CHURCH FOLK TOO MUCH PHARISEES SPIRIT & NOT ENOUGH GRACE!

This morning as almost every morning I was watching Bill Winston. He said that a lot of small churches have problems growing because once people come in and are saved they forget they were once heathens. He was speaking about grace and how we have ALL been saved through grace and grace alone.

Ephesians 2:8 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--"

There is nothing that any of us have done to deserve the grace, love, and mercy that God gives us but thank God for His grace! The scripture says that it is a gift from God. The example Pastor Winston used was someone smoking outside of the church and then they come inside the church and the members respond not with a warm welcome but with condemnation, oooh he/she smells like smoke and....followed by gossip. Again, grace is a gift that we did not earn and we are all saved by it. It is so easy to forget and put yourself up on a pedastal and look down on others. However, the only time you should be looking down to someone is when you are picking them up.

Romans 12:3 "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."

Psalm 103: 10 " he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities."

If God was to give all of us the treatment we deserve we would all be dead and in the pits of hell but thank God for Jesus!

This all made me think about the Pharisees. I believe a lot of Christians "church going folk" have what I want to call a Pharisees spirit. The Pharisees "The name Pharisee in its Hebrew form means separatists, or the separated ones. They were also known as chasidim, which means loyal to God, or loved of God - extremely ironic in view of the fact that by His time, they made themselves the most bitter, and deadly, opponents of Jesus Christ and His message.

The Pharisees perhaps meant to obey God, but eventually they became so devoted and extremist in very limited parts of The Law (plus all that they themselves added to it), that they became blind to The Messiah when He was in their very midst. They saw His miracles, they heard His Words, but instead of receiving it with joy, they did all that they could to stop Him - eventually to the point of getting Him killed because He truthfully claimed to be the Son of God." (http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/pharisee.htm)

I thought of the Pharisees because I see so many in the church that want to feel like they know everything about God and scripture that they then can preach to others, put down others and attempt to tell others inside and outside of the church what to do.

Matthew 5:16 "let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

I won't tell anyone what they should or should not do....I was just moved to type this blog on today. I was in a blogging state of mind. I will just end with one of my favorite verses in the bible!

1 Thessalonians 4:11 "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you,"

Sadly, the ones whom can learn something from many messages always hear/read the message and figure out how it applies to everyone but them!

Be a blessing and be blessed,
Epiphany Essentials