to encourage, not discourage...

we are looking at areas that GOD says are wrong for us to judge.

in john 7.24 (cev) JESUS says, don't judge by appearances. judge by what is right.

we tend to make our impression of people in about 15 seconds and most of that is in the way that they look. we judge people, we size them up, by their face, clothing, hairdo. and if you judge just on the basis of appearance, that's unwise, that is wrong.

1 samuel 16.7 (ms). samuel said this when he chose david, the runt of the family to be king of israel. others were saying, "not david! that scrawny kid! he's nothing. the other brothers are the sharp ones!" but samuel said, GOD judges persons differently than humans do. men and women look at the face; GOD looks into the heart.

john 7.50 (ms), nicodemus, the man who had come to JESUS earlier and was both a ruler and a pharisee, spoke up. (talking to the sanhedrin) "does our law decide about a man's guilt without first listening to him and finding out what he is doing?"

now that's a rhetorical question. the obvious answer is "no." it's wrong to judge when you condemn somebody before you hear the facts. if you study scripture you'll find that even if your conclusions are right about that person you're still wrong – because you did it without getting the facts. there is always more than one side of a story. my dad always said, that no paper is so thin that it doesn't have two sides to it. and then there is GOD's side. usually we have partial truth.

james 4.11 (cev), my friends, don't say cruel things about others! if you do, or if you condemn others, you are condemning GOD's law.

anything that causes me to speak evil about another CHRISTian, maybe to ruin their reputation is wrong. we are to hate wrong but we're to love people even when they are doing wrong.

ephesians 4.29 (ms) says, watch the way you talk. let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. say only what helps, each word a gift.

CHRISTians ought to be known for their encouragement not their criticism. we don't need nagging; we need encouragement. we know what's right, we just need encouragement to do it. i would like to be known as an encourager. i think that's what GOD wants us to be.

it is GOD's job to keep us humble. HE doesn't need our help to do that but HE does need us to help in encouragement. it goes back to the issue again. pride wants to bring people down to show we are superior but GOD wants us to be humble and to look out for the needs of others.

it is really tough in our humanity. that's why we need GOD in us living through us.

just some thoughts from the front porch...