From today’s reading...
‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and anyone who becomes one you make twice as fit for hell as you are.’” Matthew 23:15
The advantage of writing this daily post for 1,519 days straight is you start to detect trends and themes, and Matthew 23 is no different.
Jesus goes on a tear in this chapter, and Psalm 149 reinforces His message, namely, get your act together or the faithful who praise “God to the heights with their voices, a two-edged sword in their hands” will “execute on them the judgement passed - - to the honour of all his faithful” (v5, 6, 9).
There are many false prophets, phony pastors, i.e., slick salesmen in nice suits, driving nice cars, saying nice words that make you feel all nice but are rotting your soul like a diet of ice cream and Coke ruins your teeth.
“But Wes, how do we know who’s preaching the Truth? Besides, I’m spiritual, not religious. I just read my Bible and I’m inspired to do the right thing, so I’m good. I’m not being misled. I’m on the straight and narrow. I’m saved. Jesus told me by sending a butterfly to land on my window sill during my daily transcendental meditation as a rainbow appeared in the sky and immediately afterward, I won a $10 scratch-off Lotto. Like, if that’s not a sign from above, I don’t know what is. Ya feel me?”
You know what?
You might be right because God’s message is so simple that even little children understand Him.
Then again, five to six billion copies of the Bible have been sold (depending on whether you believe the Guinness Book of World Records or the Google), and everyone who has read it thinks they have some unique, obvious, clear-cut, never-before-revealed understanding of it.
And some of them start their own communities to pay for their sports cars, jets, and Kool-Aid so you, too, can be inspired and led to the great beyond, which is like, totally not hell because you’re not a silly proselyte twice as fit for hell…right?
Stay the course.
Keep the faith.
Endure.
Now go sell something.
