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Matthew 9:14-17
“Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? ”

The root of judging people's motives and intentions come from our Self-righteousness, which we are inclined to by our sinful nature.

And the cure for it is the gospel.

Here's what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 3:22-23, "The righteousness of God [as a gift] is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

There's no distinction Paul says between one person and another because we all have sinned and continue to fall short of the glory and perfection of God.

John 18:36-40

““My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

“You are a king then? ” Pilate asked.

“You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

“What is truth? ” said Pilate.

Numbers 15:37-41,
"The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout their generations they are to make tassels for the corners of their garments, and put a blue cord on the tassel at each corner. These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the Lord’s commands and obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes. This way you will remember and obey all my commands and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord your God.”

Jesus Christ has done it all in our place and freed us from the need and requirement to measure up to our own standards, other people standards imposed upon us, and even God's standard of righteousness in order to be accepted by him.

But how can that be?

It's because God's standard of acceptance is perfection.

And since we would never meet that standard and perish in trying to measure up, God in his kindness and love sent his Son Jesus to come as a human, a man and obeyed God perfectly to the point of death in our place as our representative and substitute.

Today after two months of reading I finished a 1200 page biography of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, by Iain H. Murray.

The "Doctor" as they called him was born on this day in Cardiff, Wales on December 20, 1899, and died on February 28, 1981.

He became a medical doctor, but after his conversion and a strong desire to preach the good news about Jesus to others he gave up practicing medicine and in 1927 became a pastor in a little place called Sanfields, South Wales.

Q. After we have been saved and as we study the Word of God, should others be seeing a change in us? When we meditate on our sin we will see our need for the gospel. But isn’t it easy to slip into a worldly sorrow and shame, being overwhelmed by the consequences of our sin? Should we not be moved rather to pure repentance and communion with Christ?

The apostle Paul said, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Theodicy means - a vindication of the goodness and the ways of God in the light of the existence of evil.

We read all over the internet about the evil done to the people in Las Vegas. It’s painful and heartbreaking! And our prayers are to God for the survivors and the families of those who died. It’s tragic.

But I’m afraid that on one hand, we’re getting more and more used to the violence, because of the movies we watch and the music we listen to, both glorifying evil.

And on the other hand, we’re surprised at the evil that’s coming out of human hearts.

Psalms 36:2, "[The wicked] In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin."

When we love self-flattery and the flattery from others it will blind us to see our sin and our need for repentance. Sin will destroy us unless it's forgiven and cleansed by God.

But for that we need to want God to show our sin to us, so we may experience conviction in our hearts and hate it and turn the other way from it, by his gracious help.

I think most us have experienced relationship breakdown. But it doesn't need to be, most of the time.

When does a relationship begin to break down? The breakdown of relationships happens when we live to get rather than to give. When self-protection governs our relationships instead of self-giving and self-sacrifice, that's when relationships begin to break down. So the cause of relational breakdown is inordinate self-love.