NOT The Way To Do It

And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote. [Isaiah 29.13]

I think when we encounter an Old Testament scripture that Jesus quoted while in earth, we should pay extra attention to it!

The scripture above is indeed one those Jesus quoted. He spoke it in Mark 7.7. In that context Jesus was chiding the Pharisees and teachers of religious law that was little more than just traditions that mankind had been burdened with. It was religion gone rogue with the fabrication of man. It was going through the religious motions of a relationship with God but without the relationship! It was NOT the way to have a relationship with God,but more to have a relationship with oneself.

What is described here sounds all too familiar today.

Father, help us to have pure and righteous relationship with You - help us to do everything we can to avoid man-made religion!