Romans 12:9 NLT
Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love
them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.
Proverbs 27:19 NLT
As a face is
reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person.
There are far too many “wanna-bes” and “pretenders” in the
world today. Often these people are
trying to get something from you or trying to get some position they want. In their trek to get what they want there are
lies told, untruth build on and people believe things about them that aren’t
true.
One of the things that we strive to do at The Community
Fellowship is to be real or to be transparent.
When we are real, other people will get real. When we are honest, others will get
honest. When we get and give
forgiveness, we will more likely give and receive forgiveness from others. It is time to stop pretending to be something
we are not. It is important to not try
to make people think that we are better, or we don’t have problems.
Like the rest of the world most of us have issues. Another of the issues with pretending in
front of other people is pretending to ourselves and lying to ourselves. Maybe you have convinced yourself that you
are better than others or that your sin or habit really isn’t that bad. Let’s get real with this issue:
Romans 3:23 NLT
For everyone
has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious
standard.
Everyone. No one is
excluded. Everyone needs God. Not everyone believes that, but it is
true. The Bible tells us in many places
that humanity is fallen and needs to be redeemed. And I love to be part of sharing God’s grace
and redemption with others.
Transparency or being real isn’t easy to understand. This week Pastor Kevin Martineau shared a
blog post about this topic that had lots of great insight. Here are some of
things Kevin shared:
What
transparency is not:
1.
Transparency is not an excuse to tell a person how you are really feeling or
what you really think of them.
2. Transparency is not just unloading everything that is going
on in your life to every person you meet.
What is transparency?
Transparency is removing the mask and revealing who you
really are; it is getting beyond the surface to what is really going on in your
heart.
Some
biblical examples of transparency
1. Jesus
cried at Lazarus’ death.
John 11:35
“Jesus wept” (my favourite verse to learn as a kid). He cries because He sees Lazarus’ sisters, the
other family and friends’ hurt and pain and also because Lazarus was His friend
too. Jesus allows Himself to be
vulnerable by allowing the people there to see what was really going on in His
heart…
2. In almost every one of Paul’s letters he reveals something
about himself.
In Romans 7:7-25,
Paul shares some of the struggles in his life with sin. Paul, who these people are looking up to as
their spiritual leader, is sharing that he too struggles with sin. Actually, not just struggles with it, but
being is even overwhelmed by it at times as well. Wow, that is being
transparent!
…A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense
of insecurity.
The original post from Kevin Martineau is at this link.
This week we begin a new series called I LOVE COMMUNITY, and we will be discussing and really uncovering
the blocks on which The Community Fellowship was founded. One of those blocks is our core value of
“being real” or being transparent. If
you have heard me preach or read much of what I have written, you know that I
am pretty transparent, and it is my believe that for far too long we Christians
have tried to hide our pain, our past and our deepest issues. We have to be careful with how we share them,
but we must share.
By being honest we find strength, healing, redemption and
rest. By being real others will too find
strength, healing and redemption. Thus I
pray that your church and ours, that you and me, will be as real as we can so
that God can work in awesome ways to bring more people to Himself.
Romans 12:3 NLT
Because of
the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning:
Don’t think you are better than
you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of
yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.
1 John 1:9 NLT
But if we
confess our sins to him, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
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