Awakenings-Addiction & Recovery

For around the twentieth time I have watched the movie Awakenings with Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. Needless to say I love the movie. Normally I watch it when I am getting burned out on ministry, discouraged, starting to get a hard heart, etc. (Oh no I am revealing who I am if I have watched the movie around 20 times in 20 years.) However this time I watched the movie with the men at Fairhaven House, our clean & sober homes. We used it for a time of entertainment and as a teaching tool. The movie makes you laugh, cry, think, etc. I absolutely love it.

If you have not seen the movie it is a true story about several people who at an early age had a disease and they became catatonic. They have been put into a mental hospital. The movie centers around one of the patients named Leonard (Robert De Niro) and the neurosurgeon (Robin Williams). The neurosurgeon (Dr. Sayer in the movie) decided to try a medication to see if he could 'wake' Leonard up.

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Questioning Motives and Judging Others-Part Six
Summary

All of us are sinners and fall short of the glory of God. All of us have judged others and have been judged. We need to remember only God knows the motives and heart of a person. Thus we should never judge the heart. However, at times there is wisdom in judging the actions of others. But in doing so, we need to keep our heart pure before God.

There are times because of the behavior of individuals there may the need to discipline or give tough love,During these times the desire should be to restore the person, to help them.

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Questioning Motives and Judging Others-Part Five
When You Have Been Judged Wrongly

Have you been judged wrongly by an individual or organization? Have there been false statements made about you? Have your motives been questioned? Has your reputation been harmed by the words of others? Have you been treated unfairly?

If your answer is yes to any of the above questions, then you have great company-the Lord Jesus Christ. And He never sinned. So, the very first thing we want to say to you is–don't be surprised if this happens to you. If it happened to Jesus who knew no sin, then it certainly is going to happen to each of us who walk in sin at times. This world is not fair. And if it was truly fair, then we all would be judged guilty and immediately destroyed. These statements are not made to lessen the pain caused by others, but to help explain it.

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Questioning Motives and Judging Others-Part Four
Discipline and Giving Tough Love

In previous nuggets of this series we have spoken on the different ways we can be judgmental, being judged, and how to minister to those struggling with sin. In this nugget we will discuss the issue of Discipline And Giving Tough Love.

God's Word makes it clear that there are times we are to judge sin and separate ourselves from Christians who are willfully walking in sin.

John 7:24
"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."
Notice Jesus did not say, do not judge. He said judge in a righteous way.

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Questioning Motives and Judging Others-Part Three
How to minister to Christians or others who are struggling with sin and or bad habits.

Needless to say, in one page we cannot cover this topic in depth. However, we hope we can give some helpful ideas.

Before we get started we need to acknowledge that most bad habits are probably sinful. We need to be careful that we do not lessen the seriousness of bad habits. The reason they are called bad habits is because they are not good for us or others. They can be very destructive.

This nugget is specifically directed towards helping those who have desire to change and are sincere in their desire to change.

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Questioning Motives and Judging Others-Part Two
Being Judged by Others

When we are writing these nuggets each week, we are making an assumption that the readers are Christians and are committed to growing in Christ.

In the last nugget we described ways that we may judge or question the sincerity of other Christians (or the unsaved) because of the sins in their life, the way they dress, their behavior, etc.. We stated that some might even be harsher on those they know because they have seen the same behaviors repeated over and over again.

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Questioning Motives and Judging Others-Part One
Introduction

In several of our Spiritual Nuggets we have shared about God calling us to walk in holiness. We have shared that He wants a bride that reflects the character of Christ. The Lord is taking many of us through the fire to purify us. God Almighty is
calling individuals and the corporate church to holiness. More churches need to preach the message of holiness and repentance. And at times there needs to be more biblical discipline in local churches. It grieves God's heart when people
say they are Christians and they are committing grievous sins and the church 'closes its eyes' to the sin. However, there needs to be a balance in regards to the topic of holiness.

In this series of nuggets we are going to talk about judging others.

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