Good morning to all from Baton Rouge, Louisiana! It is a wonderful day here and the weather has finally gotten warm. Waine and Aleron are having a good time in Jamaica and I am sure our youngest son is learning more about his Dad,which is always a good thing. Continue to pray God's traveling mercies for us and thank you for your continue prayers for our family.
I am continuing my journey through Matthew, chapter 15, verses 1-10 "Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!" Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'Honor your father and mother and anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men." Amen!
What I notice as I travel through Matthew is that Jesus is about through with these Pharisees; these religious rulers who were making stuff up to further their own agenda. Sound familiar. There are a bunch of Pharisees out here even today; they go around and misinterpret the Word of God for their own agenda. How can you tell? Christ said if it is of Him then it will bear the fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control--against these there IS NO LAW! In this passage the Pharisees were not speaking in faith, actually the exact opposite. They were causing dissension and strife and therefore were not motivated for Kingdom building and Christ clocked them on it. Christ was also telling us that lip service is not what Kingdom building is all about. Its about what is in your heart. The praise and worship we do has to come from our hearts to be effective and as Christians all that we do should honor our walk in Christ. Does our daily walk honor the life of Christ or not? Do people notice something different about you or do you have the same walk as unbelievers? There should be something different about Christians. Our employers should notice something different about us--or work ethic, out commitment to excellence. Our friends and family should notice something different about us-- our capacity to forgive and forget. The world should be able to point us out because we are bearing the Fruits of the Teachings of the Master and not the world. We are to be different as Jesus was! He only had one agenda and that was to service His Father and that He did daily!
To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to serve Him. To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to serve you. Be true to Christ today and let the Fruits of the Spirit shine forth in your life and mine. In Jesus name, amen and amen.
Stephanie
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