Freedom from Judgement

Freedom from Judgement
The Apostle Paul wrote,

“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?

 Are you not to judge those inside?  

God will judge those outside. 

“Expel the wicked man from among you.” 

                                                                        1 Corinthians 5:12,13.
Billy Graham said,

“It is the Holy Spirits Job to Convict, 

God’s job to judge 

and my job to love,”

                                                                                   Billy Graham
Baruch Sinoza said,
“It is imperative that freedom of judgment should be granted, so that men may live together in harmony, however diverse, or even openly contradictory their opinions maybe.  In proportion as the power of free judgment is withheld, we depart from the natural condition of mankind.” Baruch Spinoza.
         I as a Christian do not believe I have the right to Judge anyone especially those outside my faith, Even when it comes to those within my faith I believe I am limited to only judging whether the person is teaching correct Christian doctrine. I have no right to judge whether or not they are going to heaven.
I as a Christian believe God has instilled in each and every person a freewill to do as they wish. That freedom even extends to whether the individual believes in God or not. Each individual must have the freedom to judge for themselves what they believe and what they do.
God did not make robots. God crated human beings with a free will.
I believe that no matter who you are Christian, Muslim, Jew, or those of other faiths, Atheist. All must have the right to choose what they believe.
I also believe it is important to be able to sit with those of different philosophies, ways of life and faiths and discuss openly our opinions without fear.
I as a Christian do not fear may faith being questioned by others. I know what I believe and I am convinced that I am right. I welcome others who wish to present their faith to me. I welcome exchanges in ideas. This I believe is the way God intended it to be.
Jesus when on this earth spoke to those outside his faith. Jesus had contact with Romans, Samaritans, and others. He sat down with those looked down upon by religious leaders of His day.
This is what I believe Christians should be doing today. Jesus tells us,
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20.
We cannot do this if we are not willing to accept the differences in our society and reach out to them in love.
The writer of Hebrews tells Christians,
“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14.
Part of living at peace with all men involves listening to others sharing your ideas and beliefs and allowing them to believe what they wish to believe. This is the way God intended things to be.
Please think about it. 

Freedom

Freedom
“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole  duty  of man. 
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” Ecclesiastes12:13,14
Question: Do we take our freedoms and Rights too much for granted? Do we demand our freedoms and Rights without thought for the freedoms and rights of others.
I found the following in my archives it was written in 2014. I put it here for you to think about.
Today as I write this it is June 6th 2014 the 70th anniversary of D Day. Here in Canada the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is putting on an all day special, commemorating the day a hundred and fifty thousand men rush ashore in Normandy France.
These men risked their life that we might have freedom.
My Father while not at Normandy fought in the British Army in North Africa, Italy, Belgium and Germany. He spoke little of his actual time in Battle he tended to dwell on the good times he had with his friends between the fighting.
One day however when I went to visit him at home. By this time he was in his eighties. He’d been watching television.
Someone who was denying the holocaust ever happened was being sentenced for hate crimes was in the news.
He suddenly started an angry tirade aimed largely at the television. He was very upset saying that he knew the death camps were real. That he was there.
His tirade lasted a few seconds then he settled down. Then he told me for the first time his experience at the Bergen Belsen death camp. He’d been among the liberator of the camp. He’d seen the horror and it had left wounds that he’d never spoken about for decades.
He said that’s why they had fought the war, to end tyranny. That we should always remember those who fought and died to end it.
For me I believe the fear of God was forgotten in Germany during the 1930's and 1940's.
Historians tell us that the late twenties and thirties was a low point for the German people. They were looking for someone to pull them out of the depression that gripped the country. Someone who would also restore national pride.
Hitler appeared to many to be that man. As a result he was allowed to come to power. The result would be by the end of 1945, more than 56,000,000, would die.
    Death camps would claim the lives of 6,000,000 jews alone and five to eight million non-Jews.
The scripture I quoted above says a lot,
“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole  duty  of man. 
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” Ecclesiastes12:13,14
If we believe in God. If we truly walk in the precepts of God. If we love God and we ensure our leadership both political and religious, loves God then the horrors of world war two will not be repeated.
Abba Hillel Silver wrote,
“Faith in God is the strongest bulwark of a free society.  Human freedom began when men became conscious that over and above society and nature there is a God who created them...who fashioned them in His likeness, and that they are, therefore, possessed of intrinsic and independent significance and are endowed, as individuals, with original and irrevocable rights and authority.”
It is only when mankind turns its back on God’s truths of Love for God, our neighbour and even our enemy, that such a thing as world war two can happen.
The men that started world war two were far from God. Their hearts were filled with hate.
We can never let this happen again. We must stand up to hate, prejudges and intolerance wherever it may be.
We must insist that our political and religious leaders exercise tolerance and show love to all irrespective of their race, colour creed, or their lifestyle.
Martin Luther King Jr. once prayed,
“We thank thee, O God, for the spiritual nature of man. We are in nature but we live above nature.
Help us never to let anybody or any condition pull us so low as to cause us to hate.
Give us strength to love our enemies and to do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us.
We thank thee for thy Church, founded upon thy Word, that challenges us to do more
than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon thee.
Then, finally, help us to realize that man was created to shine like stars and live on through all eternity.
Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace; help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all God’s children, Black, White, Red, and Yellow will rejoice in one common bond of humanity in the kingdom  of our LORD and of our God, we pray. Amen.”
Nelson Mandela said,
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”Nelson Mandela
I as a Christian believe in Love. Love for God, my neighbour, and my fellow man.
Jesus said
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 7:12.
These words are a universal truth all people can understand. That if put into practice can and will make the world a better place for all.
Think about it.

Freedom

Freedom
The United States of America Declaration of independence
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Noble words. Freedoms most in the world aspire to reach.
We in the west particularly here in North America have incredible freedoms. Freedoms many in the world can only dream of. All of this because we live in a secular democracy, in which politicians do their best to strike a balance that affords freedom for all.
That’s the way it is with God. The writers of the declaration of independence got it right when they wrote that,
“they (we, all individuals) are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
God did not make robots. Androids that at the push of a button did His bidding. Instead I believe that God created a man to have fellowship with Him. Someone with a freewill that could disagree with Him.
Someone who could even say God does not exist.
Such is the nature of true freedom. You have the right to say and do what you want. At the same time one must remember that there is consequences for everyone of our actions.
If we break the law or commit some kind of violent act we must pay the price for it be it jail time or worse.
If we on the other hand show love and respect to others there is most certainly positive benefits.
So it is when it comes to believing in God. Jesus speaking of himself said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son”. 
                                                                                                          John 3:16-18.
Jesus makes the choice clear. Believe and go to heaven or don’t believe and stand condemned.
Believing in God is an act of faith. The writer of Hebrews stating,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
                                                                                                     Hebrews 11:6.
If you think about it, it stands to reason if you don’t believe in God especially after you’ve been told about Him, why should He let you into heaven?
God has given us complete freedom to do as we wish therefore I ask, what do you believe?
Please think about it.

Freedom

Freedom
Erich Fromm said,
“I believe in freedom, in man’s right to be himself, to assert himself and to fight all those who try to prevent him from being himself.  But freedom is more than the absence of violent oppression.  It is more than “freedom from.”  It is “freedom to”“—the freedom to become independent; the freedom to be much, rather than to have much, or to use things and people.”
                                                                                                                       Erich Fromm
Fromm is right. What he says lines up with what God intended for man to be. God did not create robots. He created man and intended for man to be free irrespective of the consequences.
That freedom included mans right to believe in his creator or not.
The bible states
“He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men....”  
Ecclesiastes 3:11a.
I believe man is born with a sense of eternity. Man instinctively knows there is a more than this life. That he lives on through eternity.
Individuals may choose to ignore this fact but it doesn’t change anything. C. S. Lewis wrote,
“A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.” 
                                                                                C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain.
Still the freedom to deny God and the fact man lives on beyond this world is a God given right. A necessary right in order that man should be truly free.
Like Fromm said, true freedom “is the freedom to become independent; the freedom to be much...”
We can choose to live a life independent of God. We have the freedom to mould our life the way we want it to, even be “much” by our own standard.
At the same time we can also choose to follow God and do be much in His sight.
Some people have told me many times that the Bible is a book of do’s and do not’s. That may be the way some Christians make it out to be but it is not so.
Following the moral code and lifestyle Christ wants us to follow is no more difficult that following the rules in a Football game.
In order for the came to be enjoyable and rewarding to all who play it you must follow the rules. However once you’ve learned the rules you don’t give them a second thought. You simply play the game.
That’s the way it is when you accept Christ into your life. When you ask God to direct your life. You still have complete freedom but you are playing within God’s rules and you ultimately, once you’ve learned the rules don’t give things a second thought.
The bottom line however when it come to the individual is that you have the freedom to live your life your way or God’s way. That is a freedom granted to you by God. You can choose to believe in God or not.
So do you believe in God?
Please think about it.