Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you follow Jesus’ advice, “Don’t judge or you will be judged”? (Mat 7:1). What are the chances you misunderstand what Jesus meant? 

I once invited two door-knocking Jehovah’s Witnesses into my living room. I listened carefully and questioned their approach to God and scripture. One of them quoted Jesus, “Do not judge,” and told me that JW’s don’t judge others. 

But I have a friend who dated a Jehovah’s Witness man and his church disapproved, so they shunned him, treating him like an outsider, socially rejecting him. Was that judging, or what? 

In John 16, Jesus warns that the world will judge his followers. They will be shunned by Jewish synagogues, persecuted by fanatics who don’t know God, and killed by religions that profess to serve God. 

Jesus’ response to this judgement? He will judge those who judge his followers. The Holy Spirit Advocate or lawyer who Jesus sends will prosecute the world, showing where it is wrong and judging it for sin (v 8-11). 

Jesus sends the same Holy Spirit Advocate to Christians–not as judge, but as the spirit of truth, teaching us right and wrong, true and false (v 13). 

I make two comments about judgment. 

1. First, the harshest definition of judge is to condemn someone. If I say, “God damn him” that’s a serious judgment. Does that person deserve damnation? Not from me! That’s God’s job. 

2. Another meaning of judge is to evaluate someone’s action or behavior. Referees in World Cup soccer use the rule book to judge players’ actions, issuing yellow and red cards for bad behavior, except when President Trump intervenes. But notice: the referees judge actions, not players. They leave it to newscasters and commentators and armchair pundits like me to judge players as principled or dishonorable.

Jesus said, “From within, out of people’s hearts, comes sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly (Mark 7:7). 

When I see theft, murder, or adultery, Jesus doesn’t ask me to suspend my judgement. I need to recognize and name bad behavior. 

But after evaluating and naming behavior, I ask God to judge the person.

I used to be bitter toward my father for his anger and stubbornness, but now I remember his generosity and kindness. I can still name and forgive his wrongs, and  I can celebrate what was right about him. But best of all, I trust God to judge his person and life. 

That’s what Jesus teaches. Live in the real world, recognizing bad attitudes and bad behavior. But don’t judge the people. Leave judgement to God. 

Let’s pray. 

O God, your Spirit convinces us of what is right, convicts us of wrong, and helps us prepare for when you will judge everyone. 

Help me make accurate judgements about sin. To name it, to abhor it. To discern bad motives and bad behavior. To confess where I sin against you or others.

Forgive me where I participate in the systems and the spirit of the world. For being part of a system that privileges the rich and oppresses the poor. For profiting from economics that protect my wealth while others go homeless. 

Send us your spirit of truth. May the JW’s who visited me find truth in Jesus. May the Anglican church I attend be transformed by the truth of scripture. May our society learn the wisdom and compassion of Jesus. 

And may you, our God, judge us in mercy.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Is God your friend? My spiritual director said to me once, “You always think of God as an authority figure: king, ruler, boss, law-giver, judge. Do you ever think of him as friend or father?”  

Good question. It exposed something in me. My church told me Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. But mine was an arms-length relationship with God, a business relationship, not personal at all. 

Something like me and a lawyer. God supervised the legal transaction where Jesus took my sin and I went free. Very professional.

As I struggle endlessly to control thoughts and manage behavior, I often feel I am working alone, rolling stones up a mountain, while God and Jesus stand at a distance as observers and judges. 

But in John 15 Jesus said, “I’m going to stop calling you servants. Now we are friends” (v. 15). 

Okay. Friends with Jesus. But what does that look like when we go out for coffee? Is it me sitting alone with two coffee cups? If I talk to my invisible friend, will people think I’m weird?

Next, Jesus talks about enemies, saying, “If the world hates you, it hated me first” (v 18). That’s encouraging. I’m queued up behind Jesus to be hated?

But I’m not doing what they hated Jesus for. I don’t excoriate Pharisees or promote a new religion. I don’t call myself God or question established religion. When Paul came to town, there were riots. When I come to town, they serve tea. 

I practice flashlight Christianity. As Jesus said, ”Let your light shine so people will see your good works” (Mat 5:16). 

John 15. Jesus on friends and enemies. Maybe my spiritual life needs both. 

Let’s pray. 

O Father, I do good works to build my reputation. I don’t attract hate like Jesus did. I don’t call religious leaders hypocrites. I don’t post outlandish content online. I live a quiet life, a peaceful life. 

Help me become Jesus’ friend. To understand what he and I can accomplish together. To hang out with him in the privacy of my heart, in the fellowship of my church, in my journey through the world. Help me share my struggles with him, listen to his opinions, and walk as he walked. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

When I walk my dog, we see grapevines on back fences, producing clusters of small, tasty, dark blue grapes. I decided to grow some, so I picked a cluster, dried the seeds, and planted them in a flowerpot. Nothing grew. 

The next year I put three cuttings in a jar of water. They grew roots, I forgot about them, and they dried out. I planted them anyway. 

Can you believe it? After a long cold winter, one cutting grew and produced a few leaves. It survived the next winter and this year produced an extravagance of leaves. But no grapes. Maybe next year?

Psalm 80 calls Israel a vine that God transplanted from Egyptian slavery to the Promised Land. Jesus borrows the vine picture in John 15, but his vineyard isn’t Israel. It’s himself. He said, “I am the vine and you are the branches. My father, the gardener, cuts off dead branches, and prunes the rest.” 

This new vine doesn’t grow in soil, it grows in God. Jesus said, “I am in the father and the father is in me. You too are in me. Stay there, live there” (14:11, 15:1). 

Some comments about the grapevine. 

1. Jesus calls his followers branches, and tells them to remain in the vine. Sounds like a stay-at-home directive, not like the Great Commission where Jesus sends his disciples around the world. 

What does it mean to remain in Jesus? He said, “My father and I will make our home in you” (14:23). I think we remain by welcoming him home, by listening to his quiet, inner voice, by attending to his presence. Remaining is a mystical relationship with Jesus.

2. Jesus encourages the branches to bear fruit. Ha! Something less mystical for us practical types. I think Jesus wants me to grow several varieties, replacing my driven, frustrated, angry inner life with fruit of the Spirit like peace and joy.

My temptation to isolate gives way to building relationships with family and church and community. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, my life spins madly off in all directions. Help me remain in you and be at peace.

I avoid people. Help me to welcome them into my life, as you welcome me into yours.

I live with inner idols, imagining myself at the centre of love, and popularity, and success. Destroy my idols, until only you are present in my thoughts and hopes. 

Teach me to bear fruit, doing my duty of love to family and church and community. 

As branches draw life from the vine, help me to draw life from you. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you feel lost? Not sure what way to go?

Jesus said, “I am the way. And the truth and the life.”  

What does that mean? How can a person be the way and the truth and the life?

I woke at 4:30 the other morning with a dream. Stumbling out of bed, I  started the coffee maker and wrote down my dream. 

It went like this: The taxicab I was riding in made a dangerous left turn on a red light. Next thing I knew, I was in my own car, backing down a hill on a muddy road. The car slid out of control, spun round 180 degrees, and zoomed forward, narrowly missing obstacles on the road. Suddenly, I’m on a bicycle turning left onto a busy gravel road. And at the next intersection, broken stoplights. I wait in the growing twilight, worrying that my bike doesn’t have lights for night riding, and that the stoplights may never change. 

What a great dream. But what does it mean? I used to dismiss my dreams as empty noise. But God often spoke to Bible characters in dreams, so I now keep a journal of dreams. 

This dream. Taxi, car, bicycle. Turn left on red. Back down a muddy hill. Wait for stoplights that don’t work. The whole dream is me trying to find my way — and not finding it.

That’s often my dream journey: random, disconnected, and unclear. Like my life. I’m not good at finding my way on my own.

In John 14, Thomas said, “We don’t know the way.” And Jesus answered, “I am the way” (v. 6). Not directions. A person.

Maybe that’s what I need. Not Google Maps telling me, “Turn right. Turn left. Take exit 346.” I need a travelling companion who shows me the way. 

I need Jesus. The way.

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, you are the way and the truth and the life. 

I’ve read self-help books, but they’re not much help. I read scripture, but I get lost in ancient poetry and history and lists of rules. 

I’m surrounded by real news and fake news. I’m confounded by conspiracy theories and real conspiracies. O Jesus, how can I find the truth? 

Be my way. Take me where weI need to go. Help me think clearly and truly. Help me live rightly and wisely. Be my guide on the way, my mentor in truth, my companion in life. Be my way, my truth, and my life.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you have a place you call home? Maybe you have a second home . . . a lakeside cottage or a cabin in the mountains. In John 14, Jesus talks about two homes.

He said, “My Father’s house has lots of rooms. I’m going there to make a place for you. And you know how to get there” (v 2-3). 

“Not so fast,” said Thomas. “We don’t know where your father’s house is and we don’t know how to get there” (v 5).  

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (v 6). That’s odd. How can a person be the way to a place? 

Then Jesus introduced a second home by saying, “Those who love me obey my teaching. My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (v. 23).

Jesus isn’t coming alone. He’s bringing his father. And someone else is coming with them. Jesus said, “The father will send the advocate, the Holy Spirit, to teach you and remind you of everything I’ve told you” (v 26).

Advocate? That’s the word for a lawyer, for legal counsel to defend me in court, or press my case against my enemies. Why does my spiritual life need a lawyer? 

Perhaps because of another guest at the party. “The prince of this world is coming,” warned Jesus (v. 30). That prince is Satan. The devil is on his way. He’s a lawyer for the prosecution, exhibiting our sins in court, accusing us of being fake Christians. 

The Accuser (Satan) and the Advocate (the Holy Spirit). Talk about opposing forces in my life. Opposing forces in the world. Opposing forces in cosmic history.

Meanwhile, we know the story ends happily, because Jesus is waiting for us in his father’s house, where he’s preparing our forever home. 

Until then, Jesus and his father and the Holy Spirit Advocate live in us, protecting us from Satan the Accuser, showing us the way home.

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, you have gone to prepare a home for us. And you came to make your home in us. 

Sometimes I feel you at home in me. Sometimes I feel the father’s love. Sometimes I hear the Spirit’s gentle promptings.

But often the loudest voice in my life is the Accuser who says, “You’re not good enough. You don’t love God with all your heart. You’re a phoney, not a serious Jesus follower.” 

O Jesus, help me live more fully in the knowledge and power of your life in me. Help me hear more clearly the voice of your spirit offering help and forgiveness and hope. Help me live more wisely as a child of the father. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.