"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:1-5)

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Luke 6:37-38)

For who are we to judge our fellow humans? Unless we are specifically appointed to mediate, to settle a dispute (think the judges in the courts of law and those who governed the land in Judges), we are not the ones who judge and condemn others for what they do.

As we can see, there are 2 different meanings when it comes to judging. One is to mediate and apply due punishment when someone has committed a mistake (be it robbery, molest, arson or vandalism, etc), the other one is when we look at people doing the wrong things and shun awway from them, refusing to be associated with them.

Does Jesus encourage judging? Of course not! in the 2 abovementioned passages he spoke out so strongly against judging. Who are we to condemn our fellow humans on the basis of what they do? Sure, if your grandparents are still living in the lie of Buddhism and offer incense/joss sticks to their ancestors are you going to condemn them to a life in hell for that or are you going to find a way to speak the truth to them in gentleness? We were all made alike in God's image, steeped in sin from the day we were born. Even Jesus did not shun away from the Samaritan woman in John 4 but he was so excited in meeting her and saving her soul from the lost eternity of hell! Neither did he shy away from the 10 leprous men even though they had leprosy and therefore were condemned to the pit of human refuse! He healed them!

What Christ emphasises is love, not a holier-than-thou attitude. For he loved the most unlovely of us all. He died for the whole world, not for one individual. Hence having that mentality of I-am-better-than-you-beca use-I-don't-do-what-you-d o is absolutely wrong. Look at this parable that Jesus quoted.

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To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

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What are we to learn from it? Again, the old holier-than-thou syndrome is displayed in the Pharisee's attitude. Whatever sin we have committed --- if I have murdered and you have lied, what difference is there? It still is a sin! And God looks down on sin! Yet Jesus chose to take the sin of this world upon himself so that we might all come to Christ. Our standards are all based on our own human perception and wisdom, which sadly is very flawed.

Judging someone based on how he behaves or what he does -- for example, parents telling their children to stay away from another Down's Syndrome/autistic child is an example of judgmentalism. So were the whites in the olden days when Darwin's theory of evolution made them believe that blacks were less-evolved and had no souls, therefore the massive slave trade began, breaking up countless black families in Africa as the "cultured" white man enslaved the "uncultured" black man ruthlessly for his own purposes. Who judges who is more cultured or human?

Which leads me to this issue on pride. It was pride in our hearts, the deceit and scheming in there, that leads us to think that we're better than others though in reality we're all equal. In Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 we read about the pride of Lucifer wanting to ascend the throne of the Most High, because he wanted to be like the Most High, not realising that he can never be like the Most High because he was created by the Most High. Pride drove him to rebel, his pride went before his destruction (Proverbs 16:18) and hence he was thrown out of heaven. Now when he had been thrown out of heaven he went to cheat Adam and Eve out of their eternal life with God in the Garden of Eden by instilling pride in their hearts to think that they, too, could be like the Most High. Since that day of the Fall man's heart has been proud and therefore choosing to go his own way.

Religions, too, are another famous way of man trying to fill that void in his heart. In Jeremiah 16 it talks about man forsaking God and going after other gods.

"When you tell these people all this and they ask you, 'Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?'  then say to them, 'It is because your fathers forsook me,' declares the LORD, 'and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. But you have behaved more wickedly than your fathers. See how each of you is following the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying me. (Jeremiah 16:10-12)"

Yes, it was pride that drove them to visit the shrines of other gods and offer sacrifices there, some being as detestable as child sacrifices. And for more elaboration of pride, look at the previous entry.

Are you still going to judge people for their mannerisms and characteristics today?

Joel.

 <---- Addendum to yesterday. Wasn't thinking much of it, but today as I was doing my daily quiet time, this passage from Romans 2 came : "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God "will give to each person according to what he has done." To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. (Romans 2:1-8)"

Again it talks about us not being allowed to judge people because we have done the same things already through the sin that exists in our life. ------------------------- ------------------------- --->

"When you tell these people all this and they ask you, 'Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?' then say to them, 'It is because your fathers forsook me,' declares the LORD, 'and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. But you have behaved more wickedly than your fathers. See how each of you is following the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying me. So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.' (Jeremiah 16:10-13)

That is why Jesus himself said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." (John 14:6). Christianity, the religion spawned from following Christ, is henceforth the most divisive belief system ever. For Jesus said that he came to bring father against son, mother against daughter, etc. With Christianity, all other world values come to nought. The lowest will be elevated, the highest brought down.  "The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business." (James 1:9-11) God is happy with humility but punishes pride.

False religions and false beliefs abound everywhere. Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Shinto, tribal religions, even now, the New Age movement. All these were made by humans for humans, to fill up the void in their heart only God can ever fill. And whatever is made by human hands will never last, but the Word of God lasts forever. Yet the god of this age has blinded people and tricked them into believing that God isn't real (2 Corinthians 4:4), or everything will come to nought and they'll be reincarnated (Buddhi sm), or God exists and each one is a god (the New Age movement), or polytheism, the existence of many gods (Hinduism), even in Islam, where they believe that Jesus was just a mere prophet and there is no Messiah. Millions of people are dying each year to an eternity without God because of these false beliefs and ideas. And people are filled with pride that they're doing all the wrong things, like the Muslim terrorists in the name of jihad or the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, even back then, the Christians who participated in the Crusades to capture Jerusalem.

It is pride that makes them think they're not doing anything wrong when in fact the original sin of theirs is so great. In the abovementioned passage of Jeremiah 16 the sin mentioned is forsaking God and going after other false gods, and we see it happening all the more today, where Christianity is bashed and every other religion promoted. And they wonder why the human race is sliding on a downward spiral, for those wise enough to have reflected and noticed.

Who are we, mere humans, to talk back to a God who made us, created us, saw how we were formed, and is attentive to our every fundamental need on this earth? (Romans 9:19-21) He can do many things better than making us people who were born and destined to a life of eternity without him anyway. We're just bodies of dust in his sight, why would he even bother? Non-Christians and Christians alike will ask the same question when tragedy strikes them, often asking, "Why would a good God allow such-and-such a thing to happen to me?"

In this statement the assumption is that they have been good and God isn't. Or he's napping. Maybe he just didn't want to bother, and that caused a calamity to occur.  I'll bet many Jews were asking that during the Holocaust period, or even during the 26th Dec '04 tsunamis in Aceh, or the earthquakes in Pakistan. Where the human race is reeling from shocks that reverberate through the entire global community. And they'll place the finger of accusation at God. Now that's exactly what Satan wants. To accuse God, get people to fall away, and entrap them in the godless place known as hell.

Fact is, God is all-knowing, all-present and all-powerful. Why then didn't he bother to intervene? And hence smear his reputation on earth? Now let's look back again at Adam and Eve. When they sinned, God cursed mankind as mankind's punishment for disobedience. Which is why we're considered sinful even from the time of birth (Psalms 51:5). Diseases sprang up, most notably AIDS, and avian flu right now. The earth was cursed, giving rise to fault plates which subduct or diverge, causing earthquakes during plate movement, like along the San Andreas line in Los Angeles or the Mount St Helen's eruption. All because of Adam's original sin, the earth has been groaning and moving downward into a stage of decay, not evolving into a super race as so evolutionary theory proclaims. We can see it in the moral and spiritual decadence, the Hippie movement in the 60's, the self-centred me-first approach in the rat race, the claims of "survival of the fittest", etc. God is proven holy when we aren't and therefore we aren't even deserving of what he has done for our lives. Instead of thanking him people are scolding and cursing him, taking on the holier-than-thou attitude instead of reflecting on what could've gone really wrong if God really weren't there.

What the world has an abundance of now, but doesn't need, is pride. Pride is so destructive. Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). With pride, man tries to elevate himself above a God who created him, with pride man strives to outdo himself daily. Nanotechnology, efficient fuel consumption, 3rd Generation mobile handsets, etc. And next the world will be headed to a one-government world and a one-world currency. Let's face it, the world is becoming more and more easily accessible. In the start of the 1900s people would have scoffed at travelling from Singapore to New York in less than a day, now the A340-500 makes it direct and comfortable to travel. And as Proverbs says, pride goes before destruction. God uses the weak to humble the strong, the foolish things to shame the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27-30).

If we are to boast, we are to boast like Paul, who in his weakness was made stronger by the grace of Christ the Son, through his work on the cross. God despises pride. I reiterate my point, God despises pride. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 talk about Lucifer who tried to elevate himself to the throne of the Most High, and got cast out of heven for who he really was-- Satan, the devil, consumed by pride and the lust for power.

Covet not the things of this world, but eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. " Desire what God can do with you, rather than what you can do alone. As I will repeat, pride is really destructive. It nearly killed my spirit last year.

 Joel.

Yes, the Jonah. The one swallowed up by a fish and stuck in there for 3 days to reflect on his running away from God. To face stark reality, God is always around us, and no matter how much we try to run away, he's still there. Even if we were to drill a hole to the centre of the earth, and cover ourselves with all the molten lava, he'll still be there. In fact, he'll know the centre of the earth inside out, too. Because he made it. Even if we were to disintegrate into molecules, God has the power to gather all those molecules back and make us whole, knowing where exactly each last molecule went.

And Jonah preached a sermon that lasted all of 8 words, backed by and filled with the Holy Spirit. All he said was "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." Now the king heard of this, tore his robes, and issued an edict to fast for 3 days, from himself on the throne to the beasts in the field. Who knew? God might relent and have compassion on them and in his mercy stop the disaster, correct? And God was merciful in every which way, when he saw how they humbled themselves and repented of their sin, then he put the dire punishment he had reserved for them away. What a forgiving God we have in heaven.

Are we going to be like Jonah, who would rather condemn the masses to hell than bother to save them? "For God did not send His Son into the to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:17)." If he can love even the unlovely, then what are we sending across to him by hating people? Now he's God, and we're fallible, human, men. Wretches condemned to a life of hell without him.

As such, like the parable of the servant who owed a king so much money he couldn't repay him, and the king decided to write off his debts, what did he do? He saw a fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii and demanded the money back, throwing that guy in jail when he couldn't pay up. So the story goes that in the end this guy gets jailed and tortured till he could pay the king the full amount back. Are you going to behave like the king or like the servant?

Choose this day whom you will serve. God never condemns anyone, wanting everyone to come to repentance indeed (2 Peter 3:9). For he made us all and desires to have a personal relationship with each and every one of us. Even when you do have friends whom you've been praying for, never knowing when they will ever see the light of the world who stepped down into darkness for their very sakes, keep on praying! That's what Ephesians 6:18 says. Keep on praying!

Joel.

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective... (James 5:16)" Prayer is not about asking God for things, it is essentially the heart of communication with God. Now when we don't pray, being bogged down by other things on our minds, what message are we sending across to him? We don't need him, and he should get lost?

Not praying is essentially telling God to get lost because we don't need him. He was the one who bothered to want to talk to us, because he loved us, and he created us, do you think it's fair to reciprocate a couldn't-be-bothered attitude back to him? Obviously not! God can just strike us dead anytime or 2000 years ago he needn't have bothered to send his Son to die a miserable death on the cross just to save our pathetic miserable puny souls did he. But he wanted to. Because he loved us. Yet, what are we reciprocating back to him?

A busy lifestyle is simply no excuse for a day without prayer. In the past I would've been inclined to do that, but now, 7 years down the road from where I first started off at secondary 1, I see things totally differently. What if we were to tell our best friends that we couldn't be bothered talking to them because we didn't have any time to spare for them. They'd be totally offended by that, wouldn't they. Now picture a great God in heave nabove who so desires to be our best friend and made so many sacrifices for us that we might live eternally with him. Tell him you don't have any spare time for him, and you'll just be courting disaster.

Prayer is the soul of Christian living. if you can't even pray for 5 minutes, there's really something wrong. What on earth could be better than communicating with your Creator, the one who loves you so? And when we pray, is it for our own selfish self-centred desires that we pray to be fulfilled or is it for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven? And do we pray boldly, knowing that we can appraoch the throne of grace with confidence, or we pray weakly like the way Adam talked to God in the garden of Eden after sinning?

Prayer is life. God chose to sovereignly limit his works through human prayer. He can convert everyone to believe in him overnight, yet he didn't, preferring instead to work according to the prayers of his faithful ones. How amazing can that get? And when we meet with God in his throne room, bang. Something really astounding will happen. Millions come to Christ each year because of the tireless, faithful prayers of people around the world who are committed to seeing people saved. Praise the Lord!

Joel.

Isn't it weird that at the start of every year we resolve to do certain things, like i) lose weight, ii) stop swearing, iii) be nicer to people, iv) spend more time with parents, etc, and yet at the end of each year when they take out the entire list of resolutions they made at the start of the year only half of them has been half done.

And they'll be guilty for a while, then next they'll write out another set of resolutions for the next year, some of them being last year's undone resolutions, and the process goes on in an endless cycle year after year after year.

Isn't our relationship with God somewhat like that, too? We sin, then we feel guilty, and "if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins (1 John 1:9)", only for us to repeat the same thing week after week after week. Then at the end of the year you'll just realise that what you've done has only hurt his heart that much, and the more you resolve to do it your own way the more you realise you can't.

Yet do not condemn yourself for being a failure. That is Satan's favourite ploy to make people stumble. He tempts people to sin, and when they give in to temptation and they sin, then he laughs at them and accuses them of doing it as a child of God, and he'll say "how can God ever forgive you for this?" Truth is, whatever he says is untrue. No matter whether you've said a small lie or killed 1 million people, you're equally a sinner in front of God. Yet "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:17)". Yet God loves us equally much, because we are a part of his creation after all.

And where sin increased, grace abounded even more freely. For it is by the grace of God that our hearts are softened to the gospel. When God's Spirit touches, we are unable to run away from it at all.

God's love is great. And it is through God's love that changes our hearts, that convicts it of certain things we have to change. And when we set our hearts on repentance, on changing those principles we long held to, God honours it. We're not doing it on our own, we're doing it with him! Only when that happens will you be really sure a change is taking place, instead of just those useless meaningless new year resolutions.

Joel.