YOU BE THE JUDGE!

I think it strange that we, as mere human beings, delude ourselves into thinking we know when someone else is guilty of a great sin, such as murder.  Over the years, there have been several cases where people have been absolutely certain of someone's guilt, and yet a jury finds the accused not guilty because of a lack of evidence which could remove all reasonable doubt.  Or, in other cases, a jury finds a defendant guilty based upon circumstantial evidence.  Examples are O.J. Simpson, Casey Anthony, Bruno Hauptmann, George Zimmerman, and now, David Camm. 

Regardless of the outcome, for many, tempers flare, while others celebrate the verdict.  One has to wonder how folks can be so sure they know the truth.  Especially when one takes into consideration that, we as individuals, do not even know the truth about our own selves!  The Word of God says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:  who can know it" (Jer. 17:9)? 

Deception is the work of Satan, and he uses persecution and temptations to draw mankind away from the Lord.  Many men allow Satan to persuade them that God's Word is not true (Mt. 13:19); others crumble under persecution, and having no solid foundation for his faith, doubt its truth (Mt. 13:20-21); still others can be enticed by the world's pleasures, and choose to ignore God's will (Mt. 13:22).

Another way man deceives himself is to think he knows God's will without verifying it from the Scriptures.  "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12; 16:25)!  We call those alternative ways, religion!  Men have always been religious, but Jesus said the end times would be just as the days of Noah, and God had this to say about those days:  "...the thoughts of (man's) heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). 

You can be absolutely sure that God will judge all men, and His judgments are 100% true:  He said, "I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" (Jer. 17:10).

Judge yourself:  Are you a born again believer in Jesus Christ?  Look at the "fruit" in your life; is it rotten, fit only for hell's fire (Gal. 5:19-21), or is it "good and nourishing" (Gal. 5:22-23)?