Spirit-tapped by God

It’s a scary passage in the Bible, isn’t it:
Jesus said: “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops."

The Governor of Illinois was wiretapped by the FBI. Now the FBI has held a news conference claiming the governor was selling political favors for money! The accusations are awful. He has lost all credibility. The FBI spokesperson said that Illinois has an awful reputation in America for corrupt government – if it’s not worst state, it’s at least close.

What if you were wiretapped?
What if everything you said to someone else about another person was recorded?
Would your friendships be lost? Would your reputation be destroyed?

We are all guilty of saying things behind other people’s backs. All of us.

And there is where healing can begin. If we all accept that we have ‘done it’ – then no one is in a position to judge someone else. We can forgive because we know we need to be forgiven.

The Pharisees didn’t want to do that. They were hypocrites – they wanted to appear without sin while pointing out others’ faults.

I love Sam Foss’ poem:
Let me live in a house by the side of the road,
Where the race of [people] go by-
The [ones] who are good and the [ones] who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner's seat,
Or hurl the cynic's ban;
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

When I went to the doctor yesterday, the medical receptionist had this on her desk: “Not that perfection is impossible, but that by not striving for it, we might fail to grasp excellence.”

As we gather for the holidays, and as the stresses of getting things done and the amount of time spent with friends and relatives grows, maybe we can realize we are, in a sense, ‘wiretapped’ by the Holy Spirit. We are known; therefore, we have a holy incentive, and a holy leading, to say and do things in love.

“Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.”

Love in the Lord,
PH