I enjoyed a fantastic men’s Bible study this morning, talking about prayer, and how to pray. This study uses the ACTS method: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.
During the study, one of the men asked a question which led into us NOT being like the Sadducees or Pharisees. Once again, my mind started rolling.
In the children’s song: “I just wanna be a sheep (ba ba ba ba)” Two of the verses are:
I don’t want to be a Pharisee… because they’re not “fair you see,” and
I don’t want to be a Sadducee… because they are “sad you see.”
The reality is neither of them were fair, and both of them were sad (in teenager speak). I thought of how much I am really like them… and as we analyze ourselves… many of us are.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were Israel’s religious leaders. They did the “holier than thou” thing better than most people we know, and were criticized by Jesus himself as being “whitewashed tombs.”
And I think that de facto, I must look the same way to my family and many people I know who don’t know Jesus. After all, I am a leader… in my family, and around others. I do study the scriptures… do they? I should be able to give an account for what I believe and live by… do I? I should be more humble than other people (because I know what Jesus has done for me)… nonetheless my pride gets in the way. And yet I am no better than they are… but do I project that on others?
Provided you have the right shepherd (Jesus), I think it’s a lot safer to be a sheep (ba ba ba ba).

For the record, I think it’s a bad thing to do. Periodically there’s a bit in the news about some guy (usually drunk) who hops the fence at the zoo to taunt the bears or who think it’s cool to mess with the chained up doberman. In either case the results are the same – the drunk gets his face handed to him on a bloody claw.
I’m not a big Paul McCartney fan. After, all, rock-n-roll’s been going downhill since Buddy Holley died, right? (I think he was in a few bands and did a few albums since his glory days with the Beatles, but I may be wrong.)


Meet Tavor, the latest Israeli to make it big in Hollywood. Or more properly, the 
SHEIK HUSSEIN VILLAGE, Jordan – (
