Fight for Your Faith

Does your faith need strengthening? Are you confused and wondering if Jesus Christ is really "The Way, the Truth, and the Life?" "Fight for Your Faith" is a blog filled with interesting and thought provoking articles to help you find the answers you are seeking. Jesus said, "Seek and ye shall find." In Jeremiah we read, "Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall seek for Me with all your heart." These articles and videos will help you in your search for the Truth.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Judging Right Judgment

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By P. Amsterdam

Audio length: 7:29

There exists some confusion at times in our Christian walk between when to fulfill Jesus’ commandment to “judge not, that ye be not judged,”1 and when to “judge righteous judgment.”2 We are commanded both to not judge and condemn others and to make right judgments—which entails discerning, evaluating, and differentiating between right and wrong, and “choosing the good and eschewing [or turning away from] the evil.”3

One of the pitfalls that we face as Christians, and which is part of the process of growth and becoming a mature Christian, is the tendency to want to pin blanket labels or judgments on people or situations, or to categorize issues in a black-and-white way, in order to more easily discern and judge what is right and what is wrong. We are called, as Christians, to have conviction and to be willing to “give an answer to anyone that asks us a reason of our faith and hope,” while we are also to “yet do it with gentleness and respect.”4 Part of Christian discipleship is identifying and categorizing issues, attitudes, or actions as right or wrong, as acceptable or unacceptable in order to judge right or correct judgment; and yet in our interactions with others and sharing our faith and convictions, we are called to do so with gentleness and respect.

Christianity provides a clear moral code, and the Bible teaches us what is expected of believers. Throughout the Gospels Jesus taught the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, God’s will and self-will, and the apostles expounded on that and created rules and policies to govern the church, providing timeless principles of sharing God’s love and following Jesus’ example to live a godly life.

While Jesus spoke against judgmental attitudes and conduct toward others, it’s clear that as individuals, we still have to “judge righteous judgment”5 as far as evaluating and discerning whether something is a good choice or a poor one, or whether something is morally right or not. Those decisions don’t always come our way clearly marked and straightforward, and it’s natural to ponder attitudes, actions, or conduct that we see around us and to attempt to categorize them as right or wrong, good or bad, a good choice or a poor choice.

Not being judgmental doesn’t mean that we can’t or shouldn’t evaluate the rightness of things and measure things by the standard of God’s Word, and build our convictions accordingly. For instance, if someone does something that is morally reprehensible, you would certainly reach the conclusion that their actions are morally wrong, and you might feel led to speak out, particularly if these actions were influencing or harming others.

However, there are times when right and wrong are not so clearly delineated; the right or wrong choice is not so evident, or something that might seem right or wrong at the time later turns out to be the opposite. Sometimes we make mistakes in judgment and learn through our mistakes. Or something that is generally wrong, such as violence, might be right in the rare case when it is necessary to defend oneself or others who are in danger.

Of course, many things are clear and they are always black and white; right and wrong are immediately apparent. For example, we know that it is wrong to intentionally hurt others, to cheat people, to steal or take advantage of others, etc. We have clear markers for our conduct and what God expects of us, and He’s also given us a conscience, which speaks to us when we do something that is wrong in some way.

But it’s not always possible to place a simple “right” or “wrong” label on the decisions of others, or on situations or events. Jesus said that we would be able to recognize or discern things by their fruits,6 which may mean that we won’t know if something bears good fruit for some time, until it has played out and we are able to better discern the ultimate results of certain decisions or situations. This is why seeking the Lord’s tailor-made guidance for situations and decisions is often necessary in order to better understand how to apply the principles in His Word to specific situations.

While it’s normal, and at times necessary, to evaluate and reason out the decisions and actions of others and to weigh them on our moral scale, it doesn’t follow that we should then treat people in an unloving, judgmental way, or be quick to condemn others because of the choices they’ve made. Only God is in a position to pass wise or fair judgment. We can’t know the burdens and weights that people carry, or all the reasons why they make the choices they do. We can certainly pray for them and try to offer support, counsel, or advice when appropriate. But it’s unlikely that people will be receptive to counsel and advice that comes packaged in a judgmental spirit.

As Christians, we shouldn’t feel compelled to judge every attitude or action of others. We should be more concerned about helping people and loving them into heaven than judging them on earth. God is the judge; He knows the hearts of people and He understands everything about them in a way that we would never be able to. He doesn’t need our help to judge people; that isn’t what Jesus commissioned us to do.

So while it’s natural to internally process someone’s actions, it’s how we treat the person and how we react to them that ultimately counts. Of course, we do need to teach our children and new believers to make moral choices and to discern between right and moral behavior and wrong and ungodly behavior. We need to be grounded in the Scriptures in order to understand biblical and Christian morality, so that we can make decisions based on the Word of God. But in doing so, we also can’t lose sight of Jesus’ boundless love for all people.

We are all sinners and men and women of like passions, who desperately need Jesus’ love, mercy, and forgiveness. We are called to share His love with others, and His power to forgive sin and to conquer its foothold in our lives. Jesus’ love is unconditional and can cover the multitude of sins.7 There is no sin that Jesus can’t redeem and wash away with His blood.8

Originally published September 2010. Adapted and republished February 2017.
Read by Jason Lawrence. https://anchor.tfionline.com/post/judging-right-judgment/

1 Matthew 7:1.
2 John 7:24.
3 1 Peter 3:11 KJV.
4 1 Peter 3:15.
5 John 7:24.
6 Matthew 7:20.
7 James 5:19–20; 1 Peter 4:8.
8 1 John 1:7.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

When God Wants To Drill A Man

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When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him

Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out-
God knows what He’s about.

– Anonymous

Monday, March 6, 2017

At 15, he was shot in the back by an Israeli soldier. Now this Palestinian has dedicated his life to peace.

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By Colby Itkowitz, Washington Post, March 3, 2017

Yousef Bashir remembers the blue sky that day. As he lay in the back seat of the car, an Israeli soldier’s bullet lodged in his back, he stared up and out of the window at the sky, wondering whether it would be his last time seeing it.

By that time in 2004, Bashir’s family’s home in the Gaza Strip had been occupied for four years by Israeli soldiers, who had converted it into a military post. The Palestinian Muslim family could have moved, like so many of their neighbors did, but Bashir’s father refused. If he left, they would probably never get their house back. So they stayed, confined to a small area of their home and unable to venture upstairs and required to ask permission to use their own kitchen and bathroom.

For Bashir’s father, this small act of peaceful defiance was a lesson to his children that the Israelis and Palestinians could coexist. No matter how uncomfortable or unfair it seemed, Bashir’s father preached tolerance. Even when his 15-year-old son was shot, an injury that would require 16 months of rehabilitation and leave him forever with piercing pain from the bullet still inside him, Bashir’s father taught love.

It took Bashir some time to appreciate his father’s perspective.

“He approached them like guests. What I didn’t understand is how he could treat them as guests when they’re telling us what to do in our own house,” Yousef Bashir said. “And my father said, ‘That’s what human beings do and that’s what people who care about the Holy Land must do even if it’s the most unrealistic thing in the world, we have to do that, because our destiny is to live in peace as the sons of Abraham.”

Now 28 years old, Bashir is dedicating his life to fulfilling his father’s dream of peace among Israelis and Palestinians. It’s a life mission that brought him to the United States to finish high school, to attend college here and to immerse himself in a country that promises more than he could have ever dreamed in occupied Gaza. He’s interning on Capitol Hill for Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.). And he gives talks, taking what happened to him and using it as a way to start dialogues, particularly with Jewish groups.

A gripping and articulate storyteller, Bashir sees himself as an emissary.

But his story is not about being almost killed by an Israeli soldier. It’s about how Israeli Jews saved his life.

Bashir and his father were standing in their front yard waving goodbye to United Nations peacekeepers who had been by to check on them when the bullet struck Bashir. The Guardian reported in 2005 that the Israeli army had taken responsibility for the shooting but never explained why.

The teen was rushed to a hospital in Tel Aviv, where he was treated by an Israeli doctor. His nurses, his roommates, the visitors were almost all Israeli Jews. They cared about his pain level. He saw them celebrate their holidays. Orthodox rabbis would gather around his bed and sing songs to lift his spirits as they did with all the children. For the first time in his life, he saw Israelis the way his father always wanted him to.

“All of those little moments showed me their humanity, and I can’t get over that ever,” Bashir said. “I still disagree with Israel fundamentally, but I don’t hate them in my heart. What my father was teaching me all my life was that although an Israeli shot me, many Israelis were there to save my life. Suddenly now I understood my father when he said you have to choose forgiveness over revenge, bravery over fear and peace over war, and this is what any Holy Lander should be doing.”

Once he’d healed enough to leave rehab, his father sent him to a summer camp in Maine run by Seeds of Peace, an organization that brings together young Palestinians and Israelis. Bashir was still too injured to participate in any of the traditional camp activities like swimming or sports, so he focused his energy on the daily dialogues. He told his story. Israelis told theirs. Both sides had grievances, but they were learning they didn’t need to be rooted in hate.

After that experience, Bashir was determined to get his education in the United States. He left Gaza to attend a Quaker high school in Ramallah, but he spent his time there singularly focused on getting back to the United States as soon as possible. In America, he said, “if you have any idea and you are passionate about it, you will do it.”

With an unrelenting persistence, he finished high school at a boarding school in Utah–”It was utterly peaceful. I don’t care if it’s on the moon, there were no tanks or soldiers, and that was my biggest achievement at the time,” he said. He went on to get his undergraduate degree at Northeastern University in Boston, though he had really wanted to go to Brandeis, a college with a large Jewish population, but didn’t get in. But he did for graduate school and received his master’s degree in conflict and coexistence.

Going to a largely Jewish college was, to him, a way to promote peace. He needed to show those who thought ill of Palestinians that he was not brought up to hate.

“I need to speak to the ones who think I’m a terrorist, a threat, a bad guy,” he said. “They are the ones I need to go out of my way to speak to them, to shake their hand, because I am confident that if I get to do that there’s no way they will go to bed that evening thinking that guy was terrible. I’m certain of it.”

Sitting in Connolly’s office, Bashir told his story. He’d told it the day before at the J Street National Conference. And he’d tell it the next day to a group of Israeli graduate students studying diplomacy. They would invite him to join them for a meeting with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), where he told Sanders he was the most popular Jew in Gaza since Moses.

He’s been in the United States for 11 years now and has not returned to Gaza. Bashir’s father died in 2009, and he could not return to attend his funeral for fear he wouldn’t be able to leave again. He’s seen his mother only once, last year when she received medical treatment in Germany. This week, he applied for his U.S. citizenship. Living in the District feels like home, he jokes, when he sees calls for statehood.

After his father died, his mother sent him the heartfelt letters they’d received from strangers after news of his being shot made international headlines. He sifted through those letters and reached out to those who offered their support back then. Many people have since contributed to helping him achieve his dreams by financially supporting his schooling, hosting him in their homes, helping him make contacts.

One of those people, Ellie Macklin, an 84-year-old retired family therapist, has become a surrogate mother to him.

“It’s been one of the most gratifying things in my whole life, this connection I have with Yousef,” she said. “I’m very attuned to people who have tremendous need but also tremendous determination to make something significant of their lives. I had this bent to do what was needed when others are willing to do their part. He has impressed me from the beginning with his powerful energy to make powerful change.”

For now, aside from his speaking engagements, Bashir’s role in Connolly’s office is no different than any other intern. But he feels the weight of that responsibility profoundly. When he answers a constituent call and soothes a mother crying that her son who has cancer may lose his health insurance or speaks in Arabic to an Egyptian man needing assistance, it feels as if he’s really giving something back to a country that has accepted him.

It’s not lost on him that the U.S. government is largely pro-Israel, and in a way, the bullet that struck him was “authorized by this place,” he said, in reference to Congress’s financial support for the Israeli military. But there’s a disconnect between the rhetoric and the warmth with which he’s been treated.

“It gives me hope that despite it being the place that authorized the M16 bullet that I carry with me every single day, it embraces me, allows me to come in,” he said. “America has been more than generous to me. Every dream I’ve had so far did come true. You know when someone does you a favor you say, ‘One day I’m going to pay you back and that day never really comes.’ Every day I’m here … I feel that I’m giving back to this county.”

Friday, March 3, 2017

Thursday, March 2, 2017

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