I’m reading through the Book of Acts once again and once again I am reminded that opposition to the gospel was more often posed by religious factions than by the state.  Certainly, Rome eventually became the great enemy of the church but in the first thirty years or so it was the Jewish religious institutions that set Rome against Jesus and that pursued their own persecution against the church. Saul of Tarsus was the epitome of that persecution before he became the Apostle Paul. The Book of Acts declares, “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1-2). Saul, as an extension of the Sanhedrin, would hold the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death.

The Romans persecuted the church as a matter of political expediency but the Jews seemed to harbor a genuine hate for the followers of Jesus. Even in America today, it seems that denominations sometimes present more opposition to one another than atheists or anti-Christian government policies.  The truth is that if believers trusted one another and were united in our faith, the government would not be passing legislation that is opposed to Christian values. We have to ask what is there about religion that produces division, opposition, and even hatred at times towards others who also profess to be followers of Jesus?

In short, there is a spirit of religion that manifests as religious legalism and that legalism is the ever-present catalyst for division, accusation, and even persecution. Of course, there are times to “draw a line in the sand” between people who claim to follow Jesus yet whose doctrines vastly contradict what scripture says about Jesus.  Those who claim that Jesus was not truly God but a created being or that the he was not actually raised from the dead or that he is only one of several ways for men to be saved have to be opposed and scripture commands us to do so.  But, generally speaking, divisions in the church and prejudice against other believers has not stemmed from our views on Jesus, but everything else, such as forms of church governance, worship styles, beliefs about the activity of the Holy Spirit, and even in whose name(s) someone should be baptized.

Legalism is the belief that we attain salvation through our own efforts or our own good works.  I asked a friend who is part of a very legalistic fellowship what he did with the passages that say we are saved by grace and not through any works of our own (Eph. 2:8-10).  He quickly stated that we are saved by grace because it is by grace that God gives us the opportunity to earn our salvation through good works. Legalism always and quickly asserts that we are saved not just by doing the right things but also by believing the right things….not just about Jesus, but about church doctrine as well. Those who view scripture differently are seen as “worshipping God in error” and, therefore, their salvation is at risk.  Because of that, true believers should have little to do with those who are in error because their error might creep into the true doctrine of those who have correctly interpreted scripture.

My first years as a believer were spent in a fellowship that drew very tight lines around doctrine and although they proclaimed loudly that we are saved by grave, their actions revealed that they actually believed that we are saved by holding to correct doctrine in all things. Churches who varied, even within that fellowship, were held suspect and sometimes “marked” and fellowship was withheld by other churches in that denomination. In those circles, the mark of faithfulness was not so much a lifestyle that reflected Jesus, but a fierce defense of the doctrines of that fellowship.  Clearly, when the enemy has convinced us that salvation depends on correct interpretation of all things in the Bible, huge and passionate divisions will take place. In Romans 14, Paul warns us not to reject one another over “disputable matters,” which seems to include many things over which churches have divided.

Certainly, the Pharisees believed they alone correctly understood the demands of the Law and believed they were the only dispensers of truth.  How often did they judge Jesus as a false Messiah because he did not measure up to their understanding of the scriptures, even though his life was a life of undeniable miracles? Within the Pharisees there was an undeniable arrogance and disdain for the “unlearned.”  The “unlearned” were typically anyone who did not agree with them.

Again, their view was that knowing and understanding the written word of God correctly was their primary ticket to heaven. However, Jesus often told them that their quest to be doctrinally purehad gotten in the way of their relationship with the Father and blinded them to God’s interpretation of his own word.  An underlying belief that the first rung of salvation is the correct understanding of all scripture leads to the splitting of doctrinal hairs and a neglect of relationship over knowledge. What a great strategy of the enemy. He takes what is good and a godly desire to know and understand God’s word and perverts it to an end in itself, instead of a way to relationship.  Beware of anyone who believes they have the corner on all Biblical truth and who puts orthodoxy ahead of love and grace.  Paul, a former Pharisee himself, put it this way. “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2).

I realize that what I have written may sound as if I think doctrine is unimportant.  Actually, I think it is very important and what we believe about Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross is truly a matter of salvation. I also believe that coming to a greater and greater understanding of all scripture is important and is pleasing to God.  It is pleasing, however, when the motivation behind the study is to discover more of who God is rather than just being able to defend my “rightness” and spiritual superiority more effectively.

It is not doctrine that is the issue as much as our attitude about doctrine and about those who are not in lock step with us. Family members disagree about many things but still view each other as family.  Couples disagree but have to find ways to still love and respect each other in spite of their differences.  The church should be the same.

In my formative years as a Christian, I was actually taught that those outside of our fellowship who did not share our view of scripture did not love the truth or were simply ignorant of the Bible…and most likely were lost.  We took the passage in 2 John 9-11, that said,”Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work,” and expanded that to all doctrine about anything biblically related. John’s letters were all about the Gnostic heresy that denied that Jesus was God, that he came in the flesh, actually died on the cross, and was actually resurrected. The issue was about who Jesus was and what he accomplished on the cross not about every other doctrinal issue in scripture.

In addition to this belief that correct doctrine is essential to salvation, there is also a psychological need to stay “one up” on other believers and people in general.  Think about it.  If you believe that you get to heaven on the basis of your own good works and correct beliefs, then somewhere there is a celestial bell curve with an unknown cut off point.  Those who have done enough or have been right enough, get in.  Those who haven’t are turned away.

If you get to heaven on the basis of your own righteousness, then you are invested in being more righteous than others and so you will always seek to at least portray yourself as more correct, more righteous, more favored, etc. than those around you. That was exactly what the Pharisees did.  So you will become the critical spirit, the judgmental person in the room, and the “holier than thou” pain-in-the-neck at every gathering.  You will work hard to point our every other person’s or every other church’s failings with a tinge of condemnation attached to each bullet point.

This religious spirit will always deny its legalism and proclaim its love, but actions and attitude will reveal where that spirit is operating. The mindset of a religious spirit is difficult to change because everything depends on being right.  It usually takes a dramatic experience to change their view of spiritual realities like Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus.   If you have someone in your life in bondage to that spirit, you may want to pray for a dramatic encounter with Christ rather than continuing your efforts to persuade them with scripture.  It is also imperative that we scan our own hearts from time to time to make sure that spirit hasn’t settled in us somehow so that we feel just a little superior to those who don’t share our view of all things spiritual.  If you suspect that spirit has found its way into your heart, get rid of it.  Life is easier and Jesus is much more attractive when that spirit is absent.

One of the most fascinating stories in all of scripture is the story of Jacob’s night at Bethel which he experienced when he was on the run from his brother Esau, whom he had swindled on several ocassions. We are told, “Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

There above it stood the Lord, and he said: ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven’” (Gen.28:10-17).

Two millennia later, John told us in his gospel, “When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, ‘Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.’ ‘How do you know me?’ Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, ‘I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ Then Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.’ Jesus said, ‘You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.’ He then added, ‘I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”’ (Jn. 1:47-51).

Nathaniel was stunned that Jesus had known his thoughts. We can surmise that Nathaniel had been sitting under a tree meditating on the word of God – specifically this story and all the ways in which Jacob had defrauded his brother Esau. Jacob was an Israelite in whom there had been a great deal of deception so Jesus contrasted Nathaniel with Jacob. He then characterized himself as the ladder in Jacob’s dream.

In essence, the gospel of John reveals that Jacob’s dream was a prophetic picture of Jesus who would bridge the gap between heaven and earth. Not only that but, through him, the household of God would become a gateway to heaven. The idea of the church being a doorway to heaven is both encouraging and challenging. We know that ultimately Jesus is the way to heaven but the church presents him to the world. Jesus is the ladder that spans the gap but we open the door for others to know and experience Jesus. In that sense we can open the door or close the door to heaven by our representation of Jesus. That is both a privilege and a sobering responsibility.

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for being poor gatekeepers to the kingdom of heaven. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (Mt.23:13). These “paragons of virtue” kept men from entering the kingdom because of their legalism and arrogance. They made “rule keeping” the cornerstone of their faith and piled on so many rules that everyone felt the impossibility of “being good enough” from the start. Many gave up before they even started and many felt the condemnation of the Pharisees who considered themselves righteous as they judged all others as those who would not truly make the cut. Pharisees would not even walk on the same side of the street as “sinners” so how could they ever lead a sinner to the kingdom and who would want to go with them anyway?

The Pharisees operated under the Law but some have done the same with the gospel of grace by turning the faith into a list of rules and expectations rather than a relationship based on our immense need for grace because none of us, by our own efforts, can make the cut. Many have felt judged and condemned by those in the church so that the gateway to heaven seemed cold and harsh rather than warm and inviting.

There is also a side to grace that is sometimes abused as well. Sometimes we make grace into a blanket policy that suggests that everyone and everything is acceptable in the kingdom of God and no one really goes to hell after all. God’s love is immense but so is his righteousness. Repentance is a prerequisite to entering the kingdom. If everyone gets in the door, there is no need for membership. The difference in legalism and grace is not the absence of standards under grace, but the basis for meeting those standards.

Under law, you must live up to kingdom standards by your own strength and efforts. Under grace, Jesus has lived up to those standards for us. We are credited with his efforts as long as we have faith in what he has done and a heart that wants to honor him with righteous living although we will have a number of miscues along the way. The kingdom offers salvation wherever we are in life, but calls us to something better, something cleaner, something healthier, and something greater than the world can offer. But it must be offered on the basis of love, grace and humility rather than with judgment and spiritual pride.

The truth is that each of us in a gatekeeper in the kingdom of God. In the eyes of those considering that gate, our lives and our attitudes reflect what is on the other side. If we are judgmental and arrogant, those outside the gate will expect to find a God on the other side who will make them cringe and crawl with fear. If we suggest that there is really no difference between the world inside and outside the gate, other than a “Get out of jail free” card, they will have the sense that nothing for them or their children will improve in this world so they may choose to look for another source of relief for their current pain.

As gatekeepers we must display the character of the kingdom. At the top is faith, hope, and love based on a relationship with a loving God whose grace and Spirit will make life significantly better on this side of heaven and that will make heaven a warm, inviting place for those in Christ rather than a frightening place of judgment and rejection. We are the house of God and the gate of heaven as Jacob put it. Let’s decide today to be amazing and inviting gate keepers for Jesus.

I was previewing a DVD on parenting by Kara Powell a few days ago and I was struck by something she said. The DVD series is entitled Sticky Faith. It is a series about helping children maintain their faith after they leave home and go to school, the military, or the workplace.

She had interviewed a number of college students who had actively been part of their church’s youth group while growing up. Statistically, nearly half of all young adults who are active in their church will leave their faith after leaving home. Powell and her team were looking for answers to the “why?” of such an exodus. One thing really stood out to her from the interviews. When asked what Christianity meant to them, a very large percentage of those college students gave an answer that never once mentioned the name of Jesus. What the interviewers discovered was that many of the students defined their faith as a set of behaviors rather than as a relationship with God.

When they were thrust into a new setting where their Christian behaviors were not valued and in which their behaviors did not win them acceptance with the “in crowd,” they jettisoned those behaviors like taking off a vest and tossing it into the corner. More importantly, when they had pursued the behaviors of the world long enough to be broken and ashamed by what they had done, they did not know how to come back to Jesus.

They didn’t know how to come back to Jesus because they didn’t know who Jesus was or what his heart was toward them. They had been immersed in rules growing up but not in relationship. They thought the behaviors were there to buy them acceptance and to please their parents. When acceptance didn’t come and when parents weren’t around, then the reason for the behaviors was gone. They didn’t know about the love of Jesus and did not have an overriding desire in their hearts to please their heavenly Father above men.

I’m afraid that many adult believers suffer from the same perception of their faith – that it is a set of behaviors that makes them acceptable to those around them rather than a life long relationship that takes priority over every other relationship they will ever have. When those behaviors don’t win them acceptance and approval at work, they compartmentalize and live out one set of values and behaviors at work and another set at church. They have the feeling that “Jesus doesn’t work for them” in the market place, at school, or in politics. When our prayers aren’t answered as we outlined them, we assume it is about behaviors or not doing enough to get God to give us our reward for good behavior. When we feel like we have been “doing all the right things” and God doesn’t “pay off” with our hearts desire, we feel betrayed. When we focus primarily on a set of behaviors rather than on a living, breathing relationship with Jesus, we will never know him because we only see him as the scorekeeper or an employer rather than a friend or father who always wants what is best for us.

It’s easy and very human to fall into the trap of viewing our faith as a set of behaviors, a list of do’s and don’ts, or rituals that we carry out to earn the approval and favor of God. When we slip into that mode we begin to slip into the school of the Pharisees who had a “form of godliness but missed the power” of a relationship with the creator of the universe. If we have a love relationship with the God who is love, then nothing is out of our reach – not because of our performance, but because of His desire to bless those he cares for. Our confidence in his love rather than our performance is the foundation of faith for all things.

So… if we ever start feeling distant from our God or catch ourselves feeling resentment because we think God hasn’t given us what we have earned by all our prayer, sacrifice, or moral living, then we have probably slipped into the “behavior’s mindset” rather than a relationship. If our children leave home thinking that their faith is a set of behaviors, they will probably wander away. If we teach them nothing else, we must teach them that Christianity is an eternal relationship with the Father through his Son Jesus Christ with both of them residing in our hearts through the Spirit.

Are there behavioral standards in that relationship? Of course there are, just as in any family or marriage. The standards exist to bless the relationship but are not the relationships in themselves. The relationship began in love and endures through love. We live up the Father’s standards because of love not to earn the love. We desperately need to teach our children that truth and we may need to remember it as well from time to time.

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”          Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled.    The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.    But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. (Luke 6:1-11)

There are some who take offense at the move of the Holy Spirit and the miracles of God. They immediately reject what God is doing when the Spirit moves in ways not specifically seen in the Bible, or when He moves in ways that do not fit an individual’s theology, or when he moves at all. That individual would admit that God once worked in those ways but would assert that God no longer does such things. Each of these individuals would claim scriptural authority for his or her view. How we approach scripture makes a huge difference in our faith. Luke’s account is instructive in our approach to scripture.

The Pharisees were great students of the Torah. They had memorized most, if not all, of the Old Testament – certainly the first five books. They spent their days dissecting and debating the texts, trying to determine all things lawful and unlawful. They viewed scripture as a rulebook. Their approach was simply to determine what was permitted and what was prohibited in life and assign every nuance of life to one of those categories. When there was an infraction, their job was to throw and flag and assess a penalty.

The Torah said that man should do no work on the Sabbath. God, however, deleted the footnote that defined what constituted “work.” So the Pharisees and other religious leaders took on the task of defining the word for Him. Their scholars produced a definitive list of activities that constituted work and over time their definitions carried as much weight as scripture. Of the hundreds of activities prohibited, harvesting grain and healing on the Sabbath made the “prohibited” list. Jesus violated the list! In their minds, that marked Jesus as a sinner.

That would have been an easy label to hang on Jesus except for the fact that he performed numerous certifiable miracles that were far beyond the reach of any ordinary man. In fact, they seemed to be the marks of a true prophet in the order of Elijah or Elisha. But, by their definition of sin, Jesus was a sinner. So they simply declared his miracles to be works of the devil designed to deceive.

Their mistake was in their view of scripture. They knew the two greatest commandments: Love God and love your neighbor. What they didn’t understand was that God’s love had to be reflected in the interpretation of the scriptures. What they didn’t understand was that God was revealing himself in the scriptures as not only a holy God, but also a loving and merciful God who wanted to show them his goodness and kindness at every turn.

Even on Sinai, as God was giving the Law, Moses asked to see God’s glory. The Lord replied that he would cause all of his “goodness” to pass in front of Moses and that he would proclaim his name to the prophet (Ex.33:19). The first thing God wanted to reveal was his goodness so that the Law would be understood through that filter. The “Thou shalt not’s” of the Law were not laws to restrict the blessings or even the freedom of man, but rather warning signs to avoid danger. They were safety signs and doors to blessings from a loving God rather than a set of rules from a harsh judge.

Jesus, who came to show us the Father, understood that. When man was hungry, even on the Sabbath, God blessed him to find food. When a man was crippled, even on the Sabbath, God healed the man. Both of those acts reveal the nature and goodness of God. The Pharisees thought that man was made to serve the Law and the Sabbath. Jesus showed us that the Sabbath and the Law were made to serve man. How much more are the gospel and the New Covenant made to serve and bless us?

When someone today objects to miraculous moves of the Spirit, they end up objecting to men and women being healed, tormenting spirits being cast out of suffering individuals, the dead being raised, the blind receiving their sight and so forth.   If you ask them why they object, they will refer to scripture and argue that in the last days there will be counterfeit miracles and that God no longer operates in that way. My response would be, “So God no longer cares about the suffering of people enough to act supernaturally on their behalf? What about the goodness of God?” They might say that they don’t see the Spirit falling on people in scripture and making them laugh or cry or fall backwards and lie on the ground and convulse for hours. When Jesus came he acted in ways that Pharisees had never seen before. He associated with sinners, let harlots rub perfume on his feet, touched unclean lepers, walked on water, commanded storms, returned sanity to the demonized, and raised the dead over and over.

He then gave the same power and authority to others and declared that anyone who had faith in him would do even greater things. I’m certain that if the Pharisees had seen him walk on water or command storms they would have branded him a sorcerer. Why? Because they didn’t have a clear command or precedent in the Torah for such things. He was acting in new ways, just as the Spirit is acting in new ways today.

Does that mean anything goes? No, it doesn’t. We must still test the spirits. We need to ask if something actually violates a clear scripture (rather than a “reasoned argument” from men) or if it violates the nature of God and the Spirit of Christ. Healing does not violate the spirit of Christ, but opposing healing does. The Spirit falling on men with power does not violate scripture or the nature of God but denying the power of the Spirit does. Miracles of all kinds do not violate scripture or the nature of God, but assigning those miracles to demonic activity does.

Unfortunately, we still have the spirit of the Pharisees operating through men in our churches today. For the sake of their reasoned understanding of scripture, these men would forbid healing services, would be outraged if someone commanded the dead to rise at a funeral home, and would never allow anyone to minister deliverance to a member of their congregation.

Do they know that Jesus is Lord? Probably. Do they know Jesus? Probably not. When we approach scripture, we should see it through the lens of God’s goodness and his relentless desire to bless people rather than a rulebook that looks to penalize every infraction. We need to enjoy God and expect expressions of his goodness and power as we go through the day. Those who walked with Jesus, experienced that day by day and we walk with him now! So enjoy.

Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Matthew 16:12

In Matthew 16, Jesus had a familiar encounter with Pharisees and the Sadducees who were demanding a sign from him to confirm his authority as a prophet and, perhaps, as the Messiah. After the encounter, he and the twelve shoved off in a boat for another location. Somewhere on their short voyage the disciples discovered that no one had brought bread. As they discovered their dilemma, Jesus said, “Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

The twelve thought he was somehow discussing their dilemma and the fact that they had pushed off on a journey without provisions. After some discussion, they discerned that he had not been talking about the properties of a great loaf of bread but rather he had been talking about the teaching of the religious leaders of Israel. Their teaching was a well-developed theology of rules and laws for serving God. It was legalism in its fullest sense. It defined every aspect of the believer’s life and declared what was and was not acceptable to God.

I really like what Graham Cooke says about this in his little book, Qualities of a Spiritual Warrior. He says, “Part of His (Jesus) ministry was to take a stand against religiosity in church leadership. ‘Woe’ is a primary exclamation of grief and also denunciation. In Matthew 23:13-29, He used it on eight occasions. He called church leaders hypocrites, blind men, blind guides, and whited sepulchers. His foremost accusation was that they shut off the Kingdom of Heaven from people because they had no experience of it themselves.

In mentoring the disciples, He was developing a church leadership that could carry the message and lifestyle of the kingdom in themselves. He taught them how to believe God, how to move in the supernatural, how to have power over the enemy, and how to love people and release them into a lifestyle of blessing and favor…

He stood against a religious system that had captured people in a legalistic environment that prevented them from being loved fully by God. When the system defines the experience we can have with God, then we have no freedom. Jesus came to set us free from an organized religious experience that teaches us how to think, speak and act before God. It is the role of the Holy Spirit to renew our minds, not for man to program them. Jesus came to overthrow a system that does not allow us the joy of exposure to his fullness, anointing, and glory” (p.133-134).

The power of the Kingdom of God cannot flourish in a legalistic system of rules and regulations that place God in a well-defined box. Does that mean that “anything goes?” Of course not. Paul gives some healthy and biblical boundaries for the expression of the things of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12-14. However, he does not restrict their expression but only regulates them so that their expression always reflects love. It also does not mean that those individuals who want a greater experience of Jesus through his Spirit are to ignore the rules of the house set by its leaders. A great deal of harm has been done by well-meaning people who have gone off to a conference on miracles and decided to come home and “blow the roof off” their conservative congregation. Submission to leadership is an important principle in the kingdom. Finding a greater expression of the Kingdom may mean going to another environment where it is welcomed rather than “trying to shake things up” where you are. Encouraging leadership to be more open is one thing, rebelling against their boundaries us another.

We often think of legalism in terms of churches that do not accept the full ministry of the Holy Spirit but that is not always the case. There are non-charismatic churches that are full of grace but have not yet come into the miraculous measures of the Holy Spirit. They are open but have not yet arrived. There are also “charismatic” churches that are just as guilty of legalism as cessationsist churches. Some of those churches have strictly defined dress codes, hairstyles, prohibitions on makeup, and so forth that regulate the life of believers. Legalism can creep into any theology like leaven in a loaf of bread and change the very nature of faith and freedom.

Even on a personal level, we can begin to judge other believers on the basis of them worshipping God or serving him in ways contrary to our own preferences. Some of our preferences can morph into “laws” that define how God works in people and churches. There is a place for testing spirits and judging prophecies etc. but that testing must be led by the Spirit not produced by flesh or our intellect. Before declaring that God does not work in certain ways or accept certain things we need to be very careful and diligently seek the Lord.

Acts 15 is a perfect example.   The Jerusalem church came together to decide whether God was actually accepting the Gentiles and working among them. Fifteen hundred years of religion and tradition had planted deep convictions that only Jews or Gentiles that had converted to Judaism and all of its laws were acceptable to God. But God had been doing crazy things among the Gentiles who had not been circumcised, did not keep the Sabbath, and who ignored the feast days. Peter himself had to give an account of why he even entered into the home of Gentiles and why he then baptized them. The feeling in the Jerusalem church was that “God doesn’t work that way.” But, he did… and after seeking the mind of the Spirit on the matter, the leaders of the church determined that God had accepted the Gentiles without them coming under the traditions of the Jews.

Legalism, the leaven of the Pharisees, quenches the Spirit whether in churches or in our own hearts. It is actually the default setting for our fallen nature trying to work our way to heaven so we all have to guard against it. We would do well to ask the Spirit, on a regular basis, to highlight areas where we are slipping into a religious or legalistic mode because it is hard to recognize. A critical or judgmental spirit in us is a sure sign that we are slipping in that direction. For all of us then who want to enjoy the fullness of God, we need to guard against that leaven. Be blessed today. Enjoy your freedom in Christ and let others do so as well.

As we continue to look at events in the life of Hezekiah, I am drawn to an event that reveals the true heart of God. As I mentioned in my last blog, after being installed as king at the age of 25, Hezekiah’s first order of business was to restore Solomon’s temple and true worship to Israel. “So the service of the temple of the Lord was reestablished. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people, because it was done so quickly” (2 Chr.29:35-36). When God’s people have a heart to do something and his hand is with them, amazing things can be accomplished in a short time. How we view God determines to a great extent whether are hearts will be turned towards him in anticipation of love and grace or away from him in anticipation of harsh judgment.

We often have a view of God in the Old Testament as a harsh judge ready to punish every violation of his Law – large or small. Regarding the Law of Moses, many believe that if things were not always done in exact accordance with the letter of that Law, then those things were unacceptable to God and, on a bad day, fire might come out from the altar and destroy whoever made a mistake in protocol no matter how well intentioned. That notion probably first arose from the account of Nadab and Abihu. The Old Testament says, “Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev.10:1-2). Yikes! Many have interpreted “unauthorized fire” as a mistake in the protocol or contents of the incense they offered. That understanding presents God as an unbending tyrant who demands perfection in our service to him.

From this account, many have assumed that God would strike down even well meaning people if they missed one point of the Law or stumbled over a recipe for incense. But if we read a few more verses we discover the real issue. “Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come” (Lev.10:9). The problem was not a failure to interpret and perform every law exactly as it had been commanded, but rather a heart of disdain for the holiness of God because these two men had entered the Holy Place drunk.

In the days of Hezekiah, another violation of the Law of Moses took place. As temple worship had been outlawed by Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, all the feast days commanded by God had also faded from practice. After restoring the temple and its worship, Hezekiah decided that Israel should once again celebrate Passover. The Passover had very clear and specific commands attached to it. God had commanded Moses to keep the Passover on the tenth day of the first month (Ex.12:2). However, Hezekiah determined to celebrate Passover in the second month with out the people being sufficiently purified. Sounds like risky business but here is what we read in 2 Chronicles. “Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written (emphasis added). But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, ‘May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God—the Lord, the God of his fathers—even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.’ And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people” (2 Chr. 30:18-20).

In our life with God, the condition of the heart – a heart set on seeking God – can make up for a lack of doctrinal correctness. Let me be clear, this is not an invitation to be careless with our beliefs or our teaching just as long as we are sincere. A sincere heart always wants to live in obedience and do all things as God would have us do them. However, sometimes we are serving God to the best of our understanding rather than with perfect understanding. Sometimes we are serving God in the best way that circumstances permit. That was Hezekiah’s dilemma and so he trusted in the heart of God to extend grace where doing everything according to the letter of the Law seemed to keep them from obeying the spirit of the Law which called on them to remember and celebrate what God had done for them in the past.

Our Chinese brothers and sisters typically believe that the Bible teaches immersion as the proper form of water baptism. However, as men and women come to Christ in the “re-education camps” of China, there are no places to immerse anyone so they baptize in showers. Does God accept their “baptism” since their hearts are seeking God? I have heard some church leaders say that their baptism was invalid but I think this passage from the life of Hezekiah confirms that God indeed accepts those baptisms.

In the same vein, David is described in scripture as a man after God’s own heart. Yet, at least twice in his life David violated the Law without a rebuke from the Lord. Once he and his men, starving and on the run from Saul, ate the tabernacle showbread which symbolically sat in the Holy Place and was to be eaten only by priests. Another time he put on priestly garments to lead a procession when the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem. David was not a priest. He was from the tribe of Judah while only those from the tribe of Levi could serve in the temple. However, because of circumstance (the showbread) and his passionate heart for the Lord, God extended grace to those violations of the Law. Remember that Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees who were meticulous keepers of the Law because their hearts were far from God.

Again, Hezekiah shows us that God is more concerned about our hearts than demands for doctrinal correctness. That should encourage us when we are concerned that we may not fully know or understand his will on something or when we have acted believing that we have heard from God and then later determined that we had not. Our primary goal should be to seek God with all of our hearts and if we do, his grace will cover us while we are still learning his ways. God is and never has been an angry God just waiting for us to violate one word of the Law. Rather, the Law was given to teach us right from wrong and to lead us to Christ while, all along, God has simply been trying to draw us into a loving relationship with him. Hezekiah reminds us of that truth once again.

In order for someone to find freedom in Christ, that individual must recognize and acknowledge the sin in his/her life.  Unrepented sin gives the enemy legal access to our lives because in those areas that we have roped off for ourselves and our flesh, we are in agreement with Satan.

To help people find their freedom in Christ we must learn how to help people deal with the sin that is usually so apparent to others but not always apparent to them.  In addition, we must do so in love.  In everything we do, we must follow the lead of the Savior of all men and the one who has shown us the heart of the Father.  As we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, however, we find two or three general responses to sin and at times they seem to be quite contradictory.

Most of us love the response of Jesus to the sins of the woman at the well (Jn.4:1-26) and the woman taken in adultery (Jn.8: 1-11).  In both of those settings Jesus encounters women whose lives have been marked with sin.  The Samaritan woman of John 4 seems to have had a reputation in her village that had gained her the status of outcast. She had lived with a number of husbands and was simply living with her latest lover.  According to John, Jesus was resting at the well about noon when the woman showed up to draw water.  Traditionally the women of the village would have come to the well in the cool of the morning and the evening rather than in the heat of the day.  Perhaps, she came at noon to avoid the other women of the village. The woman described in John 8 was a woman caught in the very act of adultery who doesn’t bother to argue her innocence even when her life is on the line.

In both cases the gentleness and mercy of Jesus is almost overwhelming. In both cases Jesus acknowledges the sin in the lives of each woman but almost in passing.  Instead he emphasizes the grace and forgiving nature of God.  He points them to a better life but in no way shames them or condemns them as they go on their way.  That is the Jesus most of us love and are comfortable with – the Jesus who says little about sin but just points people to the grace of God.

But in his gospel, John describes another moment when Jesus heals a man who had been lame for thirty-eight years.  This man had spent his days begging at the pool of Bethesda.  In a moment of compassion, Jesus saw the man and healed him.  It is such a quick moment that the man doesn’t even discover who has healed him.  But John tells us that later in the day, Jesus found the man in the temple area and privately warned him to “stop sinning or something worse may happen to you” (Jn.5:14).   In this case Jesus gives a private rebuke to a sinful man so that he might find eternal life and not lose the healing he had received for “the kindness of God calls us to repentance” (Rom.2:4).

Finally, we are all aware of the sharp confrontations Jesus had with the Pharisees. With these men he was not gentle nor did he give a private rebuke.  He scolded them in public and called them sons of Satan (Jn.8:44), a brood of vipers (Mt.12), blind guides (Mt.23) and  more.

So how do we reconcile these encounters if we are to do all things in love? If Jesus came to seek and to save the lost why is he gentle with some and scathing with others?  I believe that the common ground of each encounter was the redemptive motive of Jesus.  His goal for all three types of sinner was redemption and that goal was motivated by love.  Remember, we are called to love even those we don’t like.

To the women, Jesus took on a priestly role of dispensing hope, gentleness, grace and forgiveness. These women were quite aware of their sins and already carried their own burden of shame for the lives they had been leading.  Jesus had no need to convince them of their sinfulness. He needed to convince them that the great and holy God of Israel was willing to forgive and embrace them despite their sinful past.

That was the message they needed to hear. To the lame man Jesus seemed to take a middle ground of demonstrating God’s mercy but then confronting his sin in a personal way so not to humiliate the man. In a sense, this man needed to be reminded that God’s mercy was not released into his life so that he could continue to be the man that he was before he was healed. He needed to be reminded that the grace of God call us to a different life.    In that case, Christ took a position somewhere between priest and prophet and brought grace with a word of warning.

When facing the Pharisees who trusted in their own righteousness and who were blinded to their sins by a spiritual arrogance, Jesus came in the spirit of the prophets with a get-in-your face rebuke and a call to repentance.  Though it was harsh it was still an attempt to redeem these men.

So in helping men and women deal with their sins there are times to be very priestly, times to be very prophetic, and times to stand somewhere in between.  For many, it will be very apparent which approach to take in order to help them find freedom.  For others it will take a clear leading of the Spirit.  One approach will easily fit our temperament while the other will be very foreign to us but discernment and flexibility is key.   Jesus did not love some and hate others.  He simply knew which approach was most redemptive in the moment – not only to the one he was dealing with but to the ones who were watching.

However, we do it, we must help people discern and acknowledge their sin and their brokenness if they are to be healed and set free.  Think about what is most needed and the spirit in which it must be ministered the next time God puts someone in your life that needs the grace and the healing touch of Jesus and may the Lord bless you today.

Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it.” One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.” Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. (Lk.11:44-46)

In this chapter of the gospel of Luke Jesus continues to pronounce warnings and a call to repentance to the religious leaders of Israel. Jesus offers up a pointed description of these leaders by comparing them to unmarked graves that men step on without knowing what they have done.  The Jewish law pronounced anyone unclean who had come into contact with a dead animal or a dead human.  Death was connected with sin because that was the primary consequence of Adam’s sin.  After contact with the dead, an Israelite had to go though a period of separation and cleansing rituals to enter the community again or before coming into the temple area.  A Jew who stepped on an unmarked grave was suddenly unclean or defiled without knowing it.

In this section of Luke 11 Jesus pronounces a warning over these spiritual leaders because their hypocrisy not only was the antithesis of true spirituality but it also spiritually defiled those with whom they had contact.   In Matthew 16, Jesus warned his disciples to “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” which was their teachings. Once again, these men looked spiritual and holy on the outside but on the inside they were full of greed, deceit, envy, and pride.  They were spiritually dead on the inside while having an appearance of godliness on the outside.  If that duplicity had affected only them it would have been enough for a warning but it also influenced others.

Those who came into contact with these Pharisees and these other experts in the law were defiled by their teachings.  These leaders had missed the whole point of the Law.  The function of the Law had never been to save a man through works but to convince a man that he could never do enough on his own to merit salvation. Paul tells in Galatians that the Law was a schoolmaster that was designed to point us to Christ. Every sacrifice for sin at the temple pictured the death of an innocent for the sins of another.  The Law, if understood correctly, underlined the need for a Savior because there was no end to the blood of bulls and goats.  Those sacrifices had to be offered perpetually. It was like a cancer treatment that could hold the cancer in check but never really cure it so that drugs have to be administered perpetually. When a person has been cured, treatments are no longer required. The blood of Christ was the cure – one sacrifice for all time.

The trouble with the teachings of the Pharisees was that it missed the point.  They kept the emphasis on what man could do rather than what God could do. Not only did they preach a meticulous keeping of the Law but they also added many of their own laws which made the burden even greater.  On top of that, Law keeping for salvation’s sake becomes a test.  Who does enough or who keeps the Law well enough to win salvation? If only the top 10% get into heaven, then you better make sure you are part of the top ten.  Because man, in his fallen state, cannot change the heart, the religious leaders of Israel disregarded the heart and emphasized what could be done in the flesh.  So they did mountains of religious things and in doing so developed a deep sense of self-righteousness and arrogance along with a profound disdain of the “unreligious.”  If your salvation depends on your personal righteousness, then you better see yourself as righteous or you won’t be able to live with the condemnation you feel. Many Christians are still burdened with condemnation because they too have a sense that their salvation is based on their worthiness rather than Christ’s.

The ordinary man who encountered these Pharisees would not only leave that encounter with the impression that God approved of pride and arrogance and a hunger for the praise of men but would also with a sense of condemnation about his own condition. Both of those responses imparted death rather than life. Right or wrong, most people look at believers and, especially, leaders in the church as an accurate representation of both God and his standards through our actions, attitudes and teaching.

Those who have no experience with the Father will assume that we represent Jesus and all that he stands for because we are their only experience with God.  They will not only assume that we represent the Lord accurately but if they are drawn to the Father they will begin to emulate our attitudes and behaviors because they will assume that we are what God wants us to be.  If we are, in fact, what the Father wants us to be then we will impart life to those who encounter us.  If we are far from what the Father wants us to be then we will impart death…as if they had stepped on a grave.

Here is what the Pharisees missed:

• God looks at the heart of a man not his appearance and certainly not the “appearance of godliness.”
• Salvation comes through no righteousness of our own but only through the grace of God.
• We don’t need a judge who keeps score of our “righteous acts” but a Savior who saves us from our sinful acts.
• God is not interested in ritual but in relationship. Religion in the sense of law keeping and rituals actually turns us away from the heart of God because it places the emphasis on us and what we can do rather than on him.

Jesus said to watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees.  Here is the thing. We all have a little Pharisee in us because our flesh or natural man leans in that direction.  At Passover the Jews had to purge their houses of all leaven and we need to do the same from time to time by scanning our own hearts for religious pretense, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, and any disdain we find for the “unreligious.”  If you think about it, Jesus apparently felt more at home with the “unreligious” than with the “religious” of his day.  I’m sure he still feels the same way. That’s something to think about. Be blessed today.

One of the most sobering passages in the New Testament is spoken by Jesus in Luke 11:37-53.  The NIV places a heading before this text that simply says, “Six Woes.”  Luke records these as a conversation Jesus had with one of Israel’s religious leaders.  It is always easy for us to point the finger at the Pharisees of Jesus’ day and accuse them of hypocrisy and legalism.  But we need to examine ourselves from time to time to see if we have slipped silently into one of the religious habits that Jesus warned  about.

In the beginning of this section, Jesus is eating with a Pharisee who questions him because he did not go through the typical ritual hand washings of the Jews before eating.  Undoubtedly Jesus passed on the ritual because he knew it would be a conversation starter with his religious host.  Jesus began by speaking a hard truth to the man.  He told them that he and other Pharisees were very concerned about washing the outside of a dish while ignoring the inside which might be full of rotten food – greed and wickedness.  He then proceeds to express six “woes” toward the religious elite of Israel.  “Woe” is not so much a declaration of judgment in the original language as it is a statement of how deplorable and pitiful their condition is because they have missed the heart of God.

The first woe describes men who are meticulous at keeping religious ordinances while treating people poorly or while being indifferent to people who are struggling or hurting.  Often the Pharisees saw sinners. broken people, the poor, and those in bondage as being in that condition because of their sin.  They often  saw their condition as God’s judgment on sinful people.   He spoke of the Pharisees as men who were so careful to keep the law that they would even go into their herb gardens to count out a tenth of the produce to meet the demands of the law and to take to the temple while, at the same time, neglecting justice and their love for God. Before we raise our eyebrows at such “religious” behavior we might ask ourselves a few questions.

How many of us are faithful in giving, faithful in church attendance, faithful in our small group Bible studies and are the first to register for every church conference but rarely give series thought to the poor or the oppressed in the world or in our communities?  How many of us have actually taken action on behalf of the unborn that are being aborted by the millions or have stood up to slumlords on behalf of the poor?  How many of us have opened our homes or our pocket books to the homeless or foster children who have been removed from abusive parents?  How many of us have actually worked at soup kitchens or serve at homeless shelters on any consistent basis?

It’s easy to work for the poor or the homeless or for the unborn one day or one weekend a year so that we can “check the box” on caring for the poor.  Serving on a weekend is a good thing but do we actually have a heart for the poor, the oppressed, and the broken? Do we give thought to injustice, poverty, and oppression on all the other days?  I find myself being very willing to serve those I know and those I am confortable with but I also find myself shying away from the poor, the junkies, the prostitutes, and the homeless. And yet Jesus  steers us in that direction on multiple occasions. Remember the parable of the sheep and the goats that were divided on the basis of their caring for the poor and visiting the imprisoned?  Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.“ (Mt. 25:43-45).

This blog is dedicated to helping every believer find freedom and healing in the Lord and to help every believer move in the power of the Holy Spirit.  But to find freedom, healing, and power we must keep our hearts aligned  with the heart of the Father.  If he cares for the poor we must care for the poor.  If he cares for the weak, we must care for the weak.  If he cares for the oppressed, we must also.  As we grow in the gifts of the Spirit we cannot allow ourselves to become self-edification societies who simply sit around and prophesy over one another in our living rooms  or keep our healing gifts within the walls of the church.

As much as we talk about relationship versus ritual it is still easy to slide into religion where we are meticulous in keeping the rules of the church and staying in good standing with the brethren while the world around us is falling apart.  The gospel, the gifts, and the power of God have not been given to the church for safekeeping but have been given to the church to be taken into the world on behalf of the oppressed, the abused, those suffering injustice, and those in bondage.  If we were honest, we would have to say that many churches want to keep “those people” out instead of drawing them in.  That is the heart of the Pharisees and that is the heart Jesus warned us about.  He also said that while tithing meticulously, they also neglected their love for God.  According to Matthew 25, we love God when we love the poor, the down and out, and all the others beaten up and discarded by the world.  The church can have great preaching, great worship, great facilities, great youth programs, great marriage ministries and so forth but if we reserve them for the saved, the members in good standing, the affluent, or those like us rather than spending them on the lost and the broken then we are close to the first “woe” Jesus uttered toward those who claimed to know God best.  I know I am prone to insulate myself from the world but I must remember that Jesus died for those still outside the walls of the church.

God give me the heart to care about those used and abused by the world and give me the love and wisdom to do something about it so that your heart might be blessed, Jesus might be glorified, and your Spirit might move with power.  Amen

Tomorrow – the second “woe.”

In the early pages of the gospel of Luke, Jesus had just been questions by disciples of John the Baptist.  John had sent them to ask Jesus if he were, in fact, the Messiah or if another was to come.  That moment gives us some insight into the ministry of prophets.  John was, according to Jesus, the greatest of the prophets and yet he was unsure of whom Jesus was. Paul says of New Testament prophets that “we know in part and we prophesy in part” (Jn.13:9).  Apparently that was true of Old Testament prophets as well.  They spoke the things that God put on their hearts and in their minds but often those prophecies were just bits and pieces of God’s overall canvas rather than the whole picture.  John had been confident at one time that Jesus was the Messiah but even John seemed to be looking for a powerful, political, and military savior of Israel rather than a suffering savior who would die on a cross.

But John had come in the spirit of Elijah and was the last in line of the great Old Testament prophets.  He had been sent to prepare the hearts of the people for the coming Messiah who was already among them.  Many of the Jews sensed the call of God to return to him and his ways and so submitted to John’s baptism as a sign of repentance and a need for spiritual cleansing.  Luke said, “All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.” (Luke 7:28-30).

The last phrase really catches my attention.  “But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purposes for them…” The religious elite and those who knew scripture best rejected God’s purposes in their life.  The evidence of that was that they had refused to be baptized by John because to do so was a confession of spiritual need and sin that cried out to be cleansed. Here is what we discover.  I n our relationship with God, the heart is more important than the head.  These were men who spent their lives in prayer, fasting, and study of the Torah.  But their study had not prepared their hearts for God’s Messiah.  Undoubtedly, they did not have the benefit of the Holy Spirit but the common people responded to John’s preaching while the religious elite did not.

I can think of a couple of a couple of reasons. First of all, the religious system of the Jews did not meet the need of the people at all.  They had limited access to God because they were not priests.  The Law seemed like a burden the demanded much and delivered little for them. Their tithes supported a system that had little regard for the unschooled and the unwashed. Because they had little standing with the religious leaders they felt they had little standing with God.  They were in need of good news.

For the Pharisees, however, the Law and the religious system that supported the Law gave them status and a false sense of security about their salvation.  Doing all the right religious things and being schooled in Torah theology gave them the sense that God was pleased with them and honored them as much as they honored themselves.  They were wrong, of course, but that was their view of themselves and God.

Secondly, the Pharisees and experts in the Law were a self-righteous bunch.  Legalism, salvation based on our own merit, forces people to one of two positions. Either I give up all together because I’m overwhelmed with my personal sense of sin and failure or I convince myself that I am more righteous than most so my odds for getting into heaven are pretty good. The common people felt the wait and hopelessness of salvation based on personal merit.  Again they needed good news so when John began to hint that a new doorway to God was about to be opened, they were willing to listen.  The religious leaders, however, needed to protect their righteous persona so they could not submit to a baptism that was overtly for sinners.

The lesson is that self-righteousness and a commitment to the religious status quo will cause us to miss God’s purposes for our life.  God reveals his purposes to the desperate and the hungry. Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Scripture is clear that God has purposes for believers in general but specific and unique purpose for each believer.  “   For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph.2:10). “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers^” (Rom.8:29).

When we are living out God’s purposes for our life, our lives have eternal significance.  We experience the pleasure and the power of God flowing through us as we fulfill those purposes.  Life seems abundant and exciting rather than tedious and boring. The problem with legalism and religious systems are that they are a treadmill with each day seeming much like the one before it.  Depending on God and stepping into his purposes each day is an adventure.  Have you ever noticed that the most extreme believers seem to have the most fun?  It is because they have pushed into God’s purposes more that most of us.

I believe the abundant life Jesus promises is tied up with the purposes God has ordained for our lives. Religion will not get us there but instead will blind us to those purposes. Self-righteousness and a need to be in control will also cause us to miss God’s directions. A commitment to a static faith and a spiritual status quo will also cause us to miss his purposes that, like his mercies, are new every morning.  Let me invite you to humbly ask God to show you his purposes for your life today and for faith to pursue those purposes. Those who hungered for a fresh touch, a fresh revelation, and rekindled relationship with the Father discovered his purposes for them in the days of John the Baptist. That same hunger will open up his purposes for us today.  Be blessed by going after your destiny in Christ.