Tag Archives: duck dynasty

March 17, 2015 · 7:19 AM

Free From Condemnation



If you’ve ever watched “Duck Dynasty”, you know who Uncle Si is. If you don’t, he’s the crazy uncle we all have, but would never put on TV! Uncle Si was asked by someone once what his favorite Bible verse was. He told them John 3:17. He then said, “Most people can tell you what 16 says, OK. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.’ But they don’t know nothin’ about 17. It says Jesus didn’t come to condemn us. If anybody had a right to condemn someone, it would be the son of God. If he didn’t do it, then hey, we definitely are not qualified to do it. (1)”

As crazy as he can be on that show, there’s a lot of wisdom in what he said there. As Christians, we have to be careful because it’s easy to forget where we’ve come from. When that happens, we think of ourselves as more righteous than others and begin to look down on the lost or unsaved. The problem with that is that the One who is the very embodiment of righteousness did not come to the world to condemn it, but to seek and to save those who are lost. If He didn’t come to condemn the world, what makes us think it’s our job? We should have the same mission as Christ: to help the list find salvation instead of condemnation.

Another thing for believers to be careful about is condemning each other. People who consider themselves more righteous (religious) than others have a tendency to bring condemnation on others who do not believe the way they do. The problem with that is that Paul wrote in Romans 8:1, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. (NLT)” If someone has accepted Christ as their savior, then we have no right to bring condemnation on them because their sins have been forgiven.

If you’ve been living under condemnation either self imposed or given by someone else, let me encourage you to read Romans 7 and 8. In chapter 7, Paul was very frank about his shortcomings as a believer. We all fall short. We all still sin. We all struggle to do what the Bible tells us even after we become believers. After Paul admits that he’s one of us, he flips in chapter 8 to remind us that there is no condemnation for being human. He reminds us that God does what we cannot do and that is salvation. It’s His work, not ours.

If you’ve been the type who condemns others, think back to the words Jesus spoke to the adulterous woman in John 8:10-11. “Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, ‘Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?’ ‘No, Lord,’ she said. And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I.'” (NLT) If you’re a Christian and you’ve been living under condemnation, then set yourself free based on Romans 8:1. If you are not a Christian and want to live free of condemnation, go back to John 3:16-17. God sent His Son to die for your sins. He took your condemnation for you so that you could be free and go to Heaven. He didn’t come to bring condemnation. He came to set you free from it.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 4, 2013 · 7:50 AM

Retaliate With Love

Over the Thanksgiving break, I watched the video of the “Duck Dynasty” Robertson family giving their testimony on IAmSecond.org. Phil Robertson shared a story of reading Matthew 5:44 shortly after becoming a Christian. He couldn’t understand the logic in what Jesus was saying when He said, “Bless those that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” He shared a story of how “river rats” were stealing his fish. He trusted God, gave them the fish they were trying to steal and they quit stealing from him.

I read another article on yahoo.com recently where a young lady was pick pocketed in the grocery store. She had a strange feeling about a man who had followed her around the store. When he quit following her, she noticed her wallet was missing. She found him a few aisles over and decided to confront him. She said, “I think you have something of mine. I’m going to give you a choice. You can either give me my wallet and I’ll forgive you right now,and I’ll even take you to the front and pay for your groceries” or we can get the authorities involved. That’s not how I would have handled it, but it’s the way God says to.

The man broke down and cried. He was desperate to feed his family and didn’t know what else to do. Instead of retaliating like most of us would have, she paid for groceries for his family. In The Message, it quotes Jesus in Matthew 5:44 as saying, “I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst.” That’s hard to do. It’s unnatural to let someone who hurts you to bring out the best in you. Normally we retaliate evil for evil and allow their bad deed to give us an excuse to do something back. God says we aren’t to behave that way. He says we’re to do good to them and to show them His love.

If you skip down to verse 48 of the same chapter, Jesus finishes by saying, “In a word, what I’m saying is, ‘Grow up.’ You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” Those last few words get me every time. “The way God lives toward you” is how He wants me to live toward others. Each of us have wronged God and hurt Him. Each of us will continue to do so until we die. We’re imperfect. How we treat Him doesn’t change how He lives toward us. He still loves us no matter what we’ve done to Him. That’s how He he is telling us to be towards others who wrong us.

I’m sure, like me, you can think of the people who have wronged you or hurt you. I’m also sure you would like nothing more than to hurt them back or see them get paybacks. Paying back evil for evil or good for good is what’s expected. If you really want to do something memorable and life changing, do something good for them. If you want to live generously and graciously like God asked us to live, do the opposite of what your human nature wants you to do and repay them with love for pain they caused you. I know it’s easier said than done, but I can tell you it works and you’ll be happier for it.

6 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 6, 2013 · 8:34 AM

A Call to Love

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to truly love people. As Christians, we are called to love others. Jesus said that the world would know we are His disciples by our love for others, but is that what we are known for? I’ve been reminded a few times this week through conversations and quotes I’ve read that we need to learn to love more than we are. We spend more time judging than we do loving and that’s a problem.

One of the quotes I read this week came from Mother Teresa. It said, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” We have to fight against our human nature with this one. It’s easy to sit and judge, but difficult to go and love. Loving others requires us to act and it’s not an easy thing to do at times. Judging simply involves talking and requires little effort. It’s up to each one of us to consciously keep our mouths closed and to show others love instead.

Another quote I was reminded again came from Peter Strople. He said, “When in doubt, love.” If you aren’t sure what to do in a certain situation, ask yourself how you can show God’s love to that person. If you were the on,y one who had the opportunity to show God’s love to them, what would God ask you to do? Don’t pass the buck. You may be the only person who can show them God’s love and He is waiting on you to act on His behalf. Mark Batterson said, “Inaction is action. Indecision is a decision.” By not doing anything, you are telling them everything.

I also read an article about Uncle Si Robertson from Duck Dynasty this week. He was asked what his favorite verse was. He said, “John 3:17. Everybody knows verse 16, but nobody looks at verse 17.” In the Message it says, “God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending His son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help.” Jesus didn’t spend His time judging sinners. He spent His time building relationships with them. Why aren’t we following His model?

I’m writing this today to myself as much as to anyone else that bears the name Christian. We are known more for judging than for loving. We are known for pointing fingers instead of helping hands. We’ve been so caught up in being in the world, not of the world that we’ve built walls between the ourselves and the ones we’re called to help. It’s no wonder that church growth is comprised mainly of switchers instead of new converts. We spend time and money trying to build a better service than the church down the road instead of spending time and money on things that help to build the relationships needed to truly grow the Church.

It all comes down to love. It’s not our minister’s job to do it, it’s ours. They can’t touch as many people as we, the body, can collectively. We can’t grow the Church because we’ve separated ourselves from those who need God’s love in an effort to stay clean. Jesus hung out with leppers, prostitutes and the worst of sinners because that’s who needs His love the most. It’s time we followed His example, built relationships with unbelievers and showed them His love in action. Don’t sit in judgement behind walls. Get your hands dirty and love others.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,