Prayer A to Z

This is our seventeenth study. Please click HERE for an intro to this study. Today we will look at how the Pharisees tithed.

Matthew 23:23-24

23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices — mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Observations

It is a little puzzling to me why the Pharisees concentrated on the little things as the spices but neglected the larger and spiritual things. But here are my ideas. Maybe they thought people would be impressed with them, that they were so diligent in giving a tenth of their spices; or maybe it was all they knew how to do…

This is our sixteenth study. Please click HERE for an intro to this study. Today we will look at how evil the Pharisees were.

Matthew 23:13, 15

13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

Observations

The Pharisees must have known how to enter heaven, or else they would not know how to shut it off to others. It wasn’t out of ignorance that they missed heaven. They plain out rejected it. And when they made converts, they made them not…

Changing the news channel is the solution to so many conservatives these days. I can see how that will reduce your stress and give you peace. But is that the real solution? Can you really go through life without knowing what’s going on in the world? Doesn’t God want you to be aware of things so you can pray intelligently? Isn’t it our Christian duty to try to make our country and our world a better place? If we are commanded by God to pray for our leaders, should we not also know what to pray for them (1 Tim. 2:2)?

I know that almost all of the news these days is slanted toward the left side. But there are things we can do. When I read the newspaper, I generally just read the title and only as much as I can stand. And I always talk to myself about…

Church change. I have been praying about this and churning it over in my mind for a few months. And I finely now have made the change. I feel a little sad about it—not to see certain folks regularly. But I feel I must move on to what I think is the right move. I’m not going to talk about the reasons, but there are doctrinal reasons. So, I feel that I am following the Lord, but yet I am sad. I feel a peace about it. Yet I know there will be struggles, and I must endure them and push on.

Working less. This last summer I worked much more that I figured I would. And I was suffering in the heat—90-degree heat for many days. I think I have to push myself to slow down. I have resolved to take more days off between jobs—I’m a house painter…

For every person, the longer a person lives the more knowledge they have a chance to obtain. But what they do with it is what matters. Knowledge is knowledge, but what we do with it makes it true or false.

I’ll start with what I will call false knowledge.

• False knowledge is knowledge, but it has no good purpose.
• False knowledge is knowledge that is prideful in what it knows.
• There is a gift of knowledge but it can become a snare to us. It makes knowledge an end in itself, in order to pass an exam, to get a grade or a degree. It does not lead to any good actions or deeds.
• False knowledge puffs up. In this case he has an impatience with any opposing view or any correction. He enjoys his knowledge. He spends a lot of time reading just for the sake of reading. He…

This is our fifteenth study. Please click HERE for an intro to this study. Today we will listen to what Jesus said to His disciples about how to regard the Pharisees’ teaching.

Matthew 23:1-7

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 “But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries, and lengthen the tassels of their garments. 6 “And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues…

There is a man that I, for many years, have regarded highly for his knowledge of the bible and his doctrine. But recently I have discovered how he believes in future things. To me his eschatology is wrong. And because of that I have been sulking. I feel so disappointed in him. How can such a brilliant man be so wrong on this—not to believe in the rapture of the church?

I heard a 45-minute sermon by him on Daniel 9:24-27. He took it bit by bit, and he explained the pre-tribulation rapture view perfectly; and then, in just a few minutes, rejected it and taught his preterist view. He just couldn’t except that there is a gap of time between the 69^th and 70^th week. And he gave the lamest reasons. And then he preceded to cut down the rapture view and said that it all started…