SOLID CRITIQUE: THINK ABOUT IT (HOW TO APPROACH SOMEONE with a SPECK)

 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 7:5

You know part of the reason it's hard for our corrective criticism or judgmental ways are difficult to receive is because we, have issues that need to be addressed.   Take two alcoholics, neither one is in the position to tell the other about their drinking problem until one of them actually corrects their own drinking issues. This is primarily one of the biggest reasons why people have an issue with the "church" or coming to one because they feel WE are hypocrites, and to some extent......THEY ARE RIGHT!  Some more than others, but we have all at some point said one thing, but were doing something totally different. (Tithing or lack thereof, shacking up, fornication, not honoring our father, mother, anyone for that matter, stealing (office supplies counts too), the list goes on...........remember get in the mirror & work on your stuff, stay out of the window criticizing the outsiders)

On Sunday I asked the question:  When people come in the doors of our building.....how do we receive them?  First ask yourself, Am I able to approach this person the way I would want to be approached?   Think about how you would like to be received when you walk into a room, a home, a building full of people you don't know.  Do you want to be told about your faults before people find out your story?   THEN MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO DO UNTO OTHERS as you would have them do unto you.  In other words if you don't want to be sized up, judged, pigeon holed because of what you are wearing, how you are looking, who you are with....don't do it to our visitors.   I understand his pants are sagging or her breasts are hanging out.....let the SPIRIT cover that, while you love them back to JESUS through your welcoming ways.

Secondly, simply ask yourself how do I want to be judged?  Jesus tells us how we judge others will be the way in which we will be judged.   Simply put....how you treat others, will be ultimately how you will be treated.  No farmer plants corn and reaps thorns.   If you want a loving home, you have to plant love.   If you want a church where EVERYONE is welcomed...you have to be welcoming to EVERYONE. 

Chances are NO ONE LIKES to be judged, so let's work on our stuff, so judging does become our first thought, and while we work on loving people back to the FATHER, that they might see our good works, glorify Him, and ask you to help them.  NOT ONE PERSON HAS BEEN WON TO THE FATHER through HUMAN JUDGMENT.....but many have been WON through ACTS OF KINDNESS & LOVE.   LGLP