Reading Matthew 23 we find Jesus not exactly happy. I am used to meek and gentle Jesus who is kind to everyone. He might have a pithy comeback to a pharisee or a sadducee, but for the most part he is not talking about how condemned they all are. Or maybe that’s because it makes Jesus seem like a cult leader and most of us aren’t comfortable with Jesus condemning people to hell.
Jesus criticizes the way the Pharisees take oaths, the way that their hearts are darka nd they are greedy, he criticizes the way they dress, how they put such a burden on those they convert to the faith that they become more legalist and less loving than even the pharisees are which is pretty hard to believe.Jesusmuch everything about them he hammers. It is kind of like Rush Limbaugh hammering Obama or someone that opposes his political views.
In Matthew 23:33-36 33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
Here is Jesus bringing the wrath. But the next verse, is a totally different tune. Jesus contrasts his wrath with His love leaving some of his hearers confused. Jesus wants to gather up his people like a hen gathers her chicks. But his people, won’t listen and are condemned.
The pharisees had just enough religion to innoculate them from the relationship with their Heavenly Father.
Is that true about some of us in America. We have seen so much half hearted faith lived out and have been oversaturated with a lot of words and a lot of reliegion, that we have been innoculated to a soul saving relationship with our Heavenly Father through Christ?
Seriously, look at yourself…if you are a Christian, are you more excited about Jesus and following Him or is it just rhetoric and rules? Do you know for sure if you will escape condemnation?
Love reading your blog, Chris. Met you at The Gathering’s Breakfast in Palm Beach. Was one of the guys who prayed with you before the conference. I just wanted to say how much I loved your talk. Am reading Faith in the Fog of War”- Part 1 now. Your story is poignant to me since I was a military brat, my dad a paratrooper, 82nd Airborne and my brother reitired Annapolis grad and ex Chief of Communications Atlantic Fleet, now a defense contractor in Charleston, SC. I love your message and I love what you do. I have shared it with many others. I have a friend, who unable to find work, reinlisted an is In Afghanistan. I have been sharing some passages from your book with him. I came across Psalm 91 today, something pertinent for men everywhere whether we are in the battles of the World or the battle against the evil one. God Bless you and keep on blogging, brother.
It’s interesting to find how challenging the content side is for someAll I can say is WOW!! You have stunned me with the amount a valuable reading here
Hello, I never do these things so I”m not sure how to start or how they are supose to go. Your testimoney caught my ear because my two brothers were in Iraq (Army and Air Force). Neither one talked about how God used it in their lives, and really the reason for that is because one is bitter at God and the other was really struggling in his walk with God at that time. I have been thinking about buying your book for my younger brother, but I’m not sure if he’ll read it. He knows me to well, and would know what I was up to. Anything with God or Faith on the front would turn him off very quickly and maybe make him mad. Anyway, I was reading through your blog and it reminded me of a conversation my roommate and I were having the other day. I just moved to Denver Colo and am looking for a good church I can serve in. I’ve never had to look for a church before, it was ether apart of college or apart of my ministry. In one Sunday I visited two very different churches. One was very traditional, suites & ties, hymnals, KJV, leaders on the platform and then the other was all band, jeans, and ear peircings. I find it interesting how there are two extremes (traditional vs. worldly) and although both were very friendly and you saw God moving and working in their lives, when it came to one talking about the other extreem they all of a sudden became very judgemental. I grew up on the traditional side of the tracks, but have found being in ministry “tradition” can be our worst enemy when it comes to reaching the lost for Christ. Of course I disagree with putting on the world (live in the world, not of it…be ye not conformed to this world) I have learned that when it comes down to it, both exremes fail to do what God intented the “church” to accomplish. Relationship. Putting aright the broken relationship that we have with God. And people wonder why relationships are disfunctional…and yet we can’t live without them. The last minstery I was in started a new philosophy of ministry centered around building relationships with one main purpose “Creating Flourishing Believers”. I find that Christians can have some of the most disfunctional relationships. Where did the passion go?
Hello! Thank you very much for that enlightening article
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