Paul
All Creatures Of Our God And King
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing)
The Solid Rock (My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness)
How Great Thou Art (O Lord my God when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands hath made)
It Is Well With My Soul (When peace like a river attendeth my way)
Jon
Am I growing in the gospel?
Using truth and love in our communication
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?
James 4:11-12 (NSRV)
But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
Ephesians 4:15 (NSRV)
Not just about vertical relationships (love God) but horizontal relationships (love others)
Slander and judgement are interchangeable in James’ language
You can speak truth and still be full of slander and judgement
How do you know if you have a judging spirit?
When you criticize a person they are destroyed, crushed, and thrown away
How do people feel after you speak the truth to them?
You have a judging spirit if you have a fault-finding habit of mind
You’ve got to gather the facts before you speak truth
Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to move into anger
A judging spirit is a violation of love and humility
Ask yourself this question: who am I to judge another person? Who am I better than?
Such arrogance
A sign of a judging spirit is that you actually enjoy not only telling people about their faults but hearing about them as well
We love listening to gossip
When you go beyond the facts and begin to impute motives to others, you have a judging spirit
Jesus: you have heard it say you should not murder, but I say to you to slander is to murder
Jesus didn’t put slander under lying, he put it under murder!
Only the creator has enough wisdom to sit in judgement over humanity
Be very careful to not use the truth to harm another person
Example: if you have been really patient but you see someone else not being patient, you can’t judge them; you don’t know their background
What if you haven’t grown in patience at all, but their patience has doubled in the last 5 years, they are being a good steward and you aren’t
Who are you to do something that even Jesus himself wouldn’t do? What gives you that right?
The reason why we judge is because we forget the gospel
Let the gospel heal your tongue and transform your heart