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love of God that is shown to them through Christians will draw sinners to God. The correct response to the situation mentioned before is for the Christian woman to intercede for the young woman in her prayer time and to continue to show the love of God to her. God has given us the ability to judge what is right and what is wrong, but ultimate judgment is His, not ours, to make. Christians should be known for their love, not for condemning people about their sins. Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
    God has given us the ability to judge what is right and what is wrong, but ultimate judgment is His, not ours, to make.
    First Corinthians 13:4–5 has this to say about love: “[It] does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does notact unbecomingly” ( AMP ). Love is not rude or arrogant. Therefore, Christians who imitate God, who is love, should not be rude or arrogant either (see 1 John 4:16). If we are to win this world for Christ, we are going to have to shed our condemning religious ways and develop in the love of God. Leave judgment to Him and let love govern your thoughts and actions.

 
    For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves:
it is
the gift of God; Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
    EPHESIANS 2:8–10
    Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
    ROMANS 6:18
    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our
sins and forgive us of all unrighteousness.
    1 JOHN 1:9

H ave you ever heard the old saying, “Every charitable act is a stepping-stone toward heaven”? The belief that a person has to do good things to get into heaven has been part of a traditional mind-set for centuries and continues to be prevalent today. Many Christians believe they have to perform good deeds so they can score “points” with God. They volunteer, not because it’s good and honorable to help others, but because they think their good deeds will somehow cause God to look more favorably on them. They’ll say to themselves, “I helped feed the hungry, and I gave money to the poor. God sees all of this—maybe He’ll erase some of my sins.”
    This type of thinking only keeps people in bondage by making them believe that it’s their responsibility to clean themselves up after they’ve missed the mark. Often, they feel unworthy to participate in church activities because they think God is mad at them. Consequently, their church attendance falls by the wayside, they avoid other believers, and they neglect spending personal time with the Lord. Religion makes people believe that theymust be flawless before they approach God. Thinking like this keeps them from going to Him in the first place.
    Many believers, as well as unbelievers, are under the impression that they must stop lying, smoking, and sleeping around before they can come to God, but that is far from the truth. I’ve heard people use the excuse, “I’m just waiting to get myself together before I go to church because I don’t want to keep disappointing God.” The thing is, you can’t clean your life up on your own. If you could, then there would have been no need for Jesus to die on the cross.

I’m Not Worthy
    One of the most challenging things I deal with as a pastor is seeing faithful church members fall by the wayside because they feel as though they have messed up and have disappointed God. Because they are more focused on their sin than on their righteousness, they feel too condemned to come back to church. In their minds, they perceive their sin as being beyond God’s ability to help, so they sever their relationship with Him.
    Several years ago I was at a local mall where I bumped into one of my church