"Judge not." "If we judge ourselves, we will not be condemned".. "I do not judge myself". "Can't we judge the smallest matters?" "Don't you know the saints will judge the world?" "We shall judge angels" So many Bible verses. So many seeming contradictions.
How can a Christian operate in this confusing set of principles?

In Episode 4 of We Are Near we take a stab at sorting out the confusion. To do so, we revisit Romans 12:2, a pivotal verse discussed in Episode 2. The Greek word used in this verse is dokimazo.... a key concept we need to understand to be successful and consistent as a Christian. 

Dokimazo is a command to both test or discern, and then approve the "golden" portion of what we find. Much more than a critical or fault-finding, skeptical outlook, dokimazo calls us to submit every issue and situation to a careful test of content and principles. "Just the facts, ma'am." But it doesn't stop there. Once the "golden" thread of principle and ethics can be seen clearly in contrast to the perfect divine standards of love and justice, we are then tasked with acceptance, active submission, patient participation with imperfect people and situations in the process of finding the best outcome possible under the circumstances we have been presented with in the providence and grace of God. 

This is heavy lifting. It is the attitude that can write a hymn, "It is well with my soul", after losing loved ones in a tragic disaster. It is the strength we find to go on in the face of health problems or personal loss.

There are always people who can point fingers and say "I told you so." What Christians are tasked with learning, is how to live with tragedy and look forward to the time when God will show us how to forgive, show love toward the offending person, and continue fighting for what is good and noble, without disillusionment. 

This new podcast is meant for serious Christians -- people who are focused on following Jesus faithfully, until death. The trials are real, but the joys are beyond expression. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard ... the things God has been preparing for those who love him supremely.

The more we pay attention to the terms of discipleship and predictions of the actual deeds of Jesus' truest followers, there have not been many humble, meek Jesus followers who made it into the pages of history. Most genuine, obedient Christians have been laboring in anonymity, ignored or even hounded by the powerful forces of the outwardly respectable, "orthodox" Christian geopolitical system.

For the most part, the true followers of Jesus were not famous, they did not have official recognition, they did not seek or gain political power, and often they were oppressed, persecuted, neutralized in this life. Probably, few made their living as "ministers of the gospel". They were like the ancient prophets of old
-- men and women who suffered for their faithfulness-- "of whom the world was not worthy."

But the future era will be different. Jesus will exalt his obedient followers. They will be revealed by him as having been victorious in his eyes. He will promote them to places of power and influence in his future "government of the world, when the times are ripe for it." (Ephesians 1:9,10 -- Weymouth translation.)