Commandments in the NT

[WOODHENOT3]

Perhaps your good works of taking the poor man out to eat and sharing the gospel will be enough to outweigh the critical spirit you (may) have toward the brother who failed to do so.

LOL...To be honest, I have never condemned or criticized a person face to face, but when talking to a "board" I just let out criticism to see or learn what people has to say.In my area I am known to be the encourager, you'd be surprise when you meet me, but on computer, I can get carried away with some criticism....sometimes I get tired of the "dirty ministry"...if you know what I am saying.....but yes, you're right, give my burden to the Lord!
God bless you....:)

[WOODHENOT3]

Nevertheless, I encourage you to not condemn the brethren and allow God to move each brother at the rate God moves him. Remember, God is purifying all of us and each of us have our own personal sins and breaking one law means we have broken all laws. Our brethren who are selfish are not worse than me or any other viewer.

Hi Keith,
I don't believe I have condemn anybody on this board, nor I have in my ministries. I mean, saying that a lot of people in my ministries can be selfish, doesn't mean I condemned them of their selfishness...but, you're right, we all sin, but there is a lot of Christians deceiving themselves and we should help them out of their deception.
I believe if we have discussed in person, this discussion be a whole lot different....I'm not good at writing...ha.....
In Christ always, Woody

[keithareilly]

Woody,

We all decieve ourselves. We have to; else, we might end our own lives if we saw ourselves clearly. I struggled with this when I was young. I would work on a sin and get it under control only to have an other revealed to me. Once, God showed me the truth of who I was. It was unbearable. Fortunately, it was for only a few seconds. I have never forgotten; to this day, I do not think I could bear up under that again. And I say that after it has taken me 30 years of working on myself to learn to become someone I like. So I don't say this lightly.

I am fairly certain that few people really have any grasp of the kind of righteousness to which exposure would cause Moses's face to become radiant. I was given a glimps when I was young and I know how far I am from that standard. I know how far we all are from that standard. That standard is so far from us that it is in another realm not even in this creation. I and the rest of humanity are made from dust. How could our righteousness be anything less than filthy rags.

We all decieve ourselves. We have to. It is only through faith in the righteousness God supplies that we can begin to look at ourselves clearly and then we must say, I am thankful God supplies my righteousness.

Keith

[WOODHENOT3]

James 1
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

[keithareilly]

Indeed. The standard is high. Christ alone has met it. All others fall short of the glory of God.

All others fall short and we have to be instructed to not deceive ourselves.
We are instructed thus because we deceive ourselves.
Notice the instruction is to the brethren.

Keith

[keithareilly]

Woody,

Consider this. The bible of full of instruction for how to live. If we all lived the kind of life we should, we would not need to be instructed, the bible would not be necessary, and Christ would not have had to die in our stead.

To observe that a person, even a believer, falls short is nothing more than recognizing the reality of why Christ had to die. God impunes to us Christs righteousness so we can face and do something about our own shortcummings. But, we cannot first face who we are without God telling us that we must not condemn ourselves when we see we fall short. We must accept his grace then we can look at ourselves and say OK, I have this to work on, that to work on, this other thing as well. We have to face this througout our lives and learn to live with accepting Christs righteousness as God points out more and more of what we must change.

Having travelled that road for over 30 years, I find it difficult to be concerned that another is either further along or not as far along as myself or even if that person is travelling the same path as God may have another for that person. I have learned to accept the peace that comes with understanding that I will be working on myself until I die. Where I am in respect to another is not important. Only that I work on what God asks me to work on and do what he gives me to do.

Keith