A Pharisee Recovery Group

I posted this C. S. Lewis quote on my facebook a few days ago...There are too many "older brothers" in the Body of Christ with judgmentalism, anger, and jealousy. (C. S. Lewis)And a good friend of mine responded, "Amen and Amen! Maybe we need to start an Pharisee Recovery Group?"It is interesting to me that Jesus was always experiencing conflicts from religious people never pagans. This has given me 'pause.'The Pharisees of Christ's time had a preconceived idea of who the Messiah was suppose to be and what He was supposed to do. They really had a "distorted" image of God.They were deceived by that image. In fact the 'deceiver', decieves by presenting us a distorted image of ourselves, others, and God. By twisting things around..... we are deceived and othen lose our ability to relate to others! In other words we are kept from "experiencing" the reality of that person.Eph. 2:4 ¶ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.Grace.... that is the results of His Love for us! Jesus really is "LOVE." I hope that we all can come to know Him intimately.... To experience the fullness of His Present Love! The Pharisees were worried about what day it was, who it was that Christ was talking too and many other insignificate things. All the while Jesus was present to whoever wanted to know Him.Pharisees are alive and well today! They fail to realize that Christ has come into our lives that we might "know" Him and the fullness of His Love, Mercy, Grace... etc. Too often religion is seeking to perform up to an acceptable standard rather than receiving the "Favor of His Presence.""A Pharisee Recover Program!" Not a bad idea!