I believe that our culture has lost it's fear of God. Without a fear of God man doesn't have to be accountable to anything. "Everything is alright". "There are many ways to heaven". Judgment is just another lack of fear for the Lord. Revelation says "Who will not fear You Oh Lord and bring glory to Your name". Without fear of the Lord, it is next to impossible to bring Him Glory.

I had always prided myself on being fair-minded and not being prejudiced, but God taught me a lesson on judging about 12 years ago. Around that time, the kids and I started volunteering once a week at the P.C. Food Pantry unloading food and stocking the shelves.

One of the guys that drove the delivery truck was a big, loud guy. He looked like an ex-convict or something to me. I avoided him for a long time, but as I got to know him more, I realized that he was a godly person and someone that was living out their faith, rather than just talking about it. In addition to volunteering at the pantry, he was providing for and raising his sister's children because she had some health issues. He visited and witnessed to both my mom when she was ill and my dad. He helped us move our stuff into storage and then out of storage into our house when we moved, and much more.

I had only looked at the outward appearance and made a snap judgment about someone who is a little rough on the outside, but has a heart of gold on the inside.

I agree with you, Mike. I think sometimes it's easy, even for believers, to lose sight of or forget the fear of God. This culture can distract us because it's so comfortable. We may not become aware of how complacent we've become until some crisis comes into our life that shakes us up. Maybe God speaks that way to ask us "Is your life glorifying Me?"

Vicki, I've been challenged and inspired by people at Shiloh who both live out their faith and talk about it! :)

@Leslie
Sorry, my comments weren't meant to insult anyone at Shiloh. That experience happened 6 years before we ever attended Shiloh. I spent about 12 years in a lukewarm mainstream denomination, so I guess I was a bit disillusioned with "religion" at the time. What I intended by my comments was to focus on how God humbled me and showed me that someone I had hastily judged was in reality more godly than I was.

I was adding a separate idea to Vicki's comment, that speaking about our faith is important too, as well as living it out. I guess that's what spoke to me about Vicki's comment, because that is something God is teaching me recently. I think it's wonderful how both our speech and actions can glorify and witness for Christ, if we let Him work through us. (Sorry for picking a thought from Vicki's comment she wasn't intending to focus on. The Lord speaks to each differently, probably because He's teaching each of us different things as we grow in our walk with Him).