VERSE FOR TODAY: "You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:24, New International Version).
HYMN FOR TODAY: "Search Me O God"
I grew up in a rural area in borderline Appalachia, so it's not surprising that I am offended when TV portrays country people as foolish because they are unsophisticated My disgust for that practice is motivated, not by my fear that people will think I am that way, but my realization that the makers of those TV shows have missed the point. They have looked at surface actions and not the true significance of a way of life.
That perspective is the opposite of the one with which I was brought up, and it's the opposite of the one Jesus wants His followers to have. He was frustrated by the fact that the religious leaders of His time would get so caught up in what constituted work and when it could be done that they forgot to do anything that was really important. They even tried to stop those who were doing important things, including Jesus.
If we are honest with ourselves, we may realize that there have been times in our lives when we have focused more on unimportant details of how something was done than on the true character of what was being done.Christ calls us to examine those times from His perspective, not our own.
PRAYER THOUGHTS: Dear Gather, You look at things for their true purpose without any of this world's confusing distractions. Help me to do the same. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
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