SHOCKER! Though it shouldn't be

Well, this, in someways, is almost like a continuation of the last post that I had.
Mostly its on this idea of Pharisaicalism, not so much in this sense I used it last time.  Though that, nonetheless, is important.  Honestly, if someone is voting based solely on the two issues of gay marriage and abortion, they, like I said, are really voting in a Pharisaical manner.  Why? Well, because what are they trying to do?  They feel as if doing those two things is morally wrong and by voting on those two issues they are essentially forcing other individuals to comply to their own moral code.  It may even been done in the name of love but not the sort of love that changes hearts or minds. They are giving people the burden of living morally right without giving people Jesus who's burden is light.

Aside from that, however, I was shown quite well that I am a Pharisee all the same, unfortunately.  How? Well where do I begin?! Though the experience that brought this on was through me searching Scripture to see if something was allowed through my freedom in the Spirit.  Of course this mindset should have raised red flags everywhere, I can't think of anything more dangerous than going to Scripture to justify one's actions.  The other dangerous aspect was going to Scripture not expecting to be changed, but thankfully I was.  I looked in Romans 14, I don't know why I thought of that one, but I knew it was about some people who did things of faith quite differently from other people.
What I came away with wasn't really anything new, and even though I knew it, I learned it again in a new way.  I was reaffirmed that I have plenty of freedom in the Spirit to do many things it wasn't in the way that I was thinking.  My previous thought process was that I have the freedom to do things so long as it is honorable to God, you know not sinning.  However, here, in this Scripture, Paul wasn't speaking about two people doing things differently and they both being OK because neither of them were sinning; he is saying that they are OK because they are both trying to do these things in their desire to glorify God.
Well this was just a slap in the face to my own legalism.  Here I am thinking that if its not sinning I am able to do it, although others may disagree.  Where as I go to Scripture and God quite blatantly shows me that that in fact is a sinful way to live out life; instead of worrying about whether or not I can do something based on how it looks relative to sin, I should be basing it on whether or not my intent in it is to glorify God.  Which, of course, will take care of the aspect of whether or not it is sinful.  I am very thankful to have had read that passage.  I don't want to live my life through the lens of sin/not sin, but the lens of glorifying to God/not glorifying to God.  For one it does not make a mockery of the Cross that bore my sins and freed me to live a life of righteousness, all of which are for God's glory, by instead glorifying myself and my own ability to live ethical and seem upstanding.  And I am sure there are many other reasons, but that one for now has stuck out the most to me.

I must add a small caveat, where as all things may have the intent of glorifying God, that doesn't necessarily mean that they will.  There are things that cannot glorify God because they are sin, and things which God has said that He has no desire for cannot be given to Him as a gift, though I'm sure many would love to be able to do that.