ITINERANT, ROVING THOUGHTS FROM SCRIPTURE

ITINERANT, ROVING THOUGHTS FROM SCRIPTURE

 What follows are some rambling thoughts that originate from scripture and religion. They aren’t profound, but since this is my blog I’m going to share them anyway.

The first deals with the familiar saying "practice what you preach." It’s very good advice and a modern expression of this is "if you are going talk the talk, you have to walk the walk." This has been expressed as "walk it like you talk it" or the traditional "actions speak louder then words." I was reminded of this concept

Phraseee

the other day when I was reading Scripture. In Matthew 23 Jesus was telling the disciples that they needed to obey the Pharisees, but not act the way they do. It was the next line that I hadn’t focused on before that caught my attention. He said that was because "they say things and do not do them." In fact, different versions of the Bible express this thought in different ways. For example:

NIV:  "So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach

NAS "…for they say things and do not do them"

ISV "‘’‘because they don’t do what they say"

KJV "…for they say, and do not"

Like so many of our proverbs of life, this idea of practicing what you preach originates from the Bible or at least is verified there. What is condemned is hypocriscy the sin of the modern age we all need to battle against in our own lives.

Another thought that came to me was from reading Luke. In Luke 12 Jesus is again warning about the "yeast of the Pharisees" and goes on to say:

"There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight and what you have whispered in the ear of the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs."

In mediating about this passage my thoughts went back to the two and half month jury trial I was involved in against the tobacco industry on behalf the Attorney General. For years and years the the leading tobacco companies had conspired in every possible way to keep their illegal activities concealed and secret. When the records of what they had said and done behind closed doors was made public it was shocking. So often in litigation against large corporations, and in particular the pharmaceutical industry, it is clear that corporate communications which finally became public were "said in the dark and whispered in the ear of t he inner rooms"and were never thought would become public.. 

Lastly, I was reading about John Wesley. When you feel overworked and unable to keep up. Think of John Wesley. The great Methodist leader John Wesley is said to have preached forty two thousand sermons in fifty three years. He averaged four thousand five hundred miles a year in travel we are told. He wrote or edited four hundred and fifty books. Most of his reading he did on horseback.

So those are the thoughts that were rattling around in my head that I thought I'd share for no particular reason.

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