Please Don't Judge Me! Why Judging Is Natural

We often hear the phrase "Don't judge me!" used by people especially when it involves Christians or the church as a whole.  Most of the time the phrase is followed by "Only God can judge me."  How valid is this statement?  It is interesting to see that a good majority of Christians are completely unaware of what the Bible says or they lack a good understanding of what scripture is actually saying.  It seems that the Bible has been turned into a document that is subjective.  Christians as a whole tend to accept things they have heard others say a fact without doing due diligence to see if what they believe is based on fact.  One example is the quote, "God only helps those who help themselves."  This quote is not found anywhere in the Bible nor is it even alluded to.  This phrase actually originated in ancient Greece and can be found in Aesop's Fables but yet has made it into mainstream Christianity and is considered to be the truth.

So where did the "Don't Judge Me" come from?  It is actually based on Matthew 7:1  "Judge not, that ye be not judged."   So yes this is a biblical verse and it is true but left by itself one can draw the conclusion that we are not to judge others so that we ourselves will not be judged.  But if you look at that passage in its entirety it takes on a different meaning.

International Standard Version
Mat 7:1  "Stop judging, so that you won't be judged,
Mat 7:2  because the way that you judge others will be the way that you will be judged, and you will be evaluated by the standard with which you evaluate others.
Mat 7:3  "Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?
Mat 7:4  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when the beam is in your own eye?
Mat 7:5  You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

So basically it does not mean that we cannot judge others but the passage is saying that if you are judging others to higher degree than you would judge yourself then God will in turn use that same standard you used on others on you.  I often say that it is easier to find the devil in others but it is difficult to find him in ourselves.  Judging in and of itself is totally natural.  We use judgement on what types of items we buy, who we choose to call friends, what job to take amongst other things.  If we didn't judge or in other words use our best judgement we would constantly find ourselves in undesirable  situations.  One problem our society has is the lack of good and wise judgement.

So what does it mean when people actually say "Don't Judge Me?"  They are actually saying I don't care if what I am doing is wrong or questionable, etc. just don't say anything to me about it.  People don't want to be criticism about what to do.  On one hand this is understandable because people in the church actually will be harsh, demean others and be outright cruel in their judgement.  This often turns people away and creates wounded souls which in turns means a lost opportunity to share the love of God.  Based on the scripture above once you take the beam out of your own eye you will be gentle in removing it from your brother or sister's eye because you know how much it hurts and gives you the authority to speak to others.

What the American Education System Can Learn from the B-52 Bomber

The B-52 Bomber has been in service now for over 50 years.  It has served valiantly in numerous wars since the 1960's and by the end of it's service life the B-52 Bomber will have served for 80 years.  One might wonder why would the Air Force keep this airplane in service for this long with all of the advancements in technology over the years.  This technology has brought us the B-1 Bomber, B-2 Bomber and the like but why is the B-52 still in service. The answer is that in spite of newer planes none of them can perform in the same way as the B-52 and no one has been able to come up with a good replacement yet.
     I believe that the B-52 Bomber can teach legislatures, Departments of Education and School Boards some valuable lessons.  Over the last several decades we have seen new ideas in education come and go without providing the impact that they were promised to do.  Now we have No Child Left Behind, High Stakes Testing, AYP, School grades and teacher accountability and to date none have not provided the success everyone was sold for.  Our education system is currently failing our students which will ultimately end up failing our country.  What our education system can learn from the B-52 is that new and fancy ideas do not always do better than the tried and true ideas.  Some times you have to go back and find what was working before and tailor it for today's child.
      The main problem with education is that we have a one shoe fits all mentality and we do not try to meet individual student needs.  The main reason why the B-52 is still in service is because no of the other bombers can stay in an area as long as it can  No other bomber can carry different types of bomb loads as the B-52.  Our schools need to be able to meet needs of students in many different ways and go back to proven ways of educating students.

Applying the Christmas Story to Your Life

Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38

Every year after Thanksgiving people all over the world begin to gear up for the Christmas Season.  Who could blame anyone for doing this.  The sights and smells of the season, the shopping as well how everyone seems to get a lot nicer during the month of December.  While all of these things are nice they are not as the cliche states, "The reason for the season."  The reason of the season of course is to celebrate the birth of Christ and while most do exactly that do we really get the main lesson out of Christmas?  In the bible you will often see many occurrences of the same story told from different perspectives which depends on the audience that it was written for.  This offers us more insight into the message so that we as readers can get a better understanding.

Let's look at the Christmas story told from the book of Matthew and Luke.  In Matthew it is told from the perspective of Joseph and in Luke it is told from the perspective of Mary.  Both accounts have one thing in common which is that an angel appears to both to let them know about the birth of Jesus and what is also interesting is that both of their responses are the same as well.  Joseph did what the angel told him to do and Mary responded with,"be it unto me according to thy word."  The question becomes how would life different be if we all took this approach to obey God? The fact of the matter is that we are not very receptive to God birthing Christ in us or to being obedient to God.  The Apostle Paul stated in, "Gal 4:19  My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you."  When we begin to apply the Christmas story to our lives then we will be truly blessed beyond measure.  True blessing is not having material things or opportunities but it is having Christ in us the hope of glory.  I encourage each one you on this Christmas to think about the birth of Christ but him being formed in you so that you can then become a Christmas gift for others.

The Move to Life Satisfaction and Independence

Most people never become successful in life because they focus more on consuming things rather than creating things. We must learn how to create things of value that we can offer rather than just consuming the things others create and control.