{"id":8311,"date":"2019-10-30T21:39:45","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T21:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8311"},"modified":"2019-11-02T16:34:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-02T16:34:01","slug":"concerning-watchers-and-boxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8311","title":{"rendered":"Concerning watchers and boxes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders\nof the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely<\/strong>.<\/em> Luke 14:1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think they can help themselves. People bound up with a \u201creligious spirit\u201d seem to be compelled to inspect everyone else\u2019s words, behaviors, worldview, clothing, spirituality, you-name-it\u2014and have no qualms displaying open offense if the object of their inspection deviates in any way from their pre-set, tightly-clenched perspective. In fact, these folks frequently search high and low for even the slightest offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think your job is to coerce others to toe your<\/em> line and use snubbery, open put-downs, whisper campaigns, smear blitzes, or even physical force to do so, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ve picked up a good old-fashioned religious spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intended outcome of such \u201cwatching\u201d is to squeeze the \u201cwatchee\u201d into a box of the watcher\u2019s choosing. I\u2019ll bet most of you reading this have experienced fervent box construction by those who should have been welcoming, warm, and harbors of refuge for you. Their goal? To to silence you; to label you with their own definitions; to force you to conform to an image of their choosing\u2026whether you want to or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such were the Pharisees in Jesus\u2019 time. Only problem was that Jesus didn\u2019t play along. He marched to a different Drummer\u2026the drumbeat of His Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\ncan watch the hand-wringing and scheming of the offended ones who \u201cwatched\u201d\nJesus throughout the gospels, and every time they set their snare, you can see\nhow unimpressed Jesus was with their traps and faux outrage. In fact, the\nFather, with whom He maintained constant communion, always gave Jesus words to\nsay and\/or unabashed actions that silenced, stymied, or frustrated their best\nstrategies to entrap Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You, like Jesus, also have a link up with the Father by which you can access His wisdom and direction every time you encounter the inevitable box-builders in your life. Trust Him to deliver you from those snares; He has a custom-made strategy for every trap; and He will download it to you just for the asking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\none thing you must do in your determination to be free of imposed boxes\u2014don\u2019t impose\nboxes of your own<\/em> making upon others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.<\/em> Galatians 5:1, NKJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 2019, Dorothy Frick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely. Luke 14:1 I don\u2019t think they can help themselves. People bound up with a \u201creligious spirit\u201d seem to be compelled to inspect everyone else\u2019s words, behaviors, worldview, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[534],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bk-of-luke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8311"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8323,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8311\/revisions\/8323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}