Legalism

It has been very warm these days we feel we are living in an oven. On Friday, we had our cell group meeting. Major Pascoe suggested that we meet in air-conditioned comfort in the room adjacent to her office. How thoughtful of her! We were a small group - two of our regular members were sick, one a Vietnamese now has to work, and one, my sister-in-law is away in Perth. So we were minus four members leaving the five of us.

We had good discussion as always and today we concentrated on legalism. Jesus spoke some very strong words about the legalism of the Pharisees and Scribes in His day. Philip Yancy said: "Legalism is a subtle danger because no one thinks of himself as a legalist. My own rules seem necessary; other people's rules seem excessively strict." It gave us food for thought. Isn't this true?

I pray this prayer: "Search me O God and know my heart today." Somehow it is easy to see faults in others but not in ourselves. Confucius said, "The real fault is to have faults and not to be aware of them."

From my notebook: Faults are like headlights on a car; those of others always seem more glaring than our own. How true!