The difference between leaven and love

Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. (Luke 12:1-2 NASB)

"So many thousands". It was a huge crowd, because people were drawn to Jesus. He loved everyone and He was kind to everyone. He was blunt with Pharisees and He spoke truth to them (which they didn't like) but He still ate with them and was much nicer to them than I would have been, because Jesus loved Pharisees, just like He loved everyone else. 

Jesus was a friend to Pharisees, but he was also a friend to sinners. When He met people like me, who had done terrible things, He was a friend to them. He loved them right where they were, just like they were. Before they could imagine it, they had let Him change them from the inside out. After a while, the outside began to match the inside, where God had been working all along.

The Pharisees had already excluded them. The woman at the well was just one of the many people the Pharisees had excluded. You remember her. She had so much sexual sin that women didn't want to draw water from the well at the same time she did. She had been married so many times that no one wanted to talk to her, lest people think they were like her. She had been searching for a love that could never be found in serial husbands. 

She wanted a love that only God could give, but the church people had excluded her. After they excluded her and had treated her like pond scum, they lost their right to tell her about God's love. Then, there was no one to share the grace of God with her so she carried on, living a life of sin and grief and loss. Without hope.

One day, Jesus met her at the well, while she was still living with a man to whom she wasn't married, and He offered her a new way, a new love. Go and sin no more, He told her. She jumped at the chance for change and she told everyone, including the people who had been mean to her. How about that? The sinner they hated was trying to introduce them to Jesus. 

Yes, indeed. That's what grace can do. When we least expect it, God can turn the worst sinner into the bravest saint, because of His love, because of His mercy and grace.

When Jesus was talking with His disciples, surrounded by a crowd of thousands (every one of them a sinner) He told those men to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees". One of the things that upset Jesus was how the Pharisees treated people like the woman at the well. They knew the law. They knew about mercy and grace in theory, but for some crazy reason, they believed grace and mercy extended to them and stopped. In their minds, grace and mercy was not for people like the woman at the well. It was not for tax collectors, people with sexual sin, murderers, thieves...

Jesus said to beware of that kind of attitude. It's hypocrisy and He will have none of it.

It wasn't a Pharisee that wrote the first of the gospels. It was a hopeless, excluded tax collector who encountered the mercy and grace of God while he was still a tax collector. He was radically changed. The next thing he knew, he was using his stylus to write truth instead of tally money.

It wasn't a Pharisee whose act of extravagant love has been told wherever the gospel is shared. It was a woman who had been forgiven of a mountain of sin. She loved much because she understood that she had been forgiven much. She was radically changed and, for the rest of her life, she lavished her love on Jesus instead of wasting it in sin.

We need to remember what Jesus said. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Judgmental, critical spirits are contagious and they can spread through the body of Christ like wildfire. That wildfire of hate and condemnation can spread and devour and destroy, but it will never bring people to Jesus. It will never pour out the balm of forgiveness. It will never wash people in the river of life.

When I'm tempted to point a finger and condemn someone for their sin and their lifestyle, I don't have to look any further than myself to see how foolish that would be. 

Nearly three decades ago, three women decided to pray for the worst person they knew, just so they could see what God would do. It didn't take long before God poured out his mercy and grace on me, and I jumped at the chance for the lavish love of Christ. Over the years, He's cleansed me and changed me. I'm not perfect, but I'm not the same. 

There's a difference between leaven and love. All those years ago, three women poured out prayer for me, not judgment, not criticism, not condemnation. Could they see the sin in my life? Of course they did. They saw it, and they took what they saw to their Heavenly Father. They chose mercy and grace and it made a life-changing difference. 

We have opportunities to choose leaven or to choose love every single day. We can push people away from Christ or draw them to the cross by the choices we may. 

Let's choose love. 

We love because He first loved us.

1 John 4:19 NASB

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Our Father, forgive my pride. Change my leaven to love. Help me draw people to you by the grace and mercy I extend, just as You have extended grace and mercy to me. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Beware of leaven.

Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops. (Luke 12:1-3 NASB)

"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy," Jesus told the crowd. Leaven is a substance such as yeast that causes fermentation of dough or batter. When fermentation occurs, it causes the dough to expand (or rise). A tiny pinch of yeast will quickly spread through an entire bowl of dough. The word translated as hypocrisy is hypokrisis. It can also be translated as play acting or dissimilation (becoming unlike).

The Pharisees, Jesus was saying, were play-acting their faith and, as a result, they were becoming less like God instead of more like Him. As representatives of God to a lost world, the example they gave was worse than no example at all. Beware of their example, Jesus said. If you aren't paying attention, you will become just like them. 

The problem, of course, is that hypocrisy is much easier than living a life of faith. Being a disciple requires that I give up my desires to follow Christ, when I would rather do what I want. That's what had happened to the Pharisees. They had studied the law so long that they could quote it easily, and were experts at enforcing the law. When it came to obeying the law, they weren't so good. 

What they had done was pick and choose. They decided which laws they would follow. They tithed the mint in their garden, but didn't care about widows and orphans. Tithing mint is easily accomplished. Providing for widows and orphans requires an ongoing commitment to their care. Putting money in the offering boxes was easy to do. Having a heart that was humble and pure was much harder.

It's the same for us. At least it is for me. Giving money is much easier than loving my enemies and praying for those who despitefully use me, isn't it? Teaching what God says is much easier than having an humble, teachable spirit that gives God all the credit and leaves none for myself. It's easier to put on my "Sunday clothes" and go to church with the same attitude I have for going to the grocery store than to arrive with a heart eager to hear from God, willing to renounce my sin and embrace the purity only God can give.

I want to be done with hypocrisy. 

I don't like it in others and I don't want it in me. 

But I'm a Pharisee. 

I do what I don't want to do. I think what I don't want to think. I don't do what I know I should. Like Paul, I think woe is me. Who will separate me from this?

Only Christ. 

Paul said that, what the law could not do, God did in sending Jesus. Through Him, we are made clean and kept clean. It's a choice we must make every day. Will we allow Jesus to cleanse us? Will we follow Him? Will we walk the path of the Pharisees or will we walk the road of Calvary, where His will becomes ours and we become one with Him?

If we want to be real disciples, and not just Pharisees, we will follow the road Christ set before us, in the way He walked it, humbly, putting the will of God before our own. It's not always easy, but it's worth it. 

Bringing the ship of our minds safely to harbor

Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops. (Luke 12:1-3 NASB)

The Pharisees plotted in secret, but Jesus took the offensive into the open. Beware, He told the crowds. The word translated as "beware" is prosechō and is the same word used to describe the action of bringing a ship into dry land safely. In this instance, it means "to hold". What Jesus was saying to His listeners was, "Pay attention and protect your mind. Hold it as a treasure." 

Commentators expound their views on the news; celebrities voice their opinions on talk shows; popular "religious" leaders pronounce their brand of faith in the media. They all speak as if their platform makes what they say worth hearing. They are paid to talk. They have to say words. Sometimes their words are worth hearing. Most times, they're not. 

It is as easy for leaders to make false assumptions and go in a wrong direction as it is for you and me. Our lives were never meant to be patterned after those around us. Our lives are to be patterned after Christ. We have an instruction manual already, and it's called the Bible. 

Jesus was not saying that we should ignore wise counsel or that all those in leadership positions (no matter what kind of leadership they have) are to be disdained. What Jesus was saying is that we should pay attention to what is being said before we embrace it. Don't just embrace words, look at actions. Don't just embrace actions. Judge them by the plumb line of Scripture.

When charismatic speakers deliver lovely words in a touching manner, it is easy to be drawn in to their rhetoric. If the words evoke emotion, it is not uncommon to assume that the emotion has come because their words are truth. If we want to walk in truth, we must judge everything by the standard of truth. 

What is truth? Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me," He is truth. (John 14:6 NIV) If what a speaker says does not line up with what Jesus said, we must discard it, no matter how compelling the words may be. 

It sounds strict, doesn't it? Jesus was full of love and compassion for those of us, like me, who find sin so easy and obedience so hard. When it came to truth, however, He was deadly serious. So serious He died to give us His truth, His way, His life. He isn't being mean or trying to limit our access to the world. Jesus expects us to evaluate what we hear, what we see, and use the discernment God gives to decide if it is truth or not. 

The reason He was so firm about truth is so that we can guide the ship of our minds into the safe harbor of truth, avoiding all the dangers of false doctrine along the way.  Prosechō. Beware, lest we find ourselves docking where we never meant to be. 

Pursue truth. Hold it like a standard. Accept nothing less.

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Coming attraction: a look at an 1841 list of causes of shipwreck and how to avoid shipwrecks in our lives.

Being an open door to Christ

Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering." (Luke 11:52 NASB)

We come now to the last of the "woes" Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and the lawyers (or scribes). The lawyers were experts in the mosaic law. Like the Pharisees, they had spent their lives studying Scripture. They knew all the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah. They had every bit of information they needed (the key of knowledge) to recognize their Messiah. 

When Jesus arrived, He did not look like they expected. The scribes and Pharisees wanted a military king, like David. They wanted a Messiah who would chase out the Romans and restore Israel to its Davidic prominence and wealth. A suffering servant was not what they had in mind. Rather than embrace the Messiah God had sent, they rejected Him because He wasn't what they wanted. 

The lawyers had the key of knowledge that would have allowed them to accept their Savior and enter the kingdom of God, but they "took it away". They refused to use the key they had at their disposal. The lawyers were not quiet about Jesus. They spoke against Him at every opportunity and they twisted Scripture in such a way that they deceived the people. In refusing to use their key (knowledge) to recognize their Messiah, they also hindered others from entering the kingdom of God. It's clear that Jesus held them responsible for both errors. 

It is a tragedy to miss the kingdom of God because it doesn't look like what we expected. It is a much greater tragedy to prevent others from coming to Jesus because of our unbelief and our failure to understand God's plan.

When those of us who profess to be believers act in ways that are inconsistent with our faith, we can easily "take away the key of knowledge" from those who are unfamiliar with the things of God. What a tragedy for someone who doesn't know Jesus to look at my life and reject Him because of my choices! When I make it easy for someone to label me a hypocrite, or to see Christ as weak and ineffective because I fail to follow Him faithfully, I can hinder them from the kingdom. 

It is a question of holiness. My life should gradually become more like Christ's. If my life looks exactly like those of the rest of the world, what difference has Christ made in me? I must allow Him to mold and shape me into someone better than what I am without Him. I must be a living monument to His grace for all to see. 

When I refuse to be transformed, I hide the key of knowledge from those who look to me for evidence of Jesus. In so doing, I can prevent them from entering the kingdom of God, with eternal consequences. 

May we never turn others away from Jesus by our choices but live in such a way that all who will can find an open door to Christ in us.

Dead Men Walking

Cemetery outside Jerusalem

"But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. " (Luke 11:42-44 NASB)

In Israel, the "graves" are above-ground boxes in which the bodies are laid. Instead of flowers at the gravesite, visitors leave stones atop the boxes. Visiting a cemetery outside the city walls of Jerusalem, I was surprised to see thousands of bleached-white stone boxes; I was amazed to see hundreds of stones atop many of the boxes. It was jarring evidence of death and loss, in stark contrast to the tree-shaded, grass-covered graves in this country. Their graves were clearly visible. Death in boxes.

We continue the "woes" today. "Woe", we learned earlier, is a word of denunciation meaning "you should be ashamed of yourself". Jesus said that the Pharisees, religious leaders and experts in Jewish law, were like "concealed tombs". A concealed tomb contains death, but the people who walk over it don't realize it contains a dead person. They don't know they have been "contaminated by touching death." 

The Pharisees, He said, were full of death, not life. Everyone who came in contact with the Pharisees became, in a way, ceremonially unclean because of their brush with the putrefaction within. The death in them was so well-concealed by their good deeds and religious language that most people couldn't recognize it. It looked like life to them. 

Therein is a major problem in the church, even today. Spiritual death can be so well concealed by good deeds, large donations, regular church attendance, and religious language that the death within is misinterpreted as life. It's a tragedy for all of us. First, for the people who "fake" life in Christ. Second, those who view these fakers and believe that they are seeing the life of a disciple are sadly deceived.

Life in Christ is not about saying a few words of a prayer to obtain fire insurance for the hereafter. Life in Christ is about discipleship, following His leading and not our own. Following Him means loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves. 

When seekers view the lives of what Jesus might have called "dead men walking", they are apt to misunderstand faith. It is no wonder when they turn away.

Our cemeteries are filled with concealed graves. The grass, flowers, and trees are beautiful trappings that help conceal them, but there is still death within. When we are like concealed graves, it is nothing short of tragedy. 

I want to be filled with life, I want my deeds to accurately reflect the Christ within, don't you? Today, let's make sure that there is life within us because of our relationship with the One who IS life.  

The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. (John 10:10 ASV)

Idolatrous Love

"But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. " (Luke 11:42-44 NASB)

Jesus delivered a series of "woe's" to those in attendance at the luncheon. "Woe" is a word of denunciation and similar to our saying, "You should be ashamed of yourself". Jesus pointed out several things about which the men should be ashamed. First, they were diligent about tithing but they did it without justice or mercy. Love was not their motivation.

In the next woe, He revealed their motivation. Their love was for the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings they received in the market places. These religious leaders did not simply enjoy the chief seats and the respectful greetings. The word Jesus used for their affection was agapaō. They loved the trappings of honor with the love that should be reserved for God alone. 

What the Pharisees felt for the adulation they received was a form of idolatry. They loved the rewards of their righteous behavior more than the One for whom they were supposed to be doing their acts of righteousness. They were not serving God by their good deeds. They were serving themselves. The good deeds and obedience to a list of rules were done simply for the rewards they brought, not because they pleased God.

The question of motivation is one that must be answered. For the Pharisees, the answer was nothing more than self-serving pride. They loved what right living bought them, not the God they supposedly served.

Theirs was an easy mistake to make. When we are "raised in the church", involved in "church work" most of our lives, it is easy for right living to become a matter of rote. Instead of works that are motivated by a heart filled with love for God, our good choices can become simply habit.

When that happens, it is a very small step to enjoying the benefits of right living more than the relationship that should motivate it. Rules are often easier than relationships, especially if maintaining the relationship requires change in us, and our relationship with God always requires us to change.

We must be constantly on guard against the Pharisaical error of misplaced agapaō. Our love must be focused on God and not the blessings He gives. For today, let's spend a few minutes evaluating our own hearts. Are we more focused on rules than on relationship? On what or whom do we lavish our agapaō? Let's be sure our love is for the One who loved us first.

We love because He first loved us. 

                                                                                        1 John 4:19 NASB

Washing inside and out

Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? (Luke 11:37-40 NASB)

One of the distinguishing factors of the Pharisees was their strict observance to purity laws. Intended for purification before worship at the temple, the Pharisees extended the observance of temple purity laws to life outside the temple, as well. Ritual cleansing was not only for coming before God. The Pharisees had decreed that it was for every day.

When Jesus visited the Pharisee's house, He did a surprising thing. He skipped the ritual cleansing and went straight to the table and sat down, instead. The Pharisee was surprised, but Jesus responded to the man's surprise by using it as a teachable moment. The Pharisees, he said, were diligent to clean the "outside", pouring water over their hands in ritual cleansing, while their "inside" was full of sin. Jesus called them foolish and reminded them that God made the outside and the inside. 

Washing their hands for ceremonial cleansing was supposed to be an outward symbol of an inward transformation, not a substitute for transformation. The Pharisees had turned the symbol into their objective, completely abandoning the important cleansing of their hearts. They were full of "robbery and wickedness" and had no intention of changing. They would much rather have their hands cleansed than their hearts.

What they didn't seem to understand was that the purpose of the rituals involved in worship was to demonstrate the price of sin, the payment for sin, and the need for cleansing from sin. The experts in the law had missed the meaning and interpretation of the law completely. 

Being cleansed from sin before God is vital in our relationship with Him, but that will never come by washing our hands or our bodies. Being cleansed of sin begins with a repentant heart and the blood of Christ. 

The problem comes when we like our sin and want to keep it. It is much easier to wash our hands than to allow cleansing from sin for which we are not repentant. 

Alas, if we understood how God views our sin, we might feel differently. Therein lies much of our problem. God hates the sin we love, and it is His opinion that matters most of all. He hates our sin because it hurts us and separates us from Him. It costs us more than we can imagine. 

If we could see our sin the way God sees it, perhaps we would be less eager to retain it. For today, let's ask God to show us our hearts and the sin that offends Him, but let's not stop there. Let's ask God to wash our hearts clean, too. 

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus...

The Friend of Broken People

Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. (Luke 11:37 NASB)

Jesus and the Pharisees sparred constantly. The Pharisees had reduced faith to a series of rules so stringent no one could follow them. They had reduced repentance to a monetary exchange of payoffs and reduced forgiveness to a marketplace transaction. Experts in Mosaic law, they were, for the most part, steadily leading their fellow Jews away from a relationship with God. 

If any group was an outright enemy of Christ, it was the Pharisees. They were the ones that would eventually push for His arrest, His trial, and His crucifixion. At this point in Jesus' ministry, the conflict between Him and the Pharisees was beginning to escalate. Then, a surprising thing happened. 

Jesus had been speaking to a crowd about prayer, casting out demons, and the Sign of Jonah. A Pharisee was among the people gathered that day. After Jesus finished speaking, the Pharisee approached Him and invited Him to eat lunch. In my mind's eye, I can see Jesus smile, nod His head, and tell the man, "Sure, I'd be glad to have lunch with you." That may not be how it happened, but Jesus agreed to the man's invitation.

He did not call the Pharisee names. He did not condemn the Pharisee for his sin. He did not publicly shame the Pharisee. He did not attempt to abolish all Pharisees. 

What Jesus did instead was to love the Pharisee. He spent time with the Pharisee. He honored the Pharisee by His presence. He was kind to the Pharisee, but His kindness did not extend to agreeing with his sin. When the Pharisees and his friends questioned Jesus, He spoke truth, but He spoke it with love. It is important to note that Jesus spoke the hard truth after He had spent time with the Pharisee and shared a meal together. (The Pharisees were angered by the truth but that's a topic for a different day.)

This particular Pharisee may not have embraced Christ's teachings and may not have become a believer, but some of the Pharisees did. They watched Jesus love everyone, listened to His truth, and followed Him. 

When our beliefs differ from those of others around us, we must follow the example of Christ. He loved everyone, especially sinners. His greatest condemnation was not for lost people but for people who claimed to be "God's people" yet were far from Him.

Jesus' life was filled with broken people looking for a way to be made whole, and mine  should be, too. If my life is not inhabited by broken people who see something whole in me, I need to ask myself why not. 

How do we respond to people who disagree with us? To people considered "sinners" by the religious establishment? With whom do we spend our time?

If we are to be like Jesus, we need to love the lost and broken as much as He does. It's the best way to bring them to the One who can make them whole. 

We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. (1 John 4:19-21 NASB)

Rules versus Relationship (Luke 6:2)

But some of the Pharisees said, "Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" (Luke 6:2 NASB)

The Pharisees were experts in the law. They not only knew the law, they interpreted the law, and they happily dispensed their interpretation of the law as law itself. In a way, it wasn't just God's Law, it was their Law, too, and they fiercely defended what they saw as their territory. 

The disciples were hungry and they grazed as they walked through the grain fields. Technically, it could be said that picking the handful or two of grain they ate was harvesting, and rubbing it between their hands to separate the wheat from the chaff was threshing, both of which were "work". How foolish it would be, though, for the Pharisees to complain about the disciples harvesting and threshing a few handfuls of grain in violation of the Sabbath when they were walking with The Lord of the Sabbath!

Jesus does not call us to a set of unbending rules but to a dynamic relationship with God Himself. That relationship (like the new wine from Luke 5) is one of change, growth, and steady maturity, not just a list of tasks to be accomplished. The disciples walked out that relationship for all the world to see. While the Pharisees were steadily checking off tasks on the "must-do" list and carefully avoiding the "do-nots", yet trying to sneak a few "do-nots" to the "can-do" list, in hopes of obtaining righteousness, the motley crew of disciples were laughing and eating with the One who WAS their Righteousness. 

It's easy to be a rule-checking Pharisee, especially when we are looking at someone else's actions! As we pray for our loved ones today, be sure to focus on their need for relationship, not on their need for another list to check and do. 

Pray first of all that we would live out our dynamic relationship with Christ in the same joyful way the disciples did, and that our loved ones would recognize the relationship as infinitely desirable. Pray that they will embrace a relationship with Jesus for themselves. 

Left Out and Not Happy (Luke 5:30)

The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?" (Luke 5:30 NASB)

Those scribes and Pharisees had the worst time of it. Their Messiah had come and they didn't like Him. In fact, they refused to admit that He WAS the Messiah!  They took note of His miracles but one of the sticking points for them is described in this verse. 

It was, in a way, a two-fold problem. First, Matthew had walked away from his job as a tax collector. Admittedly, even the scribes and Pharisees could see that as a good thing. Matthew celebrated by throwing a huge, lavish banquet to honor Jesus and introduce Him to all his friends. The scribes and Pharisees had not been nice to Matthew, so he didn't invite them. He invited fellow sinners to the party. From their comments, it seems the scribes and Pharisees thought that, if a lavish party was planned, there should have been a better class of guests invited, namely THEM. 

How about that? They didn't want to associate with Matthew, but they didn't want to be left out of his party either. The crazy thing about their dilemma is that, had they taken off their haughty hat and come to the table as one of the crowd, Jesus would have made sure they were welcome. 

2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God wants all people to repent and come to Him. He delays that more might be saved. He wanted to scribes and Pharisees the come to Jesus, but they (mostly) refused to come. How sad is that? 

The thing we need to remember is that we were once (and still are) the lowliest of sinners. Maybe it doesn't look like it on the outside anymore, but on the inside, where God looks, we are. Matthew might have wanted to invite us to his party. The problem is that becoming a religious snob, like the Pharisees, is all too easy, and the saddest part of being a Pharisee is that our attitude causes us to be left out of all the God-fun!  

Today, take a close look at your attitude toward people who are making lifestyle choices that are different from yours. Do you see them as someone who needs Jesus or someone you want to exclude? If an attitude change is needed, let's make it! Who wants to be a Pharisee? Not me!

Pray for the heart of Jesus toward those who are trapped in sin, especially toward our loved ones and their friends. Pray that they will find a warm welcome from the body of Christ when they respond to His call.