grace Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

It has been a week since I have had a post so I thought I would get in gear.  I have been watching some basketball games of the local High School here.  The girls team is ranked numbers in the state for 3a ball and they are undefeated they have a good club I hope they do well.  Well anyways I am not going write about basketball but continue my series from the book Why Guys Need God by Mike Erre.  Today I want to share a couple of quotes from chapter 10 and talk about them a little bit.

When we come out of hiding in front of each other, relationship will take hard work and lots of grace.  The church gets lots of criticism because of its imperfections.

So many times we hide who we really are.  Sometimes it is like we have to put on some sort of facade  so people do not see the real us.  I am not sure what drives this perhaps it  is fear of people seeing the real us or fear that we are not good enough.  Rarely do we tell people our real struggles or the things that are keeping us from being all we want to be in Christ or all we can be in Christ.  The truth is if we really do be ourselves then in fact it will take alot of hard work and lots of grace.  Grace to forgive others even when we really do not want to and grace to ask for forgiveness even when we do not want to.  But if we continue to pretend to be someone we are not then the church is just a place where we go to be fake.  The church definitley is not perfect and we are indeed a bunch of reformed sinners going thorug the process of sanctification yet many times we act like we have already been fully sanctified and that we have no problems whatsoever.

I often wonder what would church be like if people were real.  What if a man walked into Sunday school and said I am struggling with pornography and I need help, or what if a woman walked in and said I struggle with gossiping I need help, or how about I have bitterness in my heart I need help.  The church is supposed to be a community loving each other and holding each other accountable but I am afraid we have become a community where everything is based on only what we want people to perceive us to be and not who we really are.  We don’t want people to know our secret sins what will is take for us to stop being superficial and just be honest.  It is so hard.  Here us the second quote.

Most churches teach men how to pretend behind religious fig leaves.  We learn to act in the right religious ways, look the right religious ways, sing the right religious ways, and so on.  We usually are not encouraged to actually share how things really are.  So even though we need to connect with other guys at a really deep level, the church actually often hinders this process.

Prayer isn’t a place to be good; it is a place to be honest.

I already spoke about this above.  I do not think this is a problem for just men either.  I think often we go to church to pretend.  Pretend to be someone we are not and we rarely go just to be honest and admit our struggles.

Tonight I am going to continue on with things I have learned from the book by Mike Erre Why Guys Need God. Chapter four was titled Toil and Thorns.  The following quote really stood out to me

We are looking for who we are as men in what we do.  Our lives are based on work, earning, and performance.  No wonder we are confused when we show up at church and hear about God’s free gift of grace to us. pg. 59

I believe this is so true.  In society today everything we do seems to be based on performance.  As men we sit around and watch sports because we love the competition, we buy new cars because we are concerned about our image, we have to have the latest and greatest gadget so we can look, feel, or seem important.  I once heard a pastor put it this way “we buy things we do not need or want to impress people we do not know.”  So is it confusing for us when we walk into church and here that God’s grace is free absolutely.  I remember doing a free car wash with my teens and people would not understand why in the world we do this for free.  Why would we wash their car for free.  As men we face the same challenge with God’s grace.  It is difficult to understand that we do not have to earn it.

I will give one more quote form chapter four.

The moment we surrender control (or the perceived illusion of it), we find ourselves in the barren wild of God’s ruthless love.  At precisely that point of risk, when we no longer have it in ourselves to impress God or others, we realize we just can’t make life work through our own effort and resources, and we discover the freedom and courage that defines true men. pg.63

The other night at our church we watched a video about letting go of those things that are keeping us from fully serving God.  When the video concluded we all grabbed to handfuls of dirt and symbolically prayed for those things we needed to let go and then dropped the dirt.  I ma so often reminded that I need to empty myself of myself in or to experience that freedom and courage of a true man.

Ministry Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

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.

I was reading this blog post tonight and it really spoke to me because this is where I am currently at in my life.

Thanks to http://timschmoyer.com

Last week in a conversation with my mentee, he asked, “How do you know if you’re called to ministry?” If we’re all honest, there have been times when each of us has questioned our calling to ministry, particularly during the difficult times. My mentee is not currently in that situation, but the issue of feeling “called out” of ministry is still a difficult one. When we go into vocational ministry, we often use language like, “God is calling me to serve at this church.” Or, when we leave one ministry position and go to another, we say, “God called me away from that ministry to this new one.” Sometimes we’re clearly over-spiritualizing a situation, sometimes not. But when we start to question the calling, let’s not confuse those emotions with ones of discouragement or insecurity. For example, if you had a lot of people encouraging and supporting you, would you still feel “called out” of ministry? If you felt affirmed by key people in your ministry, would your calling change? Remember, our calling into ministry does not come from people, nor should it be retracted by people. It comes solely from the Lord. If you’re doubting your call to ministry, don’t confuse it with feeling discouraged or insecure. Deep down, we all feel that in ministry.

Affirmation and encouragement are absolutely healthy and necessary things to have in your ministry, but never should we base a calling to ministry on the praise or opinions of others. Base your calling on the Lord’s direction in your life.

Judgment Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

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?

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

Atheism Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

I am sure you have probably heard of Christopher Hitchens but have you heard of his brother Peter Hitchens. Peter Hitchens has a book coming out on May 1st entitled The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith you can pre-order the book by clicking the Title.  I found this video on youtube giving a preview check it out.

I wanted to write a short post about my recent conversation with an Atheist. Sometimes I think Christians are intimidated to talk with someone that believes that there is no God. However I had the privilege to do just that and trust me I am not all that intellectual if you know me you know this is true ha. This guy had his phd in Micro Biology I believe it was so trust me I was way out of my league I know little about biology. However I greatly enjoyed our conversation and my opportunity to learn why he believed what he believed.

I would like to say that many times Christianity gets lumped into just being another religion. However when I stopped him and said I am not part of a religion and that I can never get to God but that my faith is about God coming to me he stopped for a moment and said well it is all semantics. When I confronted him that it is not all semantics but rather there is a large difference he agreed with me. It is good to have conversation without arguing. The fact is I will never argue someone into heaven and I wil never be argued out of my belief that God exists. There are people alot smarter than I scientifically that believe in Jesus Christ.

I must say I really wrote this to say this. In my conversation this man relayed to me that the most hatred that he has seen from people have come from those that profess to be followers of Christ. He then said that he had friends that were Christians but when they found out he was an Atheist they wanted nothing to do with him. Isn’t this a sad commentary on our faith. How often do we do this to others just because they believe differently than us. These are the very people we find Christ hanging out with and if someone who does not believe in God does not see God lived out in us then we have a major problem.

I guess what bothers me the most is that we are notorious for making excuses we say things like “they are not interested in following Christ so it does not matter” or I have heard one pastor say “if they really want to grow they will grow” I have said similar things at times we so often excuse our failures and even sins as no big deal.  This is just not acceptable.  We must show Christ to the unbeliever.  I hope in some small way I showed Christ to this man.  When he left he thanked me for talking with him and told me it was good to meet me I told him the same.  

I am thankful that on that day I had a conversation with someone that did not believe like me. 

God Bless.

birth Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

First let me start this by letting everyone know things have been crazy before the birth of my third child Zephaniah and this just added to the strange and weird experiences that seem to happen to me.  My wife and I have just moved to southern Illinois, Marion to be exact from northeast Missouri as I took a position of youth and children.  In addition to this I am presently enrolled in Seminary and during the move to Marion my wife was 8 months pregnant.  I seem to be one for adventure at times.  Anyway this blog post is not all about my move, me attending seminary, or starting a new ministry though they all could be valid blogs.  I originally started this blog to blog about life and though not many come here to read about my life (the actually come to find a resume example) some do like to come and read.

So I wanted to blog partially so I would have a record of this event while it is fresh on my mind and well to just share the story because it is crazy.  In fact all three of my children have now entered the world in their own dramatic fashion.  In every one of them we have seen God at work.  Here is the scoop

My wife was having contractions lastnight at church but they were far enough apart that really we were not all that concerned with them.  In fact  we went home thinking no biggy, she went to bed and I was working on a sermon for seminary.   Around 10:30 she got up and was in the bathroom and I heard her moaning but me being the loving husband I am was preoccupied with my sermon writing, so I let it go because this sermon was already a day late.  I finally decided I needed to check on her so I got up and asked her if she had been timing her contractions, and  she responded with no, but she did not know if she would get through night.  This was just after 11:oo pm. to which I posted on Facebook at 11:16 p.m.

“Well Tzigane is having contractions as far as we know the baby is still breech her Dr. appointment is tuesday and her appointment for Insurance is late afternoon tomorrow not sure if she is going to make until tomorrow I hope so but I am doubtful.”

So I went back to my sermon and a while later she is still in the bathroom I think this is strange but she knows what she is doing. Finally I go in and start talking to her and I realize ok we have to go, we have waited to long.   Both of her labor times for our previous two children have been short.  With our first child  she was in labor 2 hours 30 minutes and the second 2 hours.  It was late at night so I call the pastor to get someone over to stay with our kids, he sent his wife right over, and we have it planned that  as soon as she gets there we will leave. I know we are roughly 7 minutes if that from the hospital.

I take off doing 70 down the main road with my hazards on, worried I am going to get pulled over or a citation, thinking this is a great way to make a debut in Illinois.   In my excitement between trying to get my wife to breath and driving fast I look up and say “look there is no wait in the ER” as there is a billboard that tells you this.  In reading the sign I drive right by the hospital wasting precious time I now have to turn around.  I speed to the next light thinking I have a red arrow but oh well I run right through it to turn around.  Finally we are there and I am relieved so I thought.

I run into the ER and let them know she is in labor and the response is “come in and go through the door” I tell them “no the baby is coming get someone down here now”.  I then rush back outside to be with my wife it seems like forever and finally I see a nurse come walking out casually I yell at her to hurry up.   When she gets there and takes one look and totally freaks out and tells me to run and tell them “we need a Dr. Now”. Seriously whose to blame her it’s not everyday someone shows up in the parking lot with a breech baby. I run back inside and tell them “we need a Dr. Now”. I then run back out and the baby is now half out breech in our van. I am literally looking at half of my child rear first while the other half is not delivered yet.  The nurse seems almost in shock I can see it inher face, I hear her yelling for the Dr. I see no one, all I see is baby and I am thinking “should I pull this baby out”  I have no clue what to do.  The nurse tells me to run inside because the Dr. did not see us.  I run inside the hospital and yell at the Dr. to come out.  Once again apparently no one trusted I knew what I was talking about the Dr. seemingly rather calmly comes strolling out as I am telling him to hurry.

After what seems like forever the Dr. gets to the van looks down and now he realizes the concern for the situation. For whatever reason I seem to be the only one calm at this point. The Dr. Begins to fly into action I am standing next to the him almost assisting him in this whole ordeal.  The baby had been in this breech state of half in and half out for a minimum of three minutes. He tells my wife to push and out comes Zephaniah in the front seat of our mini van.  It is at this point that calm went away and fear began to grip me.  It was at this point that I realized the time for any human reasoning was over, the time for science was gone, if we had been relying on anything but God we could do so no more, we now had no choice but to rely on Him.

I looked at my precious baby that we had waited so long for and he was lifeless, I remember in my mind crying out to God to let him be ok.  It literally seemed like and eternity My baby is blue he is not breathing the Dr. is wiping his little face, rubbing his chest doing all he can to stimulate him but nothing.  I see fear in the Dr.’s face, he is yelling for the nurses to help him but nothing, no breath, nothing.  Finally a breath, but that was it, one single solitary breath.  He is still blue he is still not breathing the Dr. is talking to him “breath buddy”  I am telling Tzigane not to look, my thoughts are “oh please God let him be ok”  it seems like another eternity a he takes a second breath. Once again he stops he is still blue he is still not breathing and finally I hear what every parent wants to hear that first cry.

We cut the cord suction him out wrap him up and the Dr. and I run to the labor and delivery.  I push the buttons on the elevator he cuddles my child in the blanket. I stay by Zephaniah’s little side the entire time.  We bath him, give him his shots, I even assist in drawing his blood. The nurse was great as she told me everything we were doing. Praise be to God that he brought us our third miracle He gets the glory, He gets the praise.

It was 4am when the phone rang.  As I picked it up my wife was on the other end and she told me her water broke.  Our first child was a fast labor so I woke up my daughter and we headed off to the hospital.  And about 2 hours later Micah John Monda was born.  he was born at 6:17 am and my was at 33 weeks 3 days.  Micah weighed in at 4lbs. 9 1/2 ounce and was 17 1/4 inches long.  My daughter has prayed, and prayed, and prayed for this moment.  Her faith was always so strong believing God would give her a brother or sister.  It took  wife and I over 6 years to have this child and God poured out his blessing on us.

 Its interesting to see how God has brought blessing, after blessing into our lives.  I have been blown away.  Well I could right alot more but to be honest I need some rest and tomorrow I have alot of work to do.  Here is a picture.

Matthew 7:1-6 Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

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.