{"id":363,"date":"2019-04-29T13:52:35","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T13:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/?p=363"},"modified":"2019-04-29T13:52:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T13:52:37","slug":"pharisees-pt-4-10-signs-you-might-be-a-pharisee-winning-the-battle-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/2019\/04\/29\/pharisees-pt-4-10-signs-you-might-be-a-pharisee-winning-the-battle-but\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharisees Pt 4: 10 Signs You Might Be a Pharisee: Winning the Battle But . . .!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pharisees Pt 4: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pharisees Pt 1<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pharisees Pt 2<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pharisees Pt 3<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

12 Signs You Might Be a Pharisee: Winning the Battle But . . .!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\n are some folks you can\u2019t defeat in a debate. . . ever . . . whether you\n are right or wrong! I am reminded of the idiom, \u201cHe could sell ice \ncubes to Eskimos.\u201d (I hope that\u2019s not too terribly \u201cPC\u201d)  But it does \nexplain how some are much more persuasive than others.  Some influential\n Pharisees got the “Debate Gene”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I remember when I was \nin 7th grade in Texas History class.  The teacher wanted us to explore \nthe battle for Texas independence from several perspectives.  One of the\n things we had to do was debate whether or not general Santa Anna should\n be tried for war crimes.  Now we all HATED Santa Anna.  After all he \nkilled John Wayne!!! (Well . . . in the movie he did.) But I was chosen \nto be on the side that defended Santa Anna.  Man! I was angry!  How \ncould the teacher expect ME the biggest Santa Anna hater of all to \ndefend him?!? Well I finally gave in and we set off to study the \nissues.  And something strange happened.  WE LEARNED!!! My side won the \ndebate.  Now I\u2019m still not a big fan of Santa Anna (John Wayne \nKiller!\u2014Remember the Alamo!  Remember Goliad!)   . . . ahem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I do know how to win a debate. I am good at it.  It is fun-fun-fun for me! I know lots of tricks.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew gives us some insight as to how the Pharisee\u2019s mind works<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 22:<\/em><\/strong>15 <\/em><\/strong>Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

8)     You might be a Pharisee if you are more interested in winning the argument than winning the person.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\n Pharisees in Matt 22 were skilled debaters. This is a necessary skill \nif you re to keep questions to a minimum.  The truth becomes, in a \nPharisee\u2019s mind, the winning of a debate. Some folks aren\u2019t good at it \nand will not even bother because they know that they can\u2019t say anything \nskillfully enough to \u201cwin\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This came to light in a \ndevastatingly powerful manner, one evening when I was on a Christian \nMessage board online.  I was debating and as usual I was using my wit \nand sarcasm to \u201cmake my point\u201d.  I was startled by a voice from behind \nme.  \u201cOoooh BURN!!!\u201d It was my teenage son.  He thought it was cool that\n I was crushing my opponent and making him feel stupid. Man did I have \nsome \u2018splainin-to-do-Lucy!  I tried to explain to my son that I wasn\u2019t \ntrying to \u201cburn\u201d the other person; that I was trying (in a godly manner)\n to help him by pointing out his error.  He accepted that explanation \nbut it was too late for me.  God had made His point.  I was trying to \n\u201cburn\u201d the guy.  It gave me a sense of control, of importance, of worth \nto be able to calmly shred a person\u2019s arguments.  But did I make a \nfriend?  Did God enter into a new depth of relationship through me with \nthe other person? Did the man\u2019s position change?  Did his heart change? \n Was he so awed by my deft debating that he fell on his knees and \nrepented? No. No. No. No. And  . . .let\u2019s see . . . uh no. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\n family member (now deceased) who was a life long preacher once gave me \nsome advice.  He said, \u201cWin them to yourself first, then you can win \nthem to Jesus, because you are the incarnational representation of Jesus\n on Earth right now.\u201d I cannot make a man repent.  I can\u2019t make him \nbelieve anything.  But I can control my attitude when dealing with the \nman. If I have no relationship with a person, or a strained \nrelationship, I cannot win the man.  The Bible says \u201cHe that winneth \nSOULS is wise.\u201d (Interesting word choice.)  It\u2019s the area of the soul \nwhere I can \u201cwin the man.\u201d  The spirit is God\u2019s department.  I have seen\n food, music, sharing a book, sharing a trial, sharing your pain, \nmeeting a need, or even just a simple kind word in due season, do, in a \nsecond, what a million years of winning debates could never do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n Pharisee wanted to entangle Jesus in his talk, wanted to win the \ndebate. Peter proved that a sword can be used to cut off a man\u2019s ear.  \nIf you use the mighty sword of God\u2019s word in that manner, don\u2019t be \nsurprised when the injured person doesn\u2019t listen to you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh\n yeah, and one more thing about Santa Anna.  I learned from defending \nhim that the truth is not always so black and white. Sometimes it’s \nmulti faceted.  Sometimes it’s messy and uncomfortable. Like us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pharisees Pt 4: Pharisees Pt 1 Pharisees Pt 2 Pharisees Pt 3 12 Signs You Might Be a Pharisee: Winning the Battle But . . .! There are some folks you can\u2019t defeat in a debate. . . ever . . . whether you are right or wrong! I am reminded of the idiom, \u201cHe … Continue reading “Pharisees Pt 4: 10 Signs You Might Be a Pharisee: Winning the Battle But . . .!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[32,26,30,25],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pharisee","tag-cut-off-ear","tag-hypocrit","tag-kingdom","tag-pharisee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","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=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":368,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions\/368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}