Blocker

Matthew 23: ¹³ “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. ¹⁴ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

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After searching for the right programs and the right people with the right aged children, our church home was finally found. It had a normal cadence, a coffee shop and a book store. I was now part of “Insert church name” and proud of it. We did not exclude, but for some reason the crowd was full of high income people.

• GOD wants me to be careful of becoming blind.
• GOD wants me to be careful of falling into the habit of church.
• GOD wants me to be careful not to “Block” others from the kingdom unintentionally.

After a while I did not see the poor or widows or hurting people. Only smiling faces with no financial worries at all. The right things were said and the buildings were huge, but GOD wanted something different for me.

• GOD wants me to help the widows.
• GOD wants me to be sincere about my prayers, not just make long ones and compare them to others.
• GOD wants me to seek the lost and not just sit in church.

I must admit, having a church with all the amenities felt great, but my senses became dull to my neighbor’s needs. “Invite them to church” was the mantra versus “Lead them to CHRIST and send them out to do the same.” I still love that church and I did become part of their outreach group which was a much smaller crowd. I need to heed GOD’s warning of hypocrisy.

• Are you looking for church to be a club?
• Do you exclude people by the way they dress, or how they look?
• Can you consider the widows and other hurting people in your prayers to GOD today?