Thursday 8/14/14 Judging Others 3

Dear Father in Heaven:  I love You. Thanks for another great day, and thanks for bringing Danelle through her surgery.  Please help her with healing.  Please help with decisions that need made.  Please, Lord, speak to my heart and mind.  Lord, please be in MO and speak to the hearts of those who are doing the riots.  Please speak to the heart of our President and guide him in what he is doing.  Please, dear Lord, protect our  homeland, and Lord, please, protect Your people in Iraq.  Lord, I love You, please help me now with the message and then help me to dispatch it.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, for a long, long time I would say to you, "If you want to use anything I write, it is okay, but forwarding it will not get you any extra blessings from me."  I never used that saying forward it to ten others and a copy to me and you will be blessed.  Our Good Lord hands out the blessings.  HOWEVER.  It is time for me to say this.  I have a passion for Salvation through Jesus like I have never had before.  If you think that things I write will help others come to Jesus to be saved, by all means, please send it to them.  You can cut and paste just the message if you like.  I think the way the world is, time is running short, and while I do not know when Jesus is coming back, I have a  job to do and that is get the message out for God.

Daughter Danelle came through surgery well today, all honor and glory to God.  I did not get a report on what was found, so please keep praying for her healing.  Please continue to pray for Dolores and also for me.  Now I must get to the message, Judging Others.

Thursday:  August 14, 2014, Judging Others (Day Three)

Yesterday I left you with this statement:

Matthew 7:4 - "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?"

So how can we do this?  This is a very simple answer.  WE CAN'T!  While we think we can, we just cannot, so why do we even try?  There is an answer for this.

Matthew 7:5 - "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."  (NIV)

Okay, the simple answer for why we try to judge others is that we are "hypocrites."  So we go to our verse for today, Matthew 7:5, and find out what Jesus wants us to do.  First, before looking at others and starting to judge them, we need to take the speck out of our own eye.  So what does that mean?  It means just this, before looking over the sins of others we need to take care of our own sins.  So how do we take care of our own sins?  First we ask God to forgive us of our sins.  Then we need to repent.  So why repent?  For that, let us go to ...

Matthew 3:1 - In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the desert of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

Matthew 4:17 - From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."  (Both NIV)

While the messages about repenting are for another day, I just needed you to see that we must repent of our sins, and again before we start that judging of others.  Please do not get confused between judging others and talking to them about Salvation through Jesus.  If we are going to lead people to the Lord, we must talk to them about going to Jesus, asking forgiveness of their sins, and repenting of them.  I know I often tell others that I am a sinner saved only by the grace of God.  Anyone who is trying to lead someone to Christ before they are saved really, really fits that hypocrite role that Jesus talks about.  You see, if we clear away our sins, when we look at others, and if we are honest with ourselves, maybe our sins were worse than theirs.  "When your own eyes are clear, you see things in a different light."  (My quote)

Tomorrow, casting those sins away ... Now go forth and share your blessings.  Love ya.  And please pass on my love.

Pastor Dan