Israelites, Pharisees & Sadducees In The 21st Century Church

The smugness and certainty with which many Christians talk about prayer must strike
people as weird, weird, weird.
The biblical portrait of prayer is as much about broken people embracing the mystery
and majesty of a forgiving God as much as it is about anything.
When prayer becomes a predictable formula that manipulates or controls God, you can
be pretty sure you’re no longer praying.
Prayer is not a button to be pushed. It's a relationship to be pursued. Click To Tweet
5. “Sure I have a few issues, but that’s between me and God.”
And if you keep it between you and God, people will never be able to relate to you.
Perfect on the outside and flawed on the inside—that’s the accusation Jesus levied
against the Pharisees.
When people on the outside look at pretend-to-be-perfect Christians, it does three
things:
It alienates them.
It makes them think you’re fake… because even they know we’re all broken.
It suggests God can’t help them.
The antidotes?
Transparency.
Vulnerability.
Honesty.
When you let people know you don’t have it all together but you’ve met an amazing
God, many people suddenly want to join in.
When you let people know you don't have it all together but you've met an amazing
God, many people suddenly want to join in. Click To Tweet
6. “They just need to work harder.”
Jesus loved the poor and had compassion on broken people.
Many Christians today don’t. (Self-righteousness rears its ugly head again.)
Yes, I am very familiar with the passages in scripture that talk about hard work and
prudence. I try to live by them.
But when I allow my relative ‘success’ to serve as a basis to judge others… I miss
mercy.
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