A Call to Blog

I feel like I need to go off topic here and stray from all of the posts that have already been written and make one point very clear. This blog is meant as an encouragement for Christian moms based on Scriptural teachings.If you are not a Christian this blog is probably just not going to make sense to you. And guess what that is FINE! There are hundreds of blogs out there that have a message for you. This just may not be it. I have no problems with people disagreeing with what is posted in this blog, but my beliefs are not based on someone's opinions of what I have to say.That being said, to my Christian mothers I have a major word of encouragement that I feel can come out of the recent comments I have been getting and thank you to all of you who have encouraged me through this!

Have you ever heard the Metallica song "Holier than Thou" in which the phrase "Judge not lest ye be judged" is repeated over and over? Has anyone noticed that this has become the battle cry of our culture? It is their "proof" that Christians are supposed to accept their sin, and the sad thing is some Christians have begun to believe it themselves because it has become such a prevelant thought.
Yes, it is true that scripture says, "Judge not or you will also be judged." Matthew 7:1. But like most other scriptures thrown around by non-believers it begins and ends there. If you continue to read you will soon stumble upon verse 5 in which Jesus said, "You, hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Jesus, never told us not to judge, he told us to judge rightly. He told us not to judge out of hypocritical thoughts or self-righteousness. In fact there are many other verses that instruct us on how we are to judge. Matthew 7:15-16, John 7:24, 1 Corinthians 5:9, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Philippians 3:2, 1 John 4:1, and 1 Thessalonians 5:21 all exhort believers to judge other people. As I once heard it said, we are called to judge consistently not hypocritically, with humility not superiority, with facts not assumptions, to judge words and deeds not motives or intents, biblical issues not personal preferences, temporal matters not eternal ones (salvation), and with the intention to direct others to Christ.

The problem is when a Christian speaks the truth it is viewed two different ways based on if the person is a believer or not. According to 1 Corinthians 2:15-16 believers are to be of the same mind, and that is to be the mind of Christ. Therefore we are to judge eachother. However, when talking among Christians who are at different walks in their faith it can be a slippery slope, so let's just remember here that these are scriptural truths and not my own opinions. Nothing I say comes out of my own pride (or even means that I do it all perfectly). It is just an encouragement to remind us all about what it means to be a Christian and what our lives can be about if we follow our calling through him. We cannot continue our spiritual journey if we don't recognize the stumbling blocks we have in our path. We have to be able to call to attention our faults so that God can come in a perform a good work in us.

Truth on the flip-side to a non-Christian will most likely always be seen as judgement because a non-Christian has no foundation to base these truths upon. In fact, there is specific scripture that speaks to judging a non-Christian. I Corinthians 5:12-13 says, "What business is it of mine to judge the outside church? Are you not to judge the inside? God will judge those outside. You expel the wicked person from among you." WOW. Can we just take a minute to let that sink in. This is the exact reason why this blog is devoted to fellow believers. We are called to certain standards and reminding eachother of those standards and encouraging our fellow believers to uphold these standards is very important. It is also pretty impossible when you are trying to get the standards of Christians and non-Christians to line up. It will never happen. In fact in Matthew 7:6 right after he speaks of removing our own planks Jesus warns us to beware of "dogs" and "pigs" that we do not waste our time giving them the knowledge of God. Why? As a lovely woman once said, "Getting a non-believer to understand scripture is like trying to send a fax to a person who doesn't have a fax machine. It doesn't matter how life saving the fax is or how often you send it there is nothing on the other end to receive it."

The reason we cannot speak truth to a non-believer is simple. It is all based on our guidelines for judging others. They will always see it as hypocrisy since we Christians do mess up. They will always feel we are approaching them with a sense of surperiority rather than humility because the world's view of humility is very different than the Biblical teaching. (Humility is not about making yourself less than what you are, it's about recognizing your power comes from the Lord and recognizing the abilities and resposibilities that come from that power.) They will always feel we are judging through our own opinions since they do not believe the Scriptures to be truth. They will always feel we are judging their motives rather than their actions because they do not know how to seperate the two.
They believe our Biblical views are our personal preferences rather than actual facts. They cannot recognize the judging of a sin, but not the sinner. In fact 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, "but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned."

Am I saying that this blog is all about judging Christians? Absolutely not! But at the times when you find yourself thinking with that mindset I want you to remember these Biblical Truths. Do not allow Satan to come into your heart and turn words of encouragement into condemnation. But most importantly do not let the allegations of judgement keep you from speaking the truth.