"Clean up the screen in your front window"

"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).

When Jesus said those words he was admonishing certain religious Jews that judged him for healing on the sabbath. They could not see the good that Jesus did because their hearts, which were filled with envy, clouded their judgment. Can you imagine that they couldn't see anything good in what Jesus did? They couldn't see any good in the one whose name is "Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). They couldn't see any good in the one who is the "good shepherd" who gave his life for the sheep. They couldn't see any good in the one who said, from the cross, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." When Jesus did good by healing the sick their hearts were so messed up that they saw it as evil. "Why is it that we often fail to use right judgment and arrive at false conclusions? The reasons are many. First, before any information arrives at our intellect for analysis it must pass through our preconceptions, assumptions, beliefs, opinions, prejudices, selective memory, and feelings. Our mind is also a master of deception...For instance, we may judge someone to be intellectually inferior to us simply because they share another opinion" (C. Galozzi). We see with our hearts more then we see with our physical eyes. When our hearts are dirty we can't see straight. I remember hearing a story once about a grumpy old man who complained a lot. His next door neighbors were Christians and they would come by and check up on him because he live alone and was not in the greatest health. When they would come by they would always hear him complainning about this or that. And without fail he would always complain about how dirty and grimy the neighbors car and house across the street looked. Well, it dawn on one of the neighbors that the dirt and grime was not on the neighbor's house and car but on the screen in his front window. So they said to the old man, "Sir the problem is that the screen in your window is dirty. Clean up that screen in front of your window and your will realize that your neighbors house just happens to be the most beautiful house on the block. Too often we see through a dirty heart. Clean up your dirty heart and judge righteously. May we see through hearts and eyes that have been changed by the grace and love of Jesus Christ.