The footsteps

My dad took me hunting a lot when I was a boy. As we would walk through the woods he would instruct me to, "Step exactly where I'm stepping. DO NOT get out of my steps because I know where I am going. If you don't stay in my footsteps, you might get bitten by a snake or fall in a hole and break your leg..." Good advice.

Well, like I said before, I was a boy and I wandered... When my dad caught me "wandering" out of his footsteps he would ummmm, instruct me again, except this time with "extreme prejudice". Once the pain went away, I realized that, even though it hurt (REALLY BAD) I never once doubted his love for me. It didn't even enter my head. My dad loved me that's why he did what he did. He wanted to teach me to walk the way he walked so I wouldn't get hurt.

Now look at this passage:

Luk 11:37 Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table.
Luk 11:38 When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal.
Luk 11:39 But the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness.
Luk 11:40 "You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also?
Luk 11:41 "But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.
Luk 11:42 "But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
Luk 11:43 "Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places.
Luk 11:44 "Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it."

And then in another gospel it's recorded that Jesus told them that, "Mat 23:15 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte(convert); and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves."

He called the "Church Folks" of that period "Sons of Hell" Wow... Jesus really had a way with words. And from reading this you would think he was condemning these "church folks". That couldn't be further from the truth. He, like my dad, was instructing with "extreme prejudice".

My second favorite scripture is John 3:17, not 16 but 17,"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

He was trying to show the pharisees that they had strayed and that they need to get back in His footsteps. As much as it hurt them, they still needed to hear it. He wasn't condemning! He was teaching.

I know when the Holy Spirit of the Lord scolds me and convicts my spirit of something; it's then that I realize that He loves me enough to want me to succeed. Which is what He wants for all of His children. We just need to stay in His footsteps.