Hi I am a Pharisee

Hi I am Tim Rogers and I am a Pharisee. I suppose recovering Pharisee would be more accurate but I don't want to give myself to much slack. You see somewhere along the way of walking with Jesus I replaced performance for relationship.

Now this should not come as a surprise. After all didn't Jesus warn against the "doctrine" of the Scribes and Pharisees? And what did Jesus call that "doctrine"? Play acting. Actually hypocrisy but the word means an actor, a fake.

So in His love for me He has been moving me into what I call perpetual repentance. An ongoing turning away from death to His life. He is so much better than the rules. And His love is surely not based on my holiness or performance. It is Him. To paraphrase part of 1John 3:16 "I know what real love is by this , that Jesus gave His life for me, knowing all about who I am and would be, and still He loved to the point of death" In doing this Jesus was not keeping a rule He was just being Himself.

So I am trying to learn from Jesus not to hide but be myself. I am trying not to live for the praise of or to meet the expectations of others. Slowly I am learning to live for the audience of one.

I have much more to say on this but that is for another time....