How To Swallow A Camel

You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Matthew 23:23–26 ESV

As the preacher sprinted for the elevator with the offering basket, we began to pack up our equipment for the night. We had been brought into a conference as the praise and worship team for a visiting speaker. He spoke for about forty minutes on giving, told everyone that he had to pay this band, pointed to us and told everyone to “just double whatever you were going to give.” We were surprised because we did not usually get paid, though I knew that one of the singers was about to lose his house and could sure use it. Once the preacher made it to the elevator, he never mentioned it again. It was hard getting past that. Jesus really emphasized what was going on inside of you. People can wear the right clothes, say the right things, and have the right position, but inside can be full of all types of hidden sin. Like “whitewashed tombs" (Matt 23:27), beautiful on the outside, but the inside is full of dead bones. God wants to clean the inside of you first, and the outside will become beautiful naturally. There are things in my life that He is still cleaning. It is an ongoing process and a beautiful person can still make themselves ugly. Once clean does not mean forever clean. If you get weak and yield to it again, it can come back. Let God point these things out to you and deal with them as He brings them to the surface. We each have our struggles in this life, but He is faithful to deliver us from them all when we work with Him. The way to swallow a camel is to nit pick over the smallest religious detail and ignore the glaring billboard that God is flashing before you.