Welcome to the Jungle WAW#14

[missmyfriend]

Phil, this is the first time I have read your thread. Of course I have never posted before. You may take this positively or negatively. Hopefully, it will be a positive.

I do believe that you want to be a follower of Christ. In that Christ came to serve, not to be served. He commanded us that if we want to follow Him, to take up our own cross and leave behind everything else to follow Him.

As we are not to judge harshly, we are called to judge. One of the reasons we have to be cautious in judging another is that we have our own deficiencies. We are told,

Luke 6:36 – 38 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Matthew 7:1-5 “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 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.”

I like how Matthew goes further, not really telling us not to judge others but that we need to make sure that our own lives are in order before correcting others. We also have to consider why we are correcting another person for faults that we perceive. Is it out of truly caring about that person or are we doing it for our own selfish purposes.

Paul said that we are to judge but in a righteous manner that is not harshly but in a caring, loving way that is not about us but about them. 1 Corinthians 6:1-5 “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?"

I am not saying that you or I or anyone else on this board should be judged but if someone is making a statement that is “judgmental” is it out of harshness or because they care and they want a person to experience more fulfillment in life by reviewing their actions?

Are we not judging our WAS/MLCers? Do we have a right to judge them? Yes, if we judge scripturally, we judge ourselves first, judge mercifully, forgiving, and importantly, if we have prayed for judgment ability. Solomon was a judge and we have a book on Judges, so it is okay for us to judge, properly.

With regards to our wives, we are to love them as Christ loves the Church. Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

Christ died for the church so He is telling us to sacrificially love our wives regardless of what they do.

Phil, I have said things to my wife that I am not proud of. I am a person that should be judged. I do know that I cannot make any excuses for the treatment of my wife, in the past. I have forgiven myself for anything I have done because I have asked the Lord for His forgiveness.

Something that I have been learning is to use the entire word and not only selections that justify my actions. I have read no contradictions in the bible but it would be easy to take one piece of scripture and leave out scripture that accompanies it, sometimes changing the meaning of what God is saying.

When this all started for me, I ran to God. I have loved Him for as long as I can remember but not with all my heart, my soul and mind as we are called. I clung too much to what the world has to offer. I still do. I hope I won’t always be like this.

Initially, I tried to use God to change my circumstances by changing my wife. I thought “if only I can tell her what God says, she will comply”. If only she will become a godly woman, everything will be fine.

As I began to really realize what it means to love God and to serve others, I started to understand what Jesus meant by taking up our own cross and following Him (Matthew 10:38-39). We have to make the changes in ourselves and learn to serve others without any worldly expectations. We do it because we love God, period.

I don’t mean this in a rude or unkind way. Do you love God more than anything else?