time I find myself standing in the position of judgement, I die a little more.

God has birthed in my heart, hmmm... don't even know what to call it.  God has birthed in my heart a deep hurt for the subject of judgement, an even deeper conviction, as well as a desire to know and correctly interpret His will regarding such.  All too often I have been slow to respond to God's leading... sometimes because I just don't want to, but more often, because where He is leading is to an area of great discomfort.  So I am stepping out with this, umm -study I guess, in faith that God has a purpose, a plan, and a person for whom this is intended.

There is a truth that was shared with me long ago by a person of great spiritual maturity and wisdom.  Plucking a verse and applying it to your situation is not necessarily, correctly understanding God's intention.  In order to correctly discern God's will in any situation in our life, we are to put in place the following:
Prayer - remembering to listen as much as we speak,
Study - you must work to understand the circumstances in which He shared that particular verse in order to correctly interpret His meaning,
Counsel - seeking Godly counsel from a mentor, prayer partner, or accountability partner is often vital to stepping outside of the emotion of our circumstances and gaining Godly wisdom for our life.

Keeping these things in mind and moving on "toward the prize of His calling" (Philippians 3:14) we will spend a little time journeying together and learning what God has said in regards to judgement.

I seek and covet your prayers for wisdom and discernment during the days ahead and am so very grateful to share all that He is leading me to with each of you.  Walking together with fellow believers is the great joy of my life.

Hugs and love to you all...   Look up and see all the great blessings that our blessed Lord and most gracious Father has laid before you this day.

katrina

A Relational People

Day 29

Preparing for Eternity

Romans 14:12  New International Version (©2011)
So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

Are we ready for that day?  Really?  Are we ready for the day we will all have to stand before Christ and give account.  Am fairly sure I am not.  There will come a time when we will all answer the question that arises from how much time we invested in ourselves and how much time we invested in serving.

You know - I have some pretty great "reasons" as to why I haven't served as much as I could have.  At least they sound pretty great here on earth.  I have a feeling, however, that when I am standing before the great I Am, that the reasons will fall to the side as dust.

I know that we are to invest heavily in each other.  We do this each time we serve, help, welcome, support, talk to those around us.  We were built to be relational people.  It is high time we put this back as a priority in our lives.

Communication technology being what it is today - it is becoming increasingly easy to keep in touch but at the same time it is becoming oh so much harder to allow the reality of relationship to exist.  We have gained access but lost intimacy.

You cannot have any type of relationship without intimacy.  The giving and sharing of two people together opening themselves to love, joy, and yes, even the hurt that comes from such.

Mark 8:35  New Living Translation (©2007)
If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.

This is such an important basis for our serving here on earth, that God specifically addresses this on five different occasions in the gospels.  Life is meant for ministry - not for self service.

So let's get up out of our drive through mentality and begin living a life of servitude.

I am going to leave you with a quote by Marianne Williamson - this is a favorite of mine.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Walk well today my friends...

katrina