“ … God’s kindness leads you toward repentance…” Romans 2:4

It’s so easy to let judgment rise up within our hearts toward one another. In little ways every day we choose to offer grace or to simply stand in judgment. When our hearts offer grace, freely received from the heart of God, we are giving out samples of the kindness and love we have received from God.

When we remember God’s kindness to us it leads us in the direction of a soft heart. It leads us to repentance and an open, flowing relationship with Him.

Then we are able to lay down our agenda with other people and set aside our desire to refrain from constantly interjecting our thoughts and instead, be “quick to listen and slow to speak”. (James 1:19)

Then we are allowing room for the Holy Spirit to minister respect and gentleness through us.
(1 Peter 3:15,16a)

God’s love, poured into our hearts in our times alone with Jesus, will enable grace to flow through us as we listen. The Holy Spirit will enter the conversations and with, or without words, minister God’s love and lead others toward Himself.

Father God, Thank you for the kindness that You have shown to me and how it lead me into repentance and into my relationship with You. Help me to be quick to offer grace, rather than judgment. Help me to be quick to listen and slow to speak so that Your kindness will draw others to You through me. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

by Gail Rodgers
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

Mercy for Judgement

Rush to Judgment

Fruit of Kindness

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If we will serve with true discernment, our perception must be renewed until we see life through the eyes of Christ the Redeemer.

To Discern, You Cannot Judge
We will never possess mature, ongoing discernment until we crucify our instincts to judge. Realistically, for most of us, this may take an extended, focused season of uprooting old thought-systems — attitudes that were not planted in faith and love for people. In truth, if we will appropriate the discernment born in the “mind of Christ,” we must first find the heart of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). The heart and love of Jesus is summed up in His own words: “I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47). Yet even when the Lord does judge us, it is to save and deliver us.

Spiritual discernment is the grace to see into the unseen. It is a gift of the Spirit to perceive the realm of the spirit. Its purpose is to understand the nature of that which is veiled.

Yet there are many who suppose they are receiving the Lord’s discernment concerning one thing or another. Perhaps in some things they are; only God knows. But many are simply judging others and calling it discernment. Jesus commanded us to judge not. He sends us into the world not as judges of man but, under Him, as co-redeemers. We are not sent to condemn people but to rescue them.

The Goal Is to See Clearly
The judgmental carnal mind always sees the image of itself in others. Without realizing it is seeing itself, it assumes it is perceiving others. Jesus refers to the person who judges others yet is guilty of the same sin as a “hypocrite.” The Lord is not saying we should totally stop thinking about people. He wants us to be able to help one another. The emphasis in Jesus’ command to “not judge” is summarized in His concluding remark: “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (See Matthew 7:1-5).

The way we help others is not by judging but by seeing clearly. This is the “righteous judgment” of which Jesus speaks in (John 7:24). We do not “see clearly” until we have been through deep and thorough repentance, until the instinct to judge after “appearances” is uprooted.

We have seen that Jesus paralleled speaking to people about their sins with taking specks out of their eyes. The eye is the most tender, most sensitive part of the human body. How do you take a speck out of someone’s eye? Very carefully! First, you must win their trust. This means consistently demonstrating an attitude that does not judge, one that will not instinctively condemn. To help others, we must first see clearly.

If you truly seek to crucify your instinct to judge and genuinely are pursuing Christ’s redemptive heart, you will have laid a true foundation for the gift of discernment. You will have prepared your heart to receive dreams, visions and insights from God. You will be unstained by human bias. You will possess the mind and heart of Christ.

By Francis Frangipane
Used by Permission

Francis Frangipane
info@frangipane.org
www.frangipane.org
www.icitc.org
www.arrowbookstore.com

Further Reading

•  Get Rid of Guilt – Getting rid of false guilt. Getting rid of real guilt.

•  The Gentle Christian

•  Salvation Explained

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“Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying,” The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” Revelations 11:15-16

In the change of  our national leadership, I could not help but think of the implications of the seventh angel in Revelation. As I watched the inauguration, I noted the prayers of invocation and benediction, the singing of God Bless America and the many references to God in various remarks from the podium, but most of them seemed ceremonial and obligatory and few could claim any apparent sincerity. The references seemed superficial at best.

Perhaps it was because I knew the background of the speakers and the many past comments they have made which sounded like there was no connection to God or desire for Him to get in the way of their own personal (kingdom) agendas.

When people proclaim that it should be legal to terminate the life of a human being in the name of a woman’s convenience or those who proclaim that it is alright to marry the person of your choice, regardless of gender, I wonder what connection with divine inspiration they really have.

When people say that a policy of celibacy in singleness and monogamy in marriage is puritanical or claim that church attendance is for the weak, who need a crutch, I wonder if they really desire God to bless America, or do they want God’s approval for their self-centered kingdom.

Some day, when the seventh trumpet is sounded, America will find out how insignificant their kingdoms are when the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of the Lord.

The plain truth of the Bible reveals that the “Kingdom of God” is to be a literal government composed of spirit rulers who shall rule over all nations on earth. It is to take over the governments of the nations at the second coming of Jesus Christ. Christ will become the “King of kings,” and He will rule by the law of God.

Jesus Christ will return to earth for the purpose of setting up the Kingdom of God and judging the nations. This time, He will not come meekly but with God’s wrath against a rebellious mankind! The nations’ political rulers will be furious when they realize that Christ has come to abolish the governments of this world and to establish the Kingdom of God, which will rule over all the earth. Then those who glibly ask for God’s blessing over their personal ungodly kingdoms and agendas will find out what the Lord’s kingdom really is. Lord, come quickly, because we can’t hold on much longer. 
(a thought on life from John Grant )

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