Life Devotionals

"For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matt 5:20 I don't know about you, but sometimes I observe how someone else lives, or perhaps what they are doing in life, and there is a part of me that wishes I had what they had. I think we all have a proclivity to think that way from time-to-time, it is just part of our human nature.  In Jesus's day, the Jewish people would look to the scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the law for a model of righteousness. The people wanted what they had. These religious leaders had a righteousness that was apparent, external, and achieved by self-effort and preservation. They lived a life based on a self-effort of accomplishing upholding the apparent rules that the "Law and the Prophets" set out for the special people of God.  Jesus comes along, and in the Sermon on the Mount, He says three important thing...