November 2, 2025 • 30 mins
What Clouds Your Judgement
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
What clouds your judgment? Have you ever given that any
any thought, person, place, thing, whatever it might be that
clouds your judgment because you know right from wrong. Of
course you do. Even those who do wrong in life
(00:30):
know right from wrong. You can go to the extremes
and you can think about criminals. The murderer might take
someone else's life, so you may assume because of that
that the murderer thinks it's okay to take life. Not necessarily,
because if you try to take the murderer's life, he
(00:50):
will know, or at least believe, what you're doing is wrong.
The thief may break in and steal from others, but
try to break in his place and steal his things,
and he'll know it's wrong. Although there are certain absolutely
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types of psychosis that play a part in crime, I
want you to think of it a little bit differently
for a second, because the truth is, criminals often know
right from wrong, but they allow things like greed, entitlement, anger, jealousy,
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any of these things to cloud their judgment. It's not
just as cut and dry as well, they're crazy, they're different.
It's not about that sometimes yes, that plays a part,
but really it's a justification. It's a justification in their
mind to do wrong. Their judgment gets clouded and foggy
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based on things going on in their life. What does
this have to do with you, Well, you too let
things in your life cloud your judgment, and oftentimes it's
the exact same list of things that I just read
that criminals use. Things like greed, entitlement, anger, jealousy. These
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things play a part in your life as well. They
play a part in your life where you use them
to kind of judge things a little differently, maybe on
a bell curve at work in your relationships, in your
everyday life. You are letting things cloud your judgment. Just
like you may treat a friend differently even if they
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did something wrong, you may not point it out or
you may not tell them is you're doing things a
little differently because your friendship. When it's not about your
friendship as much as it's about the truth or what's right,
your blind devotion to things in your life become false idols,
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and those false idols, whether you like it or not,
steer you away from your better judgment. Even unhealthy devotion
to good things can end up clouding your judgment can
end up being something, something bad, something ugly, something that
can be damaging to your spirituality, even your physicality. It
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could be you can take on things in your own
life consequences, punishments because you're kind of playing fast and
loose with rules based on your clouded judgment. So if
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you are super devoted to anything, if you're devoted to
something and it surpasses all other things in your life
in a way that you will skew your judge based
on that thing. Whatever it may be, there's a problem.
And maybe it's the devotion to your political party. Goodness,
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it could even be devotion to a sports team of
some kind. You've seen things go horribly wrong because people's
devotion to a sports team. So a political party, a
sports team, your ethnicity, maybe your blind devotion to a
job or your family ties. Think about your job being
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blindly devoted to it. Do you have one standard of
rules in your life and you say, well, this is
right and wrong as a person of faith, But when
it comes to your job, you go, oh, wow, you've
been the rules a little bit. Well, sorry, I have
to make a buck or I have to do this
for the shareholders or whatever it may be. That if
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you get to that point, then your devotion is to
your job and not to what is right or wrong.
So it could be your job, it could be your
family ties. You treat your family in a way where
you never correct them or they can do no wrong.
I see this a lot with parents nowadays. Your child
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can do no wrong, but everybody else's child is the problem.
You're not judging based on the facts, your girlfriend, your boyfriend,
even your religion. Your blind devotion can get so intense
that you can outlook or overlook the things that are
right and wrong. You've seen this in the news countless times,
(05:40):
with like the Catholic Church, where people pushed really heinous, ugly,
ugly crimes under the rug for the sake of protecting
the church for all intents and purposes. That's what it
comes down to. So when you hold these things above
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right and wrong, you're really holding them above God. Your
actions stop being guided by the purity of what's just
or unjust, and it starts to be guided by what's
best for you or what's best for your team, whatever
it might be. But it's important that you are just
in life period or will it will eventually catch up
(06:24):
with you. If you don't judge yourself and your actions first,
then you'll be judged by others, just as the Church
has been countless times throughout history one Corinthians eleven thirty one.
But if we judge ourselves right rightly, we will not
be judged. Unfortunately, the church spends so much time judging
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the non believer and everybody else around them. They forget
that's not even their concern. As a believer. It's not
your concern to be judging the non believer. Your concern
is the believers, your fellow believers, those that have faith
like you do. God even says to focus your judgment
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on those in the church and not the non believer.
First Corinthians five twelve and thirteen says, what business is
it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are
you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside,
expel the wicked person from among you. Start with your own.
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You should be pointing fingers of things that are going
on in the church. That's how it gets better. Don't
let your judgment be clouded because of your own agenda
and justifications. If you condition yourself to justify bad behavior
or bad judgment with the little tiny things in life,
you will soon find yourself justifying your bad behavior and
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judgment on the big things as well. You must use
your discernment judge things righteously based on the facts, based
on the facts of the circumstance, not just how they
affect you or how they may appear. John seven twenty
four says stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.
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There is a right way to judge, and that's the
way you're called to live your life. Scripture also says
that if you have blind devotion to something, that you're
destined to go down the wrong path. Proverbs nineteen two.
It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor
be hasty and miss the way. You get caught up
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in something, whatever it might be, and you don't care
about anybody that is different than that, and so your
judgment gets skewed. If a criminal focuses on its gang
affiliation or selfish needs, he will morally blind himself and
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never be able to see the truth. And if you
only focus on your raise, your political affiliation, your religious denomination,
you will be doomed the exact same fate. Simply put
you should do things because they are righteous, and not
do them if they are unrighteous. Period, if you cloud
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your judgment with a blind bias, your judgment will be
both blind and biased. If you witness a fellow Christian,
someone of the same race or some other trait, or
whether it's the political affiliation, whatever it is that you
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may share with them, and you witness them break the law,
it shouldn't make a difference to you. God sees and
knows all. Nothing including your bias, will be hidden from God.
So it's not about knowing right and wrong. You know
right and wrong, But there are things in your life
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that can easily cloud your judgment and impair you from
making righteous decisions because you have this blind devotion to things,
and it can be all kinds of things. It could
be your ethnicity, it can be a political party, your job,
your family relationships, your religion. It's just a matter of
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you putting those things on such a high place that
now you don't judge things based on the facts or
whether they're righteous or unrighteous. You judge them based on
how they fit into your bias or your agenda or
these types of things. Wrong is going to be wrong,
and it should be seen. That way, God sees and
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knows everything, Nothing, including your bias, will be hidden from him.
Ecclesiastes twelve to fourteen says, for God will bring every
deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is
good or evil. The Psalmist called out to God for discernment,
as should you saw him One nineteen sixty six says,
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teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I trust your commands.
Do you spend that kind of time with God? Do
you look to seek God's truth and knowledge in things
or just your own? The world tries so hard to
conform you to its morality. You must fight. You have
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to fight any urge to give in to compromise on
what you know to be true. That should be your standard.
Romans twelve two says, do not conform to the pattern
of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. Culture, beliefs,
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political views. These are all good things in one form
or another, as long as they don't cloud your judgment
with their own worldly agendas or their own worldly philosophies.
Colossians two eight, see to it that no one takes
you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on
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human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world
rather than Christ. What causes good discernment? While the Word
of God makes it very clear, good unclouded discernment comes
from an abundance of love mixed with knowledge and deep insight.
And those things specifically come from God, nowhere else. So
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if you seek those things in the rest of the world,
you won't find them. You find them in the Word
of God. You find them with God's people through prayer
these things Philippians one nine and ten says, and this
is my prayer that your love may abound more and
more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you
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may be able to discern what is best and may
be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Frank,
Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Yeah. Hello. First of all, thank you very much for
taking my call. I'm grateful for you, and I'm really
grateful for the program that you have. It's been an
inspiration for me multiple times.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Oh that's kind of that, I say. I'm happy to
be here.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Thank you. Well, my problem is very similar, probably two
millions of others. We're just struggling. I've had several career
challenges over the last ten years, and a divorce, some
(13:55):
other small issues that everyday stuff that people go through,
but one of the scary things for me. And I've
been a Christian for a long time, since eighty four,
I think it was and I believe in the power
of prayer, and I believe it all things are possible
through Jesus. But the last few years I've really struggled
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to find things that will help restore some joy and
happiness in my life. I have not really honestly felt
happy in anything for a long time, and I'm a
little scared about that. And I try to do things
(14:39):
that I know that I enjoy. I love to play guitar,
I love to go for walks in local parks. I pray,
you know, friends and family and going to church and
things like that. But I just it's hard to get
out of bed in the morning. And that sounds like
a silly thing to say sometimes, but I need a
(15:07):
stronger source to help me get through, and I'm wondering
if you can help.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Well, of course there's many different aspects to this. In
the broad sense, Scripture is very clear that joy and
happiness are two different things. So think of happiness as
a momentary feeling of joy due to a happening. So
if you play guitar for a little while, if you
go on, you do something, a walk in the park,
whatever it might be, you might get a tiny bit
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of joy based on that happening, and that becomes happiness.
It's really it's fleeting happiness. That's why people continue to
seek it because it's not something that exists in its
entirety throughout your person. But joy is James one to
two says, count it all joy, my brothers when you
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meet trials of various kinds there And that's a reoccurring
message throughout Scripture and to be in that state of joy,
and so joy is something you should be in. It
has nothing to do with circumstances. It's you're in the
state of joy because you're breathing. That's the mere existence
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should put you in that state of joy. Doesn't mean
that you're going to be jumping up and kicking your
heels all the time, but if you're not going to
find it there and the mere fact that you can
pull air and experience this gift of life. There's nothing
there's no thing you're going to do that's ever going
to make that more wonderful. Having said that, there, the
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body is made up of many things, chemicals and balances
and all of those things, and if there is an imbalance,
there's nothing wrong with going to see a doctor to
see if there's something that needs to be put back
in balance. And that's outside of the scope of this program.
We focus on the moral issues, not medical. But as Christians,
there's no reason why there's this weird thing when it
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comes to ailments. When it comes to physical ailments like
a broken bone or something that people can see and
touch and it's very tangible, they have no problem. It's
very simple. It's like, well, why would you walk around
with a broken bone. But when it comes to mental ailments,
that even that term alone makes people nervous because it
sounds like they're unhinged or they're gonna, you know, go
(17:28):
nuts and run around in the circle and they're going
to cause problems. But there's many levels of concern and
things that can need focus with the brain and the
way it works.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
So I'm sorry to cut you off.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
No, no, please, There's an.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Underlying problem that I'm struggling with here, and I'm sort
of hesitated to bring it up.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Well, please do.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
About ten years ago, I left a decent job because
I felt in my heart and in my mind and
after several things that by all accounts shouldn't have happened,
whether it was good luck or timing on the right
thing and the right people, all signs pointed to the
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fact that I need to be in a classroom, that
I need to be a school teacher. It's in my family,
it's in my blood. I love being there. It's where
I feel I'm at my best. So I made some
very large sacrifices because I felt that God truly had
a plan for me to be a leader, to be
a good example, to be a shining light to young people.
(18:35):
And so I made a lot of sacrifices. And it
is not my main My main complaint is I believe
God gave me that fire, that passion, a desire to
be in a classroom, to be with young people and
to go through the teaching process that I love so much.
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And I made a lot of sacrifices to get there,
to make that happen, and it didn't happen for reasons
that were out of my control. And I'm I'm resentful,
I'm angry, I'm frustrated. You know. I remember one of
the stories from the Bible where and God said, you know,
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give me your best, you know, and and you know
there's stories about making sacrifices, sacrificing their people, sacrificing their
their their best animal or possession, and giving their best
to God. And I did that, and I'm just frustrated,
and I'm wondering, why would he give me this passion
and desire to to do that and make me feel
(19:41):
like that's where I should go. Uh And then you know,
find out that it's never going to happen. I'm struggling
with that for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So what do you mean it's never going to happen?
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Sure, I'll take a step back for a second. Well,
in public schools in K through twelve, if you have
anything more than the minimum requirements, for example, if you
have anything above a bachelor's degree, so if you have
a master's degree or a PhD, the public school districts
(20:16):
usually have an additional stipend or a salary bump for
you Okay, well, in the past, you know, I ever
since two thousand and six and two thousand and seven,
especially in California, you know how bad the budget problems
have been here. So schools will not hire anybody with
that already has a master's degree or PhD because they
don't want to pay the extra money. In addition to that,
(20:39):
public schools are notorious for not hiring anybody over a
certain age. It's just that's just the way it is.
Whether they admit it or not, it's not the point
that's it's just not going to happen. I mean, I
had a glowing resume to be a school teacher, to
be in education, and I couldn't be at the time
(21:00):
of day. I'm a Swiss bockmaker. It just I've been
trying for seven years, and every year you get further
in further way from being in that loop and and
having that chance. I'm going to be fifty next year
or so.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Oh boy, get out the get out the cane, sir,
and the wheelchair. My goodness, fifty don't you know fifty
is the new forty.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I'm not sure. Yeah, I keep telling usebout that, but okay.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Frank, I really want to kind of expand this a
little bit. First of all, being attentive to God is
an amazing thing and something that many people don't do.
They're they're not attentive. However, I do find a pattern
in those that are attentive that still wrestle with their
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their deep humanness against their spirit. So what happens is,
on occasion God will we'll call or put you know
this burning inside you, and you will feel the spiritual
calling of that, and inevitably you will humanize it. You'll
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throw all the human things on top of it. The
assumption is that God wanted you to do this because
of X, Y, and Z, and you don't know that,
and you don't know what's being taught here. And the
disappointment then as we went down another path earlier about
the possibility of chemical things or what have you, and I,
(22:38):
you know, think that that's always a reasonable thing to
look at. But the the other is expectation. Disappointment comes
from expectation. Okay, so you finding that ditch where you're
sitting and you're going, this is not what I wanted?
Is because you expected something God never said this is
what's going to happen. ABCD and going and they're going down.
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The entire explanation of what's going to take place. He said,
seek this. Now, if God says seek this, your assumption
you're the one plugging in all the pieces. Well, because
I'm supposed to teach children, I'm supposed to do this,
I'm supposed to do that, And that's not necessarily true.
He may just want to teach you something in that
process about yourself, and people forget that. They get lost
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in this path that they've created in their head because
God says, go forward, and you say, okay, go forward.
There's a mountain forward. He wants me to climb the mountain,
and he wants me to buy all this gear, and
he wants me to do that. And he said no,
I said go forward. That's what I said. And you said,
climb the mountain and all these things. So sometimes you
have to strip down to the very simplicity of the
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message or the calling. Rather than adding all the you
added all the furniture to it. God says, here's a room,
and you said, okay, well I'm going to put up drapes.
I'm going to do this. And sometimes you build expectations
in that as to what might happen, and it's going
to be some glorious thing. God has called many people
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to the mundane, and that has limitations or walls, and
not Okay, get to the top of the mountain. Sometimes
he just says, go to the mountain, and you have
to be hyper attentive and continue to listen. But don't
build those expectations, because with those expectations it comes. It
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comes disappointment, and with disappointment comes frustration. With frustration comes
to disconnect from God.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, okay, and.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Then the enemy sits on your shoulder and says, wow,
he promised all this, And think about how many times
you mentioned to me what you gave up?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Do you think that's God or the enemy?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Yeah? I get it.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
So the enemy sits there and going, Man, he did
the same thing to me in the desert. He sits
on your shoulder and he goes, wow, you sure gave
up a lot.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Man.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
You've been doing this for God, and man, you're getting
tired and fatigued. You're not even teaching kids, which is
the calling, which wasn't necessarily the calling. But he pushed
you in this direction, and now he's letting you down. No,
because that wasn't part of the calling necessarily doesn't mean
it's not. This may be all part of it, but
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you need to go back to square one and be
attentive to what God is doing and be in peace
and in the state of joy and whatever that is,
even if it means nothing, even if it means there
will be no teaching gig, there will be nothing, whatever
it might be. You have a purpose. Who knows just
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yet what that is. Maybe because of the financial issues
of two thousand and six, two thousand and eight and
that put a hold on that has become a process
in the teaching, you know, has become this thing that's
kind of assumed and you knocking on the doors slowly
breaking then that down. Who knows, But God has given you.
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Don't add to God's calling. He says, do this. Don't
go oh do this because of Oh you want me
to do this, then you want me to do that. No,
he says, just do this and for now. If that's
what you've been called to, then that's what you should do.
And be attentive and say, I'm here at point A
where you told me to go, and I'm standing by
waiting for the next call. But don't He's never calling
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anybody into you know, illness or poverty. In that sense,
there's no sense that you can't get a job or
can't continue living life as you're being attentive to God.
They're not mutually exclusive there. And I think that that,
you know, people get a calling and they kind of
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drop everything sometimes and sometimes it's just come stand over
here for now and getting you set up.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
It's really easy to get into that mind frame that
you just explained, well, he's calling me in the directions
that must mean that this, this iss and this is
going to happen all that. It's just it's really easy,
and I can see how I developed that over time.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
That's humanness. And you get ahead of God and then
you turn around you go, well where is he. God's like,
I'm standing right here where I told you to meet me.
And you're like, oh, well, now I'm at the top
of the mountain. I never said go to the top
of the mountain. I said move forward. So I think
that you're very sensitive to what God has to say,
(27:43):
and I think that's wonderful. So be attentive, go back
to where He sent you, take a deep breath, and
enjoy life in its fullness, good, bad, ugly otherwise, and
stand in that place for now, Frank, and trust that
God will speak to you. Jennifer, Welcome to the Jesus
(28:03):
Christ Show.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Good morning.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
I am well? How are you?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I'm wonderful. I have a question.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
I see my prayers at night before I fall asleep,
but sometimes I question the way I pray, and I
wonder if I'm doing it correctly. Generally, I just I
go over my day, I give thanks, I pray for guidance,
I pay pray for strength, I pray.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
For everybody I can think of.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Sometimes I fall asleep when I pray, and I just
I feel I feel guilty sometimes that maybe I'm not
doing it right.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
What part is making you feel guilty or what part
is making you feel you're not doing it right?
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Well? When I fall asleep in the middle of a prayer, sometimes.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Then you know, but just.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
You know, I don't pray for things, but I don't know,
I just maybe I just you know, I wasn't brought
up with religion or or you know, I'm understanding really
and so I kind of had to find it on
my own, and so I just wonder, you know, is
this Am I doing this right?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Well, yes, there's a couple of things that it says
in scripture that would be an issue. And some of
the things were like mantras or when you're saying something
over and over and over again rather than talking with God,
connecting with God, and things like that. But if you're
just making requests and you're you're connecting your you're kind
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of talking to God like any other relationship. The scriptures
give you and Matthew six give you a breakdown. You know,
the Lord's Prayer and it says, pray, then in this way,
our Father, who art in heaven, how itoud be thy
name the Kingdom come, that will be done on earth
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as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also
forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, and
deliver us from evil. So if you break that down,
you will find that that prayer will give you a
guideline of how you should pray, praising God, asking for
(30:09):
certain things that you need, your daily bread, asking for forgiveness,
and you can use that as kind of a guideline
how to pray. But I think you're doing just
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Fine kf I AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
What clouds your judgment? Have you ever given that any
any thought, person, place, thing, whatever it might be that
clouds your judgment because you know right from wrong. Of
course you do. Even those who do wrong in life
(00:30):
know right from wrong. You can go to the extremes
and you can think about criminals. The murderer might take
someone else's life, so you may assume because of that
that the murderer thinks it's okay to take life. Not necessarily,
because if you try to take the murderer's life, he
(00:50):
will know, or at least believe, what you're doing is wrong.
The thief may break in and steal from others, but
try to break in his place and steal his things,
and he'll know it's wrong. Although there are certain absolutely
(01:12):
types of psychosis that play a part in crime, I
want you to think of it a little bit differently
for a second, because the truth is, criminals often know
right from wrong, but they allow things like greed, entitlement, anger, jealousy,
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any of these things to cloud their judgment. It's not
just as cut and dry as well, they're crazy, they're different.
It's not about that sometimes yes, that plays a part,
but really it's a justification. It's a justification in their
mind to do wrong. Their judgment gets clouded and foggy
(01:56):
based on things going on in their life. What does
this have to do with you, Well, you too let
things in your life cloud your judgment, and oftentimes it's
the exact same list of things that I just read
that criminals use. Things like greed, entitlement, anger, jealousy. These
(02:20):
things play a part in your life as well. They
play a part in your life where you use them
to kind of judge things a little differently, maybe on
a bell curve at work in your relationships, in your
everyday life. You are letting things cloud your judgment. Just
like you may treat a friend differently even if they
(02:43):
did something wrong, you may not point it out or
you may not tell them is you're doing things a
little differently because your friendship. When it's not about your
friendship as much as it's about the truth or what's right,
your blind devotion to things in your life become false idols,
(03:03):
and those false idols, whether you like it or not,
steer you away from your better judgment. Even unhealthy devotion
to good things can end up clouding your judgment can
end up being something, something bad, something ugly, something that
can be damaging to your spirituality, even your physicality. It
(03:26):
could be you can take on things in your own
life consequences, punishments because you're kind of playing fast and
loose with rules based on your clouded judgment. So if
(03:47):
you are super devoted to anything, if you're devoted to
something and it surpasses all other things in your life
in a way that you will skew your judge based
on that thing. Whatever it may be, there's a problem.
And maybe it's the devotion to your political party. Goodness,
(04:10):
it could even be devotion to a sports team of
some kind. You've seen things go horribly wrong because people's
devotion to a sports team. So a political party, a
sports team, your ethnicity, maybe your blind devotion to a
job or your family ties. Think about your job being
(04:34):
blindly devoted to it. Do you have one standard of
rules in your life and you say, well, this is
right and wrong as a person of faith, But when
it comes to your job, you go, oh, wow, you've
been the rules a little bit. Well, sorry, I have
to make a buck or I have to do this
for the shareholders or whatever it may be. That if
(04:55):
you get to that point, then your devotion is to
your job and not to what is right or wrong.
So it could be your job, it could be your
family ties. You treat your family in a way where
you never correct them or they can do no wrong.
I see this a lot with parents nowadays. Your child
(05:18):
can do no wrong, but everybody else's child is the problem.
You're not judging based on the facts, your girlfriend, your boyfriend,
even your religion. Your blind devotion can get so intense
that you can outlook or overlook the things that are
right and wrong. You've seen this in the news countless times,
(05:40):
with like the Catholic Church, where people pushed really heinous, ugly,
ugly crimes under the rug for the sake of protecting
the church for all intents and purposes. That's what it
comes down to. So when you hold these things above
(06:01):
right and wrong, you're really holding them above God. Your
actions stop being guided by the purity of what's just
or unjust, and it starts to be guided by what's
best for you or what's best for your team, whatever
it might be. But it's important that you are just
in life period or will it will eventually catch up
(06:24):
with you. If you don't judge yourself and your actions first,
then you'll be judged by others, just as the Church
has been countless times throughout history one Corinthians eleven thirty one.
But if we judge ourselves right rightly, we will not
be judged. Unfortunately, the church spends so much time judging
(06:46):
the non believer and everybody else around them. They forget
that's not even their concern. As a believer. It's not
your concern to be judging the non believer. Your concern
is the believers, your fellow believers, those that have faith
like you do. God even says to focus your judgment
(07:07):
on those in the church and not the non believer.
First Corinthians five twelve and thirteen says, what business is
it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are
you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside,
expel the wicked person from among you. Start with your own.
(07:29):
You should be pointing fingers of things that are going
on in the church. That's how it gets better. Don't
let your judgment be clouded because of your own agenda
and justifications. If you condition yourself to justify bad behavior
or bad judgment with the little tiny things in life,
you will soon find yourself justifying your bad behavior and
(07:49):
judgment on the big things as well. You must use
your discernment judge things righteously based on the facts, based
on the facts of the circumstance, not just how they
affect you or how they may appear. John seven twenty
four says stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.
(08:13):
There is a right way to judge, and that's the
way you're called to live your life. Scripture also says
that if you have blind devotion to something, that you're
destined to go down the wrong path. Proverbs nineteen two.
It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor
be hasty and miss the way. You get caught up
(08:35):
in something, whatever it might be, and you don't care
about anybody that is different than that, and so your
judgment gets skewed. If a criminal focuses on its gang
affiliation or selfish needs, he will morally blind himself and
(08:55):
never be able to see the truth. And if you
only focus on your raise, your political affiliation, your religious denomination,
you will be doomed the exact same fate. Simply put
you should do things because they are righteous, and not
do them if they are unrighteous. Period, if you cloud
(09:15):
your judgment with a blind bias, your judgment will be
both blind and biased. If you witness a fellow Christian,
someone of the same race or some other trait, or
whether it's the political affiliation, whatever it is that you
(09:36):
may share with them, and you witness them break the law,
it shouldn't make a difference to you. God sees and
knows all. Nothing including your bias, will be hidden from God.
So it's not about knowing right and wrong. You know
right and wrong, But there are things in your life
(09:58):
that can easily cloud your judgment and impair you from
making righteous decisions because you have this blind devotion to things,
and it can be all kinds of things. It could
be your ethnicity, it can be a political party, your job,
your family relationships, your religion. It's just a matter of
(10:19):
you putting those things on such a high place that
now you don't judge things based on the facts or
whether they're righteous or unrighteous. You judge them based on
how they fit into your bias or your agenda or
these types of things. Wrong is going to be wrong,
and it should be seen. That way, God sees and
(10:40):
knows everything, Nothing, including your bias, will be hidden from him.
Ecclesiastes twelve to fourteen says, for God will bring every
deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is
good or evil. The Psalmist called out to God for discernment,
as should you saw him One nineteen sixty six says,
(11:03):
teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I trust your commands.
Do you spend that kind of time with God? Do
you look to seek God's truth and knowledge in things
or just your own? The world tries so hard to
conform you to its morality. You must fight. You have
(11:23):
to fight any urge to give in to compromise on
what you know to be true. That should be your standard.
Romans twelve two says, do not conform to the pattern
of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. Culture, beliefs,
(11:52):
political views. These are all good things in one form
or another, as long as they don't cloud your judgment
with their own worldly agendas or their own worldly philosophies.
Colossians two eight, see to it that no one takes
you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on
(12:13):
human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world
rather than Christ. What causes good discernment? While the Word
of God makes it very clear, good unclouded discernment comes
from an abundance of love mixed with knowledge and deep insight.
And those things specifically come from God, nowhere else. So
(12:39):
if you seek those things in the rest of the world,
you won't find them. You find them in the Word
of God. You find them with God's people through prayer
these things Philippians one nine and ten says, and this
is my prayer that your love may abound more and
more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you
(13:01):
may be able to discern what is best and may
be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Frank,
Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Yeah. Hello. First of all, thank you very much for
taking my call. I'm grateful for you, and I'm really
grateful for the program that you have. It's been an
inspiration for me multiple times.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Oh that's kind of that, I say. I'm happy to
be here.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Thank you. Well, my problem is very similar, probably two
millions of others. We're just struggling. I've had several career
challenges over the last ten years, and a divorce, some
(13:55):
other small issues that everyday stuff that people go through,
but one of the scary things for me. And I've
been a Christian for a long time, since eighty four,
I think it was and I believe in the power
of prayer, and I believe it all things are possible
through Jesus. But the last few years I've really struggled
(14:19):
to find things that will help restore some joy and
happiness in my life. I have not really honestly felt
happy in anything for a long time, and I'm a
little scared about that. And I try to do things
(14:39):
that I know that I enjoy. I love to play guitar,
I love to go for walks in local parks. I pray,
you know, friends and family and going to church and
things like that. But I just it's hard to get
out of bed in the morning. And that sounds like
a silly thing to say sometimes, but I need a
(15:07):
stronger source to help me get through, and I'm wondering
if you can help.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Well, of course there's many different aspects to this. In
the broad sense, Scripture is very clear that joy and
happiness are two different things. So think of happiness as
a momentary feeling of joy due to a happening. So
if you play guitar for a little while, if you
go on, you do something, a walk in the park,
whatever it might be, you might get a tiny bit
(15:35):
of joy based on that happening, and that becomes happiness.
It's really it's fleeting happiness. That's why people continue to
seek it because it's not something that exists in its
entirety throughout your person. But joy is James one to
two says, count it all joy, my brothers when you
(15:56):
meet trials of various kinds there And that's a reoccurring
message throughout Scripture and to be in that state of joy,
and so joy is something you should be in. It
has nothing to do with circumstances. It's you're in the
state of joy because you're breathing. That's the mere existence
(16:18):
should put you in that state of joy. Doesn't mean
that you're going to be jumping up and kicking your
heels all the time, but if you're not going to
find it there and the mere fact that you can
pull air and experience this gift of life. There's nothing
there's no thing you're going to do that's ever going
to make that more wonderful. Having said that, there, the
(16:42):
body is made up of many things, chemicals and balances
and all of those things, and if there is an imbalance,
there's nothing wrong with going to see a doctor to
see if there's something that needs to be put back
in balance. And that's outside of the scope of this program.
We focus on the moral issues, not medical. But as Christians,
there's no reason why there's this weird thing when it
(17:05):
comes to ailments. When it comes to physical ailments like
a broken bone or something that people can see and
touch and it's very tangible, they have no problem. It's
very simple. It's like, well, why would you walk around
with a broken bone. But when it comes to mental ailments,
that even that term alone makes people nervous because it
sounds like they're unhinged or they're gonna, you know, go
(17:28):
nuts and run around in the circle and they're going
to cause problems. But there's many levels of concern and
things that can need focus with the brain and the
way it works.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
So I'm sorry to cut you off.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
No, no, please, There's an.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Underlying problem that I'm struggling with here, and I'm sort
of hesitated to bring it up.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Well, please do.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
About ten years ago, I left a decent job because
I felt in my heart and in my mind and
after several things that by all accounts shouldn't have happened,
whether it was good luck or timing on the right
thing and the right people, all signs pointed to the
(18:13):
fact that I need to be in a classroom, that
I need to be a school teacher. It's in my family,
it's in my blood. I love being there. It's where
I feel I'm at my best. So I made some
very large sacrifices because I felt that God truly had
a plan for me to be a leader, to be
a good example, to be a shining light to young people.
(18:35):
And so I made a lot of sacrifices. And it
is not my main My main complaint is I believe
God gave me that fire, that passion, a desire to
be in a classroom, to be with young people and
to go through the teaching process that I love so much.
(18:57):
And I made a lot of sacrifices to get there,
to make that happen, and it didn't happen for reasons
that were out of my control. And I'm I'm resentful,
I'm angry, I'm frustrated. You know. I remember one of
the stories from the Bible where and God said, you know,
(19:18):
give me your best, you know, and and you know
there's stories about making sacrifices, sacrificing their people, sacrificing their
their their best animal or possession, and giving their best
to God. And I did that, and I'm just frustrated,
and I'm wondering, why would he give me this passion
and desire to to do that and make me feel
(19:41):
like that's where I should go. Uh And then you know,
find out that it's never going to happen. I'm struggling
with that for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So what do you mean it's never going to happen?
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Sure, I'll take a step back for a second. Well,
in public schools in K through twelve, if you have
anything more than the minimum requirements, for example, if you
have anything above a bachelor's degree, so if you have
a master's degree or a PhD, the public school districts
(20:16):
usually have an additional stipend or a salary bump for
you Okay, well, in the past, you know, I ever
since two thousand and six and two thousand and seven,
especially in California, you know how bad the budget problems
have been here. So schools will not hire anybody with
that already has a master's degree or PhD because they
don't want to pay the extra money. In addition to that,
(20:39):
public schools are notorious for not hiring anybody over a
certain age. It's just that's just the way it is.
Whether they admit it or not, it's not the point
that's it's just not going to happen. I mean, I
had a glowing resume to be a school teacher, to
be in education, and I couldn't be at the time
(21:00):
of day. I'm a Swiss bockmaker. It just I've been
trying for seven years, and every year you get further
in further way from being in that loop and and
having that chance. I'm going to be fifty next year
or so.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Oh boy, get out the get out the cane, sir,
and the wheelchair. My goodness, fifty don't you know fifty
is the new forty.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I'm not sure. Yeah, I keep telling usebout that, but okay.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Frank, I really want to kind of expand this a
little bit. First of all, being attentive to God is
an amazing thing and something that many people don't do.
They're they're not attentive. However, I do find a pattern
in those that are attentive that still wrestle with their
(21:55):
their deep humanness against their spirit. So what happens is,
on occasion God will we'll call or put you know
this burning inside you, and you will feel the spiritual
calling of that, and inevitably you will humanize it. You'll
(22:17):
throw all the human things on top of it. The
assumption is that God wanted you to do this because
of X, Y, and Z, and you don't know that,
and you don't know what's being taught here. And the
disappointment then as we went down another path earlier about
the possibility of chemical things or what have you, and I,
(22:38):
you know, think that that's always a reasonable thing to
look at. But the the other is expectation. Disappointment comes
from expectation. Okay, so you finding that ditch where you're
sitting and you're going, this is not what I wanted?
Is because you expected something God never said this is
what's going to happen. ABCD and going and they're going down.
(23:01):
The entire explanation of what's going to take place. He said,
seek this. Now, if God says seek this, your assumption
you're the one plugging in all the pieces. Well, because
I'm supposed to teach children, I'm supposed to do this,
I'm supposed to do that, And that's not necessarily true.
He may just want to teach you something in that
process about yourself, and people forget that. They get lost
(23:28):
in this path that they've created in their head because
God says, go forward, and you say, okay, go forward.
There's a mountain forward. He wants me to climb the mountain,
and he wants me to buy all this gear, and
he wants me to do that. And he said no,
I said go forward. That's what I said. And you said,
climb the mountain and all these things. So sometimes you
have to strip down to the very simplicity of the
(23:52):
message or the calling. Rather than adding all the you
added all the furniture to it. God says, here's a room,
and you said, okay, well I'm going to put up drapes.
I'm going to do this. And sometimes you build expectations
in that as to what might happen, and it's going
to be some glorious thing. God has called many people
(24:12):
to the mundane, and that has limitations or walls, and
not Okay, get to the top of the mountain. Sometimes
he just says, go to the mountain, and you have
to be hyper attentive and continue to listen. But don't
build those expectations, because with those expectations it comes. It
(24:34):
comes disappointment, and with disappointment comes frustration. With frustration comes
to disconnect from God.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, okay, and.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Then the enemy sits on your shoulder and says, wow,
he promised all this, And think about how many times
you mentioned to me what you gave up?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Do you think that's God or the enemy?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Yeah? I get it.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
So the enemy sits there and going, Man, he did
the same thing to me in the desert. He sits
on your shoulder and he goes, wow, you sure gave
up a lot.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Man.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
You've been doing this for God, and man, you're getting
tired and fatigued. You're not even teaching kids, which is
the calling, which wasn't necessarily the calling. But he pushed
you in this direction, and now he's letting you down. No,
because that wasn't part of the calling necessarily doesn't mean
it's not. This may be all part of it, but
(25:34):
you need to go back to square one and be
attentive to what God is doing and be in peace
and in the state of joy and whatever that is,
even if it means nothing, even if it means there
will be no teaching gig, there will be nothing, whatever
it might be. You have a purpose. Who knows just
(25:56):
yet what that is. Maybe because of the financial issues
of two thousand and six, two thousand and eight and
that put a hold on that has become a process
in the teaching, you know, has become this thing that's
kind of assumed and you knocking on the doors slowly
breaking then that down. Who knows, But God has given you.
(26:19):
Don't add to God's calling. He says, do this. Don't
go oh do this because of Oh you want me
to do this, then you want me to do that. No,
he says, just do this and for now. If that's
what you've been called to, then that's what you should do.
And be attentive and say, I'm here at point A
where you told me to go, and I'm standing by
waiting for the next call. But don't He's never calling
(26:42):
anybody into you know, illness or poverty. In that sense,
there's no sense that you can't get a job or
can't continue living life as you're being attentive to God.
They're not mutually exclusive there. And I think that that,
you know, people get a calling and they kind of
(27:03):
drop everything sometimes and sometimes it's just come stand over
here for now and getting you set up.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
It's really easy to get into that mind frame that
you just explained, well, he's calling me in the directions
that must mean that this, this iss and this is
going to happen all that. It's just it's really easy,
and I can see how I developed that over time.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
That's humanness. And you get ahead of God and then
you turn around you go, well where is he. God's like,
I'm standing right here where I told you to meet me.
And you're like, oh, well, now I'm at the top
of the mountain. I never said go to the top
of the mountain. I said move forward. So I think
that you're very sensitive to what God has to say,
(27:43):
and I think that's wonderful. So be attentive, go back
to where He sent you, take a deep breath, and
enjoy life in its fullness, good, bad, ugly otherwise, and
stand in that place for now, Frank, and trust that
God will speak to you. Jennifer, Welcome to the Jesus
(28:03):
Christ Show.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Good morning.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
I am well? How are you?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I'm wonderful. I have a question.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
I see my prayers at night before I fall asleep,
but sometimes I question the way I pray, and I
wonder if I'm doing it correctly. Generally, I just I
go over my day, I give thanks, I pray for guidance,
I pay pray for strength, I pray.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
For everybody I can think of.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Sometimes I fall asleep when I pray, and I just
I feel I feel guilty sometimes that maybe I'm not
doing it right.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
What part is making you feel guilty or what part
is making you feel you're not doing it right?
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Well? When I fall asleep in the middle of a prayer, sometimes.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Then you know, but just.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
You know, I don't pray for things, but I don't know,
I just maybe I just you know, I wasn't brought
up with religion or or you know, I'm understanding really
and so I kind of had to find it on
my own, and so I just wonder, you know, is
this Am I doing this right?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Well, yes, there's a couple of things that it says
in scripture that would be an issue. And some of
the things were like mantras or when you're saying something
over and over and over again rather than talking with God,
connecting with God, and things like that. But if you're
just making requests and you're you're connecting your you're kind
(29:26):
of talking to God like any other relationship. The scriptures
give you and Matthew six give you a breakdown. You know,
the Lord's Prayer and it says, pray, then in this way,
our Father, who art in heaven, how itoud be thy
name the Kingdom come, that will be done on earth
(29:47):
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also
forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, and
deliver us from evil. So if you break that down,
you will find that that prayer will give you a
guideline of how you should pray, praising God, asking for
(30:09):
certain things that you need, your daily bread, asking for forgiveness,
and you can use that as kind of a guideline
how to pray. But I think you're doing just
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Fine kf I AM six forty on demand
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