{"id":261,"date":"2015-06-09T14:58:45","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T14:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/missions\/?p=261"},"modified":"2015-05-28T18:49:39","modified_gmt":"2015-05-28T18:49:39","slug":"thoughts-on-the-pharisees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/missions\/thoughts-on-the-pharisees\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on the Pharisees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Native<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

by\u00a0Jamie Dunning<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the infamous Pharisees and how Jesus interacted with and dealt with them.\u00a0Several times during Jesus\u2019 ministry he conflicted with the Pharisees.\u00a0 One particular conflict comes from Mark 3:1-6 (NASB):<\/p>\n

He\u00a0entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered.\u00a0 They were watching Him\u00a0to see\u00a0if He would heal him on the Sabbath,\u00a0so that they might accuse Him.\u00a0 He said to the man with the withered hand,\u00a0\u201cGet up and come forward!\u201d\u00a0 And He said to them,\u00a0\u201cIs it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?\u201d\u00a0 But they kept silent.\u00a0 After\u00a0looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man,\u00a0\u201cStretch out your hand.\u201d\u00a0 And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.\u00a0 The Pharisees went out and immediately\u00a0began\u00a0conspiring with the\u00a0Herodians against Him,\u00a0as to\u00a0how they might destroy Him.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Pharisees were the religious elite. They devoted their lives to knowing God and His word. They followed God’s law and dedicated their lives to following Him\u2026.but they missed the point. They considered themselves to be the gatekeepers to God\u2019s Kingdom and used their understanding and interpretation of His law to declare who was (or wasn\u2019t) worthy to enter. They used their position to cast others down instead of building them up. They pushed their own ideology, political agenda, and personal convictions, instead of God’s mercy and grace. They offered judgment instead of love. They were so convinced that they were right that they failed to realize when they were working against the very Messiah they awaited. They missed Christ and He was staring them in the face.\u00a0For them, religion meant the observance of rules and rituals, but for Jesus religion meant service and restoring life.<\/p>\n

As Christian leaders, we must be mindful of our motivation in ministry.\u00a0 Our passion must be to serve, offer grace and compassion, and to point people to Christ so that He can bring about healing and the restoration of life.<\/p>\n

I pray that I never fail to recognize Him, and repent for all the times I have in the past. I pray for humility, always realizing that I don’t know everything. I pray that my heart will become that of Christ. Today I pray that for you as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  by\u00a0Jamie Dunning I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the infamous Pharisees and how Jesus interacted with and dealt with them.\u00a0Several times during Jesus\u2019 ministry he conflicted with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world-missions","7":"entry"},"title_es":"","content_es":"","author_name":"","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb62Ar-4d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/missions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/missions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/missions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/missions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/missions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/missions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/missions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/missions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/missions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}