I've been talking about hard things over the last few weeks. Because of the financial devastation and the recurring frequency of natural devastation's plus the state of Israel, I believe we may be close to the second return of Christ.
To the natural mind, this is non-sense. Some may even label it radical. But I'm a student of the Word. And I also try to keep up with current events. When you begin linking the two...
However, if all of this is too hard for you, I encourage you to be like the Bereans in the book of Acts. "They received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures for themselves to see if what Paul said was true." (Acts 17:11)
Do the same with me! Go to the Scriptures yourself and see if what I'm sharing is solid.
I, like Joel Rosenberg believe that one of the reason's God is shaking us, is because HE loves us and wants us to repent from our sinful ways. (Please see past posts.) Today's thought:
It's so easy to see the sin in others; to see the lifestyles; to see the life choices - yet totally miss our own sin. We're so busy looking for "the speck" in others that we miss the "log in our own eye." Let me share several examples of "logs" in the eye that we can totally miss.
(Partial list taken from Intimacy with God, week 6.)
- Envy - jealous of other's possessions, husbands, houses, clothes, their physical appearance.
- Manipulation - especially with possibly our husband's instead of trusting God to work.
- Critical Spirit - b/c someone fails to measure up to our standards.
- Slander - exposing someones sin with the intention of causing others to think less of that person.
- Unbridled mouth - saying the first thing that comes to mind rather than being under control of the Holy Spirit.
- Temper - becoming easily angered and losing self-control.
- Pride - Inwardly exalting yourself above others - spiritually , financially, educationally, status, position, etc...
Can I confess, that I'm guilty of much of the above plus more. Would you be willing, like me, to examine yourself today - ask the Lord, "Lord show me the log in my own eye." Listen to what He puts in your heart and mind. Agree with Him. Don't resist Him And then repent.
Let's resolve to stop beating up our brothers and sisters in Christ. And choose to love them even if in our eyes they are hard to love. Jesus died for them just as much as He died you and me. The Bible says, "The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged." (Matt 7:2) Yikes!
Related Resource: Intimacy with God. Click here to order: www.knowinggodministries.net
Yikes! What a list - I think I could check off every one of those at some time or another! I am reminded of something I heard Joyce Meyer say about being judgmental - she said the Lord taught her to be esp. careful about judging others who do the same thing you do (in her case,teaching).She was critical of another evangelist & the next time she got up to speak she went blank. The Lord was teaching her a lesson. By criticizing, she was in effect saying that she was a better teacher. Judging others is so dangerous, but so easy to do. I agree with you that it's a big reason non-believers are "turned off" by Christians. We need to pray that God will make us very aware when we sin in these areas! Thanks for the thought-provoking post today, Tara!
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