Greetings, dear ones…
…to the sound of rain on the roof. I did an earlier jog in some rain, but it wasn’t coming down then as it is now.
I did get in a bit of time on the mountain yesterday. That parking lot at Timberline was a whole lot more stuffed than I would have expected on a Monday. Had a hard time finding a place to park my old truck. The snow was good, but with the low clouds and fog, visibility/depth perception was very poor.
Blessings on your day. Ray.
This should be taken as a serious warning. For one thing, this is Jesus speaking—the One who knows everything. The King James Version renders the first part as, “Take heed and beware...” The New International Version says, “Be on your guard against...” I think it’s important to recognize importance here.
Now, what is meant by “the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees”? (“leaven” KJV) Without intending to be dogmatic, I wish to put forth a spin that seems to fit quite well—although one I’ve never heard before. In so doing, I’m thinking to let the PHARISEES represent RELIGION—that form of man-made godliness that we talked about yesterday. It only makes sense that if that mindset is allowed to be at the core of one’s life, it will naturally leach into every crook and cranny of all other facets of one’s being. Among other things, it will probably turn non-essentials into essentials, and essentials into non-essentials.
Now, let’s allow the SADDUCEES to represent the popular mindset that there is no real consequence to sin beyond this life—no conscious existence after physical death—or that a good and loving God could never banish unrepentant sinners to an eternal hell. I’ve encountered some of the ideology of Rob Bell and his book LOVE WINS as embraced by a couple of my friends. One of those friends even sent me an article titled something like, 100 REASONS WHY A REAL HELL CANNOT EXIST. It’s easy to see how that mindset would impact every other area of life too.
The fact is that a sound BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW with a HEART AFTER GOD also performs like yeast—influencing every other facet of life—as it should. Scripture instructs us up one side and down the other to “watch out,” “be on your guard,” and “beware” of what kind of stuff we hide in our hearts. It all has the potential to work like yeast in dough. Proverbs 4:23 puts it this way: “So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life” (The Passion Translation).
PS: On the topic of HELL, I’d like to stick on a quote from John Piper in his book “LET THE NATIONS BE GLAD”: “Hell is a dreadful reality. To speak of it lightly proves that we do not grasp its horror. I know of no one who has overstated the terrors of hell. We can scarcely surpass the horrid images Jesus used. We are meant to shudder. Why? Because the infinite horrors of hell are intended by God to be a vivid demonstration of the infinite value of his glory, which sinners have belittled. The biblical assumption of the justice of hell is the clearest testimony to the infiniteness of the sin of failing to glorify God. All of us have failed. All the nations have failed. Therefore, the weight of infinite guilt rests on every human head because of our failure to delight in God more than we delight in our own self-sufficiency. The vision of God in Scripture is of a majestic and sovereign God who does all things to magnify the greatness of his glory for the everlasting enjoyment of his people. And the view of man in Scripture is that man suppresses this truth and minds more joy in his own glory that he does in God’s.”