2 Chronicles 15:12 And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to yearn for Him with all their heart’s desire and with all their soul;

Where did they go to look for God? Many scholars suggest that the covenant that was birthed from this passage actually aided in the birthing of Pharisaism. How can something that began as a pure thing; an honest desire to seek after and pursue God, evolve into a movement that many of its adherents Jesus called “sons of hell?”

Several things the Lord has been surfacing for me during the last few weeks: being a little Christ, raising up the fallen Tent of David, and the Great Commission. As I was praying today I realized that there’s a thread that connects one with the other.

Little Christ – Acts 11:26 “…and in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. To be designated and characterized a “Christian” in New Testament times required that you be a disciple of Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus implied that you were f-o-l-l-o-w-i-n-g…Jesus. When I first became a believer, surrendering my faith for salvation from hell and forgiveness of sins, I did not have an understanding that I was signing up to follow Jesus. Later I learned that this was “Christian-eze,” or code for being a Christian. In other words the question would go like this: “Are you a Christian, or Follower of Jesus?” One supposedly equated one with the other. If I had not been inoculated by religion and the tradition of my fathers, common sense would have begged the question, “How do you follow Jesus? Where’s He going? I can’t even hear or see Him? How am I to follow Him?” That would have been common sense – too much so. And there’s the problem: religion. Religion, man’s desire to cover his shame, fear, and nakedness with fig leaves of his own making – is what keeps us following these code words without really examining their meanings. Truth be known I wasn’t following Jesus. I was following what my traditions teachers and adherents said I should believe. Jesus called these kind of teachers “blind guides.” I’ve had a lot of “blind guides” in my life. Guides who were afraid to question the answers. Guides who encouraged the maddening march into the darkest of ditches. Guides who were threatened by the questions, and encouraged us to avoid them at all costs. Religions, traditions, and its teachers are designed to keep us in the dark, walking in circles, never discovering the way out into the Light of Reality. There’s the rub. Are you searching for reality or the comfort of the status quo? The assurances from blind teachers? The living, resurrected Jesus – is THE LIGHT! He is REALITY! Why do we settle in our search for more darkness and blindness? In your time of prayer and fasting ask these questions. Make sure you haven’t settled for reassuring blind guides, and more deafening, dulling, blinding darkness. One way to know for sure whether you have settled for the ditches of man’s religion, and traditions is by asking this simple question, “Are you becoming a little Christ?”