This
Made The Pharisees And Teachers Of Religious Law
Complain
That He Was
Associating
With Such Sinful People – Even Eating With Them!
Scripture
Luke
15
1
Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to
Jesus teach.
2 This made
the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was
associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
Observation
Criticism
and being critical! Jesus was always being attacked and criticized by
so called religious folks by what He did.
Ripping
Christian leaders up, attacking them, making all kinds of ridiculous
and twisted accusations against them, puts you, if you are doing that
my friend, in the same boat as the people in Jesus' day known as the
Pharisees.
If
Jesus was walking this Earth today there would be people personally
attacking Him because of the people that He hung out with and the way
that He did ministry. Some things never change!
To
the thankfully very few of you, who spend an enormous amount of time
being critical of people (especially Christian leaders) on Facebook
and probably on other social media too, may I ask this one question
of you, “Is there any Christian leader that you admire and that you
speak well of?”
May
your focus if you are a follower of Christ and my focus as a fellow
believer be on helping people know the Good News about Jesus Christ
and not tearing down the body of Christ.
Lets
spend our time building people up and encouraging them, not tearing
them down.
Lets
rejoice over the one sinner that repents and returns to God!
Sorry,
if I have been too harsh …
1
Thessalonians 5
12 Dear
brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s
work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance.
13 Show
them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And
live peacefully with each other.
Romans
14
18 If you
serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will
approve of you, too. 19 So
then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each
other up.
Ephesians
4
29 Don’t
use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and
helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who
hear them.
Application
I
will spend and invest my time looking for ways to encourage my
brothers and sisters in Christ, helping them to grow.
How
about you?
Prayer
Heavenly
Father, guard my heart. I know how easy it is for me to look at
others and begin to nit pick at how they are living the Christian
life. It is so easy for me to find fault in everyone else. It is so
easy for me to see the speck in the eye of someone else and miss the
beam in my own. Give me Your heart and Your eyes for the people
around me. Help me to love them the way You love them.
Daily
Bible Reading: Genesis 37,38; Psalms 7; Luke 15; I added Psalm 35,
Psalm 65; Proverbs 15
No comments:
Post a Comment