Pharisee Double Life

"What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. 

So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily."

Galatians 2:19-21 (MSG)

Wow! Who knew that was in the Bible? I certainly didn't. 

Well I did, kinda...you might recognize it as "I have been crucified with Christ so I no longer live, but Christ lives in me..." as stated in the NIV. But there is something so special about reading your bible and then looking at it through different translation lenses.

I woke up this morning and the first thing I do before I get out of bed is open my YouVersion app and read the daily scripture. It does not replace my quiet time with God, but due to pressing demands on my time, this is the best way to get some Jesus in me before I get out of bed. 

This is what was on my screen as I groggily opened my eyes and the words of the screen jumped off my Iphone and right into my heart.

I can relate so much to this scripture. I have been a believer my whole life and always thought that doing, saying, wearing the right thing helped me be a "better" Christian. I have always been labeled a "good girl" although I secretly hated it, it did make me feel I was just a bit closer to heaven than those around me that still clung tightly to worldly things. 

Talk about a mirror into my Pharisee double life! That kind of attitude gets you no where fast! I have had to cut myself some slack and say "You know what? I am not going to get it all right and I am going to make mistakes and that is OK. It doesn't negate God's calling on my life. It doesn't make God mad at me and I am certainly not going to be condemned for slipping up every once in a while." 

Bringing my honest self to the Lord is the greatest sacrifice anyone could ever make...inadequacies and all. 

I have also had to cut other people slack too. God did not create us all the same! That's what is beautiful about this world. God created us with different temperaments, personalities, struggles, and victories so that not one of us would be identical. We need to embrace who God made us to be and give a lot more grace to other people who aren't like us. 

It's OK to step outside of your box and make friends with people who may not exactly be like you or think like you. Jesus took a smorgasbord of men from varying occupations and backgrounds and created 12 phenomenal disciples out of them. From stinky old fishermen to snooty tax collectors Jesus picked a lot of men who to a Pharisee's eyes had no chance at getting anywhere near close to the coming Messiah.

But what can be said about these men? 

"Now when the men of the Sanhedrin (Jewish High Court) saw the confidence and boldness of Peter and John, and grasped the fact that they were uneducated and untrained [ordinary] men, they were astounded, and began to recognize that they had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13 (AMP)

The important thing is not the cross around our necks, the bumper sticker on our cars, or the political party we are affiliated with,  but the fact that we have taken the time to spend with Jesus. What freedom falling into the arms of Jesus brings rather than falling into the trap of religion.

Don't let satan confuse conviction for condemnation. Yes God is good and He loves us as our Heavenly Father, but any good father will discipline and when we come under that discipline let it convict you and change you for the better. Condemnation brings with it heavy guilt that you feel you can't get out of. Guess what? When sins are forgiven they are also forgotten. Rest in that. 

What is hindering you from fully walking into the freedom Jesus offers in His Presence? I challenge you to take it to Him in prayer this morning- whether on your lunch break, waiting in the carpool line, or in the quietness of your bedroom before you drift off to sleep tonight- give it to Him. Whatever you are clinging onto too tightly- perfectionism, sin, fear of the unknown, whatever it is. Start walking in his freedom today!

If it was all about religion 
What to do What to say What to Wear
On a Sunday
All about perfection
Black and white Wrong or Right Never Grey
I'd never make it
I'd never be good enough   

Then I threw my hands up, worries down
I remember when he showed me how 
to break up with my doubt, once I was
lost but now I am found
No strings attached when he saved my soul
I want you to know the God I know  

The God I Know by Love and the Outcome 

 

Lighten the Load

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. 

Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. 

I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. 

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. 

I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly." 

Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)

Some of you may have heard this verse before but perhaps not in this version. You may be more familiar with:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (NIV)

 How many times have we said "Lord, this feels way more than I can bear! You said you wouldn't do this to me." Well, I believe I have found the reason why we truly experience that at times life is more than we can bear. 

Because we are carrying too much...we need to lighten the load.

If you are carrying the emotional weight of your hormonal teenager adjusting to middle school, you're carrying too much. If you are carrying the weight of your finances for the whole family and it is causing you to endure chronic financial stress, you're carrying too much. If you are carrying the burden of an elderly parent that cannot care for themselves alone, you are carrying too much. If you are pulled in the middle of a friendship that is unraveling at the seams feeling like you're the link holding it together, you're carrying too much. If you feel the weight of exhaustion that comes from an overloaded schedule, you're carrying too much.

Do you feel it? It is heavy. It consumes our thoughts. It weighs us down spiritually, emotionally, physically...it is too much! You need to lighten the load.

How do we do that? By giving it to God.

When you pray about something, you are leaving it in God's hands. If you notice the weight of the stress burdening you like a ton of bricks pushing you into the floor, it's because you picked it back up.

That's right, you waltzed back into the throne room, picked up that situation that you had you laid down at his feet and said "I've got this God". Only you realized that much later that afternoon, you picked up way more than you could carry and you feel tired, burnt out, stressed out and at your wit's end.

Put it back! That is the great thing about the verse above. We need to learn God's "unforced rhythms of grace". What does that mean? Well imagine our life as a song. Every song has a beat or a rhythm that is slow or fast or just right. Now let's unpack grace. Grace is undeserved favor that rests on us as believers. The Lord knows this life is heavy and the rhythm of our life can get sped up by circumstances beyond our control and within our control. It pounds on our hearts and minds and becomes a burden to keep up with, if we let it.

But when we walk in God's undeserved favor, His open arms waiting to carry our burdens for us, then we are beginning to understand his "rhythm of grace". We begin to  realize that when life is more than we can handle it is because we weren't meant to carry it alone, we were meant to share it with God. We were meant to lay it down before his throne and let Him work it out on our behalf. 

Here is the best part of our loving God. This rhythm of grace He wants us to walk in is unforced. Just as a relationship with Him is. We don't have to accept the gift of this grace. We can continue to operate in our own strength and in our own power and allow the weight of our problems to crush us.

Or, we can operate in the "unforced rhythms of grace" and choose the lighter road. We can even remind ourselves several times throughout the day, week or month to put that problem, that situation, that person back down at God's feet. We will have several times throughout the day where we are tempted to pick those burdens back up, but where grace comes in is remembering that God doesn't want us to carry that alone. It's too big, it's too heavy. He wants us to walk in rest that God has got this situation under control. He wants us to trust that it will be resolved. He wants us to walk our everyday lives in freedom. Freedom from being bound to the heavy yokes that will ultimately trap us into the bondage of  stress that can cause anxiety, depression, or despair. We have the grace to put it back down when we see ourselves picking it back up.

 

Get away with me and you’ll recover your life...Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.

Oh those words are soothing to my soul. Let's recover our lives and live it to the promised abundant fullness! Let's walk with God and talk with Him. Let's cooperate with Him. Here is the best part- in the resting and trusting- we'll get a front row seat on how He will come through in our problem.

What are you carrying that feels too heavy? Have you laid it down in the throne room for God to take care of it?

Because When You Speak, When You Move. 

When You Do What Only You Can Do 

It Changes Us, It Changes What We See And What We Seek 

When You Come In The Room 

When You Do What Only You Can Do 

It Changes Us, It Changes What We See And What We Seek

These are the lyrics to a beautiful song, "Spirit of the Living God", by Vertical Church Band that can help you in your quiet time today to lay it ALL down.