"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 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? 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. Matthew 7:1-5
Today I am going to ask you a very serious and personal question. I want you to be able to take this question, and examine your life with it.
So Get Ready.
A lot of people go through their lives and say they believe in God, go to Church, etc., but do they only do it for the sake of tradition, and for tradition alone?
I was born and raised in a Christian home. I went to church every Sunday, sang in the choir, and contributed to the Church plays. I thank God every moment for having been raised that way--I was a lucky individual compared to many.
But while I was a Christian, and believed Jesus died for me, I didn't really know what it meant to be saved at the time. You see, I didn't understand that the personal relationship with God was not something you just get when you become a Child of God. It was more than just going through the motions.
So I asked myself the question I shall now be asking you. And it is between you and God to figure out your answer.
Why do you believe?
People tell us the rights and wrongs to life, and we believe them because we know they speak true. We know? How do we know? How do you know? Why do you know?
There are probably a million answers, and they are all probably right. I won't sit here and tell you what your answer is, because only you and God will know that. But I do want to tell you that someday we shall all pass from this earth, and be judged by God. That right here and now we need to set our lives right. No longer should it be because that's what we do, or that's the way we have always done it. No, we need to do it because it is right in our lives, our hearts, and our very souls.
If I were a perfect stranger, and I walked up to you on the street, and I asked you why you believed in God, what would you say to me? And if you asked me, what would I say? People have been faced with this question, even though most of us probably have not. Or if we have, we still lived to talk about it. But if we truly were put to that test, with our lives hanging in the balance, would our answer show who we are deep down inside? Would it truly be the truth of our relationship with our Father?
We can all show people that we live perfect lives, but, that's not the point. We go around and tell people that we do this, this and this, and never do we do that, and never even know why we do or don't. So the Bible says what to do and not to do. Okay, so then why was the Bible written? Did you ever stop to think that there is more to all those rules and letters and such than meets the eye? That's where we are going wrong. We get caught up in how we need to live our lives, and forget why we need to live it that way.
You see, it's not about the name, the label of being a Christian. People think that Christian is a higher title given to the 'better' people. Over time we have completely lost the true meaning of the word. We don't even know who we are anymore. We say we live by certain standards, but we don't know why we live by them. We try so hard to save the lost, but it seems that we are lost just as much as the rest of the world, and that in order to save the others, we need to first help right ourselves. Jesus spoke a lot on this topic with the Pharisees. He told them that they were so caught up in sticking to the Law, that no longer were they living the way they were originally meant to live--they had forgotten the true meaning of their existence.
In Luke chapter 18 verses 9-14 it says,
"To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Our relationship is sparked to be on a deeper level with God. If you were to die tomorrow, be sure you know that you die knowing what you are dying for--and why.*
Get it right, get it deep, get it real.
Whitney
