Want to be a Leader? Don't be a Pharisee - they're no fair you see

This is similar to my personal blog post, but has a weird beginning, you might think, given the title. It will make sense eventually.

Our site shows the Gospel right away, with a more detailed description elsewhere. Our radio show page hopefully draws quite a few people. However, one page which needs lots of development is our YLTI page. It is about starting student-led, student-initiated prayer and devotion clubs in public schools - which are allowed as long as other clubs are allowed. However, it is also, like this post, about being a leader in general.

By being a student who is a leader among peers, or leading us to one, you can help us build that page. That’s because what we need are young people who will step out in faith and change their communities for the better, being Christ-like and helping others to be, too. starts soon, and with that, the chance for young people to be part of changing their culture by letting God use them

Not being a Pharisee - the world's system is much like the Pharisees and not as good as God's perfect system - is just part of it. This has tips for anyone who is trying to let God use them to bring revival - or even who is just trying to figure this world out. :-)

School is very stressful, as I noted in this post on my personal blog, where I share that young people can certainly change the world by trusting the Lord to guide and help them do it.Young people can certain start prayer and devotion clubs as long as a school has other types of extra-curricular activitie. They just have to be student-led and student-initiated.

However, we have to avoid being Pharisees. Such a leader needs to be kind(Eph.4:32), let God build the Fruits of the Spirit(Gal.5:22-23) in them, etc..) That means letting God work in your heart to change you on the inside. Jesus taught that the Pharisees weren't perfect because of what was wrong with their hearts. They were too quick to criticize when, for instance, Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. Anyone was allowed to do what was necessary on the Sabbath. They just wanted to appear righteous by not working, and that meant they didn't even want God to work. (I suspect, for instance, that someone like Josephus, a great historian of his time, would have noticed and mentioned it if no babies were ever born on the Sabbath. But, they were.) The Pharisees' system went against God's absolute right and wrong which has existed since the foundation of the world.

It's great to know the Lord so He can help you through the rough times and to help you celebrate in the good and bad times. We all need this whatever our environment. Our love for God should cause us to want to help others out of compassion and kindness and all those good things, too. This is so we can not only help them trust the Lord to save them and make the world better, but also so we can please God. However, we shouldn't please God because we have to; He doesn't force us. We should please Him because we want to, because of what He has done for us.

Pharisees wanted to please people and draw attention to themselves, instead of pleasing God and drawing attention to Him. It can be a daily struggle for some, because it is tempting to be just like the world in how people talk, treat others, etc.. The Bible, on the other hand, says "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..."(Rom. 12:2) In other words, let God help you (transforming from the inside out) be kinder, more loving, more compassionate, and so on.

. This can be easy for some, too; some people are naturally more able to reach out to those who need a friend, ignore cliques, and so on. Others may need more help. Even as a young person, you can help them learn to be more resilient through your friendship, etc., although it's also important to have adult youth leaders who can help at times like that, too.

So, how does one become a real leader for the Lord in their schools, communities, etc.?

Youth Leader Training Institute - More Than Just Facts, Because God is Personal

It is vital to know and follow sound doctrine and on the Preserved Word of God. However, knowing all the facts about these things isn't enough. A robot can do that, but God doesn't want us to be mindless robots. He wants us to love Him because we choose to, and then to show that love to others.

That love is unconditional. Jesus loves you no matter who you are, and no matter what you have done. He showed Godly compassion because He was God in flesh. He died to take the punishment for our sins and rose from the dead. Thankfully, each of us only needs to call on Him by faith to be saved from our sin.

God did this because God is personal. He wants a relationship with each of us, to give us peace that passes understanding, perfect wisdom, and so much more. He'll help you be more loving and caring and compassionate. He wants to help you through all the problems of life and help you to make this world better, so that others can see Christ's love as well.

That's because there is a penalty for sin. That penalty is separation from God forever in a horrible place that He does not want you to go. He created it only for the devil and his angels(Matt. 25:41), but people choose to go there when they fully reject His love and forgiveness.

We all need changed on the inside. Too many people try to work their way to Heaven, but salvation is by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast."(Eph.2:8-9) Once a person is saved they are then saved unto good works that we can do God's will in making this world better, showing that Godly compassion, etc..

That change on the inside happens when you call on Jesus by faith to be saved from your sin and made new inside. You need to invite him into your heart to make you new. Then, He comes to live in you through the Holy Spirit.

How? You are only a single, sincere prayer of repentance away from eternal life, life that begins at the moment you call on Jesus by faith. Here's a more detailed explanation like that on our site.

Once you have done that, you have a personal relationship with God and can go to Him anytime for wisdom, guidance, comfort, etc., at any time. He provides a peace that passes understanding, and wants to bear our burdens. He also wants ut to care about others and help them through things, too.

 This means YLTI understands that we need to train our hearts and minds to be willing to care about others and show that concern through being there for others, praying with them, etc.. it's also important, though, to remember that true compassion means not always doing what the world says(like when the world says to lie or cheat). True compassion sometimes means standing for what's right and understanding consequences, and then explaining to others in love that those consequences are there.

Learning to show compassion

Learning to show and have compassion - not just pretend to - is one of the keys to being the kind of leader who will bring change. it is the key to encouraging repentance revival. We can't just talk about it or go through the motions.

There has always been a tendency to focus on the outside because of human nature. For instance. constant testing, which ignores individual learning styles and special needs is just one way modern Pharisees act. Hence, understandingthe problems of the Pharisees and how to avoid repeating them will help young people understand the modern world. This shows how relevant the Bible is to everyday living and how we need to embrace god's system instead of being caught up in the world's.

Another sign of Pharisees is how people feel attraction based on looks and not on the person inside. That, of course, goes against what the Bible says. There are four different types of love in Greek, and they become much deeper and more important as they consider more of the inside and what one can give and become more lasting. Only looking at the outside is focusing on what one can get, like when one says "I love pizza." We don't want to dedicate our lives to helping pizza, we want to eat it and it tastes good to us. This is why modern-day Pharisees aren't thinking of trying to help people as much as they are glorifying themselves. (And, in many things, teachers are caught in the middle, so please have compassion on them and don't be upset at them for how the system is. They are often struggling with it themselves, when "teacher evaluation" should be based on patience, kindness, understanding, and things like that - things on the inside.)

In other areas, too, you can probably see how too much focus on one's self causes so much trouble when we should be thinking of others. Everyone is special to someone, as this discusses. Often, when we focus on others we end up worrying less about our own problems.

The Pharisees only thought of being in the right clique and others doing everything the way they wanted. When they cared about others, it was only so they could have everyone look at them. This isn't just a school problem - although what clique you were in in school won't matter one bit once you leave - it is a problem with society, too. Man looketh on the outward appearance, but like God looketh upon the heart.(1 Samuel 16:7.)

So, one key to revival is looking on the heart, so one thing a leader among their peers needs to be is someone who focuses on others first. Jesus criticized the Pharisees even though they claimed to be doing God's will - prayer for instance won't work if there's something between that person and God. However, thankfully, reconciliation is just a single, sincere prayer away. Anyway, Jesus reproved them that they should have been focused on doing what God wanted and caring for others for those other peoples' sake. Our society needs changed by people turning to the Lord.

For people to do that, they need to see a caring Christian community. That starts with each of us listening and caring about others and lovingly guiding them to Jesus, showing how He can help them make the change needed by workign that work himself and them trusting Him and taking those steps of faith needed for Him to do it - like getting rid of images or other thigns that may tempt them to sin, for instance.

After all, when God's Word says "be strong in the Lord," that is a continual strengthening from outside that can only be done by God Himself.

It's up to us to be examples of Jesus, letting our lights sine, so people will believe when we tell them how God changes us on the inside and works in us.

Showing Godly compassion, not the false kind

There also needs to be a brokenness for sin, a need to really want to avoid the problems of this world by following the Lord. We can't be perfect in this world, but we can try, as mentioned above, to not fly off the handle, to talk with others and not berate them, etc..

The false compassion that some show is false compassion for the same reason that not warning someone of a hot stove is false compassion. We can pretend that stove is not hot, and there is no problem. However, that does not stop the stove from being hot. It does not prevent us from getting burned if we touch it.

In the same way, there is a false compassion which is part of the world's system.

God's system, as shown here, is far better than the world's system. The world's system doesn't see each persont he way God does, because God sees each individual as important. However, God's system is also different because it says that it's important to say that sin is sin.

We should love sinners but we have to accept that there are things that God says our sin such as lying, cheating, bullying, and so on. Indeed, some of these Pharisees of today are more like the first part when it comes to bullying, too; they talk about it but they don't really stop the bullies.  (Of course, in many ways, they can't, becasue it's a heart problem. And, at other times, being kind to them and teaching them how to be nice is needed because the bully has never known how. We should help others overcome such difficult lives, and that starts by helping them see they are special to God and to others.)

We love sinners by kindly warning them that sin has consequences. After all, people need to be saved from their sin and that means they need to realize they need a savior. And, that Saviour died to save them, and rose again. Trusting Him to save us, calling on Him to forgive us, is all that is needed. We can't get to Heaven by our own works, only by what Jesus did for us.

Indeed, the fact that we can't work our way to Heaven is a wonderful thing that unites us all. God does not want us to boast of how we got there. From the person who did the most throughout their lives to the person who thought he was good enough and then got saved right at the end, to the child who was too young to understand and so never was able to trust in Jesus but who got there because of the cross, and many others, all are equal. All get to Heaven only because of what Jesus did, and then trusting in what Jesus did by calling on him by faith to save them.

We go around telling people that we are sinners too, not just that they are, but we serve a greater Saviour. Our Testimony should include how God has redeemed us and is working in us.

In so doing, we learn things like how Muslims believe sonship is about physical relations when it is not, and that therefore they have a misconception which we can politely help clear up, because of course it is good to help people have more understanding. Sonship is the Arabic IBN, which means a perfect likeness, as this explains in part, because Jesus was God in flesh. He was not born of Joseph and Mary,  He was born of the Holy Spirit.

It is things like this that help to show true compassion. We need to realize that since other people matter, we need to be willing to say that sin has consequences and then turn away from that sin so that other people aren't hurt by those sins. A person who thinks adultery has no consequences, or should have no consequences, is having no concern for any person who they are hurting. And, sometimes we must be the ones to say that sin is wrong and either do things to prevent such sin (such as protecting people from those who would lie about certain things to fulfill their own lusts) or enforce consequences at times.

After all, in God's perfect Heaven there can be no sin, because there is no pain, no suffering, no tears, no heartache, nothing bad can happen. So, He must keep sin out of Heaven.

Thankfully, He has made a way for us to get to Heaven. We warn people of the consequences so they can get there too, but also to make this world a better place.

Actions Must Speak Louder

However, we must act, too, not just talk. Living the correct way doesn't help if we aren't also helping others by being nice, thoughtful, etc.. If we are to have Revival and change this country, we must stop being like the Pharisees. We must realize that the inside is what matters. We must also, however, stand for what is right. As I have noted before, we must repent for not standing against certain evils sooner, and start to take positive stands agaisnt such thigns as domestic violence, which is clearly against God's Word, praying that the Lord will change hearts and stop it.

We must also be known for what we are for, not just what we are against, and that means the love and forgiveness and sound doctrine that the Bible shows. After all, many places, like this, show that the Bibleis truly reliable and trustworthy; we can trust that it is the Word of God. If there are problems it is becasue the wrong Greek is used - stick witht he King James from the Antiochan Greek, as other English ones are from the Alexandrian.

It starts with each of us. We should all endeavor, whether in school or wherever we are, to care about others the way God does. We should love others no matter what and help those who need help. We should be friends to those who seem to lack friends or have trouble making them. We should make sure that things that people call Biblical really are, and that they aren't just being Pharisees.

However, we should also recognize the absolute truth which God established and which should guide all of us. That truth of being honest, kind, gentle, and so many more things. Use the fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23 and seek God's help to build them up more in you. Focus on those good thoughts of Philippians 4 8. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32. And many other things.

Of course, we need God's help to do this. We need Him to save us if we are not and then to change us on the inside. That means a continual transformation, continual action from the outside by God who loves us and wants the best for us, to help us get rid of those things that so easily beset us.(Heb. 12:1) We struggle with our sin nature. Even those who behave very well all the time can struggle with pride and such. But by trusting God to work in us, and praying for Him to do so and to work in others, we can see Him move in our lives and in our nation.