February 4

Thunder Mountain: Exodus 19:16-21:21

O woe is me: Matthew 23:13-39

O Lord my Rock: Psalm 28:1-9

My brother & I don’t relate the word “wisdom” with “sister”: Proverbs 7:1-5


Imagine being among the Israelites when they were camped at the bottom of Mount Sinai (today’s reading in Exodus)! Imagine how awesome & fearful it was for them. Well every now & then we get a teaching in the New Testament that reminds us that the God of love is also the Judge.

Pay particular attention to who Jesus is addressing: the Pharisees & teachers of the law (think “religious laws” – Old Testament). These dudes were the cream of the crop as far as religious stature goes. Of course, we’re not part of the Pharisee sect that Jesus was talking to, but I believe the teaching applies to us too.

We Christians know about sin more than the world does. We are to be models of Jesus in the way we talk & the way we live, especially in regards to how we treat others.

For starters, we can’t think that we’re good enough to get to Heaven & the people around us are not. When we try to convince someone that they’re too bad for Jesus to take in, we, as Jesus put it, “shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces”. He started those sentences with “woe to you” and ended it with “you yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to”. That’s pretty heavy stuff.

And this isn’t just a one-liner type of teaching. Jesus taught about it in detail. We need to be careful that we treat people with love & not take advantage of them looking up to us as Christians (the bit about encouraging others to swear by the gold instead of the temple). We also need to worry more about our relationship with God and not put up a façade that all things are cool between us & God (the teaching about washing the outside of the cup instead of the inside).

Are we still saved by grace? Of course. But at the same time, we can’t ignore this teaching about LILYMI (Live It Like Ya Mean It), especially since this teaching has an “or else” kind of component to it.