Be Careful

Be Careful
“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!  
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” 
1 Corinthians 10:12,13
Here is a very simple warning from the apostle Paul.
“if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”
We can as Christians become over confident. We can and I’ve seen it in pastors and evangelist. They feel very confidently that they had the mind of God only to fall.
One evangelist in the nineties I’m certain in a thinking he had the mind of God, if not he’s a fraud,. thinking he had the moral high ground. Made the outrageous claim that God was going to kill all the homosexuals in America.
An outrageous ridiculous claim that made him look like a bigot and quite frankly an idiot. And I don’t use that term lightly.
Now admittedly he is an extreme case. But Christian men and women particularly it seems in North America have used the Bible to condemn everything form Elvis Presley’s gyrating hips to Rock and Roll.
I remember seeing one news clip from the early sixties of a preacher somewhere in the states smashing rock and roll records. Calling them the devils tool.
More recently there was the case of a maverick pastor in the states threatening to burn the Koran.
All of these men thought they were morally right with God. Yet had fallen into the temptation to Judge people in contravention to what Jesus said,
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
                    Matthew 7:1,2.
Paul makes it very clear what we as Christians are to do,
“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  
On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” 
                                                                 Romans 12:18-21.
We are not morally superior. We are sinners saved by the grace of God.
We need to watch what we are doing. Not just in the area of Judgement but in our personal lives. We need to turn from any sin in our life.
We need to go to God in prayer every day of our lives and ask him how we can better serve him. Ask him to show us the short comings in our life and help us to correct them and get out from under whatever we are doing wrong.
Think about it.