Choklit Blog #84: Happy Post-Black Friday!

I'm a day late on my annual day-after-Thanksgiving-because-I-was-too-busy-eating-on-Thanksgiving blog because I was too busy yesterday buying CDs and celebrating my brother's birthday. Anyway, I'm not feeling super creative or ambitious today, so I won't try to top last year with a list of 500 things I'm thankful for or anything crazy like that. Also, my fingers are too tired to type that much. I do like to top all of my previous accomplishments, though, so I decided to go with 101 things this year.

1. Owl City
2. Mat Kearney
3. Petit fours
4. Chocolate and chili ice cream
5. Curtis Stone
6. Netflix
7. Nail polish remover
8. Stain remover
9. Washing machines
10. People who can effectively wash dishes
11. Liquid pectin
12. Apple pear jam
13. Gloves
14. Good friends
15. Suede boots
16. Money
17. 11x14-inch, 4-ply matting board
18. Twitter
19. Coupons
20. Non-Black Friday traffic
21. Criticizing the show Parenthood
22. Socks
23. Marshmallows
24. Chocolate
25. Gorgonzola
26. Bagels
27. Paper cutters
28. Photo paper
29. B&H
30. My SLR
31. Amazon
32. 35mm black and white film
33. Photo chemicals
34. Grain focusers
35. Movies that aren't boring
36. Knives
37. Financiers
38. The Backstreet Boys
39. Sleep
40. Pandora
41. Ted Dekker
42. Pie
43. Ovens that actually work
44. Orange marmalade
45. Bacon
46. Trains
47. Pillows
48. Life
49. Driving
50. Digital cameras
51. Sunsets
52. Clouds
53. Stars
54. Mascara
55. Eyeliner
56. Tarts (they're different than pies, trust me)
57. Pizza
58. Roti
59. Hot water
60. Ross
61. Picture frames
62. Graphite
63. Charcoal
64. Ink
65. College
66. Graduating from college
67. IHOP
68. Thousand Foot Krutch
69. Holidays
70. Turkey hearts
71. The internet
72. Goat cheese
73. Glue
74. Labels
75. Not being sick
76. My job
77. Cute animals
78. The ocean
79. Falling Up
80. Grass
81. Root beer
82. Root beer ice cream
83. Fake leather jackets
84. CDs
85. iCal
86. 90s pop
87. Glasses
88. Not living in E City anymore
89. Avon Lipstick
90. Concerts
91. Random band merchandise
92. Free coffee from Dunkin' Donuts
93. Mint
94. Arby's
95. Cows
96. My church
97. The decreasing popularity of various annoying games and/or apps on Facebook
98. Bluetooth
99. Dwight K. Schrute
100. The Bible
101. God

Choklit Blog #83: Judgement

The whole "Don't judge me, God will do that, and He'll send you to hell for judging me!" movement is kind of getting old. Seriously, guys.

For one thing, it doesn't even make logical sense:

"Hey, you're stealing something. The Bible says that's a sin. You're sinning."
"Well the Bible also says not to judge, so you're sinning by judging me!"

If the first person was sinning by telling you you're doing something wrong, then aren't you sinning just as much by telling them they are doing something wrong?

Second, telling someone they're doing something wrong isn't judgement. If your friend is driving you somewhere and he's doing 75 in a 35, you might say, "Hey, you're speeding." If your friend responded, "Don't judge me, heathen!" wouldn't you find that a bit... completely and totally ridiculous and senseless?

If your friend gets pulled over, gets a ticket, and has to go to court, then he'll be judged. The judge will determine his punishment, because that's what judges do. They look at what you've done and determine your punishment. A friend saying, "Hey, you're speeding," is by no means a judge.

With that being said, "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work," (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Yes, the Bible does say not to judge others, but it also says to teach, rebuke, correct, and train in righteousness using the scriptures.

Sentencing someone to punishment is judgement. Reminding them to apply the law to their life in order to avoid otherwise inevitable punishment is not.

--V