Today's Passage: 2 Chronicles 19-20

Well I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving week and that your Monday is going well. 

Have you ever found yourself playing the part of a referee between a non-believer and a self appointed judge for the Lord?  How difficult was it?  I seem to stumble upon non-believers quite often that have had a run in with one of these "judges" for the Lord.  It pains me when I learn that there are people out there claiming to be followers of Christ that only seem to communicate God's judgment rather than then the benefit of obedience to Him.  I think this is why the verses in chapter 19 that depict Jehoshaphat appointing the Judges in Judah jumped out at me.  Jehoshaphat takes great care to explain that it is a very serious job to provide judgment based on what God has told us.  It is also important for us to understand that the word from the Old Testament that we translate as "judge" can also be translated as "liberator". So the job of these judges was to help free the people from sin, not beat them down because they were doing wrong. 

The verse that really seemed to drive this thought home for me was 19:10 where Jehoshaphat says very plainly that "you are to warn them not to sin against the LORD; otherwise his wrath will come on you and your brothers..." It sounds silly but I wish there was a way that I could share this piece of scripture with all of the sharp tongued Christians out there.  It says plainly that our purpose is to provide others with a clear picture of their relationship with God, and if we do anything short of or beyond that... God's wrath will come on us.

So keep in mind that we are all called to help the Holy Spirit liberate people from their sin through the Great Commission, but that doesn't mean that we have the right to degrade them for any choices that they have made.  Focus on the positive not on the negative.