Coffee Scribe is pleased to introduce a fellow Facebook friend and brother in Christ, Joshua Arnold. Josh appeared on the Bridge Radio podcast where he had joined the program to share about his journey on coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ. His testimony includes once a former drug addict and dealer and time spent in the New Age movement, to sharing his faith daily on Facebook and other forms of social media with the world. Be sure to hear his full testimony by clicking here: https://bridgeminlaredo.org/68-joshua-arnold-drugs-new-age-and-jesus-christ/

Judging Righteously – part 1

Christians do judge and should judge, but they should do so righteously (John 7:24), which means to judge fairly according to the word of God. The righteous God has pronounced certain judgments on certain things, and we are to think God’s thoughts after Him. 

John 7:24 English Standard Version (ESV)
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

That means whatever God thinks of a certain thing, we follow suit and think the same thing about it. What God calls sin, I call sin. What God calls foolish, I call foolish. It’s His universe, His rules, His definitions, and who am I to say otherwise?

Judging righteously is not a suggestion, it is a command. Judging righteously presupposes that we will be doing some judging. Christians aren’t supposed to be naïve. God doesn’t give the gift of discernment to be neglected and hidden.

Judgment is the soul of wisdom. Take judgment out of the equation, and there is no such thing as wisdom. How can we be ‘wise as serpents’ without judging?

As people who have been born again by grace, because of Jesus Christ, we are to always be eager to be merciful and gracious, just like He is, in our judgment. We are to always initially assume and hope for the best until we are clearly shown otherwise. We are to understand and remember the difference between stumbling and living an entire life in unrepentant sin. A person living an entire life of unrepentant sin is not stumbling. A person must be walking in an upright manner in the overall course of his life in order to stumble or fall.

We must treat our brothers and sisters as people whom God is going to complete His good work in. And when we see them in that light, we will be more eager to be a sanctifying and gracious instrument God uses in accomplishing that. We won’t be so harsh and overbearing, adding on burden-to-burden.

Josh Arnold

Coffee Scribe often features other posts of friends from various social media and sources worldwide.

Christian Love – part 2

Christianity is more than being right. It’s more than having correct doctrine. In addition to having correct doctrine, there should be a warmth that radiates from the heart of the Christian. And that warmth that radiates from the Christian is something that can be felt and experienced by the people that interact with them.

Christians should strive to be correct, but should never be a people that are as cold, contentious, and calloused as they are correct. They should never be merely bright lights of knowledge that somehow radiate very little heat. They should never be a people that simply know a lot of facts about God but have such a coldness towards other professing Christians that it makes people wonder if they genuinely know the Lord Jesus Christ personally and intimately at all.