The Pharisee Twist

No this isn’t a dance… if it was it would not be safe… for you would get tangled up in your robe and fall.

As twisted as this sounds, I understand what the Pharisees were trying to do with their rules. It was all about being acceptable to God….. something we all desire.

Yep… all off us.

How do I know that?

Well, you would be hard pressed to find anyone that would believe that bad people get into heaven. Even those that do not believe in heaven would say “fictions-ly” bad people do not go there.

The problem is our heart, and what to do with it. God says it is deceitful and wicked. So there are thoughts we entertain, and emotions that swell up from it that are unHoly…. our heart is bad.

And thats where the dance begins….

But I thought you said it wasn’t a dance…

Yep, I did.

This dance however is different than the shag, its internal and spiritual.

In an attempt to stop the hearts thoughts and emotions from coming to outward actions, the Pharisee’s came up with additional rules to live by so the “bad” things that were living on the inside were prevented from making it to the outside.

It was a dance, a twisting of what it really meant to be righteous. A twist on what it actually takes to become acceptable to God.

Lets face it, we all want to look good. We all want to be seen as a good person. The question is are we doing the Pharisee Twist to get that accomplished?

Jesus says… if you have thought and meditated on a sin… you have committed it.

Jesus says… just because you obey all the outward rules does not mean you are righteous. Your just doing the Pharisee Twist.

Jesus says… The father has sent me to give you a new heart and to remove the old one from you. There’s no need to do the Twist… New Life in Jesus creates a dance of its own.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26

You do not have to Twist and Twist and Twist around…. just rely on the new heart… a gift from Jesus…

and let the old one die.

Remember… It is the new heart that makes us acceptable to Him.

Not Twisting around with the old one.