Pharisees Pt 2: 12 signs you might be a Pharisee: “South Carolina \u201cHole Checkers\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Lacy Evans<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hello! My name is Lacy and I am a Pharisee. (Hello Lacy!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\n am a Pharisee by nature. It\u2019s the devil\u2019s ju-jitsu move against folks \nwho preach holiness. (Plus, I just like a good fight!) I am in this \ndeep. It is who I am, and healing has been a long drawn out process . .\n . still in process. So it’s not that I am standing on a hill judging \nPharisees. I’m down in the valley with my people, my fellow Pharisees, \nhoping for mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us suffer from this \u201cdisease\u201d. Many of us are in various stages of Pharisee recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\n couple of years ago I was seeing a great non-traditional doctor for my \nwife and visiting some dear friends in South Carolina. We did house \nchurch there and it was a real blessing. God moved. But one incident, a\n teaching moment I suppose, is etched in my memory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we\n Pharisees are prone to do, I dragged my daughter (two years old, at the\n time) out for a Pharisee dog and pony show. I had to show how holy my \nfamily was by parading my daughter’s burgeoning two-year old \nrighteousness out for all to gawk. So she did \u201cJesus Loves Me\u201d (With \nthe ASL hand signs) Well . . . the ASL sign for Jesus is formed by \nalternately pointing to the palm of one hand with the middle finger of \nhe other hand. \u201cJe (point)-sus (point)\u201d. I have to admit it is \nbeautiful and even if it\u2019s not my precious, wonderful, beautiful, \nadorable, sweet, (where\u2019s my thesaurus) daughter. Even if it was a total\n stranger. It is still to me the most beautiful way of all to \u201csay\u201d \nJesus. Well after her song, one of the ladies present felt compelled \nto correct, Sadie, and American Sign Language. She had to tell me that \nSadie was pointing at the palms when she signed \u201cJesus,\u201d but that the \n\u201cactual part of the hand where Our Lord was pierced was the wrist.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now\n that may or may not be true, but before she could stop and just rest \nand revel in the beauty of a child signing and singing \u201cJesus Loves Me,\u201d\n she had to check the location of the hole. So many times we have to \ncheck the location of our brother or sister\u2019s \u201choles\u201d before we can \nfellowship with them, and often in doing so, we lose the beauty of the \nmoment that God was sharing with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew 23:<\/em><\/strong>23 <\/em><\/strong>Woe\n unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint \nand anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,\n judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to \nleave the other undone. <\/em> 24 <\/strong>Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1) You might be a Pharisee if: You major on the minors.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes,\n I admit, different folks have different reasons for deciding what is a \n\u201cmajor\u201d and what is a \u201cminor\u201d. Everyone deserves a chance to be \nheard. But the anti-gnats must be careful not to raise up an anti-gnat \nstandard then battle under it to the bloody death! These \u201cstandards\u201d are\n often false standards, extra-biblical standards, or perhaps just \nmis-prioritized standards. Gnats are yucky! That is true. But \nswallowing a camel is often fatal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These Pharisees had \nchurch life down to an art form. There was no messiness allowed. Their\n kids were well behaved. (Probably sang \u201cJesus Loves Me\u201d and pointed to \nthe wrists!) Their tithing was a thing of beauty. They had calculated \nthe tithe down to the smallest herb and seed grown in their garden. \nBut, judgment, mercy, and faith <\/em>were lacking in their doctrine \nand their walk. And that\u2019s the thing we have to watch, the thing we \nhave to ask ourselves, Do we truly live Judgment Mercy, and Faith? \n(Throw \u201cLove\u201d in there.) or do we just pay it lip service or redefine \nthe terms to justify our gnat straining?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2) <\/em>You might be a Pharisee if: You create and hold to super-scriptural rules. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Matthew 15:<\/em>1 <\/em>Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 <\/em>Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 3 <\/em>But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 4 <\/em>For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 5 <\/em>But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 6 <\/em>And\n honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye \nmade the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 7 <\/em>Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 8 <\/em>This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 9 <\/em>But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Usually\n a Pharisee will take a good solid biblical precept and over-enforce \nit. They take their own specific conclusions and convictions ABOUT the \nclearly biblical truth and make those convictions\/conclusions binding to\n the whole group. Washing your hands is a good thing. It was no doubt a\n \u201clogical\u201d conclusion, perhaps even a legitimate personal conviction \nthat a rabbi had concerning some of the levitical ceremonial laws \noutlined clearly in the Old Testament. One problem was that his \nconviction about the scripture became as binding to his followers as the\n scripture itself. The scripture that a woman should be a \u201ckeeper at \nhome\u201d becomes, \u201cNo woman under any circumstance may work outside the \nhome and all your children must be home schooled\u201d or the command to \n\u201cnot wear that which pertains to a man\u201d morphs into a huge list of what \nwomen can and cannot wear, or what color a man\u2019s shirt can be, or \nwhether a man should have zippers or buttons, sandals or tennis shoes, \nad infinitum. It becomes a gnat that misses the whole point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3) You might be a Pharisee if: You get angry or break off fellowship with anyone who doesn\u2019t follow your code.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They\n were ready to kill Jesus because he didn\u2019t wash his hands. But he \nrefused to play their game, refused to acknowledge their authority. When\n a pharisee\u2019s pet standard, or darling concern is ignored, the fight is \non. I\u2019ve been called worldly, accused of cozying up to backsliders and \nrebels, even warned that I might become a homosexual if I didn\u2019t get in \nline with the \u201ccode\u201d. None of these are exaggerations. I have friends \nwho have been excluded from fellowship because their wife had a job and \ntheir children were in a private school, and not home schooled. I\u2019ve \nseen women ostracized because they had a C-section, in a hospital (of \nall things). <\/p>\n\n\n\n 4) You might be a Pharisee if you are manipulative.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Matt 23:2<\/em>5 <\/em>Woe\n unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the \noutside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of \nextortion and excess.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Extortion is the \nillegal use of one\u2019s official position or powers to obtain property, \nfunds, or PATRONAGE. Pharisees hated Jesus because Jesus hated and \nexposed their lust to control. (They hated all prophets for that same \nreason.) A Pharisee has to look good and he has to have everyone under \nhis influence look good. But it\u2019s about control. \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d \n\u201cWell let me ask \u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad_______________.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s got you! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Who\n can you marry? What can you eat? What can you wear? Where can you \nwork, live, visit? Who can your friends be? What can you believe? There\n is wisdom and protection in a multitude counsel. Limiting that \nmultitude to one or several charismatic individuals is dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5) <\/em>You might be a Pharisee if: Your standard of comparison is your self. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\n looking outward toward the \u201cworld\u201d, toward straw-man extremes, toward \nthe \u201cmodern age\u201d as a way to say how much more holy \u201cwe\u201d are than \u201cthem\u201d\n is the fuel that moves the Pharisee. It is the thing that motivates \nhim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luke 18:11 (King James Version)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 11<\/em>The\n Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I \nam not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as \nthis publican.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I thank God that I (Fill in the blank with any number of Christian Mishnah items) and that I never, never, never eat a gnat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus didn\u2019t seem too impressed with the Pharisee\u2019s \u201choliness.\u201d But the publican\u2019s humility was golden! <\/p>\n\n\n\n 6) You might be a Pharisee if you: Put yourself above other parts of the body. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\n AM NOT LIKE THIS PUBLICAN!!! \u201c was the Pharisee\u2019s saving grace! A \nPharisee will create labels for himself like \u201cFundamentalist\u201d and labels\n for everyone else like \u201cLiberal\u201d and \u201cModern\u201d. You ole Publican you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part 3 (Numbers 7-12 coming soon.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pharisees Pt 2: 12 signs you might be a Pharisee: “South Carolina \u201cHole Checkers\u201d By Lacy Evans Hello! My name is Lacy and I am a Pharisee. (Hello Lacy!) I am a Pharisee by nature. It\u2019s the devil\u2019s ju-jitsu move against folks who preach holiness. (Plus, I just like a good fight!) I am in … Continue reading “Pharisees Pt 2: 10 Signs You Might Be a Pharisee: “South Carolina \u201cHole Checker\u201d “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28,25],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doctrine","tag-hypocrite","tag-pharisee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}