An Accidental Pharisee

“How could she do this? Is she really walking with Christ?” My indignation boiled over. Was I right to be concerned? Perhaps. Were her actions consistent with a follower of Christ? I do not believe that they were.  But, my attitude was a problem, a major one! For a moment, I lost sight of redemption and restoration.

Larry Osborne, a pastor, speaks of becoming ‘an accidental Pharisee.’  He suggests that nobody, not even those Pharisees in Jesus’ time, wants to be the ‘Pharisee’ of our understanding; critical, judgmental, and hypocritical. And, yet it is those who are most passionate about Christ and His Kingdom who are most at risk of slipping into that place where I found myself.

The attitude of a Pharisee develops when comparison sets in, when concern for appearance takes over.  When I am more concerned about how the church is functioning, about protecting our reputation, than I am about loving the people Jesus loves, I have become an accidental Pharisee. Jesus said, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." (Matthew 23:25-26, NIV)   Whenever we take care to create an image, spend time making sure we are making the right kind of impression, even if it is supposedly to help others ‘see Jesus in us,’ we become Pharisees.

Let’s be clear about something. Jesus did not say “Ah, who cares how you live? Just do whatever you want. God is love!”  Rather, He tells us to get our inside right first so that there is no gap between what others see and who we actually are! Many Christians make the mistake of thinking that discipleship does not require holiness because our culture of tolerance.  Some insist, “Don’t judge me” but they are really saying, “Let me do my own thing.” Christianity is not a private thing, just Jesus and me. We live in community, part of His Body, and we are responsible for one another.  And yes, those who lead must constantly correct and encourage those in their spiritual care. We are, in fact, our brother’s keeper.  Others insist that “love triumphs over all,” as if love removes all calls to conform to the likeness of Christ.  Love does indeed cover a multitude of offenses, but the highest love is truthful.

Accidental Pharisees have a misplaced focus - their gaze slips from Christ to Self.

Have you concluded that somebody in the church needs to go?
Have you decided that they are unworthy of being a disciple?
Have you made the choice to withdraw from their company because you think you are better than they are?

Perhaps you have made the same mistake I did, becoming an accidental Pharisee!
Let’s not lose our passion for a holy kingdom of beautiful saints! But, as we pursue that aim, let’s remember that there are those who are mature and those who are babes, there are those who are growing and those who have stalled (often for reasons we cannot know or see), there are those who are very different from us in personality yet incredibly important to the whole work of Christ in the world. 

When those of us who are little farther down the road slip into that accidental Pharisaicalism, may God remind us of the two pillars of righteousness – Loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving others as we love ourselves.

Here is a word from the Word. "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." (Hebrews 10:19-24, NIV)
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We Will Stand

You're my brother, you're my sister,So take me by the hand;Together we will work until He comes.There's no foe that can defeat us,When we're walking side by side,As long as there is loveWe will stand!

Sometimes it's hard for me to understand,Why we pull away from each other so easily?Even though we're all walking the same roadYet we build dividing walls,Between our brothers and ourselves.

The day will come, when we will be as one,
And with a mighty voice
Together we will proclaim that Jesus,
Jesus is King.
It will echo through the earth
It will shake the nations,
And the world will see,
See that

You're my brother, you're my sister,So take me by the hand;Together we will work until He comes.There's no foe that can defeat us,When we're walking side by side,As long as there is loveWe will stand!

James Hollihan | Russ Taff | Tori Taff © 1983 Word Music, LLC (a div. of Word Music Group, Inc.) CCLI License # 810055

Make it beautiful

The news report of increased traffic on the hiking trails of a park in NE New Jersey a couple of days ago showed trash thrown around, plastic bottles discarded, food wrappings piled in the underbrush, and not just a little.  What a metaphor for this world, I thought.  

Humanity trashes life in so many ways and places. Violence tears apart nations. Hatred divides races. Much of our art is coarse and at times even lewd. Even our words are too often used in ways that are ugly, spreading garbage instead of grace. Self and sin trash this beautiful world that God gave to us.

Christ restores what sin destroyed! Our calling, Christian, is to be like Him, to bring His beauty into the world where we live. We should aspire to that, everywhere and all of the time. John says "See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure." (1 John 3:1-3, NLT)  Implied through that text is the transformational experience that we know because of Jesus!

God calls us into His family giving us a noble identity! We continue to grow into the likeness of Jesus, the world around us unable to grasp what is happening to us because they do not know the Source of the change.  With a view of Heaven’s beauty, we choose to become ‘pure,’ a word that indicates that we have left the dirt and corruption behind to become clean, whole, and beautiful. Careful on that.  In our pursuit of  beauty we may be tempted to resort to the cheap substitute of superficial pious acts rather than pursue the deep and true beauty of a transformed character. To be truly beautiful, we must allow the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts, changing us from the inside out.

The genuinely beautiful life of Christ is created in us as our minds are renewed with truth; as we practice the disciplines of the Spirit that allow Him to repattern our behavior; and with the encouragement of the holy community, Christ’s church. The indispensable Agent of change, however, is God, the Holy Spirit. He calls us to faith in Jesus.  He shows us Who God is. He makes us see the lies we once believed. He corrects us, leading us through tests that help us to grow in grace.  And, He whispers encouragement to us as we leave the ‘old country of sin,’ for the city of God!

Are you making life beautiful, Christian friend?
Have you left behind filthy speech for that which honors God?
Does the music that fills your day praise Him or encourage the baser impulses?
Are you loving when others are cruel, gentle in a harsh world, light in the darkness?

As you read this word from the Word today, compare the two ways of life – one full of the trash of the sinful nature – one radiant with the beauty of the Spirit’s transformation: 
"So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. …

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives." (Galatians 5:16-25, NLT)
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Beautiful Things

All this pain;

I wonder if I'll ever find my way?

I wonder if my life could really change

At all?

All this earth,

Could all that is lost ever be found?

Could a garden come up from this ground

At all?

All around

Hope is springing up from this old ground!

Out of chaos life is being found

In You!

You make beautiful things,

You make beautiful things out of the dust.

You make beautiful things,

You make beautiful things out of us.

You make me new,

You are making me new.

You make me new,

You are making me new.

Lisa Gungor | Michael Gungor

© 2009 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055

Captivated

Pure love is rare, isn’t it? On a Sunday morning in June, 1974, I first saw Bev and I was captivated; yes, it was really love at first sight. That love was tainted by self-interest as are all human loves. I found her attractive, interesting, a person who made me feel joyful – and loved her.  Driving through the Rocky Mountains a few years ago, the vistas made me want to pause, to gaze, to feel the wonder of it all. My awe morphed to loving worship for the Creator of it all.   

Then, too, I recall being overwhelmed with love in the Church of All Nations which stands at the site of the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem where Jesus wrestled with the Father’s will and surrendered Himself to the work of being the sacrifice for the sins of the world! An intense love swept over me, leaving me unable to stand, to speak, with tears of adoration wetting my face.

Let me ask you what I asked myself in my meditation this morning – do you love God for Himself, or for what He can do for you? Are you captivated by the glory of the Divine, enthralled by the grace that invites you to enter His Holy Presence?  Those questions are not easily answered, is it?

If you are like me, some days God is just there, taken for granted even as He gives life and breath, His beauty unseen. Then there are those moments of need when we come to Him, not because we desire Him, but because we want some grace, some blessing, some remedy. I do not want to imply that we should not pray about our needs. Our Father invites us to come and to present our needs to Him.  We also can learn to love Him- not for what He does, nor for what we need, but for Who He is!  “The study of God is simply to be enjoyed for its own incomparable subject, the One most beautiful, most worthy of praise. Life with God delights in its very acts of thinking, reading, praying, and communing with the One most worthy to be beheld, pondered, and studied; not for its written artifacts or social consequences, but for joy in its object.”  A Change of Heart, Thomas C. Oden

To be captivated by Him, to see His true beauty, demands something of us. We must come and wait, step aside from the busy pursuits of life, enter into His Presence. Imagine going to visit a gallery filled with the works of master artists only to rush through, glancing at the time constantly, pressing towards the exit. Would you really appreciate the beauty of the art on display? Of course not, right?  Those masterpieces require time, a pause, focus, perhaps an interpreter who provides the information needed to see why the work is so admirable.

Similarly, we need to create time to come and see the beauty of the Lord. Each day we can focus on Him, listening, waiting, learning, loving. The invitation into worship with His Church is an intentional pause in the rush of the week, a holy time when we come to offer ourselves to Him and, hopefully, to see Him in His beauty. Will you?

This word from the Word is almost incomprehensible for a majority of people, consumed with life, their minds and hearts packed so full of trivial and trinkets that there is no room for real Treasure. I pray for you that these words will invite you to ponder the Majesty and be captivated by a pure love for the Holy One.

"A psalm of David.
Honor the Lord, you heavenly beings; honor the Lord for his glory and strength.
Honor the Lord for the glory of his name.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea. The God of glory thunders.
The Lord thunders over the mighty sea.
The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.
The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars;
the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.

He makes Lebanon’s mountains skip like a calf; he makes Mount Hermon leap like a young wild ox.
The voice of the Lord strikes with bolts of lightning.
The voice of the Lord makes the barren wilderness quake; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare.

In his Temple everyone shouts, “Glory!” (Psalm 29:1-9, NLT)

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I Stand In Awe

You are beautiful beyond description

Too marvelous for words

Too wonderful for comprehension

Like nothing ever seen or heard

Who can grasp Your infinite wisdom

Who can fathom the depth of Your love

You are beautiful beyond description

Majesty enthroned above

And I stand I stand in awe of You

I stand I stand in awe of You

Holy God to whom all praise is due

I stand in awe of You

Mark Altrogge

© 1987 Sovereign Grace Praise (Admin. by Sovereign Grace Ministries)

CCLI License # 810055