Christ once addressed a crowd saying, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.” John 8:7. But in John 7:24 he says, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” What is the difference in these two “judging others” quotes? One group wanted to look past their sins to stone a woman for her actions. But in John 7, a crowd was judging Jesus for performing miracles on the sabbath.
It is our heart that determines whether we should judge. Is our intent to bring glory to ourselves by tearing someone down? Or are we acting out of concern to help someone stay on the path to Christ? We are called to defend the teachings of the Bible; however, we are also called to lift others up out of their sin, not drag them through it. When in doubt, we should stop looking side-to-side at one another and look up, to the Son Rise. Let Christ be our example.
“Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.” Romans 8:34
Photographer’s Notes– Capturing ‘SonRise’ and Stop Judging Others
I created the sun burst using a narrow aperture and positioning the cross to divide the sunlight. We chose an angle looking up toward the cross for compositional effect with the church name, SonRise, appearing in the lower portion of the frame. I wanted to draw the viewer to the cross first and see everything else after. I wanted plenty of length to include all these elements; therefore, SonRise became the only image in the series captured in portrait orientation.
Photography and Writing By: Jon Frederick
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