Posts tagged Pharisee Killed
The Un-balancing Act
Feb 9th
The leg press. It’s simple. You add weight. You sit down. Release the lock. Press the sled up and down. That’s it.
I was at the Y the other day and there was a guy attempting to follow the above steps. Nothing out of the ordinary. The only reason I noticed him was because I wanted to use the machine. I moved on to do something else while he was adding weight.
And then I thought the building was collapsing. The sound could have definitely been compared to this same guy running his truck into the machine. I look over and see the machine laying on its side. Thankfully nobody was hurt. It turns out the guy had loaded the weights one side at a time, instead of evenly distributing the weight. He had nine 45lbs plates on one side. I don’t know how he walked away with all of his toes.
The guy meant well. Obviously you can put at least eight 45lbs on one side without catastrophe happening, he just didn’t know the 9th plate would be so embarrassing.
Balance is important. If only this guy had put one 45lbs plate on the other, then I wouldn’t be typing this story. But thanks to this mans desire to push a lot of weight I learned something. I am constantly trying to learn about God. So much that I usually only stop when I am numb from boredom. For some reason I keep pushing this info into my brain assuming it’s going to take me somewhere. But what I am realizing is that not balancing this knowledge with action is quickly causing me to become unbalanced.
Faith has always been about action. If the knowledge I gain isn’t being used in a physical sense, what good is it?
Pharisees study to sound smart. Followers of Christ study to reach others
Pharisees learn to prove a point. Followers of Christ learn to prove themselves wrong.
Another Pharisee attribute killed.
The hunter becomes the prey…
Feb 6th
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You may have noticed that I have attempted to swap blog personalities. You know, from the blog that had my name in your URL bar to the blog in your URL bar that is now attempting to kill Pharisees. I was torn between labeling this mess the “Pharisee Killer” or the “Pharisee Hunter”. I really wanted to go with the Pharisee Hunter because I like to hunt. And I thought the title would sound proactive, as if I was out saving the world from Pharisees. As the hunter, I wanted to splash pics of myself pointing a gun and drawing my bow. I had ideas of the background either being typical camo or black like the back of a ninja. (Because that’s the only form of a ninja you see, after the silent wrath, when he’s walking away.)
Labeling someone as a Pharisee is easy.
I was raised in a fairly legalistic church lifestyle. (It’s so easy to throw out the word legalistic, inappropriately.) Khakis, coats, and ties were involved. Hymns were sung, while I flailed my arm around attempting to keep time, as I lead the worship. Every time the doors were open, I was there (Your darn tooting we were there Superbowl night.). I estimate I spent approximately 8-10 hours a week at the church. MTV, what was that? Channel 36 was blocked, but CMT wasn’t. The KJV was THE only inspired version used. I remember seeing other versions being thrown, from the pulpit onto the floor, one Sunday night. Thanks to Kurt Cobain, I guess, all we cared about when I was in youth group was sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll (I remember where I hid my Nirvana and Kid Rock CD’s). Man, life would have been much easier with iTunes.
If death is involved you have to be honest.
One thing you should know about me, I have been pointing my finger at Pharisees and labeling them as targets since I was a teenager. I began calling their bluffs at an early age. I knew what hypocrisy was and I intended to shine light on it. They were the hypocrites and I was their arch nemesis, the rebel kid. It didn’t matter that I was the kid who showed up and everyone knew, or probably were assuming, what I was doing the night before. And since I have been doing this for so long, I can spot a Pharisee, in my scope, from a mile away. But I have to be honest…I’m bitter…I’m angry…and I’m just waiting for that clean head shot. I want these people to KNOW that they are Pharisees.
But the target has changed.
This is actually were the honesty begins. That mirror is waiting on me every morning and when I look into it, I see a Pharisee. The only difference, is that this Pharisee wears t-shirts to church. This Pharisee might spend 3-4 hours a week at church activities. This Pharisee prefers the NIV. This Pharisee thinks that “old-school church” isn’t effective (Isn’t that statement an oxymoron?). This Pharisee doesn’t have a Nirvana CD but now has a 90’s rock playlist on iTunes in which Nirvana can be found. This Pharisee raises his hands. This Pharisee thinks the Charlie Hall Band was born to push the hymnals aside.
The target is now ME. The guy wearing the Converse is now the new Pharisee. The guy who believes that there is nothing wrong with drinking alcohol is now the new Pharisee. The guy with tattoos is the new Pharisee. The guy who uses buzz words like authentic, real, and community is now the new Pharisee. The guy who says he has an audience of One, is full of it and is the new Pharisee.
Stopping the Pharisee epidemic.
All Pharisees, whether they be legalistic or hip, need to repent daily. Every single day. All Pharisees must be willing to follow. And you can’t follow if you’re a Pharisee.
Luke 9:23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
All believers in Christ MUST die daily.
1 Corinthians 15:31 31 I die every day–I mean that, brothers–just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I guess I should have named this blog the “Suicidal Pharisee” because I’m going to do my best to kill myself everyday. In essence, the hunter has become the prey…
Ambition Is A Dirty Word
Feb 3rd
You may need to read this a few times, I did.
“Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead.” -C.S. Lewis
This is a deep quote. Put on your boots, cause you might need them to wade through my “deep” thoughts as I hash it out.
What stands out the most, to me, is the word ambition. There are lots and lots of people talking about ambition. There are tons and tons of opinions on setting goals. For the past year I have been driven by a personal goal. And then it was like Emeril stepped in and said, “Bam!” As I thought, ambition! Really? What’s wrong with ambition? I thought about ambition. And I thought some more. It’s kind-a-like the saying, “There is no I in team” except in this case, there is an I or two.
Ambition - noun: an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment
Ambition – verb: to seek after earnestly; aspire to
I have read this quote over and over and it makes so much sense. It kicked me in the junk because I have definitely not be ingrained to live by this statement. We can easily knock out the other things that look ahead. Fear – looks ahead because we worry about OURSELVES. Avarice – Looks ahead because WE believe WE need wealth; regardless if we will do good or bad with it. Lust – looks ahead because WE want anything that will please. But ambition!?!
I would have never thought that being ambitious was a negative attribute. If only I hadn’t looked up it’s definition. Ambition is completely self serving.
Of course, ambition doesn’t have to be a negative adjective that describes myself. The only way this is possible is if my ambition puts others first. If my ambition puts God first. This quote only highlights the one thing that makes any sense to me about Christianity. And that is love. Think about this. It doesn’t matter if you have loved in the past. Or if you will love in the future. What matters is if you are loving right now.
Pharisee minded people are ambitious. But their ambition is self indulged. I have to kill this mindset.
My ambition must be to love God and love people. Nothing more and nothing less.
Would Jesus dunk His fish sticks in water?
Jan 27th
Why do we do that? Why do we assume that if Jesus “would do something” that we would approve of it? Maybe I’m reading a different bible but I don’t see Jesus “doing” a lot of agreeable stuff. Who’s to say, that if Jesus showed up today, that he wouldn’t be doing the things we approve of?
Last night I caught myself.
My daughter is on one side of the kitchen island and I am on the other. I am standing eating spicy chicken fingers and she is on a stool eating fish sticks. She dips her fish stick in ketchup and laughs. Because that is funny. She then starts using her fish stick like a fat coffee stirrer to stir her water. And then takes a bite. I realize she is doing this because the fish sticks are hot. Naturally, ice water is a cooling agent. “Smart kid”, I’m thinking. And then I find myself thinking, “…she is making soup.” Ice water, ketchup, green beans, fish sticks, and cheese block soup.
This is where I caught myself. I heard myself say, “Kyah don’t do that; that’s yucky.” In which the return response was laughter and a faint, “no.” And I did it. I began to wonder, “WWJD.” But this time, instead of trying to justify my actions, I realized Jesus would never denounce creativity. Jesus would never say, “This is how you are supposed to eat.”
Bang! Pharisee killed.
Unless my kid is endangering herself or others, she will be allowed to eat however she wants to. Well, until momma objects.
