Blog Church - Week 17

I'm Rev. JD and this is Blog Church. At our church, you can attend in your pajamas. You don't even need to brush your teeth or put on lipstick. This is the only church on the planet that does not take an offering. I do accept jewelry though.
Blog Church provides weekly, Bible-based teaching with a dash of humor tossed in. It's thought provoking, fun, and free. Where else can you get a sermon and a smile in under five minutes? Enjoy!

Last week, Sister Rachel brought Chocolate-Covered Cake Balls all the way from Kentucky for all of us. They were about the size of large marbles, and they were quite delicious. This week, I made some Arkansas-sized Cake Balls which will be served in the foyer following the service. Mine are about the size of golf balls, not to brag or anything. I'm wondering if Texas Cake Balls are the size of baseballs?? Thanks for the recipe, Rachel.



I had five cake balls for breakfast this morning and washed them down with two large glasses of full-fat milk. Still famished, I waddled over to the pantry to grab a box of Twinkies, when I noticed my neighbor standing outside on his porch having a cigarette. I marched over there and told him he needed to extinguish that vile cancer stick. He told me to wipe the chocolate from the corners of my mouth, mind my own &*#@! business, and get my wide bohunkus off his property.
The NERVE of some people! Doesn't he see that I'm only trying to help him get rid of a very bad habit?
Next, I'm going to help him clean up his potty mouth.

Today's sermon has a long title:
"Get the 2 X 4 Out of Your Own Eye Before You Go Digging For the Splinter in Mine!"

I'm talking about hypocrisy. It is rampant in our society. You find it in religion where prominent church leaders preach against immorality then get caught with their pants down. You find it in politics on BOTH sides of the aisle. Politicians like to wag a pointed finger in our faces and talk about how outraged they are about something someone did... that is until one of their own does the same thing, then it's time to justify and make excuses. Hypocrites! Some of the worst hypocrisy is found in parenting. "Do as I SAY, not as I do." How pathetic!

In Matthew 7:3-5, Jesus put it very bluntly:
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

I LOVE that verse! I actually think it has a bit of comedy in it. Can't you just SEE a chunk of wood sticking out of a guy's eye? He's half blind because of it, but he's hellbent on putting his persnickety tweezers to work on the specks of dust in everyone else's eyes.
Back off, Bucko!!!
Too often, holier-than-thou types of people make it their duty to notice everything wrong about everyone else. They point out the shortcomings of others while flaunting their own perceived greatness.
"MY church is better than yours."
"I give more than you do."
"I can recite the book of Revelation backwards in Pig Latin with marbles in my mouth while standing on one leg in a vat of Jello."
La-Dee-Da!
Who gives a flying fig??!!
All the while, these people are woefully unaware of the 2 X 4 that's jutting out of their eye.

Back in the time of Jesus, the Pharisees were holier-than-thou types of people who were SO proud of their holiness that they flaunted it for all to see. Jesus had some choice words against them.
Matthew 23:27-28 says, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."

Be careful about condemning others unless you are ready to get hit between the eyes with some truth about yourself.
There are times when it is the right thing to confront someone. If you've built trust with a person, and they are on a path towards self-destruction, then by all means, try to help them.
When we truly love one another, we criticize out of love. It's like if your friend has a booger hanging out of their nose; you tell them, right? Right. You love them, so you point out the speck in their eye - or nose - and they can take it from you because they know you love them.
Just be prepared for them to tell you you've got spinach in your teeth. Okay?

And everybody said... AMEN!!!