"If you give God the right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you." --- Oswald Chambers
"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." Psalms 139:23-24 (NLT)
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 last week while out of town 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 trys 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 awesome 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.
"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." Galatians 5:26 (MSG)
"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." Psalms 139:23-24 (NLT)
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 last week while out of town 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 trys 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 awesome 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.
"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." Galatians 5:26 (MSG)
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