Dried Up Religion Hangs Around

                                        Matthew 23:25b
                         "For you make clean the outside of the
                            cup and the platter,but within they
                              are full of extortion and excess"

        Have you ever picked up a fork that you thought was clean, but as you looked at it you find old food still hanging on it.  Then you pick up a bowl and it still has food clinging to it.  Have you ever admired someone who was the picture of a Christian, only to find some old dried sins still stuck to their spotless reputations?  If you said yes to any of these questions, then you can understand Jesus' picture of the Pharisees.  Jesus challenged them to get their inner person and their outer person in line.
        What a challenge this is in our lives.  Which one of us would want to list our inner most thoughts on a board in front of the church to see?  I don't think anyone would do that, because we like to protest our privacy.  Piety can be the most deceptive of masks.  We can look clean, even holy while we harbor intentions far from decency.  Yesterdays old affections still cling to today's piety.
        We must not harbor a lust for power and authority and devour the livelihood of those around us.  Religion is easily corrupted.  It is easy to confuse our need to serve God and our need to play God.  How quickly the church is spoiled when this distinction is lost.  Just think of what power might settle on us if we were all clean on the inside as we were on the outside.   AMEN!!! 

                                      May God Bless You
                                       And Your Families

                                                   Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.
                                                   The Cross Life Ministry