Author Archives: Great Peace Books

For those of us celebrating America’s 250th birthday, I know a lot of us are feeling appreciation for being born as Americans.

And in terms of your faith, you may also feel blessed to be born into a predominantly Christian nation as opposed to, say, somewhere in the Middle East where many are born into Islam.

Thinking about this, I don’t think “the cards are stacked against” those not born into a “Christian” household as much as it seems, especially concerning those born overseas who practice other religions.

For this example, I will be continuing with those born into Islam.

To put my feelings toward the third of the Abrahamic faiths mildly, I will say I find many of its teachings quite distasteful.

But, if there is one thing I can appreciate, it is the devout nature of its people. I find the type of obedience instilled by its surrounding culture a far better prerequisite to Christianity than may be called modernized American Christian-spirituality.

That is to say, someone born into a Muslim country and a Muslim family may very well have a better understanding of allowing themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit than a common cultural American Christian.

For example, some of the most intriguing and compelling Christian apologetic speakers I have heard were those converted from Islam.

There is something about the obedience Islam teaches that appeals to a honest soul looking for purpose and a relationship with its Creator. Maybe it is some underlying subordinate nature of the human spirit that is revolting against its own opposite, rebellious nature that draws those to these types of teachings. 

I believe it’s similar to the current rise of interest in the Catholic faith in America. There has recently been something of a revival in the United States that has sent a large number, young men in particular, on journeys of faith. It’s easy to see how an avenue like Catholicism, with its sense of structure, can be comforting to a new believer, especially in contrast to the broad nature of Protestantism, which has branched so far that many new believers don’t even know where to start (Or what to do after they do start).

Generally speaking, in terms of current trends, those born into an American family with parents who call themselves Christians most likely do not attend church or even believe in the divinity of Jesus at all. But statistically, that is not the case for those born into Islam. The vast majority not only believe the religion of their parents but also practice it.

Polls from Pew Research Center questioned a number of Islamic countries and over 90% of Muslims (in ALL the majority Muslim Countries surveyed) answered that religion is a “very important” aspect of their daily life. By contrast, only around half of self-identified Christians in America said religion was important…again these are people who call themselves Christians but don’t think religion matters. 

This makes me think that despite where we are placed at birth that the playing field is much more even than one might believe. And this is because God is good. He gave us the freedom to choose, to seek wisdom, and to obtain it.

For it doesn’t matter where you were born or what you were raised to believe; the truth is available.

It is my belief (you’re free to disagree) that those who research Islam and other religions honestly with open hearts and minds will leave and turn from them. And those who research Christianity honestly can’t help but be compelled to start a relationship with Christ.

The freedom to allow your heart to search for the truth is yours, given to you by an all-powerful and loving God.

For if you were born into a household that calls itself Christian, it is your own will that must create an honest relationship with the Lord—to withdraw from the comfort of blissful ignorance that tells you mere awareness of Jesus is what saves you, and instead to repent, accept the gift of God’s grace, and live it truthfully.

Similarly, if you were born into a household that calls itself Muslim, it is your own will that must question what it has been taught as well, and withdraw from the comfort of family and tradition. For once you see that the teachings contradict themselves and what your teachers are saying, you know what choice you have to make: seek truth elsewhere or accept a lie for the sake of necessity.

Despite my beliefs being as stated above, I do humbly admit that being born American does have benefits when it comes to religious freedom. 

While those trying to live like Christ may feel socially ostracized in modern American culture, they don’t face the same daily struggle for survival as followers of the Way do in other parts of the world.

For that reason, I am grateful for myself, while my heart aches for my brothers and sisters and the terrors they face. I’m comforted by the fact that believers are eternal beings and that they will someday be sheltered in peace by the Father.

While I could dwell more on the current state of religious affairs in America, I won’t. 

Instead, I will be grateful and continue to pray—God bless America & the World. 

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(Apologetic Note:

Why might over 90% of Muslims find religion important, while only 50% of Christians in America do?

For Muslims, their religion is embedded in their culture.

For Americans, religion has been demoted to a mere subculture of daily life.

As touched on briefly in my point on converted apologists, and the choice those looking to leave Islam to follow Christ would make, I’m not meaning to undervalue the weight these individuals feel.

Many, if not all, converts I’ve heard speak share the weight that was bearing on their hearts with the choice they knew they had to make: Christ and Truth, or everything they’ve ever known—their families, their friends, their livelihood.

For if you fall into the 50% of Christians who believe religion doesn’t matter all that much, then you probably wouldn’t think it’s a big deal if a family member told you they were switching religions or abandoning it altogether.

But for those 90+% of Muslims, it means their daily lives would change and never be the same. Their relationship with their family would be immediately destroyed, as it is my understanding that the Quran teaches awful penalties for apostasy. Though some disagree, it is, in fact, clearly written in Scripture.

(And for those who can’t understand why that would be a big deal, family also means more to them than it does to much of the current American population.)

You may also argue that I said I believe Muslims who openly research Islam would leave it, and think, “How could 90+% of its followers believe it to be important if it is not true?”

Well, to that I say, I have already answered. I’m saying I believe it’s important because it is everything to them culturally; it’s not important to them because they know it to be true.

Also, just as someone can go to church their whole life without truly knowing Jesus or opening their Bible and studying the Word themselves, the same can be said for those who practice Islam.

This is why, in the apologetic space, in my experience, you often see debates take place where Christian apologists know the Quran and its history better than the Muslims arguing for it do.)

When I hear or read “Only God can judge me,” I get the impression those shielding themselves with the phrase have the belief that Jesus opposed judgement, as we know it, altogether.

We’ve established judgement exists in the Bible, and that final judgement comes from God alone. But Jesus Himself spoke constantly about our judgement of each other. So, what kind of judgement is He talking about? What does He forbid, and what does He condone?

Let us start here:

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Jesus tells us that we will be judged by God by the standards we ourselves hold for others.

You may think that means you’re safe from judgement, that you mind your own business, only worry about yourself, and are nothing but a warm, compassionate, understanding person… but you are lying to yourself. We’ve established that EVERYONE will be judged.

And if no one has told you yet, read these words carefully and know them to be true. We are all guilty. Only by God’s grace and Jesus’s blood are you able to be found innocent and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?”

Matthew 7:3-4 NKJV

This is often the verse that is used to label Christians as hypocrites. Which is true. Most of us are, or at the very least can be at times. Which, if we use our judgement of others the wrong way, would in fact make us hypocrites by definition, as we ourselves are lowly, imperfect sinners.

Jesus continues in the subsequent verse, telling us just that, calling us out for being hypocrites, and explaining to us we can’t help others without first helping ourselves.

“Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Matthew 7:5 NKJV

So after our eyes are opened and cleared, how do we remove the speck from our brothers and sisters without judgement? How do we make an assessment, or even have awareness of the speck’s existence, without any judgement being made?

If we want to be receivers of God’s grace, and be judged that way, then we must “judge” others that way. Our goal must be to love them and help them. The difference lies in the condition in which we help by offering correction.

Jesus tells us to beware of false prophets (Matthew 7:15). If we are not to use any judgment at all, then how would we know a person is a false prophet without judging that person and their words or actions?

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us that we shouldn’t judge others by appearance, but with righteous judgment. He does so when He Himself is judged for healing a man on the Sabbath.

So when Jesus says “DO NOT JUDGE,” what I believe He is saying is avoid judging superficially and hypocritically. As those are harmful forms of judgement and do not come from the place of love that we ourselves hope to be judged by whenever we are judged by God.

Those who judged Jesus’s actions were so blinded by their hate, they could not see His love.

Jesus didn’t abolish the act of “judgment”; He purified it. He clarifies that we must use discernment. Teach others how they remove their specks. We are not told to ignore sin, but confront it from a place of love to protect others from their errors.

I think most of us know this. But just because our “judgment” comes from truth, doesn’t mean our hearts are being loving.

That’s where I think we as Christians go wrong the most when we evangelize. Especially in the day of social media, where people are free to spout out their opinions. It’s too easy nowadays to have your voice heard without much thought or contemplation before instantly releasing your words to the world.

It is far too easy for us as Christians to become hardened as believers of the Truth. It is simple to declare the Word to others and say, “Take it or leave it,” “That’s just the way it is,” in a matter-of-fact way that is without any warmth.

It is more difficult to both know the truth and share it with the same love that Jesus did. But the Bible shows us this is the type of follower we have to be. Everyone wants to speak about how Jesus flipped the tables and became angry, but He did so at hypocrisy. The same hypocrisy we show when we judge others wrongly.

The popular use of “Judge not” turns Jesus’ warning against hypocrisy into a prohibition against accountability.

Jesus did not say, “Never judge.” He said, “Judge rightly.” And that is a far more demanding command.

Part 4 coming soon…

Part 2: What the Bible Actually Says About Judgment

Well, simply put, it says that God is the Judge and we are the judged. There will be no avoiding this inevitable fact. Each and every one of us will personally face our imperfection. The Bible does not speak of God as Judge merely as a metaphor for our understanding, but because it presents judgment as reality. As certain as each of us is to die, we are to be judged.

Hebrews 9:27 states:

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”

While Ecclesiastes 12:14 reads:

“For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

Not only will God be the Judge, meaning He will judge our works and our public lives, but also what we do in secret. The hidden, messiest parts of ourselves will stand trial.

God’s judgment is not arbitrary, emotional, or reactionary like human judgment often is. Scripture presents God as perfectly just.

He does not forget good, ignore evil, play favorites, or judge from incomplete information. Unlike us, He sees motives, intentions, public actions, and private thoughts completely. That should humble us. The awareness of the reality that God judges should not only instill in us a sense of fear, but accountability.

God is the eternal Judge because He is perfectly just and perfectly true. Justice and truth are reflections of His holy goodness.

The reality that God is our Judge, and will in fact judge us, seems obvious to many Christians. But it creates a problem if “Only God Can Judge Me” is true in the way it is often used today.

Being invoked as what I referred to in Part 1 as “Correctional Kevlar,” the phrase is often used to deny others the authority to hold the speaker accountable. But you do not escape judgment by reserving it for God. It is guaranteed and that should humble you.

If the authority to judge belongs to God alone, does that mean nobody else may speak truth? Does that mean nobody may confront evil? Nobody may warn, correct, discipline, or discern?

If the Bible establishes God as the Judge and us as the judged, what does it say about us judging others? Is that a sin? Is it immoral?

In Romans chapter 14 verses 10–12, Paul writes:

“But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, And every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” — KJV

Now this quote seems to directly correlate to our exploration of the phrase “Only God Can Judge Me.”

Does that mean believers should not judge other believers? What about non-believers?

Many translations make the context clearer here: Paul is speaking primarily to fellow believers. He is giving a message about Christian unity and warning against criticism and contempt among believers.

And perhaps even more importantly, what does the context mean by the word judge? Does it mean to condemn, or something different?

The Bible cannot possibly be telling us that we cannot correct others.

If no one may confront or point out wrongdoing, then parents could not correct their children, friends could not warn one another of destructive behavior, and the prophets themselves should have remained silent.

That cannot be the type of judgment scripture warns against. A world without that kind of judgment does not become more loving. It becomes less honest.

But I am leaving out another important question here.

What does Jesus say?

There are still many more questions left to explore on this topic. In Part 3, I will search for answers to the questions above while also looking at one of the most quoted passages on the topic: Matthew chapter 7.

“Only God can judge me.” We all know the saying. You might have heard it in a song, read it in an Instagram bio, or seen it tattooed, often poorly, on someone’s body.

While the phrase sounds biblical, I think it is mainly used culturally as a “Correctional Kevlar”, protecting the one who says it from any potential admonishment for their behavior. While he didn’t invent the saying, Tupac Shakur made it famous in the
1990s with his song of the same name.

And while the song itself implies an acknowledgment that only God has the authority to judge or criticize someone’s actions, I doubt (and shame on me for this assumption) that most who parrot the phrase have much respect for God as the final—or the One True Judge at all.

My assumption is that they simply do not want anyone to judge them, so they pass the responsibility to a god, an idea, or a universe of their own making, failing to realize that responsibility is not something they have the authority to assign or remove in the first place.

What was once a declaration of divine authority is now a battle cry for individualism, which in its current form has become an extreme—used to deflect scrutiny from immoral behavior and to seek reassurance from others who share the same sense of self-justifying autonomy.

This “New Age Spirituality” has attached itself to this phrase as well, along with making truth something that is subjective. Which isn’t a new thought at all, but that doesn’t make it any less wrong than it is.

The phrase, as it may once have been intended—to honor God—is now being used for nothing more than an announcement of someone avoiding accountability.

And if “Only God Can Judge Me” isn’t actually Scripture, what does the Bible actually tell us about judgment?

Next Post: Part 2, Exploring what the Bible tells us about judgment.

Since before the release of The Man Who Joined the Rocks, I’ve been working on another book. That project is titled The Bureau of Eternal Affairs. The book plays with many different themes, Salvation and Judgment as well as Faith and Grace, what it means to truly be saved and have been changed by your relationship with Jesus.

While writing the “The Bureau”, I’ve had different discussions with Christians & non believers on the themes. One of the main things we will get stuck on and want to discuss most is Judgment.

As a result, I started writing about it.

After some consideration I decided I will post these writings on the website.

I plan on this Reflection/Exploration piece into Judgment being a 12 Part series.

Not only focusing on the Judgment we will all receive at the end of our lives, but how we judge others (believers, non believers, and ourselves).

I’m titling this piece after a saying we’ve all heard.

“Only God Can Judge Me”

And I want to explore this phrase as well. Where it comes from, it’s truth and its folly when it is misused.

I want to also explore a Christian’s Responsibility to speak Truth is today’s world and how to respond to a cultural phrase like this, that is sometimes weaponized against Christians who have well intentions.

As we Christians try to make ourselves more like Christ, as well as the world around us. We may hear things like:

“A Christian is just another word for a
hypocrite.”

It’s common to hear this from non-
believers. And to those who hear it, it may sound convincing or true, especially when Christians are stereotyped as judgmental while claiming to follow a God who himself holds the sole-authority as the Judge of the Universe. But “only God can judge me” isn’t Scripture. It’s a phrase from popular culture—a slogan, a tattoo, a line from a 1990s rap song.

So what does the Bible actually say?

A practicing Christian—one committed to prayer, obedience, and repentance—knows that all fall short of the kingdom of God apart from His grace and the blood of His Son.

That truth doesn’t remove judgment—it
demands it.

Christians are not called to self-righteous condemnation, but neither are they called to silence. They are called to judge rightly, discern or correct, in a way that reflects Jesus and follows the instruction of the New Testament.

These reflections will explore that. As I search to understand what the Bible says judgment really is, where Christians get it wrong, and how to speak truth in a way that leads others to Christ rather than pushing them away.

Thanks for reading.

Next Post:

Part 1: The Claim

A discussion about what happens when we die had me remembering those I’ve lost.

The Bible says the dead go to Sheol, the place of the dead. Whether that is a literal place, I do not know. Maybe it is simply a name given to the place where our consciousness rests. (Ecclesiastes 9:10, Psalm 89:48)

The dead will rise for final judgment when Jesus returns. (John 5:28–29, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Revelation 20:12–13)

Until then, I do not believe that means they are completely gone. I am not implying they are ghosts, or even that they are watching over us. But part of them still remains on earth through the memories of them, the lessons they taught us, and the love they gave.

I find a sense of comfort in that, but also a lesson. A lesson to live each day thoughtfully with those you love. What memories will you leave behind? What lessons will be passed down? Did you bring love with you to rest, or did you give every ounce of it away before your final breath?

Modern relationships are a fickle thing. As a result, so is society’s understanding of Love. 

By strengthening my own relationship with Jesus, it has truly shown me what unconditional love means. We say it. Jesus lived it. 

I myself am married. My wife and I met when I was 16, she was 15. Sixteen or so years later, we now have built a life that we have always dreamed of together with our two amazing children. 

Our dating relationship was full of ups and downs, break ups and reunions. The type of thing that’s common for young couples. But as we got older and matured (mostly me needing the maturing) those things went away. As a result our relationship flourished. 

Marriage itself comes with its own complications. It’s two human beings attempting to act as one whole, each with separate roles. Roles that I will not be divulging in this post.

Instead I’m going to discuss what makes the way Jesus loves so different than ours. And in honor of my wife, I am going to tell it using a metaphor she herself is going to enjoy. 

When I say my wife is my best friend, I’m not being cliché. But like all husbands and wives, or best friends for that matter, we do not agree on everything. One of those things is my wife’s guilty pleasure, reality tv. One of her favorites is Netflix’s Love is Blind. 

For those of you who do not have to endure the pain of knowing these types of shows intimately…

Love is Blind is a dating show where contestants sign up to date and later potentially marry someone they have never met. Contestants get engaged after only ever talking and never seeing one another in person.

The premise of the show’s experiment is said to answer the question “is love truly blind?”.

To test this, contestants date in what is referred to as “the pods” where they cannot see each other. Essentially, they sit in separate rooms, divided by a wall. They can speak, but they cannot see each other.

In these pods, something interesting happens. People open up. They share their stories and they become vulnerable.

They share “their truth” about themselves not necessarily THE TRUTH. Not because they are intentionally lying, but because we all see ourselves through a distorted lens. We interpret reality through our own perspective. 

And in today’s world of social media, reality tv, etc. narcissistic tendencies of the way we see ourselves keep us blind to the truth about ourselves.

This is why so many relationships fall apart after the pods.

“They aren’t the same person I met in the Pods.”

Because the truth is, they never were. 

Dating, or what was once called courting, is traditionally set up in a way to truly get to know someone. And it takes longer than a few days or weeks. Real relationships aren’t built in isolation. They are built over time, through shared experiences. You don’t just hear someone’s version of reality, you live alongside it. You see it.

In a setting like the Pods you hear their side of reality. In the real world you get to experience it. And while the person you are dating may be a victim or hero in their own head in certain situations, you get to perceive things from these experiences and decide objectively your compatibility based on reality. 

As the show progresses, contestants narrow their connections until they choose someone to propose to.

Here the show reaches its most anticipated moment: the reveal. 

The couple see each other for the first time.

There have been multiple occasions in the show where you can almost see the flames of “Love” the couples have ignited from the Pods flicker, all from just the first glance at their partner. 

Not because the other person is unattractive. Most contestants are attractive by conventional standards.

But because the image they built in their mind doesn’t match reality.

Height, weight, muscle tone, jawline, hair, all the superficial things that make up physical attraction.

Because of the idea being they already know the person on the inside so well from their conversations in the Pods. That physical appearance is the last and should be least important piece of the experiment. 

This is rarely the case. Every season of the show, there is usually 1 or 2 couples that don’t make it due to either not finding their partner attractive. Or because they find someone else MORE attractive once they get to see the other couples. 

And that’s the problem.

The love they felt wasn’t grounded in truth. It was grounded in perception.

So when reality appears, the feeling changes.

This is the kind of love we are used to.

Conditional. Dependent on perception, preference, and experience.

The show is a reminder of the type of conditional love that exists in the world today. Whether the couples fail because of communication, appearances, or conflict. In a truly unconditional love those things don’t get overlooked they get resolved. They are confronted and worked through.

The show doesn’t prove that love is blind.

It proves that we are.

Human love isn’t blind.

Humans are. As the gospel often reminds us. 

But Jesus’ love is different.

Jesus’ love isn’t blind either, but not in the same way.

Because he sees us fully and loves us anyway.

He sees the parts of us we try to hide. The parts we justify. The parts we distort, even to ourselves. And still, He loves.

To mirror the show, prayer is our version of the pods. In prayer, we often present the best version of ourselves. We confess and make promises to be better. We feel changed and inspired because of our closeness to God in that moment.

But what happens when we leave the pods?

We fall short.

We become someone different than the person we were in prayer.

And Jesus does not say “You aren’t the same person that you were in prayer” and give up on us. He remains. Because He never loved a version of us we imagined. He loves us unconditionally as we truly are.

Also with Jesus there is no grand reveal. Nothing about us surprises Him. He doesn’t care what we look like. He doesn’t care about our past, our failures, or our weaknesses.

He sees all of us and does not withdraw.

He stays.

That is unconditional love.

Love is not blind.

We are.

And thankfully, Jesus is not.

The Man Who Joined the Rocks

Available on Kindle — $2.99

March 27, 2026

A team often reflects the character of its Coach. NFL Running back Raheem Mostert was recently on the Colin Cowherd show speaking about this very thing. He was on the Miami Dolphins from 2022-2024. He spoke about how former Dolphins Coach Mike McDaniel’s player-friendly attitude and lack of “grit” and authoritarian leadership hurt the character makeup of the team. 

Lions Coach Dan Campbell is the complete opposite coaching archetype of McDaniel. That isn’t to say Campbell isn’t a player friendly coach. As a former player himself he is able to relate to his team. He wears his heart on his sleeve; often getting emotional in press conferences and post game speeches, showing how much he loves his players. 

Despite those sentimental moments, Campbell is still both respected and feared in the locker room. At 6’6” and roughly 265 pounds, the man known as “Motor City Dan Campbell” (MCDC) often preaches one word to his team: GRIT. In an interview with the Sports Podcast Pardon My Take, Campbell defined Grit as 

“the ability to overcome adversity in any situation. The ability to push through (adversity) mentally and physically.”

And that is exactly what he has instilled in the team. Since taking over the Lions, Campbell has led the lowly franchise to their first ever NFC North Title (twice) and first ever NFC Championship game. 

If you watch any of his speeches to his team, it’s not hard to see how easy it is to stay motivated with Campbell as a Coach.

But despite having a master motivator and great coach like Campbell, the Lions still have their flaws. And while they did not make the playoffs this year, those are not the problems I am referring to. 

Last week, Lions 2024 1st round draft pick made headlines for allegedly being involved in a kidnapping/robbery incident. Allegedly the story goes Arnold and his friends took matters into their own hands after their AirBnB was robbed. Arnold’s lawyer claims he did not participate in nor was present for any of the alleged conduct.

The question is, how does a player on a team known for resiliency, mental toughness, and accountability end up in a situation like this? That’s what Campbell preaches. Right? And players are reflections of their coaches? 

This happens to us as Christians as well.

We too have a great Coach. The GREATEST Coach, Jesus Christ. What other Coach loves his players so much He would serve their suspension? Christ died for his Players. He motivates his players. He provides us with a playbook built to guide us through anything life throws at us. 

In my last post, Dear Protesters, Jesus is Not Your Mascot, I talked about how People often structure their own concept of who Jesus was to fit their own ideology. 

But Jesus IS who He IS. Not who we want him to be. He is the one Coach His players can never truly live up to. We will never be able to truly live like Christ, as he is perfect and we are sinners. But as Christians it’s our job to do our best to show the world what Christ our Coach, our God, is all about. And not just with words but action. To be the best example of Him to the world as we can be. 

The best way to do that is to keep him close. It is not Jesus who walks away from us. But us who walks away from him. 

Like the NFL player that gets in trouble in the offseason away from their Coach who tries to keep them on the right path.

We Christians find ourselves in deep waters of our own doing when we are not disciplined in Prayer, Worship, and Obedience. Not to say there is a way to do everything right and your life will be perfect as long as you are a good little Christian. The Bible tells us that is not true. 

But if we followed Jesus just for transactional comfort that wouldn’t be real devotion. And that’s what separates him from being just another coach.

We don’t follow him just because we believe he will lead us to the Super Bowl. We acknowledge he created the Game and He loved us enough to give us a chance to play. 

So study your playbooks, and keep your Coach’s words close to your mind and heart. 

Because the game isn’t just played on Sundays. It’s played every day you step out onto the field, we call the world.