Who is judging you?

“I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscious is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me,” and it is the precious blood of Jesus who has made me righteous, not anything I have done or can do. When we adopt this mentality, when we really believe that we are loved and accepted, we don’t have to fight for attention, or care about what others think, or search for love in all the wrong places, or strive to make a good impression. One thing we need to realize is that the enemy is constantly accusing us of what we have done wrong. One thing we need to grasp is that God is constantly singing praises and love over us, constantly seeing us as precious in his sight because we have been justified and restored. The father of lies is always shouting “You are not good enough!” “You are not a spiritual person!” “ The Holy Spirit wouldn’t dare work through you!” “You don’t have what it takes! “ The future is too much!” “Those grades, that failed relationship, that sickness, that sin, that time in your life just proves that you are worthless…” But do not listen to the lies! Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to say to yourself: "These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God's eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting embrace." In Christ, you are a son or daughter of Christ. Child, you are forgiven and loved.

Therefore, we should judge no one. For what do you know that you did not receive? And if you receive it, why would you boast as if you did not? We must learn to measure ourselves, not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts. The Lord will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.


Look at we have gained

We already have all that we could possibly want! Already we have become rich! The man that has the whole world and Jesus has no more than the man who just has Jesus. We have been given power in Christ. Our thoughts of God are not great enough; we fail to reckon with the reality if his limitless wisdom and power. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. Which would you prefer? That we come to the world with a rod of discipline or that we come in love and with a gentle spirit? As Christians, we are spectacles to the whole universe, to angels as well as human beings. The easiest thing in the world is to be a Christian. What is hard is to be a sinner. Being a Christian is what we were created for. The life of faith has the support of an entire creation and the resources of a magnificent redemption. The structure of this world was created by God so we can live in it easily and happily as his children. In the course of Christian discipleship we discover that without Christ we were doing it the hard way and that with Christ we are doing it the easy way. It is not Christians who have it hard, but non-Christians. Everyone wants to be happy, to be blessed, but too many people are willfully refusing to pay attention to the One who wills our happiness and is ignorantly supposing that the Christian way is a harder way to get what they want than doing it on their own. They are wrong. God's ways and God's presence are where we experience the happiness that lasts.


Be humble. Be thankful. Be joyful. Live forgiven.

(Don't mind the cheesy looking background. Glorious song)