[FYI - My GENday is Sept. 19th. When is YOURS?]
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PRAYER ALERT: Hundreds More Flee Massive Wildfires; Guard Joins Battle in Idaho, Thurs. August 16
"The Idaho National Guard is joining the fight against at least nine wildfires burning across the state, including the 68,000-acre Trinity Ridge blaze, one of 60 large U.S. fires being fought in one of the worst U.S. fire seasons. The Idaho National Guard is joining the fight against at least nine wildfires burning across the state, including the 68,000-acre Trinity Ridge blaze, one of 60 large U.S. fires being fought in one of the worst U.S. fire seasons. Most are scorching the dry and hot Western states, including Washington, where the 22,656-acre Taylor Bridge fire five miles outside Cle Elum has destroyed an estimated 60 homes. Thousands of people have been ordered from their homes..." - Source: NBC News, Fox News
As the Lord leads, please pray:
•For the thousands of families who have had to evacuate because of fire danger.
•For the hot shots and other firefighters, including those who pilot the slurry-dropping aircraft.
•About the weather-related incidents across the nation, whether wildfires in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California and elsewhere, as well as the droughts and extreme temperatures.
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(PART 2 is inthe next post) - By: Regis Nicoll|, Breakpoint.org, July 13
www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/breakpoint-columns/entry/2/19829
A meme has been circulating in the Christian community for some time now. It’s the curious notion that making judgments about the behaviors and lifestyles of others is unchristian.
Take singer Carrie Underwood, a professed Christian, who came out in support of same-sex “marriage,” crediting her faith for her position. In explanation, the songstress told the British press, "Above all, God wanted us to love others,” adding, “It’s not up to me to judge anybody.” But judge she has, for by her very endorsement of same-sex “marriage,” Underwood made a moral judgment on the practice and its practitioners, as well as a moral insinuation, if not judgment, about its critics.
Regrettably, Carrie Underwood, like most “nonjudgmentalists,” is oblivious to the logical inconsistency. If we are proscribed from judging the wrongness of actions, we are likewise proscribed from judging their rightness. And either way we come down is a judgment on the opposing view.
We can’t not judge
Conformance with the “anti-judgment meme” requires neutrality on all moral matters, but humans are anything but morally neutral. Regardless of our religious or anti-religious sympathies, it is commonly held that a number of things are universally wrong, like cheating, rape, exploitation, and greed, and that a number of others are universally good, such as honesty, fairness, charity, and selflessness.
Furthermore, in a fallen world where virtue and vice exist side-by-side, everyone must judge whom they will trust, what ventures they will pursue, what policies they will support.(You can bet that when Carrie Underwood becomes a parent she will make judgments aplenty, sniffing around for any hint of child abuse, pedophilia, or other behaviors she deems morally questionable in the backgrounds of prospective babysitters.)
The person who can’t or won’t discern truth from falsehood, good from evil, and healthful from harmful is someone destined to be a victim of those who are adept at parading one for the other. Thus, abstaining from moral judgments is not a hallmark of Christian character, but of foolishness.
Rather, the signature of the Spirit-filled life is the ability to make correct judgments to prevent, as St. Paul warns, being taken “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Indeed, Jesus’ advice about “fruit” inspection was to help keep his disciples from falling in with bad teachers and their sophistry.
Specious reasoning
The popular meme persists, in large measure, by isolating what Jesus says a few verses up -- "Do not judge, or you too will be judged" -- from the rest of the chapter and coupling it with the second half of the Great Commandment. The reasoning goes something like this: I know that I would be offended if someone pointed out my moral failings, so loving my neighbor as myself means that I shouldn’t point out his. In that way, I can fulfill God’s commandment, escape His judgment, and relieve myself and my neighbor of any awkward moments, to boot. It has undeniable appeal.
For folks bothered by any lingering notion that anybody is qualified to make a judgment about anybody else, there's Jesus’ piercing challenge to a murderous mob of moralizers: “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Yet, there’s his equally piercing instruction to his disciples, “If your brother sins, rebuke him.” Sounds like Jesus not only expects us to make moral judgments about others but, in fact, has authorized us to do so, as well as to confront them and invoke discipline when necessary.
The apostle Paul had some sharp words for a congregation that failed to do just that.
It had come to Paul’s attention that the Corinthian church was ignoring an occasion of sexual immorality in its midst. Scolding the assembly for its moral complacence, Paul ordered the expulsion of the offender, warning, “Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?” Paul’s instruction to turn the man “over to Satan” seems overly harsh and cruel – and certainly not loving -- until he explains, “so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” This is the same Paul who told the Galatian believers, “if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.” As taught by Jesus and practiced by the early church, moral judgment and church discipline are not about condemning people but restoring them, for their spiritual well-being and that of the Body. [end of part 1; part 2 in next post]
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Regis Nicoll is a freelance writer and a BreakPoint Centurion. Serving as a men’s ministry leader and worldview teacher in his community, Regis publishes a free weekly commentary to stimulate thought on current issues from a Christian perspective. To be placed on this free e-mail distribution list, e-mail him at centurion51@aol.com.
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