The White Stone Zone

23  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. 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. I once heard a preacher ask, "What is easier men, throwing a tithe into the basket or loving your wives on a consistent basis?"  If most men were honest, they would say the former. In John 13,  Jesus said that the mark of discipleship is that we love one another. I left the institutional church a while ago; I outgrew it to be honest. I am still in fellowship with other believers and work with a group of teaching elders that take no salary. We meet at a restaurant/bar on Sunday mornings, so there is no need for money for the gathering.  Do you realize it cost nothing for believers to gather? The emphasis we have is trusting the f

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 you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. (Matthew 23)     There was a time in my walk with God that I went to tell others God loved them in order to get God to love me.  In other words, I would try to tell people about the love of Jesus Christ and my motivation was to get God to love me.  Bass Ackwards, I know.  I am sure the fact that I really did not believe God loved them either came through somehow and my labor was in vain.  Trait number 3 of a Pharisee is toxic faith in the sense you are trying to pass along your version of the truth rather than simply loving others like Christ. I was questioning within myself once why I did not "witness more," I heard the Holy Spirit say, "You have nothing to tell them; I don't want them to have what you have. You are miserable. You really don't believe it i