THE NEWS

There is one form of news that is timeless and never changes. That is the good news from the gospels.

Not that everyone has been willing to listen or believe it, but it doesn't make it any less news and good.

It is amazing to me though how often it can get diluted by being filtered through some personal prejudice. The type of filters where somebody translates scriptures to agree with their opinions.

God gave me a new term the other day. Mammon Pharisee. A Pharisee in the New Testament was one of the groups of religious leaders of the Jewish faith.

They were not portrayed very favorably in the Bible. Most of the time they seem to be experts and remembering the Old Testament and its rules, but didn't have a clue to their real meaning.

Thus the didn't recognize the Lord as divine or the Messiah to come. But they sure did plot against him.

Mammon of course is another name for wealth. Prosperity of sorts. And in conjunction with this posting, the term Mammon Pharisee would apply to a person who claimed to be a believer, but made it based on following a set of rules. Also had as a priority the need for seeing blessings as only in terms of prosperity.

A friend of mine once pointed out how seldom anyone asked to be blessed with the spiritual aspect of faith. They never preach about being rich in love or joy or any of the other things that last and count with the Lord a lot more than the size of one's pocket book.

Still for some that will always be a liability. And they will always define their faith by terms that will mean sacrificing the truth in some way.

However, in the many faces that claim to follow the Lord, there will always be those who only want the path if it fits their need. Otherwise they will just massage the words till it does say what they want it to say.

It is a passage of bias where feet stubbornly step only as they will. The heart may even pray for guidance, but keep walking the direction of personal choice.

Such is the sad nature of life. The way the heart dominates even faith if the desires are infected more with greed than love for the Lord.

And often it is a journey that never is accepted as stumbling, even when one falls down and things it was an accident. Though it was God trying to get one's attention.