CHRISTIAN
LIVING, AUTHENTICITY
A FEMALE PRESENCE was requested for the monetary system and the Susan B. Anthony dollar was created. This dollar took the form of a large coin. Unfortunately, this coin did not reach the level of circulation of other coins more familiar. Why? Because it looked too much like a quarter. People had trouble distinguishing it and opted not to use it. A lot of Christians are like that. We are worth a dollar but the way we live our lives makes us look like we’re worth a quarter.82
[Weakness; Witnessing; Flesh, Walking in]
Heb. 12:14–28
THE STORY is told of a gymnast who was out of work. He was reading the newspaper and he read that the gorilla in the local zoo had died. He went down to the zoo and said, “I hear your gorilla has died.” He said, “I know you are probably planning to get another one, but I have an idea. Give me a gorilla suit; I am a gymnast so I can do all kinds of moves. I’ll make the people think that I’m the gorilla. I’ll have a job and you’ll have a gorilla. If this arrangement works out, then you can keep me on.”
Well, they didn’t have anything to lose, so they gave him an authentic gorilla outfit. He practiced a bit making some gorilla sounds and then got in the cage. Everyone thought he was real. People kept showing up until the crowd had grown very large.
Next to his cage was a lion’s cage. There was a rope hanging down in the gorilla’s cage, so he said to himself, “I’ll start swinging on the rope and dazzle the crowd with my moves. They’ll really get riled up if they see me swinging over the lion’s cage.” He started swinging. The people did get excited as they watched him swing over the lion’s cage and back. The zoo loved him and kept him on as the fake gorilla.
One day he swung over to the lion’s cage and the rope broke. He fell down, and found himself looking straight into the mouth of the lion. Out of fear, he forgot his role of gorilla and yelled out, “HELP!”
Immediately after his scream for help, he heard a female voice say, “Shut up, or you’re going to get us both fired!”83
IF YOU’RE going month after month and year after year and there are no negative repercussions that ever come upon you because of your faith, then your faith has not been clearly demonstrated. You are a secret agent Christian or a Spiritual CIA member. You are a covert operative because there have been no repercussions for your faith.
To put it another way, if you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you or would you be found innocent of all charges?84
[Witnessing; Spiritual Identity, in Christ]
Luke 6:26; John 15:18–21; 2 Tim. 1:8; 3:12
THERE’S something I don’t understand about Christmas. Why do we wrap gifts? I don’t understand, and I certainly don’t understand paying folks to wrap them. Trust me, the person you are giving a gift to is not interested in your wrapping. Now, they may placate you by noticing the wrapping and telling you how pretty the bow looks, but in the end they are going to tear it off.
Wrapping paper and all the accompanying accessories are a camouflage that disguises what people are really interested in. We get all hyped and geeked when we see people wrapped well. They drive a well-wrapped car; they live in a well-wrapped neighborhood. They work at a well-wrapped job, they wear well-wrapped clothes, and they have well-wrapped money. But God wants to know what the wrapping is covering. He’s interested in knowing what is on the inside.85
[Spiritual Life, Manifestation of]
1 Peter 3:2–4
ONE YEAR at Christmastime, my wife wanted some wrapped boxes to use for decoration. She took eight empty boxes and had them wrapped to use as a decoration at our front door. Those boxes sat in the front of our house, impeccably wrapped, topped with bows, and empty. I didn’t worry at all about a thief coming and stealing any of those wrapped boxes on the outside of our house. There wasn’t anything in there!
A lot of folks are well wrapped but there’s nothing going on in the inside. Unfortunately today, many people don’t want to be truly blessed; they just want to be well wrapped. True, authentic Christian living starts on the inside and the evidence of that life works its way out.86
James 2:18
A BODYBUILDER was visiting an African tribe, and the tribal chief was just amazed at his physique. So the tribal chief asks the muscle builder, “What do you do with all of those muscles?”
The bodybuilder said, “Well, it’s probably easier to show you than to explain.” So he went into all these different presentations of his physique to show off the different muscles—the biceps, the triceps, the back, and the obliques. He just stood there, changing poses. After the presentation, the tribal chief said, “Now that’s impressive! But, I have a second question. What else do you do with all of those muscles?”
“Well,” the bodybuilder said, “that’s pretty much it. I work out to pose.”
The African chief said, “What a waste. What a waste.”
Many Christians work out only to pose. They don’t work out to use the muscles they have developed. They carry their Bibles, stand during praise and worship, raise their hands in praise to the Lord, and absorb the Word of God from the sermon, only to leave the church and never use what they’ve learned.87
[Carnal Christians; Spiritual Maturity]
James 1:21–23