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Shelburne Free Press https://shelburnefreepress.ca/?p=6069 Export date: Tue Jul 23 11:36:08 2024 / +0000 GMT |
Crossroads Community Church Another blessed week in God's presence, we joined our voices in worship to praise our Lord. Pastor Don shared announcements and prayer requests; we pray for the family of the little 9 year old boy who passed away this week after being trapped in a snowbank near Orangeville. Our hearts are with them in their time of sorrow, we believe he is with the Lord now and we pray that God's comfort and peace be upon the family. Pastor Don asked for God to search our hearts for any displeasing ways within us and to help us grow in our relationship with Him. Pastor Don began by giving various examples of people suing corporations for their own foolish mishaps, from suing a professor for failing a student to suing the city of Brooklyn for falling off a ladder because you were asked to remove a tree from your property. It seems that everyone is in to attack their neighbor any chance they get, this has been the case since the beginning because of human sinful ways, “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away,” James 1:14. The blame game has been a human response since the Garden, and suing stems from that need to blame someone else, the difference is now people legally profit from it. However is this how God wants us to deal with others? Let us examine Matthew 7:15, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged…” In verse one, we clearly see that we should not judge others because judging wrongly is sin, but people have misused this scripture to excuse their own misbehaviours, surely Jesus wasn't relaying a licence to sin, on the contrary, Jesus wants us to weigh our own motives, He wants us to try and understand why people have struggles with one sin or another so we can better help them and be compassionate, ”Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” John 7:24. The same can be said for hearsay, or naysay or everything we hear in or out of Church, we are to be wise and discerning by measuring it up against God's word,(1 Timothy 6:3-4). By this scripture we know that God's word has the final authority over all matters. Another word of caution, when God says not to judge it does not to say not to discern what is right or wrong before God. Today's society has strayed away from sound doctrine misusing this no judging attitude to validate their worldly views on tolerance and we shouldn't be quick in adopting this philosophy. God's word teaches scrutiny, it teaches to test doctrines and points of view according to Him, (2 John 10). A good example of sound judgement is this; if a friend has had a little too much to drink and wants to drive himself home, is it judging him if you don't allow him to drive? Of course not, it is using sound judgement. The same can be applied with all the waves of doctrine heard today, they should all be examined and align against Scripture, if it doesn't then it could be harmful to ourselves and others,( 1 John 4:1). As mentioned before we need to understand where people are coming from, their motives, and their circumstances. Life has a way of throwing us off course and leads us to do things we normally wouldn't so we need to offer each other grace and understanding, harsh criticism will not help change our wrong doings, (James 4:11-12). Our mutual approach should be love and understanding out of God's love for us and our love for Him,(Matthew 22:37-39). We ought to seek the best in one another instead of knit picking and we definitely should examine ourselves for none of us are above the other and we should certainly be living as we profess to be, our lives should reflect a genuine faith,( Matthew 7:3-4,Galatians 6:4, 2 Corinthians 13:5). Beloved this self-examination process needs to begin with us, we cannot point out each other's faults when we know full well that we all have shortcomings, for all of us fall short of the Glory of God and as Jesus once said ‘Let he who has no sin cast the first stone,” but when we see each other struggling with a sin let us extend God's mercy and forgiveness, let us empathize with each other remembering where we once were and share of how God's love and grace helped us overcome for His name sake, have a blessed Week , Asherey Shalom! To learn more visit www.shelburnecrossroadschurch.ca |
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Post date: 2014-02-12 17:31:00 Post date GMT: 2014-02-12 22:31:00 Post modified date: 2014-02-19 11:42:09 Post modified date GMT: 2014-02-19 16:42:09 |
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