THE M.Y.O.B. PRINCIPLE:
Several Scriptures make very clear the fact that we are not to judge others, but the issue of judgmentalism almost always arises in conjunction with the strictures of Christian liberty. Some time ago, I drew up my “lists about lists,” One of them was about what I call the MYOB principle (MYOB stands for “mind your own business”):

The top ten reasons for not judging others:
1. We are strictly forbidden to do so in Scripture
2. To do so is to usurp a task assigned to Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
3. We do not have adequate insight into the inner motives that drive others, thus rendering our judgment incomplete and often unjust.
4. Doing so leads to comparisons and contrasts that are harmful to the one making them.
5. Doing so creates a proud, arrogant spirit wherever it pertains.
6. Doing so divides between brethren rather than creating the spirit of unity commanded by the Word.
7. Doing so sets one up to be judged, as we are told we will be judged by the same standards we use in judging others.
8. Doing so fails to imitate the approach of Jesus Who abstained from judging while on earth.
9. Focusing on it provides fodder for the gossip mill, thus exacerbating the entire matter.
10. Doing so often causes us to look stupid as we are seen and heard judging others for the very things of which we are often most guilty.

It is not worthwhile to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man’s character will always make the preventing of repetition impossible.  – Mark Twain

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. -Benjamin Franklin

SOMETHING YOU SHOULD READ:
Sharper Iron is a well-known Christian Blog/website that is always worth perusing. This week it featured a lengthy post (divided into two parts) that was of particular interest to me in that I was somewhat peripherally involved in the story at its outset. The post is a transcript of a paper presented at a conference at Central Baptist Seminary earlier this month by Dr. Dough MacLachlan. It begins as something of an apologia for Doug’s 1994 book, Reclaiming Authentic Fundamentalism, but it quickly moves beyond that purpose into a discussion of what the author sees as necessary to happen in order for fundamentalism to stay relevant and to continue to nurture younger men.
Doug tried to do the almost impossible – to follow an iconic pastor who had been in one church for more than forty years. The difficulty of doing such was exacerbated by the fact that the former pastor stayed in the church, became critical of the new pastor and even appears to have influenced a number of other long-time members with his criticisms of Doug, largely based – if my memory serves me correctly – on Doug’s lack of sufficient militancy and related issues. After several years of internal personal and church strife, Doug left and went to Northland Baptist College where he spent a seven year, self-imposed “exile” teaching (greatly to Northland’s benefit, in my judgment).
It was during this time in the quietness of a rural campus setting that Doug’s thinking in many areas coalesced into an orderly format that resulted in Reclaiming Historic Fundamentalism. Doug and I were both reevaluating former positions and seeking to rebound from painful situations (I had allowed myself to be drawn into the inner circle of the Hammond empire of Jack Hyles and was recovering from what I had found there both from the expose of Robert L. Sumner and my own personal observations). We were walking the same pathway and shared a good deal of our thinking with each other. Again, if memory serves me correctly, Doug also shared with me various portions of the book as it was being written and gave me permission to publish sizeable parts of it in a newsletter I then called “A Pastoral Epistle” (which has subsequently morphed into the “Woodchuck’s Den”).
At length, the icon and his influence passed from the scene, and Doug returned to Fourth Baptist and Central Seminary where he had a relatively long and genuinely distinguished career. I just continued walking the pathway, ran into a very unpleasant situation in fundamentalism and journeyed on into what I identify with now, conservative evangelicalism. Theologically, however, I remain unchanged even though I see many issues as peripheral that I once considered core, and I have a different perspective on the evangelical world from what I once held.
Doug’s presentation was excellent, and I found little in it – other than minor details – with which I would disagree. The essence of what he calls for appears to be a re-balancing of the approach of fundamentalism based on three vital principles. He believes there is a need for balancing love with holiness: practicing love based on holiness and couching holiness in terms and attitudes of love. He then speaks of reaching what he calls “the radical center” where there is level ground that takes into account the influences of the left and right wings of evangelicalism without falling into the “ditches” (his term) that line the two sides of the position. Finally, he identifies what he calls “hard” and “soft” virtues and calls for recognizing the necessary interdependence of the two mind-sets.
Doug would likely eschew being designated a scholar, but he is a solid thinker who is capable of seeing both sides of an issue and who expresses his conclusions clearly and with what I would call “measured candor.” If I have any criticisms at all they would be that he was somewhat long on philosophy and short on practical application. Knowing, however, that philosophy determines methods, etc., that emphasis on philosophy seems fitting for a presentation to pastors and other Christian leaders. More application might have been helpful, however, especially in light of the dust kicked up by Tim Jordan when he invited Mark Dever to Calvary Seminary’s leadership conference and the battering Cedarville University has taken over their unsolicited endorsement by Ohio Southern Baptists.
Although I greatly respect Kevin Bauder, I am probably closer in position to Al Mohler, but I am watching with great interest as many of the ”young fundamentalist” appear to be following in the very pathway that I have trod. Many of them have already arrived at a position with which I am have been comfortable for a relatively long time.
Read the article, It is well worth the time. Give it some thought. Measure yourself by the standard it sets (even if you disagree with any or all of it). With tongue firmly in cheek, I would simply say this: if Richard V. Clearwaters found Doug too “soft” back then, he must be rotating in his grave at the MacLachlan of today.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “If at first you don’t succeed…..maybe you weren’t cut out for sky-diving in the first place.”

DEALING WITH DISCOURAGEMENT:
In a fairly large Sunday school class, I once asked if there was anyone who never got discouraged. One man raised his hand (and I knew him well enough to believe that he was being truthful). Everyone else sat on his or her hands, including the teacher. Virtually everyone is attacked byvdiscouragement at some time, and some appear to find it almost a way of life. It can range from nagging to paralyzing. It hinders our work, makes us irritable, interferes with our effectiveness, makes us miserable to be around and sometimes causes us to make poor decisions. It has even apparently driven some people to take their own lives. In plain words, it’s a beast.
But what can we do about it? Several Scriptures speak to it, but one impreses me especially,. It appears to be unrelated until right at the end. Romans 15:4 says ,”For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of Scriptures we might have hope.” Discouragement is loss of hope, either temporarily or permanently, and that’s the theme on which Paul concludes this verse.
What is it that makes us discouraged? You likely have your own list, but I have found that four aspects almost always turn up in any attempt to deal with this negative monster. The first is disappointed expectations. It is likely that we all started out with dreams, some larger, some smaller. We went to work on making cloudy expectations into genuine realities, but something happened (or is happening) on the way from our dreams to our destination. I never wanted to conquer the world, but I easily become discouraged if I focus on how little of that I world I even touched, much less conquered.
Then there is the weight of overwhelming circumstances. I have watched a couple, very dear to me, go through some incredible circumstances. Yesterday I heard of a relatively young man who waited three years for a liver to become available for transplant, who then died during the transplant surgery. My mother’s mother died when mother was six, and unwanted by her father, she lived with a succession of relatives until she finally landed with one who loved her, cared for her and really wanted her. Such stories are all around us, and it takes an incredibly strong person not to be discouraged either by experiencing them or even hearing about them.
Unbroken routines can have their effect as well. I preached at a college commencement several years ago, and took as my sermon title, “Much Ado About Nothing.” My point was that we usually do fairly well in the midst of challenges, successes, excitement, etc., but we are most vulnerable when we are just plodding along day-by-day with nothing really happening (check our David and Bathsheba). Beware of the ho-him and the hum-drum of life; they will wear you down quicker than you can believe. A friend of long-standing told me just this week that he struggles with retirement because, although he can find enough to do to keep him busy, none of what he is doing appears to really make any difference. It’s not without reason that I often have people come up to me and say, “You preached at my commencement, ad I remember what you preached about! Nothing.” There is nothing worse than to be taken down by nothing.
Finally (although you can likely come up with twice the reasons I have listed here) there is the drain of continual inadequacy. There is never enough money, time, energy, resources, strength, etc. to do what needs to be done. The offerings aren‘t adequate, the people appeas dead in their seats when the need of workers is presented, the work to do outstretches the time available in which to do it and so on. Inadequacy is usually intangible, but you surely can feel it.
All of these – and virtually every other cause for discouragement that you can come up with – has special significance for pastors and other Christian leaders. I have mentioned before that I once heard Jerry Falwell say that God never blessed a discouraged man. Loved you, man, but you were wrong. There are numerous examples in Scriptures that teach the oppositive, and if what you said were really true, there wouldn’t be much, if any, blessing in today’s church of Jesus Christ in general.
So what can we do about it? The Romans passage had one enormous suggestion wrapped up in a word we’d rather not hear – endurance. The word in the original has the idea of keeping going rather than just hanging around. Discouraged? Hang on and stay where you are unless or until another door is opened. Keep doing what is right to do whether or not the results are visible – they will be someday (and quite possiby still here on earth). Seek earnestly to discover what the Lord may be trying to teach you through what’s got you so down. Don’t make a lot of hasty changes unless the Lord shows you to do so. Most of all, don’t doubt in the darkness what God has given you in the light. Negatives all? Yes and no, but true whichever.
A second emphasis of the verse is also designed to lift troubled spirits. These things (the Scriptures) have been written for us so that we can larn from them. Take a look at Abraham, Moses (forty years in nowhere?), Joseph, Daniel, Elijah and Jonah (we can learn from negative examples as well). The writer of Hebrews says, “Seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witness (the people I just mentioned), let us run with patience the race that is set before us (did you catch that?), looking unto Jesus….” and those last few words about say it all.
Suffering from ADD and struggling with bouts of depression throughout my entire life, I may know quite a bit more about discouragement than the average. I always thought my afflictions made me poorly qualified for what the Lord called me to do, but He evidently thought otherwise. Four times the Apostle Paul said some form of “faint not!” The verse that really summarizes what I am trying to communicate is, “Be not weary in well-doing for in due season we will reap if me faint not.”