Thought for 24 March 2023

Matthew 23: 1-3

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.

So, you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

Before we are too harsh in judging those scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day, let’s stop and look at ourselves. All too many Christians today go to church to find fault, to gossip, and to criticize. Warren Wiersbe, in his book Angry People, wrote, "An incident in the life of Joseph Parker, the great British preacher, illustrates this tragic truth. He was preaching at the City Temple in London. After the service one of the listeners came up to him and said,’ Dr. Parker, you made a grammatical error in your sermon.’ He then proceeded to point out the error to the pastor. Joseph Parker looked at the man and said, ’And what else did you get out of the message?’ What a fittingWe are told about false preachers, but we are not told that we must not only listen to the preacher but to hear what is being said. How can we check if a preacher is false if we just hear what suits us?

Everything a preacher says must be weighed by the words of scripture, checking with your bible will not upset a true preacher of God’s word. In fact, he/she should encourage you to do that very thing.

It is so easy to reword a passage in such a way that it is totally opposite the original meaning. Even a pause in the wrong place can change a meaning, as I am sure everyone knows, by saying something that someone else takes ‘the wrong way’ because the emphasis sounded wrong to them.

It should not be a chore to read your bible to be sure of what you have been told, take note of the reading in question and when you get home or before you settle down for the evening, bring out the bible and read the passage for yourself. It is even better if your version has extra help pages that you can double check to be sure you are understanding what you are reading.

Whatever you do please do not get caught up in all the social media preachers. I have seen so much rubbish there that my head was birling and it’s scary how many followers they have. Don’t get me wrong, some of them are straight but just as many are only trying to make money out of us. There are even ex-clerics falling away and telling us why the bible is ‘wrong.’

Please do not be taken in by these false prophets. Check this thought too!

 

Prayer

Living God, give us wisdom to discern truth form fiction when listening to any preacher or teacher, even those we think we can truly trust because Satan takes many forms when working to take control of our lives in this world in order to turn us away from You and Your precious Son. We assuredly do not want to spend eternity with anyone but You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Give us your strength to reject all his moves. Amen