JUDGING A BOOK

Several months back I was hearing all this hoopla about the “Twilight Series”. I read magazine articles about it. Some saying it will be the first series to sell on the scale of Harry Potter. It was the next hot thing out there. So I decided to check it out. When my wife and I were in the check out lane at Wal-Mart, I told her I forgot something and then ran and grabbed the book. When I brought it back to the check out lane, she looked at the book and said, “Are you sure you want to get that? It looks and sounds like a girls book.” I kind of agreed, so I put it back and grabbed a different book.
Over the next couple of months, we kept coming across that book and the youth of our church couldn’t keep their mouths closed about it. Needless to say I regretted not getting it. So I went out and purchased it. While I was being drawn into the book, I was waiting for something vampireish to happen. Some fighting, action, garlic, stakes, crucifixes. But all I was coming across was some really cheesy teenage love story. IT WAS DRIVING ME CRAZY! I wanted to see these amazing, super-human tough vampires go to action. And it finally came……..in the last couple of chapters. My thoughts of the book? Sappy and disappointing.
She seems to have all her stuff together. She’s a beautiful young girl. She’s very personal and doesn’t lack friends. When we talk, she makes sure she tells me about how she told someone about her faith. She lets me know what book of the Bible she’s reading. Every Wednesday she’s one of the few girls who bring her Bible. But every now and then I have to approach her with something I’ve heard. Parties where she’s wasted. Several guys that she’s crossed boundaries with. Smoking weed. She is a young gal that is trying to do the Jesus thing, but has a problem of being transparent. She feels that her job is to make people believe her life is good, but has not come to understand that being a Christian means that we’re just not good.

One of the most exciting youths in our youth group is a young gentleman named Brian. If one was to look at him, they would probably be scared out of their pants because he has a pretty rough image. He has a head full of crazy out of control hair. He has a tough (yet handsome)mug on his face that looks like he could chew your face off. He’s not a small guy. He dresses to his own liking, not to impress anyone. And he has his own rock band. But if you were to have one conversation with this young man, you’d thing you just had a conversation with someone that has the heart of Mother Teresa. He’s by far one of the most loving gentlemen I have ever known. He goes out of his way to make his beautiful girlfriend know she's loved by him. He asks the serious questions. He wants to grow deeper but recognizes his struggles. When we worship, he’s screaming off the top of his lungs. This youth gets all the leaders excited and has much potential (along with his girlfriend Candace) to do great things for the kingdom of God.

We hear and see things and we assume it’s true. We see a book and we figure it has to be good because it looks good or that’s what people are saying. But sometimes we pick it up and read it and it is nothing we were expecting. We judge to quickly. We need to make sure that we don’t assume the book is good or bad until you know for yourself. The hearts of each individual has its own motives, and we don’t know what it is. All we can do is see the fruit of someone and let it be what it is.

“Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.” 1Cor. 4:5