"Judge not, and you will not be judged," Jesus clearly states (Luke 6:37). But that is easier said than done when we are living in an increasingly judgmental society. It is easy to join the chorus of voices judging others.

As the saying goes, every time you point one finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back at you. We are all sinners, and we all fail. As Christians, we need to replace the judgments that may be welling up inside of us with forgiveness and love. That is how we would like to be treated if the roles were reversed.

Jesus continues, "Condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven" (Luke 6:37). It is not our place to condemn. That is up to God. But it is our role to forgive. We are all in need of Christ's mercy for our failings, big or small. Our role as Christians is not to point to people in judgment but to point to the cross. Only there can grace be found.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

While hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, you would notice stones stacked up into towers called cairns that served as landmarks and memorials. Cairns are similar to the rock formations used in the Bible by Abraham, Moses and Jacob as altars.

Abraham built an altar to acknowledge that God is God, saying through this cairn that he would obey God's will. God sent an angel to stop Abraham from sacrificing his son. Centuries later, God would sacrifice his own Son, Jesus, on the altar, the cairn, if you will, of a cross on a rock hill called Golgotha.

Moses erected an altar to God after the Israelites defeated the army of Amalek. We have moments in our lives after trial or tragedy, when we, like Moses, need to step back and honor in some special way the God who got us through.

The morning after Jacob dreamed of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven, he used a stone to make a cairn to announce that this was a dwelling place of God. We need to remember, too, that though we are sinners, God still loves us and has a plan of salvation for us, to take us to heaven to be with him forever.

Honor the Lord, who is the Rock, on your journey through life.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

The word adiaphora means "matters not regarded as essential to faith, but nevertheless permissible or allowed in the church." Topics such as the floor covering in the sanctuary or the color of paint on the walls in the fellowship hall, for example, are not essential to faith, but often take up a large part of our time. Adiaphora.

St. Paul was asked about adiaphora by the Corinthian Christians. Should they eat food sacrificed to idols? He said in response: Food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. (1 Corinthians 8:8-9)

We need to spend less time worrying about things that are essentially adiaphora and more time on matters that are essential to faith: Baptism, evangelism, Holy Communion, preaching the Word, Bible study and prayer. Even if something we do or say is not necessarily against our beliefs, we need to be aware of the way in which we go about these things. We are models of Christ even in things that don't really matter.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Acts 4:36-37 Joseph, A levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.

Throughout the Book of Acts, we read about a disciple Christ named Barnabas, whose name means "son of encouragement." His name indicates the impact he had on the early Church and to those to whom he witnesses on his many missionary trips with the apostle Paul.

How can you be a Barnabas, a son or daughter of encouragement, in your life today? You can be on the lookout, as Barnabas was, for the gifts in others. Then encourage people to use those gifts to God's glory. Don't be afraid to join them in using your gifts, standing beside them to support them along the way. You can be encouraging by being open and available when people want to talk, as Barnabas was. Be there to listen. Be there to care. Be there to take interest in the lives of people. Keep urging them on in their work for the Lord and in living in God's grace.

To whom can you be a Barnabas today?

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

In the Middle Ages, stained-glass windows told the story of salvation to the many illiterate people in the pews. Today there is a resurgence of visual storytelling, most notably through social media sites like Instagram. The goal of Instagram is to share photos of your life with others. As a Christian, then, your Instagram posts can serve as stained-glass windows displaying your life in Christ to the World.
 

What image are you sharing? What can people learn about you from the pictures you put up on your Instagram or Facebook page? Take a quick look at your image-posting history. Can people see that you are a Christian from these images? If so, then great! If not, what can you include in future image postings that reveal your commitment to Christ and the central role he plays in your life?

So much of social media history imagery is about me, myself, and I. But as Christians we say it is all about him as we point to Jesus Christ in our social media stained-glass windows.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

I love the language of 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. We are pressed from every angle with the demands of work, family, home and church, but we are not crushed. Nothing can be a crushing blow when we have Christ within us.

Perplexed, but not in despair. We may be confused, frustrated or angry about our lives, but we should never let that angst turn into despair, tempting us to give up on God, on ourselves or on others. We cannot throw in the towel shen God is fighting for us.

Persecuted, but not abandoned. For the early Christians in Corinth, persecution was a real threat. Suffering is a given for Christians in this world. Sin and the devil will make sure of that! But we will never be left alone to fend for ourselves. The Triune God loves us and comforts us in every struggle. Our God will never go away.

Struck down but not destroyed. We may be struck down by illness, a harsh word or rejection. We will be knocked down, but we will never be obliterated. Isaiah tells us that God will not snuff out even a dimly burning wick. Christ destroyed the powers of death, sin and the devil through his life, death and resurrection. He will never destroy us.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

2 Corinthians 3:2-3  You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

We don't write letters too much anymore, but in the early Church, handwritten letters were the only way to receive information from a great distance. The epistles were originally simply letters from one friend to another group of friends, talking about the life of faith in Christ. Today these letters are studied and valued for their importance in guiding our lives as Christians.

Letters were so important to the early church that Paul refers to those who receive his actual letter as letters themselves. We, too, as recipients of Paul's letters, are letters. We are not letters written with ink that fades, but we are written with the Spirit of the living God. We have vibrancy and force that will last forever. We are not written on cold and unfeeling stone. We are letters written on beating human hearts that supply lifeblood to the world.
--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,