critical Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized

Welcome to part 6 the final part of Who are you to judge?  Remember we are talking about  Matthew 7:1-6.  Today we want to look at the fact that this critical judgmental person is not worthy of the gospel.

 In Matthew 7:6 we read “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”  Christ is very simply stating to us that we should not be foolish and jeopardize ourselves.  When we know that a person is not going to receive us or the instruction of the gospel, we are not to approach them.  To make it simple there are some criticizers ad some people that are so full of criticism that we just should not go to them.  These people will only abuse the glorious message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This language that Christ used was very strong.  There are unbelievers that are so wicked and so nasty that they can be compared to dogs and pigs.  I have known some of these very people.  These people are said to be unworthy of the gospel.  Well who are these people.

• The widely known sinner
• Those that ridicule and are filled with disrespect
• Those that are filled with rage.
• Those that are openly wicked and stand against God.
• Those that are hardened themselves and are filled with judgment and criticism.
• Those that hate and despise
• Those that persecute.

If the question is can they be saved?  The answer is absolutely.  for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” (Romans 10:13)

Anyone that call on the Lord will be saved.  However, there is a hard reality that must be faced: there are people that have reached such a high level of evil they are very unlikely to turn from their wickedness and to call upon the Lord.  These people seek to take their words and 

wound others, they ridicule, they trample, the tear apart, they scorn, they attack, they are filled with rage, they defy.

These same people take there minds and their hand and their power and they

trample others, they strike other people, they tear others down. the persecute others, they beat them, kill, and even torture them.

Now I am not saying that everyone commits all of these sins, but hey we all know that many people are guilty of some of them.  These sins destroy the reputation and work of a person.  Here is the real tragedy, there are so many so called believers that are caught up in this criticism and judgments of others.  Believer are all to often the very ones that are guilty of taking their word and hands to damage the reputation and work of others.

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers,disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1-4)

Well that’s it.  If you have read this series I hope maybe something has helped you.  

Welcome to part 5 of “who are you to judge”  remember we are looking at Matthew 7:1-6.  Today we want to see that the critical judgmental person is in reality a hypocrite.  Before a person can pass judgment they must first get rid of the sin in their own lives.  When we judge and criticize others we are hypocrites.  

In fact when we judge others we prove that we are full of conflict and empty glory.  We prove that we are not humble in mind and that we do not regard others as more important that us.

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4)

When we judge and criticize we also show that we fail to consider our own selves and we fail to show a spirit of gentleness.  We fail to bear the burden of out brother.

Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:1-2)

When we chose to jude and criticize we are only proving that we are filled with bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice.  We are failing to be tenderhearted and forgiving.  We forget that God through the blood of Jesus Christ has forgiven us.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:31-32)

There are many people who suffer because of the judgment and criticism of others.  When a person has failed and done some wrong it is not time to kick them or beat them up but it is time for compassion.  It is time to reach out and to pull that person up, not push them away.  This is a time to speak kindly of the person, not to speak destructive talk.  The hypocrite fails to do this.  Where do we find Christ beating the person who is down?  Where do we find Him showing no compassion for that person that has failed?

The only hope for the hypocrite, the one who judges and is critical is for that person to “take the log out of their own eye” then turn to God in repentance.  

The fact of the matter is this when we judge and criticize we are hypocrites.  Why?  Because we too have failed, and we have failed often, so for us to judge another persons failure is hypocritical.  The point is this not only have we failed but guess what? We will one day fail again therefore there are four things we must do.

1.  We have to know ourselves.  We are just as sinful as the next person and we need God’s forgiveness as much as anyone else.  We will need God’s forgiveness, again and again just like anyone else.  We are all sinners and we all have been saved by God’s grace.  

2.  We must not usurp God’s position as judge.  God and God alone is God.  God is the only one that has all the facts and has the ability to judge according to those facts (James 4:11-12).

3.  First we have to cast the log out of our own eye.  We are to first get rid of sin in our own lives, which could be the critical and judgmental spirit that we already posses.  Then we can see clearly and do what what we should be doing; which is helping those who are failing.

4.  We must reach out in compassion and understanding to the person who has failed, not in judgment and criticism.  

Come back tomorrow as we see that this person in undeserving of the gospel and why?

Well here we are with part 4 of our series on Who are you to judge?  Once again this is all coming from Matthew 7:1-6.  This stemmed from a conversation I had with a friend when he said that Matthew 7:1 was the most popular verse among teens (according to him).  So I wondered why and decided to launch this study on the verses found in Matthew.  If you want to use anything I have written be my guest.

What we are going to see today is that the judgmental critical person is actually deceived about themselves.  This is seen in verse 4 when it states ”Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?”  

It is quite clear that the critical judgmental person has not given any thought to what they are doing.  How can we say this?  Well a person that actually puts thought into it realizes that they are just as human and just as sinful as anyone else.  This person has just as many motes in their eye as anyone else, and because of  this they have lost their right to criticize and be judgmental.

This person that is judgmental and critical is deceived on some many different levels here are a few.

This person is overlooking, denying, or ignoring that they also have sin.

1.  When we judge others we exalt ourselves as gods.  It is God’s right and who are we to take that right from Him.  We are not worthy nor do we have the right to judge another (Romans 14:4; James 4:11-12)

2.  Our judgment of others only pushes a brother down and tears him to pieces.  It does not embrace him in compassion nor does it build him up.

3.  When we judge others it becomes the beam in our eye.  All sin is great including the judging and criticizing of a brother that has failed.

We also must take careful notice that the criticizer is not fit to judge.

The person that judges and criticizes is just as sinful as the next person but does not consider their own life.  However, it is interesting that this same person feels free to be critical of other who come short and fail, but refuses to look inward.  They spend a great deal of time condemning others, and then justify their own actions.

We also should not that the person doing the judging and criticizing is the weaker of the two.  The person that is weak is the one who judges and criticizes the most, they do this because of their need to boost themselves over others all to feel good about themselves.

The critical judgmental person does not take time to examine themselves and this is for one primary reason.  It hurts.  It hurts to look deep within yourself and to see if their is anything that God needs to deel with and that is why so few people do it yet look at what God says “But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31)

Many people are deceiving their own consciences when they judge and criticize others.  Let me give you a few things people do when being judgmental and critical they do these things because they think it makes it ok to judge and be critical (deceiving their conscience).

1.  When they are judgmental and critical they try to be nice, and soft spoken, using soft words thinking this must make it ok to judge.  

2.  They will give some commendable strengths as well as passing along the other person failings. Somehow thinking this makes it ok as long as we pass something good along with the judgmental spirit.

3.  By prefacing the criticism with a statement that is it “constructive” we have all heard it.  Can you take “constructive criticism”?  Somehow we take what we have to say and twist and ad the words constructive to it and think that makes it ok.

I want this to be the last verse I leave with

There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his filthiness. (Proverbs 30:20)

Come back tomorrow as we see that this person that is being judgmental and critical is really a hypocrite.

Well here we are with part 3 of the series “Who are you to Judge?  It was questionable whether or not I should take the few minutes and right this out.  Right now my wife is in the hospital with the possibility of our second child coming early.  Our first Sarai was born at 30 weeks and now Micah just over 30 weeks seems to want to come out.  But I have a quick break and thought I would do part 3.  Once again this is all coming from  Matthew 7:1-6

We have covered alot of ground but today I want to look at verse 3 which clearly tells us that the judgmental critical person fails to look at themselves.  This person is very inconsistent in how they criticize and judge others as they refuse to look within first.  Here is the problem all too often we continue to look at everyone else’s failures and shortcomings, and we criticize, and backbite, and love to engage in the bad news.

You see when we do this we show that we have a very serious problem and that problem is this there is a giant beam in our own eye.  We are blind to the truth that we are no better than anyone else.  We too fail and fall short and we do it often.  

In Matthew 7:5 we are call hypocrites for not taking the beam out of our own eye

In Romans 3:10 we are told no one is righteous so why do we think we can judge?

In 1 Corinthians 11:28 we are told to examine ourselves not examine others first.

In Isaiah 53:6 we are told that every last one of us has gone astray. Yet we want to judge others that have gone astray?

If “Christians” would stop looking at everyone elses faults and stop making feeble attempts to judge their motives and their thoughts and why maybe they did a certain thing and we just focussed on show the world that we are the disciples of Jesus Christ by our love for one another (John 13:35) then maybe we could make progress.  Until then it will be much more of the same. 

Come tomorrow when we hopefully have part 4.  We will see how the critical, judgmental person is deceived about themselves.

Welcome to part 2 of the series “who are you to judge?” coming from Matthew 7:1-6 I am really not sure if anyone is reading this but I’ll keep going.  Today we are going to look at verse 2 and how we will be judged with the same judgement that was used when we judged others and with the same measurement.  

The first thing we see here in verse 2 is “for in the way you judge you will be judged”  This is a clear statement that the one doing the judging and criticizing will be judged for the very thing he is criticizing.  Whatever he is criticizing, he will condemned for the same thing, not by man but by God Himself.  This alone should move us to care and love and to live a life of compassion.

Secondly we see that the one doing the judging and criticizing will be judged with equal measure that he uses to judge.  I found that it could be stated several ways.  

• The Law of equal judgment        
• The law of equal measure
• The law of equal retributions
• The law of reciprocal action
• The law of equal weight
• The law of equal proportion
• The law of equal retaliation
• The law of equal sin

However you look at it you will measured with the same measure you have used.  

But it really does not stop there James tells us that the one who does not show mercy will receive a merciless judgment James 2:13

Jesus takes it even farther when he tells us in Luke 6:36-37 ”Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.  Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.

We must be so very careful when we have the attitude of setting ourselves up as judge and when we begin to immediately become critical of others and what they are doing. 

We are told in Romans that if we judge others and criticize others we have no excuse we had better expect to be judged ourselves.  ”Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” Romans 2:1

This is serious so often we pay little attention to our judgmental and critical attitude and we think it is ok.  But as was already shared from James 2:13 God will forgive a repentant sinner but it is also clear the there is no mercy for the one that does not show mercy.   This is a scary thought and this alone should cause us to really stop before we judge.

I will close today’s post with this.  When we think of casting judgment and being critical, when we think of ourselves as maybe better then someone else or we attempt to knock someone down a little.  Think of these two passages of scripture and think of being compassionate and not judgmental and critical.

For the same God who said, “You must not commit adultery,” also said, “You must not murder.” So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law.So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. (NLT) James 2:11-12

Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look—the Judge is standing at the door! (NLT) James 5:9

May God’s word penetrate your heart

judging Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized

Yesterday I started a little blogging series on judging so today I will continue with that series.  As stated yesterday the first thing I notice from Matthew 7:1-6 is that there is a definite command “do not judge” I also stated the greek word for judge used is (krinite) which also means to criticize.

Often times when a person has done what others feel is wrong and fallen the first reaction is to judge that person but judgment often times misses the point.  

When someone has messed up as we all do shouldn’t this be a time for compassion towards that person.  This should be a time of reaching out to the person and making an offer to love on that person and to pull them in even closer, not push them further and further away.  This is a time to speak kind words of them not bite and tear them down with destructive talk.  (Ephesians 4:30-32)

We should take time to show loving compassion for those who have come short why?  Well we realize that we too have come short so many times and in many cases much worse then the one we are judging.

Then why is it that people so often and so quickly move to judging and criticizing?  Not only that why is that so often these are the what we might call “Strong Christians”.  There are several reason why this takes place and let me say as I state these this was me and probably still is to a certain extent.  

1.  When we judge or criticize another person it boosts our self-image.  When we tear someone else down it makes us seem better at least that is how we see it, somehow we are better then that other person.  It inflates our pride, ego, and our own self image.

2.  We enjoy criticism.  Think of all the successful talk shows, movies, and so forth that are based primarily on this issue we love to hear and share bad news and others shortcomings.

3.  When we judge and criticize it makes us feel as if somehow our own life is better than the person that failed.

4.  When we judge and criticize it helps us justify ourselves and all the shortcomings that we have.  We begin to rationalize our own failures because we can point out failures in other people.

5.  Judgment and criticism we think is a sign of strength.  When we criticize someone else we believe it just once again proves our narrow minded beliefs by the other persons failure to live up to that standard.

6.  Judgment and Criticism gives us a chance for hurt and revenge.  We feel that somehow that person that we are judging and being critical of deserves it.  Our reasoning go’s like this “if he hurt me, he deserves to be hurt.”  So we look for ways to hurt them.

I am going to close with reasons why we should not be so fast to judge and criticize.

1.  We never know all of the circumstance and all of the facts.  What happened and why it happened are never really known.  So often there are all kinds of things that have taken place behind the scenes that are not seen by others.  Think about just these relationships Children and parents, wives and husbands, employer and employee, friend and friend, in all these relationships things happen behind closed doors so often.  In addition to that things are seldom remembered and when they are remembered the facts are messed up.  Usually the person that does the talking does not reveal the true fact but many times reveals only the fact that make them look good.  The one that is in a hurry to tell others the problem is the one that seeks self-justification.  The one that desires to be silent is the one who is caring and compassionate.  The spirit of silence is silent because it does not desire hurt for others.

2.  The second reason we should not be so quick to criticize and judge is that all people it does not matter who you are or what your position is come short, all fall, and all fail.  In addition to that we all sin (1 John 1:8, 10).  No one at any time is ever exempt from sin.  When we are quick to bring out the whip of judgment and criticism we have a big problem; we have forgotten that we are also sinners.  It is only when we acknowledge our own condition that we act with care and compassion to those that fall short.  We must realize though they may be failing now we failed before and we will fail again.  Sin is a cycle that is continuous and no one is exempt it started in the beginning when Adam and Eve ate of the tree and it will not end until Jesus returns.  Those that believe in Christ have His righteousness imputed upon them and we are dependent upon that (2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:8-16).  We must always be seeking after God’s forgiveness and forgetting those things that are behind us.

I want to make it clear that I am not saying that we have a license to go out and sin all we want neither is our sin just excused.  We are not to continue in sin, not by being quick to judge and criticize nor by doing evil.  We all have weaknesses and shortcomings the person that really knows God is the one who is constantly seeking God.  ”And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

3.  Everything that there is to know about a person is never known.  How then can we judge and criticize?  Think about all the things that mold us into who we are.  Think about our parents what are they like, how were we treated for the 18 years we lived at home.  What did our fathers or mothers teach us?  What kid of friends did we have or do we have?  There are many factors that influence the person that may be failing.  Do we know what it is influencing them?  What kind of genes has this person inherited?  Are the loving, shy, strict, arrogant, strong, fiery?  There is so much that influences the human life that only Go can know a person well enough to judge him.  We can really never know someone well enough to pass judgment on them.

4.  Judging others usurps God’s authority.  When someone is critical and judges of another they are saying they have the right and are worthy to be the judge over other lives.  They are in essence claiming the right to be God, which is absolutely ridiculous.  Yet I believe most people including myself have laid claim to the right at one time or another, and some claim the right o exercise a judgmental critical spirit all the time. 

Lets not forget what the Scripture says “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master [God] he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (brackets added by me) (Romans 14:4, James 4:11-12)

Tomorrow I will look at verse 2 and how it is made very clear that we will be judged with the same judgement or criticism we use and we will be judged with the same measurement.

Let me also make it clear that this series is not talking about specific occasions when value judgments must be made, nor is it speaking of the careful discrimination that has to be made at times, finally it is not speaking of the moral judgment that we at times have to make either.  It is speaking of the harsh judgmental, and often critical spirit that has invaded our churches and our lives at times.

I recently had a conversation with someone and they asked me what I though was the most popular verse among young people right now?  My reply was I would think it would be Matthew 7:1 “Judge not, that ye be judged.”  His response was your right.  So I began to wonder why that was and I felt that most people may take this verse out of context.  By the way the Greek word here for judge here is (krinete) which means to criticize, condemn, judge, censor, etc.  It is interesting that it means to criticize.  It is speaking of fault finding; being picky.

Here is Matthew 7:1-6

 1“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.  3 Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?  5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.  6 Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

So I thought maybe I would spend the next few days just doing some work with these verses.  So today will be more of an introduction then tomorrow I will get more into detail I think.

When I read these verse one of the first things that I notice is the we are told right from the start “do not judge”.  This is a command do not judge.  (v. 1)

Secondly it is made very clear that we will be judged with the same judgement or criticism we use and we will be judged with the same measurement (v. 2)

The thirdly think I have noticed is that the person doing the judging spends time looking for faults in others but spends very little time looking at themselves (v. 3)

The fourth thing I notice is that the person doing the judging is deceived about themselves (v. 4)

The fifth thing we notice is that the person doing the judging is really a hypocrite the text even calls them a hypocrite because of their failure to look at their own sin first (v. 5)

The sixth and final thing I notice is that this person is undeserving of the gospel (reality we all are) but this person tramples it under their feet and tears people apart (v.6)

Christ is not holding back when talking about those who are judgmental and critical.  So over the next few days I will take at least one of the above points at a time and break it down.

church Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized

Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.

Psalm 127:1

Recently while attending Power-Plant with our teens which is a Mission Trip ran by the NAMB this verse was used.  I could not shake it out of my mind.

I look at churches and see us with our projectors our good choirs our nice seats our multi million dollar sanctuaries and so forth and can’t help but wonder is there room for God.  I mean we have regulated our services down to the minute to the point the spirit has no freedom to move unless He will move in our time frame.  What are we doing?  At what point has man taken over building the house and left God out of it.  I was forced to ask am I building in vain.  I have been struggling with this for over a week.  I do not want my labor to be in vain.  I want God to be in it and if He is not then what is the use,  I am merely wasting time.

I just can’t help but feel that all across America on any given Sunday we have congregation that are based on man made tradition and philosophy they are houses built with straw houses built in vain where God is not in it.  Sure they may have the appearance that everything is great but if the building was gone, the nice chairs were gone and there was nothing there and people had to come and sit on the dirt floor would the presence of God be there?  Have we somehow confused stuff with the presence of God.  If He is not there I don’t want it.

Well tonight we had family thanksgiving with my wifes side of the family it really was some good food.  In fact I had some great cranberry relish and some good potatoe stuffing.  As usual I washed it down with my wife’s pecan pie.  I am biased and I know it but my wife males the best pecan pie in the world.      We had a lot of folks here at the ridgeway Baptist church but as I sat hear I was thinking about family and how we are all different.  I am glad that my wife’s family is not the same as my family how boring would life be if we were all the same.  I know for me life would be boring. 

     If I am really honest I use to jot want to come to these things with my wife.  Deep down inside I guess I never really felt welcome but I would always cone to make my wife happy.  I know how lame I am but it is the truth.  Now for the most part I like to come.  But I can’t help but wonder if this is how so many feel coming to our churches.  Do they come in the door looking to be accepted and loved into a family but in the end they feel rejected and not part of the family at all.  I think we are failing miserably in the church and when we stop making church less about our comforts.and more about loving God and loving others we will see Him move.  Lets together change the atmosphere of how we do church.

If we continue to operate church like a business we may be in trouble.  I am not sure where the idea came from or when it started but for whatever reason all across america churches are being ran like businesses.  The major problem with this is we are creating consumers out of those people who attend our churches instead of followers of Jesus and I really do not think this is the road we want to head down.  Think about what you do as a consumer.  You shop for what you want and if you are not satisfied you go elsewhere.  Somewhere along the line we have developed this philosophy in our churches that we are a business and we must please our consumers.  Will we really ever please the consumers.  I mean wont they eventually leave for something better, something bigger, something different.  We have no one to blame but ourselves.  The church must wake up and follow God’s word and be a church.  Be a place where people can experience freedom, healing, instruction, truth etc.  The church I dont believe ever was to be a place where we entertained those that wish to consume our entertainment to eventually become gluttonous on it.  If we do not wake up and change from running church as a business I fear for the next generation.

I love to fish.  In fact if it were possible I used to spend to much time fishing, I would tell me wife that God made the world 3/4 water so we should spend 3/4 of our time fishing.  It really does not matter what kind of fishing it is either.  I like to bass fish, fish for catfish, trout, bluegill, you name it I love to go.  For me there is nothing better then hooking into a big fish.  Even when I was little I loved to go out and fish and try to catch the “big one”.  There were times when I would go and stay out all night simply fishing.  Well Jesus knew how to fish as well, Luke 5:4-11

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.  And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

This scripture has always intrigued me.  I mean Jesus tells the disciples to fish out in the deep in the middle of the day.  He is telling them to fish where everyone would say not to and during a time when everyone would say is bad time.  The disciples knew that you fished at night near the shore.  But Jesus knows where the fish are at.  So the disciples obey and they catch so many fish that their nets are going to break and they end up filling 2 boats and the boats almost sink.  Wow that is a good day of fishing.  I cant help to believe that these verses have some application to the church.

I believe it is time for the church to wake up.  For whatever reason we think the fish are just going to come and jump into our nets and we are going to have this great catch.  Fish are never just going to come and jump into our nets it is time for the church to “launch into the deep and let down there nets”  we have to stop thinking the fish will show up and start obeying where Jesus may be telling us to fish.  Jesus knows where the fish are but are we willing to listen.  We must not be content to sit back and to wait for them to come but to GO and find them.When I go fishing if I am in one spot for awhile and I do not get a bite I move to another spot looking for fish.  I am not saying the church has to pack up and move but I am saying that we have stop thinking the people will come to us and start realising we must go to the people.

We have become so good at building aquariums that we think our aquarium is good enough to make fish come and be happy just sitting in our aquarium.  I dont know about you but I have never seen an aquarium gill itself.  I mean we have grown so accustom to worrying about how our service looks, or how our church looks, or how are music sond, or what Bible we use, or whether we have a Starbucks in our church and honestly it is meaningless.  Sure it may attract a few fish here and there but ultimately our aquariums seem to be for the fish e already have. Dont get me wrong I like good music, I love Starbucks coffee but I am already in the church.  Fish are not just going to swim right into our aquarium but we must go and get them.  When will we learn that the great commission requires us to go and not to stay.  We must go somewhere and find the fish and then go fishing.

We are all to be fisher of men will you go fishing?

It has been a long time since I have posted.  The primary reason for this has been related to my lack of funds.  You see my hosting renewal came up and I did not have the money to renew my hosting.  I pulled the trigger a few hours ago and purchased my hosting.

Not much new here in northwest Missouri.  The job hunt still continues. I have updated my resume I can’t tell you how many times but I know the best way for your resume to be noticed is for someone else to deliver it.  However I still keep plugging away.  Some people have asked if I want to be a youth pastor or a senior pastor and right now I am kind of in the either one camp.  I have 15 years of experience as a youth pastor and that is something I enjoy doing.  So in the right circumstance I would take a youth pastor postion.  However most of the churches I have submitted to have been senior pastor postions.  All of this to say the search continues.  It has been 2 years since I have ministered in a full time capacity and trust me I am ready.  But it is God’s timing so i will continue to wait upon the Lord.

job Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized

It has been a long time since I have posted.  The primary reason for this has been related to my lack of funds.  You see my hosting renewal came up and I did not have the money to renew my hosting.  I pulled the trigger a few hours ago and purchased my hosting.

Not much new here in northwest Missouri.  The job hunt still continues. I have updated my resume I can’t tell you how many times but I know the best way for your resume to be noticed is for someone else to deliver it.  However I still keep plugging away.  Some people have asked if I want to be a youth pastor or a senior pastor and right now I am kind of in the either one camp.  I have 15 years of experience as a youth pastor and that is something I enjoy doing.  So in the right circumstance I would take a youth pastor postion.  However most of the churches I have submitted to have been senior pastor postions.  All of this to say the search continues.  It has been 2 years since I have ministered in a full time capacity and trust me I am ready.  But it is God’s timing so i will continue to wait upon the Lord.

It has been along time since I have posted primarily because I have been so busy.  I know that is hard to believe that I have been busy without a job but I sure I have been.  Rather than update about Mike Erre’s book (I will do that later) I thought I would just give some things that have been going on in my life.

I’ll start with the crusade we recently had.  I meet with one of our Pastors pretty regularly and I really enjoy the time I get to spend with him.  Leading up to the crusade he asked me if I would like to help with train the counselors I of course jumped at the opportunity because this is the very thing I love to do.  So I spent a few nights getting things ready and going over the training and then we trained the counselors for two evenings, to be ready for the response we were expecting during the crusade.  The Impact Macon Crusade was February 22-25 and I was there every night.  We saw God move in a remarkable way during that week we saw over 100 decisions for Christ and over 90 0n one night.  I must say I was not ready for over 90 people to respond to the gospel that night but it was wonderful.  Hey they were all counseled to.

Secondly I was asked if I could teach a book of the Bible to the youth what book would it be.  I replied I would go through the book of James and the response was “why don’t you teach it” of course I jumped at that any time I get a chance to teach some teens I am going to do it.  So on Sunday nights I am taking our Student Overflow through James.  I pray and hope they are enjoying it.  I have already taught through James so I already have the messages done, but if you know me you know I spend a great deal of time with message prep even if I have already done it before and making sure I am saying what the Lord wants me to say.

Thirdly the first week in March I started taking over the Wednesday evening teaching to the Youth.  This has been going great once again I love teaching the teens.  On Wednesdays I typically play a game with them and then we go over prayer requests and then I teach.  I desire to see both these ministries grow tremendously and I have seen God definitely working on the hearts of some of the teens that come.

Fourthly I received a call from the principal here at Atlanta school and was asked if I could come in and teach Science while the current teacher is away on maternity leave.  I accepted the position.  Which if you are a teacher you know the work that gos into lessons and so forth.  So for the next few weeks I am now a Science teacher.  I must say that teaching in the public school is a lot different then teaching in Christian School, or teaching at church, however the kids seem to like me as a teacher and some even thanked me for teaching.

Finally all of this has been happening while still sending out resumes (required for state aid) and while going through an interview process with a church that is interested me.  So yeah I have been busy but hey I like being busy.  Please pray I will be directed to the church God wants me at and that I will know it and so will the church.

It has been along time since I have posted primarily

Chapter five of Mike Erre’s book Why Guys Need God is called Harps, Clouds, and Backhoes.  In this chapter I want to talk about this paragraph

What we are doing matter less than why we are doing it.  A biblical masculine spirituality doesn’t bother to dicriminate between important and unimportant jobs or spiritual and sacred ones, but instead encourages men to do the best they can, for the glory of God, with whatever assignments fall their way.  To use our everyday work to cooperate with God’s invasion of the earth is the essence of following Jesus.

Sometimes we put the emphasis on what we are doing instead of why we are doing.  In some sort of vain way we want to say hey look at me look what I can accomplish.  I know I have many times fallen into this trap but in reality we need to stop and put some htought into why we are doing.  We so often clump our work or jobs into categories as if well my job is more spiritual than yours.  I know as a pastor I have been faced with this idea many times.  Sometimes people have come up to me and just told me htat my job was somehowe more spiritual than theirs.  However we need to be encouraged as this paragraph says to do the best we can no matter what the job for the glory of God.  It does not matter what I am doing I need to give it my all for God’s glory.

So I have had alt of churches contacting me over the last weeks which has been crazy in itself.  The reason it is crazy is because I don’t know how alot of these Churches even know about me or that I am available.  Most of these churches are from all over the US Texas, North Carolina, and so forth.  I have never really looked that deep into any of these positions as far as what the towns are like and so forth.  I especially had not looked into the cost of living into any of these places.  

Honestly I am still undecided on what I want to do or pursue.  I really think a year off from full time ministry is probably what is best for me and my family right now as we need to heal.  At the same time I want to be open to where the Lord may lead and doors He may open to me.

Anyway there has been one Pastor that has been in contact with me for a little bit now and has really pursued after me.  They have just built a brand new facility completed a few months ago and are currently running about 60 kids and the church has about 280.  He asked for a statement of beliefs from me and I send it out to him and we seem to have alot in common.  Though I am still unsure what the Lord may want and even though personally this sounds like it would be a perfect fit for me as far as a church and even location though I would still be far from family.

Well here is the part that scares me.  The pastor said I want you to look at the cost of living here as housing is very expensive and that is the downside to our location.  I was thinking well how bad could this be I mean I live in Berks County PA and housing is expensive here so I thought.  Anyways I began to check out realtors and and soon found out that housing was through the roof.  The cheapest house I found was for 189,000 and that was a trailer on some land.  Ouch you talk about expensive.  So I did some more research thinking we could probably rent and be ok.   There was a three bedroom 2 bath trailer for rent it was only 1200 ouch again.  Man this has totally floored me.  After some more digging I found that the cost of living in this place was 16% above the us average.  The good news they are one of the fastest growing counties in the US.  

Well to some it up there is alot of potential in this church and if God calls us there He would definitely have to supply.  Please understand names, and places have been left out intentionally.

Josh, Author at Bad Days Better | Page 2 of 30

by Josh Monda | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized

I have recently been reading a lot about leadership and have had many engaging conversations on the topic.  I am certainly not an expert when it comes to leadership and am positive that I have probably displayed terrible leadership at times in the past.  With that said in many of these conversations I have come to this conclusion.  Leadership can be measured by influence.  I do not care to have a long drawn out post about this but let me give 3 ways leadership is measure by influence.

1.  No Influence – Not a leader.  This is the person that perhaps leads by position.  They believe that because of their position they are a leader and sometimes they may even demand respect that has never been earned.  This person will consider themselves a leader and even if asked would probably tell you that they are leader however they have no influence.  If someone proclaims to be  a leader but no one is following then they are not a leader.  Just the same, if someone proclaims to be a leader but they have no influence then they are not a leader.

2.  Bad Influence – Bad leader.  This is the person that may have many people following them.  They look back and they may even have people cheering them on and taking up their cause.  However they are leading in the wrong direction.  Perhaps this leader has no vision, or perhaps the leader knows the vision but chooses to lead in the opposite direction.  In addition this leader will often lead people away from what is healthy and right for the overall company.  In the secular world this person will often go against the vision of the company. In the church world this person is typically not a team player.  They want to form their own team and do their own thing.  ultimately this person ends up being divisive in what they do.

3.  Good Influence – Good Leader.  This person looks back and they have people following them.  They are are leading in the right direction.  They are able to cast a healthy vision and get people on board to accomplish that vision.  They are typically respected not because of their position but because they have built adequate relationships with people.  In fact people love them and would do just about anything for them.  This leader is a team player and because of that the team feels much better to have this leader.  They empower others, and sometimes even stretch others to go beyond where they may feel comfortable.

Now I want you to think about the kind of leader that Jesus was?   He had a following, he had people that gave their life for Him, he stretched people to go beyond their comfort zone, He cast vision, and we could go on and on.  The truth is that Jesus was the ultimate leader of which we can take note. I hope that I could lead a fraction of the way the Jesus lead.

Often as pastors we focus on evangelism and many times when we speak of evangelism we speak of those that are primarily outside the walls of our church.  We will often challenge our people to share the gospel with those they work with, their neighbors, etc.  However, what about those that are inside our church?  What of those that perhaps have even been coming to church since they were children and perhaps have taught Sunday School or even bean a deacon or etc in our church.  Is it possible that our churches have lost people in them?  Is it possible that we even have people in positions of leadership that are lost?

This became very real to me in college.  I attended a revival and a friend and I began to talk to a Sunday School teacher at this revival.  During our conversation it became quickly apparent to both of us that this teacher did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ yet they were teaching Sunday School in the church.  We took time to share the gospel with them and I wish I could say they accepted Christ right there but I do not know what happened.  Later in life it became more and more apparent as I had opportunities to speak in different venues, I began to notice a trend of people coming to Christ who had grown up in the church.  One particular time while speaking at a Youth Camp I gave a call for people to come forward and accept Christ and several of the adult leaders came forward.  I do not think any of this is related to me or that it is because I am some sort of powerful speaker, in fact I am sure the opposite is true.  I do however, think it is because we often make the assumption that those within the church are already saved and sometimes we fail to share the gospel or we fail to be passionate about it within our church.

Let me share some words of Jesus

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’  Matthew 7:21-23

When I read those words often I weep.  I do not weep necessarily for those outside of the walls of the church but I weep for those inside.  I weep because when I read them there is one thing that stands out to me.  Those that are portrayed in this passage of scripture truly think they are saved.  The really believe that they have the right to be in heaven and yet they will be cast out.  How many sunday school teachers, deacons, and even pastors will this include?

Think about it break the verses down.  In verse 21 we clearly see that profession alone will not get someone into heaven.  We can profess all we want.  I can profess to be a big mac that does not make me one.  My son at times has professed to be a Sasquatch does that make him one?  No!  Neither does a profession that Jesus Christ is Lord get you an automatic ticket into heaven.  Your profession can be as sincere as you want it will not get you a pass.  Why?  Because profession does not equate to possession.  In addition a profession is self centered and we can never stand before a Holy God and proclaim anything great about ourself.

Look at verse 22.  The Plea of the person who has merely a profession is “works”.  These people are trusting in their works to get to them to heaven.   They have gone through their life and maybe even one day said the “sinners prayer” but they are not trusting in Christ they are trusting in what they have done to get them to heaven.  They have done many great things seemingly for the kingdom of God, yet they are not allowed into heaven.  I can hear the cries  ”Lord haven’t we taught in your name, and preached in your name, and seen people converted in your name, look at what we have done in your name.”  However, it is all meaningless.  How many in our churches today will be proclaiming these very things, how many think they are saved but are simply trusting in all they have done.  How many give money, have been baptized, are teachers, etc. but in the end have never placed their faith in Christ.

Look at verse 23.  Very plainly Jesus says I never knew you.  These have never trusted in Christ as their savior however they still think they are saved.  Yet, Jesus has to proclaim “I never knew you”.  In addition what they have done is simply evil.  They have performed great works ultimately for self, and not for Christ.  This should cause us to weep.  How many have done good in the eyes of men but will be cast out on this day?  Weep for those in the church.  Don’t become apathetic, don’t settle for calling the people for commitment to those outside the walls of the church but preach the gospel with passion, as one who is on fire, as one who is preaching their last dying sermon, and know that there maybe those within your church, those that teach, that lead that have done many great things but are lost as they can be.  Perhaps we need to reach those inside our walls before we can reach those outside the walls.

Invariably the question always gets asked of God.  Why?  Why would God allow children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown Connecticut to be gunned down.  I will not pretend that this is somehow and easy question to answer in fact it is far from it.  I do know this it is not a new question.

This question was asked long ago in the Old Testament book of Job.  Job asked God why, David asked God why as well.  In fact the world has been asking God why for a very long time.  Throughout history the world has continued to grown with this question.  Why God?  Why are babies born only to die, why did I lose my father or mother, why did 9/11 happen.  Today is no different: why did 26 people have to die?  Where are you God?

I am a pastor and I have asked this very same question many times over again.  Why God?  Why did we lose our baby to a miscarriage? Why was my daughter born so early and had to suffer so much?  Why did you allow this to happen to me?  Immediately my mind goes to what Jesus said when he told the disciples they would suffer.  I understand that in this world I too will suffer.

If you ask me why God allowed 26 people to be killed most of whom were children at Sandy Hook Elementary, honestly I would say I don’t know.  I do not have the answers.  I am not God nor can I pretend to be Hm.  In addition I refuse in times like this to go into some sort of huge theological discussion on Why?  I do know something and that is that this world needs Jesus.

I know that this world was created perfectly.  It was created without Sin.  However, through one man sin entered the world.  You see Adam made a selfish choice when he ate the forbidden fruit and ever since that time humanity continues to make selfish, arrogant, ignorant choices, that go against a Holy God.  We have been infected by sin, and we are under the curse of sin.  What happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School is a direct result of Sin.  Humanity ever since the fall of Adam has groaned for  a Savior and today is no different. There is only one solution to sin and that is to place your faith in Jesus Christ.  To surrender your entire life to Jesus Christ and do things His way.  Until Jesus returns or calls us home we will live in a sin filled, sin tainted world.  But I know Jesus and I look forward to something great.

There will be a day when the suffering will end.  There will be a day when no more will the question be asked of God why?  There will come a day when there will be no more Sandy Hook shootings.  In fact there will be a day when all of the suffering of this world all of the 9/11′s all of the school shootings, all of the terrible things in this world will pale in comparison to the Glory of God.  One day I will step into heaven and I will realize that these troubles were only temporary and the glory of God is forever.

Ultimately when things like this happen we can either urn to God or allow it to drive us far from God.  It will make us better or bitter.  It will either cause one to surrender to Christ or stay away from Christ.  We have seen where the same circumstance cause a different response in people.  This world Cries out for a Savior and the only Savior that can take away the pain of sin, the curse of sin, the stain of sin, the shame of sin, is Jesus Christ.

It really seemed like everything was going great.  He had a large crowd following after Him is this not what every leader desires.  After all if no one is following who are you leading?  But it is in this moment that Jesus does the unthinkable by our standards He turns to the multitude and says if you do not hate your father, mother, brothers, sisters, and even your own life you cannot be my disciple. This seems so out of place.  Why in the world would you want to say this and alienate everyone that is following after you.  In addition did not Jesus call us to love even our enemies?

Look around at modern evangelism. look around at the church today.  We give cheap invitations, and lessen the call to discipleship.  We have made christianity about us and what we stand to gain, how it benefits us, and what God can do for us.  Where do we talk about the cost, when do we say that the cost to follow Christ calls us to supreme sacrifice?  When do we say that it will cost us, that the ultimate price must be paid?  Why is this left out of our evangelistic efforts?  Furthermore, why have we relegated following Christ to cheap tricks, where we try to get people to raise there hand walk and aisle and declare them saved when they have no clue of a decision they are making?

Think with me about Luke 14:25-35

Jesus is clearly telling us that he must have first place.  That He comes before everything and everyone, he is not disguising what He is saying so why do we?  He then takes it further and lets us know that we have no business entering into this decision without first counting the cost.  Yet today we never challenge people to count the cost.  We do not challenge people to allow this decision to weigh heavy on their heart.  Instead we get false professions and fill our church with false Christians who have no desire to follow Christ but have every desire to get what they can from Christ.  To follow Christ must mean there is a cost involved it will cost us all that we are, all that we have, and leave us wanting nothing because we will be satisfied with a life that is completely filled with Christ.

Just in case we are confused Jesus then tells us that we are like salt and makes it abundantly clear that a half hearted choice is a worthless choice, because it does absolutely nothing.  Therefore it is good for nothing and must be thrown out.  He then makes the call clear.  If you have ears then you need to listen.  Why do we continue to not listen and do our own thing?  Why have we cheapened the call?

We must make no mistake about it.  To follow Christ will cost us, and we must preach that there is a cost.  Verse 33 of Luke 14 makes that clear.  If we are now willing to forsake everything then we can’t be His disciple.  This was the very problem with the rich young ruler.  He came to Jesus proclaiming he was ready to follow.  Eventually Jesus exposes his heart by telling him to sell al he had an then come and follow him.  He walked away sad.  This is what happens many times when we speak the truth, people walk away sad, convicting, but not willing to do anything about it.  It is this very point that cause so many to be lost, so many to be condemned, because to really follow Christ means that it will cost us our home, cars, family, friends, jobs, investments, money, anything we have, because it means that we surrender it all to Him.  We must count the cost, and we must preach this.

Next year I will be celebrating my 20th year in ministry.  For all 20 of those years I have been involved in youth ministry.  During my time as a youth minister I have seen time and time again Pastors, Youth Pastors, lay leaders, etc.  sacrifice their family for the sake of ministry.  I have had times in the life of my family where I was forced to do a reality check.  Weeks where I was spending 80+ hours in ministry, convincing myself that it was the Lord’s work, therefore it did not matter if I was taking time from my wife.  When I entered the ministry I knew it would not be easy, and likewise when I entered marriage I knew it would not be easy.  I was a student pastor before I was a husband, and there are times when we can wrap our identity up into our ministry while failing miserably in our family.  I have seen families crumble, kids miserable, wives on the brink of leaving and in some cases leaving, all because someone has failed to put their family in front of their ministry.  We must stop.

I really wish I could write to you and tell you I had a great mentor, or a wise man that took me under his wing and showed me how to put my family first, but the truth of the matter is I did not.  The truth is I did not have even a healthy marriage modeled for me, and early on in ministry I sought God’s word to see how I could be a Godly husband and father.  I developed a plan that I knew I must stick to and it looked like this.  God, family, ministry.  My wife knew she was marrying a man that was in pastoral ministry, she knew there would be hard times, and late nights, she new we would never be rich.  However, I am not so sure she knew how hard the times would be, how late those nights would get, or how little money we would actually have at times.  Sometimes it is in the doldrums of ministry that life can seem so difficult.  There is one things that I have repeated to my wife on a constant basis and that is this “if ministry ever takes place of my family, say the word and I will walk away.”  That is not to say I would turn my back on God because I would not, but we must come to a healthy understanding that our first ministry is to our family.  If we can’t effectively minister to our family how in the world are we going to minister in God’s church.  I hate to sound crude but I believe stan at ties is using ministry to effectively destroy families and when a leaders family crumbles it is a terrible testimony to those outside of the church.  The outside world should look at the church as lighthouse of hope however, when the church is getting divorced just as much then we have lost that hope.  We have lost our voice.  Friends the church is failing miserably and at an alarming rate to equip moms and dads not only on marriage but on how to raise their children.  A sermon once or twice a year is not enough.

These are the reasons that I decided to constantly work on my marriage.  My marriage is far from perfect, trust me I have had people peer deep into my life and deep into my marriage and say some very terrible things, often having no idea what they are talking about, this goes with being a leader.  However the joy of marriage for me is that my wife is constantly changing as am I and there always seems to be something new to discover, and I love it.  Very early on my wife and I decided we would attend marriage conferences and we have attended several over the course of our 16 years of marriage and we will attend several more.  These conferences provide a great way for us to discover each other once again.  In fact we are gearing up right now to attend one of those conferences September 21 and 22 we will be heading to Indianapolis to attend the real marriage conference.  Though I may not agree with everything Mark Driscoll says or does as I am able to be discerning, at least he is doing something to try and keep our marriages healthy.  If you would like to check out a video go here Real Marriage.  If you would like to try to make it to the conference go here http://www.gotothehub.com/liveevents/real-marriage.

If you are reading this post then here is my challenge.  Do not use ministry as an excuse to neglect your marriage.  There is never an excuse.