By Sharon at She Worships

I am really embarrassed to admit this, but when I picture myself as a pregnant woman in a doctoral program, I long to be like Elizabeth Banks’ character on 30 Rock, Avery. In case you’re unfamiliar with the show, Avery is the girlfriend (later wife) of Alec Baldwin’s character, Jack. She is a kick-butt news correspondent who has her entire life under control. She wakes up every morning at the crack of dawn to run, eats exactly 1200 calories a day, and is so organized that her closet has been featured in magazines. She is a take-no-prisoners kind of gal.

Then, she discovers that she is unexpectedly pregnant. For just a moment she wavers in her confidence, but Jack encourages her to push forward and she rises to the challenge. She resolves to dominate pregnancy and motherhood the way she does everything else in her life. And she does.

I really want to be like that. I also suspect some people look at me and assume I am like that. A lot of friends have expressed amazement that I have pushed through my coursework without missing a beat, even amidst the crazy physical changes of pregnancy. My husband often tells people I am like Superwoman. More Here...

Last weekend Ike and I were in North Carolina where he officiated the wedding of a friend. While there, we decided to attend a little church down the road for Sunday morning worship. The pastor’s sermon title was “Your Personal Worldview,” and the subject matter kind of ranged all over. However, one of his main take-home points was this: We live in a world that wants everything to be grey, but the truth of the Bible is black and white.

For this pastor, “black and white” equated with Gospel faithfulness, whereas “grey thinking” meant compromise.

On the one hand, I can see where he is coming from. One of the main attributes of post-modernism is the rejection of concrete “Truth with a capital T.” Post-modernism is deeply uncomfortable with any fact that would claim to be universal, and we see this mentality everywhere: There is no right model of family, marriage, sexual orientation, career choice, or general lifestyle. Whatever works for you, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, is acceptable.

Living in a culture of such great pluralism, it is easy to understand why the pastor came to the conclusion he did. More Here...

I keep being reminded of the story of Job -- this very wealthy man who had just about everything he could ever want, but went through a trial by fire.

He had painful boils on his body, and suffered extreme pain.

He lost his children.  And then almost everything else.

Needless to say he had every excuse in the book NOT to believe in anything, or anyone.

One thing, however, remained -- his faith in God.   

People who thought they were in the right told him to deny God, but he never wavered in his faith. More Here...

We are constantly afraid of the world seeing our brokenness and our mistakes. Even though the world will judge us, their judgment does not matter. Only God has the actual ability to judge us because He is perfect. Not even His angels can judge us, even though they are always with God.

The only human that can judge us is also God; Jesus. He came here and led a sinless life and died with no sins of His own but with the sins of every one that was and is to come. Jesus is our judge; The Ultimate Judge. He does not give out parole or community service or even jail time. He gives you a home in heaven to hang out with him for eternity, or your own special room in hell with the devil for eternity. His judgment is perfect, because He is with us. He hears us. He sees us. He feels us. He helps us. He talks to us. He is all around us and always in us.

Why are we worried about what the world thinks and not about what God thinks? God does not have to think anything about your life; instead, God knows everything about your life and all that you are dealing with. Worry about His judgment and not the world's because the world’s judgment is almost never ‘final’. But God's can never be reversed. More Here...