Nat Crawford - Executive Coach, Speaker, Leader

Matthew 7:1, " Do not judge so that you will not be judged" is one of the most misunderstood and quoted used passages of Scripture by Christians and non-Christians alike. How many of us have either been told or have even said "Don't judge!" But what does that mean? For total perspective I encourage you to read the verses surrounding Matthew 7:1 to gain proper context. And for the sake of this conciseness of this blog, let me offer this insight. The term "judge" can mean " to separate, put asunder, to pick out, select, choose." It can also be to the extreme as to condemn to hell. When Jesus said " Do not judge so that you will not be judged ", He was not saying to turn aside healthy discernment.  As John MacArthur states, "As the context reveals, this doe snot prohibit all types of judging (v. 16). There is a righteous kind of judgment we are supposed to exercise with careful discernment (John 7:24). Censorious, hypocrit...

There is a tension in our culture today. Some are shouting “God is dead! There is no God!” While others contend that if there is a god, surely he is unworthy of any praise. He has abandoned us. Richard Dawkins states in his book The God Delusion “ The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”  Is this assessment true? If God is a God of love, can He truly be a God of judgment?  Is Dawkins right? Was God more focused on justice in the OT and focused on grace in the NT?  And why does God seem so different between the Old Testament and the New Testament?  With the daunting task of reading you will find God’s love, mercy, and judgment in the Old Testament and God’s lo...