Last Sunday's youth sermon was truly convicting. And not just a "yeah, that was important" type of convicting, but really a "wow, I need to change my whole perspective and really hit the root issue here, truly repent and ask God to change my heart in this regard" type of convicting. The whole time I felt as though the sermon had been specially crafted for me- to really get me to analyze my own heart and realize how little I love the people that are truly my brothers and sisters. By nature I love to critique everything- I always thought it would be awesome to have a career where I get to criticize companies or stores and tell them what they are doing wrong. Unfortunately my sinful nature brings this into the way I deal with people. As I was listening to the sermon I realized that judging people was just my default setting. In my own head, to myself, I always concealed this as honest assessment or analyzing- instead of downright, sinful judging. When I would be convicted to change something about myself I would always look at others and wonder why they aren't doing the same and would automatically label them as less spiritually mature Christians; sometimes would go as far as assuming that they weren't saved. I didn't even realize that in judging others I was trying to take God's place as the Ultimate Judge. A lack of true application of Scripture and love for those around me was what drove me. The solution part of the sermon was my favorite because I always assumed that this was just part of my character and that I was just naturally a very analytical person- this is not so and God gives greater grace and changes our hearts. The simple solution was to just apply scripture! It's not my/your responsibility to determine who is saved/unsaved or spiritually mature/immature. "When you start seeing God for who He is, you stop noticing the differences between you and everyone else"- we are all of one body, striving for the same purpose! The action portion of this is to simply start loving others more; instead of judging, go and help others become more Christ like.
Hey guys! Well since my name has already been announced in the previous blog post I guess I need no introduction ;) My name is Tanya and I consider myself to be a good friend of Vicky's. We met a few years back through my sister because she kept talking about a funny, nice girl named Vicky. To see for myself what all this rave was about I met her. But you know what's funny? I cannot remember the day we really talked or when we became such good friends. It just happened. Just like that. If I had to describe Vicky in one word, one of the first words that pops into my head is genuine . She is that person you can talk to with whatever is on your mind, someone you can turn to when you have questions, and definitely someone who will not judge but be there to guide you and offer help. And I am so thankful for that. Looking back, I can see that our friendship developed rather spontaneously (or maybe I just have bad memory lol). But I do see now that God orchestrated this friendship...