Just before the death of actor W.C. Fields, a friend visited Fields' hospital room and was surprised to find him thumbing through a Bible. When asked what he was doing with a Bible, Fields replied, "I'm looking for loopholes."

If a person was looking for loopholes in scripture, the third chapter of John's Gospel might be the place to start, but the reading is more about God's love than about loopholes. It contains one of the most oft quoted statements of the bible: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." If we read a little further, we might find some language that would lead us to look for loopholes: "And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil." In this article I want to talk about those oft avoided subjects of judgment and evil.

Most of us these days will not spend much time, with the exception of few, in court. It can be a harrowing experience, even if one is only a witness, which is the situation I found myself in as a witness to a car accident.

Most of the morning in court was spent on procedural matters for other cases which were, in so many words, important, but pretty boring. When it came my turn, it was over so fast, I barley knew what had happened. I was asked if I was going to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I was asked the question about what happened the morning of the accident. I was asked that question in about five different ways to make sure that I had my story straight. The man in question was found guilty of running a stop sign and causing an accident. It was an interesting experience and the judge was both swift and fair in his judgment.

Having said that, many people's sense of judgment these days comes from T. V. There are shows like, Judge Judy, but these and other similar programs really don't grab me. What I find interesting is the show, American Idol, which I think plays into to what people's sense of judgment is.

It is the role of the judges that I am particul arly interested in. The judges on the show are Randy Jackson who represents the thoughtful judge. He is a musician and knows what he wants to hear. Paula Abdul is the caring judge who doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings and will try and point out something positive no matter how bad the try out was.

Simon Cowell is - well he's Simon - the "hard to please judge" who will call it as he sees it to the point of being rude and meanspirited. So we have the thoughtful judge, the caring judge and the mean judge and there is a fourth judge, Kara DioGuardi, and she, from what I can gather, is a combination of the other three. We probably all have seen God portrayed in these ways, amongst others. But they all as judges are not representative of God, who invites us into his chambers without judgment. We are called into the light as it says in John 3:21, "But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

There is no judgment for the Christian in respect to salvation, we will be judged on our deeds, but not on our ultimate salvation. In Romans 8:1 it states, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." We were judged in Christ on the cross 2000 years ago; that was done once and for all. If you are looking for loopholes, there aren't any, but if you looking for the grace of God, the peace of Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, they are certainly found throughout scripture.

The question that may be going through our heads now is, what happens when "we err in our ways"? Some months ago I was out walking the dog and was doing so to walk off my own indignation at a transgression that I had committed at home. While on the walk I met a woman who was trying to push a grocery cart through the snow. I must admit my initial response was to give her a wide berth, not knowing what she was up to, but I stopped and asked if I could help. She asked where the grocery store was, being new to town, and I told her that she had a long way to go. She explained that the cart was left on her property and that she wanted to take it back. I started out by saying that if we pushed it up to the church property I would call the grocery store in the morning to pick it up. I then thought it would be better just to push the cart to my house and I would take it back right away. While we pushed the cart to my home I learned about her hopes in coming to Orangeville and I told her about my ministry.

I felt better for what I had done because I believe that this is what I was made to do. When we do good deeds, we do them not to make up for past misdemeanors. We do them so that we and our deeds may come into the light. This is some of the most concrete advice that I can give and guarantee that you will feel better.

Furthermore, if you are wondering when the opportunely might come your way, I will guarantee that that will happen as well and you won't have to go looking for loopholes. Amen.