Imposters

Monday, March 16, 2020

This letter is from John, the elder.  I am writing to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in the truth—as does everyone else who knows the truth—because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever.  Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ—the Son of the Father—will continue to be with us who live in truth and love.  How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded.  I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another.  This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning.  Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.  I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world.  They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body.  Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.  Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve.  Be diligent so that you receive your full reward.  Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.  If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement.  Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work.  2 John 1-11

The sermon illustration about authenticity in being a Christ-follower is old enough to have a beard.  

It’s a  one liner:  Just because the farm dog has her next litter in an old, abandoned stove doesn’t mean the pups are biscuits.  

So, one would ask, what’s the point?  Well, the points are legion, but the main one is that biscuits are a lovely part of breakfast, while pups are meant to run and play with little boys and girls, splashing in streams and making memories of chasing butterflies, getting muddy beyond belief, and rolling in the grass.  

In connection with what the beloved disciple John wrote, there’s a big difference between assuming the persona of being a follower of Christ, and genuinely being a follower of Christ.  One of the acid tests is whether or not behavior truly echoes belief.  A person can say many things about his behavior, but (as grandma used to say) the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  What we say about what we do means less than what we actually do.  Our true belief is revealed by our behavior, for whatever a person truly values is what a person ultimately does.[1]

John’s caution to the elect lady (the church) was the difference between saying we love, and genuinely loving.  And his definition, or acid test, was the connection with God’s commands.  The difference, for instance, between an obedient son and a disobedient son, both of whom their father had asked to go work in his fields, was a matter of obedience.  One said he would go – and didn’t.  The other said he wouldn’t go – but also changed his mind and went to work.  It was a no-brainer to label the one who truly loved his father.

For You Today

Let’s let Jesus speak the last words for us today about being genuine, and not an imposter:

“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.  A tree is identified by its fruit.  Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes.  A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.  What you say flows from what is in your heart.  “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?  Luke 6:43-46

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on this topic see Living an Authentic Life

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[1] See Matthew 6:21 and Luke 12:34

Going Out in a Blaze of Glory - Part 2

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Friday, November 10, 2017

O my people, listen to my instructions.  Open your ears to what I am saying, for I will speak to you in a parable.  I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us.  We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.  For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel.  He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, so the next generation might know them—even the children not yet born—and they in turn will teach their own children.  So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.  Psalm 78:1-7^(NLT)

This Psalm, or maskil, a Hebrew song sung in worship, sets the stage for proclamation of God’s ways through the retelling of humanity’s journey from Eden to the present.  Its purpose is to instruct the congregation in God’s Word so it will be passed-down through the generations.  As the final verse unfolds we see God’s wise challenge; this is not a rote-memory project, mechanically reciting the words to commit to memory.  Rather it is an experience that helps the Word come alive for young (and old) minds.  This is the awakening dawn of faith; hope gets set anew on God in each generation.

Yesterday’s devotion made a point about the reality of the cycle of generations.  Just by looking at the changing color of the leaves we understand that the fall announcement of winter’s coming is a perfect metaphor for what happens in the human family.  We start off as buds, mature into healthy green leaves, turn a blaze of colors, then…gone!  The leaves’ swan song is brilliant; they go out in a blaze of glory.  But it’s death, nonetheless. 

I have to admit that at seventy I think a lot more now than before about this cycle and my responsibility in God’s plan to pass along the faith.  (When you’re raking up 54 gazillion leaves a day you have some time to think.)

In some ways we are no different in the 8^th decade of life than the first; we still learn by example.  The pictures we paint for our children with our behavior are a powerful source of understanding how life is/can be lived.  The old saying do as I say, NOT as I do speaks true volumes when it comes to failure in communicating authentically.  We cannot convince our children and grandchildren to DO differently than we have simply by ordering it; behavior is more caught than taught!  Occasionally a child who is wise beyond her years might reason that a command makes sense; but, that would be a child well-beyond his years.  Mostly our children watch us, see what we do, and then proceed to make their way for good or bad based on our example.  Ripples do affect the lake!

And so the whole point of this Passing-Along-the-Faith-Psalm is to model living God’s ways daily, so our children grasp more fully what it means to be God’s child.  We are all flawed and make mistakes, but by the time our youthful green meets the cold snap of Fall’s change in color, the pattern of our discipleship ought to display a grand flourish of devotion to the will and way of God.  And so much, so that the generation immediately behind can’t help but see the loveliness of what God has built. 

We usually express the growing older image with the metaphor of the color of our hair being snow on the roof; today I am officially changing it to:  I am in the season of going out in a blaze of glory. 

I want my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to see God’s best; I want to offer them a memory of Godliness that’s authentic.  I want them to see the change God has made in me.  I want to be part of helping the next generation set their hope anew on the Lord Jesus.

For You Today

No matter how close you are to the going out part of going out in a blaze…while you’re breathing it is not too late to begin to let God set you on fire!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Russell Brownworth

Living An Authentic Life

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Monday, September 25, 2017

Your commandments give me understanding; no wonder I hate every false way of life.  Psalm 119:104^(NLT)

The sociology professor held up the book we were going to study…and an ominous thought crossed my mind…it’s going to be a long 16 weeks!  The book (at times) was semi-interesting, but really difficult to digest.  I’m not sure whether the problem with digesting the author’s ideas was due to the writer’s style or my discomfiting realization that the ideas presented by the author were too-close-to-home!  

The book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life,[2] used the metaphor of stage performance to “explain” how we conduct our lives in the presence of others.  The suggestion to the reader was that, like players on a stage in Shakespearean times, actors wore masks to represent the different characters they were playing.  The number of roles one person could play was limited only by how many masks you could hold in your hand (and, I presume, whether you were schizophrenic enough to suppress multiple personalities while wearing only one mask at a time).

I have to admit that the idea of people not being honest with you was new to me.  Being just 24 years old at the time, I was appalled at the thought that people would lie to you.  (I was something of a late-bloomer when it comes to human relationships).

In retrospect – and after 45 more years of interaction with people – I suspect the author was onto something; not everything that glitters is actually gold, and not every word that proceeds from a person’s mouth will stand close scrutiny.  Chalk it up to expediency, creativity, or Adam’s sin in the Garden; people have been lying to each other since the Serpent schooled Eve in how to get around the truth!

The Psalmist presents a different, refreshing perspective:  hating any false way of life.  And how different it is than what we experience in our culture every day.  The Psalm writer suggests a life where, under the instruction of God’s Word and ways, you put all the masks you’re tempted to wear in the recycle bin and go with what your Creator gave you.  You live an authentic life.

Think of the benefits:

·       Never being caught in a lie

·       Never having to worry about keeping your story line straight because truth never changes

·       Only having friends who will accept the real you, because that’s what they get every day…(incidentally, once people get over the shock of hearing truth in a false culture, they’re very attracted to it…truth brings hope)

·       Never having that queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach when you finally get around to praying…because you’ve been living authentically, not living a lie

·       …and so on.

For You Today

You’ve got a choice today…put on the masks and juggle the half-truths you use to make sure you get what you want, even though in the end you’ll have stuff, and a self-made false image of what people think of you……or……you can lay the masks down and live the uncluttered and uncomplicated way of truth – an authentic life!

Just thinking about that helps me understand why Jesus said the truth will set you free!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy:  Pixabay.com

[2] Erving Goffman, 1956, Anchor Books (via Wikipedia)