Religious Backbiting

We're supposed to be prepared as a bride for Yeshua's return by Yeshua Himself and yet sometimes in our own doing good we hinder the working of the Holy Spirit. I begin to notice, sometimes occurring within myself that a spirit of hypocrisy is trying to creep in once again to the church. Saying one thing, meaning another. Doing one thing but the everyday living stands as testimony whether for or against you. People who tend to be quite laid back and well meaning all of a sudden turns up a notch in their holiness when before others or not. This definitely should not be so. Why allow the same leaven of the Pharisees to leaven the holy, sanctified lump of the body of Messiah?

I make a firm decision and stand by it, that should be the case. And yet it is easier said than done most of the times. To waver between two is to be likened by James as being tossed to and fro by the waves of the sea. However, and this is my firm belief on this particular matter that no matter where I am, whoever I am with, I try to make it a point to be myself; a sinner saved by grace and not a saint free from sin though I am both now by His grace. That way when people meet me, whether they love or hate me they decide based on my true self rather than a mask put on. The tendency to be holy is easily overshadowed by a single principality that governs almost all human character: pride. Why do we who are sometimes so lax with ourselves become so rigid when in front of someone acknowledgeable? Pride, pride to be seen as someone or other by another. That remains true sometimes to things pertaining holiness.

It is so easy for pride to be the underlying source for being outwardly upright when inwardly it is not so. What's more hypocrisy is found companion to such people and things. Religiosity also happens quite regularly as well. To be religiously rigid with oneself only adds to burden us much more than normal. What more of we decide to burden others with our own burdensome load of religious ludicrousness. All of a sudden what is alright is taken as an unclean spirit inhabiting someone or what one enjoys to do counts as indulgence and requires fasting and prayer to overcome. The next moment you see the person who condemned you in such a matter doing as well. What does one say to such things?

Nothing;  that's what I have learnt the rough way. People, myself included tend to believe that we are in the right and anything anyone else says is contrary until proven with hard facts. And yet sometimes this is not even enough to persuade to dissuade someone. As the old hymn goes:  "Take it to the Lord in prayer." That's by far the best and only answer in such matters. Yahweh is the Vindicator and Avenger. We need no one else to fight for us when we have the Most High.

-Wednesday, 30th March 2016, 6 months 23 days, 1914