"If you give God the right to yourself, He will
make a holy experiment out of you." --- Oswald
Chambers
Psalms
139:23-24 (NLT)
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me
and know my thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me
along the path of everlasting life."
There is more to being real than not wearing a mask. It has to do with being authentic and original
and being you.
I was doing a little shopping and spent some time in
a shop that sales coins, some rare and some not so rare. What I learned, and you already know, is that
the originals cost more. The knock-offs
and imitations are cheap. They may look
good, but to the trained eye, it is worthless.
The same thing is true in life. People know a fake. They know the person who tries to look the
part or act like something they are not. The church is full of these kind of people. Don't turn me off...keep listening. There are people who walk in the door dressed
right and with a smile on their face, yet they just had a fight with the entire
family in the car. Or, something is
haywire in their personal lives or at work. But they don't want anyone to know.
Know what makes a huge difference in life and in the
church? Just be yourself. Be you. Don't try to look or act or preach different. Just be you, who God made you to be.
If that is your choice, you have chosen to do what
Oswald Chambers said in the quote I began with (Chambers wrote the devotional
book "My Utmost for His Highest"). God wants to work in our lives. He will make an experiment out of us. He will see that we are authentic.
Lord, teach me and guide me to originality in all
that I am and in all that I do. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Galatians 5:26 (MSG)
"That
means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better
and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is
an original."
NOTE: this was first sharing in May of 2006
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