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Continuing our short studies in Luke, this week we are completing chapter 11. Please read verses 29-54 every day this week and, if possible use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
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Luke 11:42-48 (NLT)
‘“What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you love to sit in the seats of honour in the synagogues and receive respectful greetings as you walk in the marketplaces. Yes, what sorrow awaits you! For you are like hidden graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing the corruption they are stepping on.” “Teacher,” said an expert in religious law, “you have insulted us, too, in what you just said.” “Yes,” said Jesus, “what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with impossible religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden. What sorrow awaits you! For you build monuments for the prophets your own ancestors killed long ago. But in fact, you stand as witnesses who agree with what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets, and you join in their crime by building the monuments!’
A short time ago, I was involved in a minor role for the redesign of a corporate website. A full scale project was initiated and dozens of people were tasked with various activities over many, many months.
It was a huge undertaking and resulted in many, many meetings where the details of the project were discussed and then re-discussed several times over. We had only a few items that were non-negotiable such as the colour scheme of the website – this had to reflect the corporate colours of the organisation. The rest of the design was really down to the project team and its advisors.
A lot of work had been completed and for most of the time I wasn’t involved at all with just a few brief meetings where the team would update everyone else on the status. Everything seemed to be going well and the design team said that they were working hard to get every detail absolutely perfect. We would receive pictures of the design and everything looked pretty good. That was until we asked for a demonstration of the website.
The home page of the website (That’s the opening page that all visitors to the site would see), looked fantastic. The team had done a great job and visually it was stunning. The pictures were top quality and the animation on the screen was awesome. Someone in the room asked to try it out for themselves only to find that none of the links were working. The first screen loaded but nothing else was accessible. The team said that they didn’t have time to get the website ‘functional’ because they were concentrating on getting it to look great.
They had abandoned the most important part of the site for the sake of appearance.
The Pharisees had instituted a similar approach to the law where they spent so much time on little things that they had in fact missed the most important things. They had a strict over-obedience to some laws but demonstrated a complete disregard for justice and love. They loved to take positions of honour while treating the poor with contempt. Jesus issued strong warnings to them and said that sorrow awaits those who practice such hypocrisy. Hidden graves in a field. Green grass covers death, decay and disease. May we endeavour to stay balanced in our faith, maintaining an adherence to things that are righteous while focusing on the practical matters of love, faithfulness and justice. Our approach should safeguard our relationship with Almighty God and also our reputation and work within the community. My prayer is that Oasis Community Church is a shining example of that kind of Christianity.
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