To judge - Not to judge

Today’s scripture:

“Desire without knowledge is not good—how much more will hasty feet miss the way!” (Proverbs 19:2)

“You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.” (John 8:15-16)

When discussing sin, often I hear people say, “The bible says not to judge”, and they refer to Matthew 7 to back this up. All to often we tend to use this as a way to tell people “don’t tell me I’m wrong, besides who are you to keep me accountable? You don’t know me.” Truth is God wrote out His will for us and if they do not line up with His word, then we know we are wrong. What we need to do when referring to scripture and to understand what God says about sin is to read the context it is written in.

Up to this point in scripture of the “Sermon on the mount”, Jesus has been teaching about the attitudes of the heart and the hypocrisy that goes with some of those attitudes. See, the context of this passage is about dealing with the heart. What is your motive of your judgment towards other people? Whenever there is judgment, it should always be with the intent of presenting truth and with that should be an attitude of hunger and thirst for righteousness (5:6) and having a desire for there to be a turning to God. Judgment should never be that you want to point out things other people do wrong.

Today we are looking into the sixteenth topic on the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is teaching, which is “Do not judge”. Matthew 7:1-6… Please understand this is not about not judging, it is more about not being a hypocrite. To understand the content of this passage, I believe the key is in v.3-4 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?”

As an example, we cannot try to council a brother on being a good steward of his money when we turn around and head off to the casinos. Same as if you were to help someone with a pornography addiction and yet you just looked at some lust-filled images on your smart phone! It just does not make sense! Like Jesus says in v.5, you need to seek help for your own struggles before you can help another about theirs.

One time I witnessed a very sad example of wrong judgment. One summer morning I had to work on a Sunday opening up the church building at 6:30 am. As I got closer to the building, I saw this man lying on the bench outside the doors. As I opened the doors, another one of our congregation members walked up with me. The man on the bench stood up and asked if he could come inside and help serve. It was apparent this man had not showered and had been sleeping outside all night. I was taken back a little bit by this situation, but I said “sure, why not. We welcome anyone who wants to help.” Then, the other member of our church pulled me aside and said to me, “you have to get him out of here! He’s scary looking!”

I’m not sure if it was because he was African/American or if it was he appeared to be homeless, or if it was because of his odor. The point is he did not do anything to warrant being kicked out of a church just because of his appearance! After all, Jesus came for the sick. He came for the weary. He loves to help and mercy those in need. In fact, He will pass right by the one who thinks he has it all together and does not see his desperate need for Jesus to help the lost! We need to be very careful of how we judge, why we judge and whom we are judging!

Now, with that being said, there is a place and time to judge. John 7:24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” Righteous judgment is letting God decide. Like I said earlier, He has already written in His word of how He wants us to live life. If it does not line up with His word, we need to GENTLY and LOVINGLY come to that person with intent of correction and show them truth. Of course, this is assuming you have already practiced Matthew 7:5.

Reflection:

I would say you would need an attitude of hunger and thirst for righteousness for this topic of judgment. Be careful to judge another while you yourself are in some bondage of sin. First confess your sin and repent by getting help, then you can be able to see clearly how to help others. Now, once you are able to help others through correction, consider it mercy to them to show them truth. If you don’t judge them with righteous judgment, you are actually doing them harm because they may not realize they need to repent.

Challenge:

How are you doing in your walk with Jesus? Is there any area of your life that you need Jesus to take control of? Maybe judgment towards others may be something you struggle with. Be very mindful of why and how and whom you are judging. Confess your wrong judgment to which you have judged and ask for their forgiveness.

-Doug McGowan

Don’t worry, Be happy

Today’s scripture:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

Max Lucado once said, “No one can pray and worry at the same time.” There is power in prayer because of whom you are praying to. Sometimes I think we are afraid to ask God for things that we need or want because we feel that He will not see us through. There is never a time when God does not meet our needs. However, our needs are rarely matching up with how we see them. If we are facing some jail time and it is not yet certain if we will serve that time, we pray and ask God to grant us freedom. If He chooses to let the judge sentence us to serve time in jail, it is because of what we NEED and not what we want. If God chooses not to give us what we desire, it isnt because He doesnt love us; rather it is because He loves us way too much for us to have our own way which is very destructive most of the time.

There was one time while I was separated from my first wife and my son, I was struggling to pay bills, child support, and gas money, not to mention food. The church I was going to had helped me out several times with my financial shortage. I was driving down the road one-day whith my gas gage on empty and no money in my wallet. I cried out to God saying… “I know it is a good thing to humble myself and ask for help, but God, I’ve been doing that and I’m still hurting! This time, will you please send me some money without asking for it?”

I am not kidding, my son Alex calls me within 5 minutes of that prayer and says there is a $100.00 check there waiting for me from a church I used to go to a few years before! I cashed the check, then went to that church, thanked them, and told them my struggles and how God blessed me through them. They told me they didn’t know anything about it!!! God will send the rain of mercy when, AND ONLY when you need it. A friend of mine once told me we have a daddy who is abizillionaire and He loves to bless us with all that He has. That,my friends is so true!

Proverbs 12:25 says, “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.” There really is no need to drive yourself into a state of depression. If you can help your situation, then try with all your might. However, if you have done all that you know what to do, then pray as you lie back in your hammock and let God take care of what you need. There is nothing more that you can do about it anyway. When you do that and let God take it over, you have a peace in the midst of chaos that surpasses all understanding.

Today we are looking into the fifteenth topic on the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is teaching, which is “Do not worry”. Matthew 6:25-34… Basically, Jesus is saying, there is enough chaos and trouble in this world that we don’t need to add to it. From the outside of Christianity it does not make any since to not worry when you just lost your job and your mortgage is due and you only have a bottle of ketchup and a couple of eggs in the fridge. My dear friends, that is where faith comes in! Faith is not based on what we can see, it is based on the one who cares for us that we cannot see but we believe we can trust Him.

He wraps up this part of the sermon of what is most important… v.33-34 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Reflection:

This most definitely needs an attitude of humility. See, we need to set our minds on Him and seek Him before He will jump in and take care of the situation. Do not be discouraged or afraid to cry out to Him with what you need. He already knows anyway, He is just waiting for you to humble yourself and ask Him for help.

Challenge:

Have you done all you can do in your current situations, whatever they are? Do you have peace that God has got this? If you are still worrying, that means either you never surrendered it to God or you have decided to take it back again. Once you have done all you can do, surrender it to God and ask Him to help you to keep your hands off of it. This is His life, not yours. He owns this situation, you do not! He sees the outcome, you only see the present time. Let it go!

-Doug McGowan

You cannot serve both

Today’s scripture:

“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” (Matthew 12:30)

Marriage vows are probably one of the most over-looked promises we tend to make in our culture. Few truly meditate on those vows, take them very seriously, and keep their promises to follow through with them. However, it is a sad thing that they are considered the minority whith respects to all marriages.

Here is an example of marriage vows from a christain wedding…”I love you ___ as I love no other. All that I am I share with you. I take you to be my (husband/wife) through health and sickness, through plenty and want, through joy and sorrow, now and forever.”

When I read vows like this, I am reminded how they line up with our commitment to the Lord when we first give Him our lives. He is ours and we are His. We make a promise to live our life serving Him and He makes a promise to live in us forever. We make this promise if we are healthy or sick, rich or poor, in joy or sorrow. We take Him as our heavenly Husband and He takes us as His bride!

How often do you hear about a husband or wife that has cheated on the other at some point in their marriage? How often does the husband choose to work at his job more than being a father or husband? How often does the wife find it hard to keep control of her spending rather than what the family truly needs? Sadly, it is far too often. It is because we choose to stop serving our spouse and we get our thoughts on serving ourselves. The exact same thing happens to us in our marriage with God. We forget the covenant we made with Him…”to serve Him only”!

Today we are looking into the fourteenth topic on the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is teaching, which is “You cannot serve God and riches”. Matthew 6:24… “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Lets look at today’s scripture again in comparison with a section from Matthew 6:24…“He who is not with Me is against Me”… “For either he will hate the one and love the other”. Can you see how black and white this is? God is saying you are My friend or My enemy, either you love Me, or you hate Me.

C.H. Spurgeon said…”Two opinions in the matter of soul-religion you cannot hold. If God is God, serve Him, and do it thoroughly. However, if this world is God, serve it, and make no profession of religion. If you think the things of the world the best, serve them. But remember, if the Lord is your God, you cannot have Baal, too; you must have one thing or else the other. “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). If God is served, He will be a master. If the devil is served, it will not be long before he will be a master, and “no man can serve two masters.” Oh! Be wise, and think not that the two can be mingled together.”

Reflection:

An attitude of reverence for God’s heart is very much needed here. Revelation 3:15-16 says, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” God actually wishes you to be one or the other. He hates it when we “play church”. You cannot fool God. If you think you can get away with that, then you are the fool. What God wants more than our good works is for us to be real. He can work with our TRUE heart; He does not like it when we fake it.

Challenge:

Are you being REAL and TRUE with God? Have you been “playing church”? Do you really believe that God sees all? Do you truly believe God knows your inner secretes that nobody else can see? Change that thought process and truly get alone with God and ask Him to help you have a softer heart for the things He loves!

-Doug McGowan

How great is that darkness!

Today’s scripture:

“Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil.” (Proverbs 4:25-27)

Have you ever gone into a season of life when you choose to indulge in sin? You may go days of giving yourself over to your own selfishness and the ways of this world which Satan rules. Pretty soon, you start to realize scripture doesn’t have that much of an impact on you like it once did. You start to notice your sensitivity level has been weakened and your heart been hardened. You become angry or depressed and irritable about situations and towards other people. Then you start to take on an attitude that reflects an ungrateful heart.

Then, you take a look around you and say, “Man! How did I get here? How did it get this bad?” I’m sure you didn’t think to yourself that it would be ok if you become out of control. No, that is not how it starts. If you truly want God in your life, you never get to this point with the intention of taking on the devil’s characteristics. That’s never the case!

All this starts with a very tiny little compromise to let you eyes wonder off the path of righteousness. It’s that second look after that accidental first glance at the scantily dressed teenagers on the magazine rack in the checkout line. The amazing part about this is if you get your eyes off of Christ and His will, you can be so easily deceived into thinking your still ok! You’re still doing your daily devotions, your still praying, and your still serving the Lord in ministry. Be very careful of this! You can still do all these things and think you’re doing good and yet, you’re starting to put “DO NOT ENTER” signs on that one room in your clean house that you don’t want Jesus to go into.

Charles H. Spurgeon said...

“The motive is the eye of the soul, and if it be clear, the whole character will be right; but if it be polluted, our whole being will become defiled. The eye of the understanding may also be here understood: if a man does not see things in a right light, he may live in sin and yet fancy that he is doing his duty. A man should live up to his light; but if that light is itself darkness, what a mistake his whole course will be! If our religion leads us to sin, it is worse than irreligion. If our faith is presumption, our zeal selfishness, our prayer formality, our hope a delusion, our experience infatuation, the darkness is so great that even our Lord holds up his hands in astonishment and says — “How great is that darkness! “ Oh, for a single eye to God’s glory, a sincere consecration unto the Lord This alone can fill my soul with light. “

Today we are looking into the thirteenth topic on the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is teaching, which is “The lamp of the Body”. Matthew 6:22-23… “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you can go out and knock over a liquor store or kill someone because you started looking at a bad magazine the day before. However, the major issues start somewhere. Things just don’t happen overnight. That small tiny little compromise will lead to something a little deeper the next week or so, and if you don’t repent, it will lead to something very destructive months or even years later.

Doesn’t this show how critical it is to be careful where we place our feet and what we are looking at or what thoughts we allow to entertain us? It’s best to not even entertain that compromise in the first place, or else you will have a big mess to clean up later.

Reflection:

Why can’t we just heed the wisdom of Jesus? Why must we think we can get our eyes off of Him and be ok? Our hearts are desperately wicked! We must simply trust God’s Word! For years, I’ve spent trying so hard to keep my eyes in front. It’s very difficult to change an ingrained deep bad habit. Once you allow God to change that, you don’t want to go back. However, that is where Satan comes in with his subtle ways because he knows your heart is still wicked and he will go to great lengths to trip you up! Watch out!!! (1 Peter 5:6-9)

Challenge:

If you are reading this before your day starts, plead with God that He helps you to keep your eyes, feet and mind pointed to Him. If you are reading this after your day is done, chances are you have already been tested. Ask God to forgive you and repent of those subtle sins that you may have given into today. Go and find a need that needs to be met and mercy someone today or pray for someone tonight to get your thoughts on someone else rather than yourself.

-Doug McGowan

Where are your treasures?

Today’s scripture:

“But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:10)

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Today we are looking into the twelfth topic on the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is teaching, which is “Lay up treasures in heaven”. Matthew 6:19-21… “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

The last part of this passage, in my opinion, is the most important… “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Once again it all comes back down to the heart of the matter, because it is the heart that will determine one important factor…and that is legalism or a relationship through a believing faith in Jesus Christ.

See, one might read this and think it is about works, especially if you read the first of today’s scriptures about the Lord rewarding those whose actions are deserving. But, God sees our hearts and He knows our secrete motives behind our actions.

Take a look at the apostle Paul before his eyes were opened to the truth. He was considered “The Bomb” when it came to religious practices. Philippians 3 says that he was the stock of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews and he was proud to be called a Pharisee concerning the law.

Then Paul says in verses 7-11… “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Do you know what he is saying here? He is saying the status of that recognition he had, and a high status at that, was counted as rubbish, no good, not fulfilling, empty, and certainly not pleasing to the Lord! All that he gave up for the precious, closeness, intimate relationship with his King! He finally saw what was most valuable in life. He saw his relationship with God was priceless and very fulfilling. He didn’t want the knowledge anymore. He didn’t care what people thought of his actions, faith, adoration for God, and the newfound love for Jesus. All he wanted was to know Jesus!

Like 2 Corinthians, 8:9 says Jesus gave up the riches of heaven to become poor so He can know you, so did Paul give up the riches from the religious knowledge, and recognition he gained and became poor in spirit so he can know Jesus and give back to Him by serving His sheep.  

Reflection:

Jesus is talking about an attitude of a servant here. Putting yourself last while you serve others is a dying to self attitude. Once again, this brings us back to the cross. Think back to the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus said “if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Jesus knew what this was going to cost Him, and that is to be separated from the true love of His Father. Yet, He also knew what the Trinity was going to gain from it, which is His treasure, and that is US!

Challenge:

Please dear ones do not take this lightly if you truly want to have Jesus to be the most important person in your life. Take an inventory of your life. Look at the things you do in ministry and ask yourself one honest question – Am I doing these things for Jesus or am I doing them so I can be recognized? If they are to be recognized, then simply confess that to God and repent. Turn from that attitude and submit, then choose an attitude of a servant for Jesus.

-Doug McGowan