Man’s Way vs. God’s Way

Mark 7:^7-8 “Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”

John 9:¹⁶ “Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath…” (emphasis added). It is interesting that as part of their laws, the Pharisees actually forbade spitting on the Sabbath. The reason was that, making mud is work, when you spit on the ground, it can roll and make mud, then you would have defiled the Sabbath. So, you swallow your spit. So, one of the issues was how can this Jesus be working? The work is not only healing, even though healing was part of it. But if you read the narrative, they had an issue with him making mud. ‘How did he heal you?’, they asked the man that was blind, and he responded, ‘He made mud.’ ‘How can He make mud on the Sabbath day? He must have spat.’ ‘He spat, yes.’ ‘Tell us again, how did He heal you?’ ‘I said He made mud.’ ‘He spat? He cannot be from God!’

The second work that they accused Jesus of doing on the Sabbath was healing the man. Jesus said, ‘Is it better to heal or to wound on the Sabbath?’ What that means is, when they give birth, the Jews circumcise on the eighth day. So, if they give birth and the eighth day is a Sabbath, they still go ahead and circumcise the boy, Sabbath or not. Jesus says, ‘You are wounding on the eighth day, on the Sabbath and I am healing on the Sabbath. Which is better, to heal or to wound?’ Jesus asked them in another narrative, ‘If your sheep falls into a well on the Sabbath, you rescue your sheep from the well. You can rescue a sheep, but you cannot rescue a human being.’ So, the life of the sheep is more important, and that was the hypocrisy of the time. And in our times, we have people like that too. People who say if you do not do certain things, you cannot be in church. God have mercy.

I was listening to an audio recording from some great church and they were saying that if a woman shows up in church wearing a wig, they will collect the wig at the door or give her a scarf. In this day and time. I forwarded it to my colleagues, and they were just as surprised. People put yokes on people, things that God has not put there, and say things that do not apply to us and make it law even to the detriment of saving a soul. I was at an event and a lady came out to give a testimony of how God healed her miraculously. It was an amazing testimony. But after the lady finished speaking, the anchor remarked, ‘and she is wearing trousers.’ Did God not see she was wearing trousers before He healed her? You have a problem with it, but God does not have a problem with it. The Lead Pastor of that mission had an issue with the lady wearing trousers to their church, but God healed her in spite of the trousers. After making such a remark, the lead Pastor actually did caution himself. Sometimes, people put barriers before others that God has not put there. Isa. 55:⁸ “The Lord says: “My thoughts and my ways are not like yours.” (CEV]

Prayer:  Holy Spirit, please align my thoughts with God’s thoughts and my way with God’s ways; please help me not to be critical of people, in Jesus Name. Amen!