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Devotional - Perfection
.The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were "unclean," that is, unwashed.
Mark 7:1-2
Jesus was causing quite a stir in his day - here he was being called a Rabbi and did not have the stamp of approval by the religious establishment. In fact there were times that religious leaders were even the scorn of a couple of his comments. These local leaders didn't know quite what to do, Jesus spoke with authority, he performed mircles and the people longed to hear what he said. So these local leaders called in the big dogs, the Pharisee. Now these guy were incredible - they were some of the smartest people in the world. They had the whole Old Testament memorized, they were well versed in how to speak and think. It was no wonder that the people respected them, looked up to them and felt that talking to them was like hearing God speak. So these Pharisees and teachers of the law come and watch Jesus, looking for ways to show people that this unapproved teacher was in fact a phony. Then they found it - did they find it in the teaching? NO!!! They found it in the fact that they did not wash their hands just right. Can you imagine being in the presence of God, seeing miracles done, hearing incredible words of wisdom and then complain because hands were not being taken care of properly. You see the Pharisee saw how years ago the community had a spiritual revival that led to people listening to the law and following the law. This revival led to a nation being united and eventually becoming independent (something very few countries could say in the midst of the Greek Empire). These Pharisees believed if people followed the laws they could reproduce these same results, so they tried to bring spiritual revival by stict enforcement of these laws. To them to go against them was to be someone who did not love God properly. So here they were in the presence of God, and not being able to live in union with that simply because they were wrapped up in form instead of function. Revival never happens when we try to control God with our behaviours - revival happens when people have broken hearts before God. Trying to recreate revival by following models of what we have done before never happens when we are just trying to redo past behaviors. Yet, this temptation can creep into our lives so quickly as we try to get back to the way things were, whether that be in our lives, our churches or in our culture. The only way to live the life that bears fruit is to be in union with God through passionate prayer, faithful community and letting the living Word touch our lives. True perfection is not about the doing, it is always about the being. In being God's, in being before God, in trusting completely in God - that is when our life starts to sing out. That is when the life of the church starts to shout out with grace and wonder. So humbly set your life before God, give up those things you are trying to control and do the work of building a strong relationship and connection with God. For that is what Christ came to do - that is the real perfection that Christ offers. 
