Don't Judge Me: This should be real popular!

I am not one to claim to be holy. Even though I am declared by God to be, it is not an act of my own. I have my own hang-ups and weaknesses like the rest of humanity. But I have noticed a current trend in Christianity that troubles me. It is the, dont judge me crowd. The ones who use the scriptures of judging to keep accountability away, to keep people from meddling in their life so that they are not challenged to live righteous. Ill do whatever I see fit, and you just stay away and dont judge.

Just because Jesus hung out with scum did not mean that he acted like them. When Jesus hung around with sinners, the sinners changed. When the adulteress was brought to him, he did not condemn her, but he told her to stop living that way. When Zacceous the dirty little tax collector man had dinner with Jesus, he reformed his life. I think poorly dedicated Christians love to use the dont judge me phrase to avoid trying, accountability, and to avoid confrontation. They turn it into a phrase that means, leave me alone, let me do what I want. They love to break out the speck in the eye verse too. But they forget to add the last part. First remove your plank and you will see better to remove the speck from your brothers eye. So after you have dealt with your issue, you can now address that issue in others lives that you are close to. But they like to say, so I go out and get drunk you cant judge me cause you curse. Well you dont have to be perfect in every way to judge, just not dealing with similar issues.

I was exploring this idea and found in 1 Corinthians 5 that we are actually commanded to judge:

When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn't talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or who are greedy or are swindlers or idol worshipers. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Don't even eat with such people. It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your job to judge those inside the church who are sinning in these ways. God will judge those on the outside: but as the Scriptures say, "You must remove the evil person from among you."

God, not us, will judge unbelievers. We are called to show them the love of Christ, unconditionally. But for those who claim Christianity and are associated closely with us, there is this thing called accountability, and it is very biblical.

he loves outside 

big red hat 

cute hat 

the reason i am 

he loves bean burritos. can't blame him. 

a boy and his dog 

jason raitz is my hero

So, my mentor and best friend came out to speak to my church tonight. It was a tough gig, I did not envy him at all. It is an all lady spring banquet: 300 ladies from 8-80 years of age. How do you speak to that wide of a generational gap and be successful, I do not know, but he hit a homerun.

The 8 year olds were giggling at all his stories, and the 80 year olds were "amen"ing his talk about Gods love. Everyone was engaged. It was a great night. Here is a link to his blog site. Its good stuff. Go there.

http://www.jasonraitz.blogspot.com/