Everyone has complainers

We all are judged. Whether we admit it or not we live in a society that judges people. You can look at what’s popular on TV and it’s full of people judging: The Voice, America’s Got Talent, American Idol, Survivor, So You Think You Can Dance, and Big Brother to name a few. I am a huge sports fan, ask any person why their sports teams didn’t win the championship and we have a list of complaints.

I love to watch the drafts of professional sports and it’s all about judging a person. While every job has this, these drafts show all your strengths and weakness. They say what you do well and what you do horrible in. On top of that, there are stars with a ton of potential but have some character flaws, sometimes it keeps them from making millions. Could you imagine being judged in primetime television?

Everyone is judged. Paul is one of my favorite biblical authors, yet this is what people said about Paul: he has no power or authority, he is an extremely good writer but once you meet him he is unimpressive and a lousy speaker. Man, this is what they said about the writer of a dozen or so books in the Bible and his teachings are still looked at widely today? People didn’t like Paul? As Rodney Dangerfield would say, “I get no respect.”

Everyone is judged, but how do you respond to being judged? Paul responded to this in 2 Corinthians 10:11-12, “Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present. We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”

Paul looked at the actions of his enemies. Rather then looking at people the way God looks at them, they had typical human standards. This is like the armchair quarterback syndrome. I can watch the Lions and tell everything that is wrong with the team, but I also never played football other then a year of fully padded flag football. In other words, I have no way to truly judge how good or bad the Lions are. Human standards often fail us.

It’s funny when we look at churches and judge them by numbers. People can judge churches by how many people come in the doors. While there is a little truth to this it can miss the whole point. I had a friend share this info from Doug Fields, it went something like: judging if a church is doing well by numbers is like saying how is your family doing and you respond 4.

When we as Christians focus our goals by human standards we can fail a ton. Succeeding in the world is not the same as succeeding to God. When Christians judge based on human standards rather then Godly standards it can make us look like a fool.

What gives us the right to judge? Do we have the standards of God when we look at other people? Does God care more and think someone is successful by how much money they have? Does God care what kind of car you drive or home you own? Does God care about what type of electronic devices you have or the clothes you wear? Does God care what degrees you have? If these things don’t matter as much to God, why do we put so much emphasis in them?

If we look at the world the way Jesus did, it would change our perspective on how we view life. Do you need to look at life and the world differently? If so, what do you need to change about how you judge?

Have a great day.

Forget grace, we're playing cards

Leave Jesus out of this we are playing cards. Hailee and I love to play cards and it’s normal for us to have get together with friends and play cards. Jokingly while playing a tough game of cards and trying to win someone said something along the lines of forget about the grace of Jesus were playing cards. It was funny and joking but in real life situations sometimes we forget about Jesus’s grace and get wrapped into judging.

There was a story about a church that once was wronged. This one church paid for a service to be done by a company and looked forward to having this complete to improve the church, but the person changed the deal. The original deal was pay for the service 50 percent up front and the rest at completion. The business owner went up to the church and said before the finished product was done, they needed more money to complete the project.  The church paid the person the rest of the money.

Soon after that, the job wasn’t completed to a satisfactory mark. The job wasn’t done. When the church tried to contact this man, the man stopped returning phone calls, they would only answer when called from an unknown number. A shady business deal, what was the church to do? Should a loving church file charges against this business man that wrong them?

1 Corinthians 6 spends the first 11 verses talking about judging others and handling matters in a Christian way. The church people were taking lawsuits to courts against other Christians. Paul stated how wrong this was. He stated its better to be wronged and cheated then to do the likewise to brothers and sisters in faith. He ends talking about who will inherit the kingdom of God with verse 11…

“And that is what some of you were. But you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

We were sanctified by Jesus. Sanctify means to be set apart for special use or purpose. When we get stuck in matters that go to court especially if we are in the wrong, we are not living the sanctified life Jesus gave us.

Jesus gave us life, grace, mercy and peace. He never wanted us to put court cases against other Christians. Hopefully matters can be resolved that even though we have to obey the laws of the land Romans 13:1. Grace needs to be shown in every matter and that is what Jesus gives each and every one of us. Have a great day.

10 percent tip pastor

Certain actions can make me cringe. Hearing about the pastor that left the 10 percent tip was so sad. It gives Christians everywhere a bad name. If you haven’t heard about it,

 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/pastor-tip-receipt-155914258.html

 

I wish this is the only time Christians did this. I talked with several waitresses and they all said the worst shift is the Sunday afternoon group. One said, “They are the most demanding people that give the worse tips. They are never happy. If they are happy, they will still tip bad.” At what point did Christians become so demanding and give so little at best?

 

Not everyone is like this, but I have seen my fair share of Sunday people that have done this. Hailee and I went to lunch with some people we knew were not great tippers, as a result Hailee and I made sure we would tip over to make up for them. A friend on Facebook Donny said if you don’t plan on giving 20 percent you can’t afford to eat out. I am in complete agreement with this.

 

Paul tells us this in Romans 2:1-4, "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, 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 human being, 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, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

 

Show your cards, are you a judger or forgiver? You can choose to judges other and your wait staff or show them grace. We learn from this section about God’s judgment and how we judge others. Paul ends this with a “Or” statement do you pass judgment on people or do you show kindness, love and grace which could lead people to Christ?  You make a statement with how you tip.

 

If Jesus went to a meal with you, how do you think you would tip? What if you got bad service and instead of tipping poorly you tipped more? Would that show the grace of God? You never know what your waiter or waitress has been through. Maybe they had the worst day and are just trying to get through the shift. One way to show grace is to tip high on bad service. You can choose to judge or to show grace, you cannot do both. What type of tipper are you going to be?

 

Have a great day.