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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 2, NUMBER 40, NOVEMBER 3, 2002 COSTUMES AND MASKS
Last Thursday was October 31 – Halloween.
Over the past month I suppose I have been in the Halloween store
practically every time Vicky and I have gone to Florence Mall.
I just like looking at the costumes and the masks.
Some of the costumes are quite elaborate, with people going to great
lengths to conceal their identity and that is part of the fun.
I remember a party I attended several years ago where we never did guess
who two individuals were until the very end when they removed their masks.
On Thursday night, our house was visited by everybody from Harry Potter
to Spiderman. It is all part of the
fun.
In real life, however, concealing one’s true identity is not funny.
In the spiritual realm such efforts are called hypocrisy.
Our Lord warned His disciples to be careful and watchful for those who
were not what they appeared to be. In
Matthew 7:15, Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in
sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
Paul warned the Galatians
of “false brethren unawares brought in…,” (Gal. 2:4).
These were people who were hiding their true identity, they were not what
they appeared to be. Peter
wrote of “false prophets” and “false teachers” who would
speak with “feigned words” in 2 Peter 2:1 & 3.
John urged us to “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the
world” (1 John 4:1).
Since we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to be what we
appear to be. There can be no
pretense, there can be no hypocrisy. With
us, what you see must be what you get. As
a Christian, what comes out of my mouth is to be something that the listener can
absolutely count on. In Matthew 5:33
– 37, Jesus said, “Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of
old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine
oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is
God’s throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem;
for it is the city of the great King. Neither
shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or
black. But let your communication
be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”
As a Christian, if I say
“No”, I must mean “No”. If I
say “Yes”, I must mean
“Yes”.
Every minute of every day, of every week, of every year, I am a
Christian. Christianity is not
confined to the four hours a week I spend at services.
It is at home and it is at work; it is at school and at play.
I am a Christian when I go to the grocery store and when I fill my gas
tank at the gas station. It is not a
mask that I put on as I pull into the parking lot at the church building, and
then take off as soon as I get out on I like the way that Paul put it in Ephesians 4:1, where he wrote, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” In other words, if we are going to call ourselves Christians, then we need to live like Christians. In Colossians 1:10, he wrote, “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” It is just the idea of actually being what we appear, or claim, to be. No masks and no costumes; just the real me.” Greg Litmer WHAT YOU MEAN TO ME
I wake up every morning and the first thing that I do Is thank God for
the blessing of another day with you. We promised God so long ago that we’d walk through life as one, So through the hills and valleys we have gone, And will forever
do so until this life is done. Through children, sickness, operations, no money and the lost of parents too, There have been
two that I could always count on, they are God and you. As the years go by and we grow older, there is one thing I pray, That you and I
will go together, leave this world the same day. With heartfelt gratitude to God on my knees I fall, Thanking Him for
all life’s blessings, and you are best of all. I promise I will nourish you and cherish you until the very end, You are my life, you are my love, you are my best friend. g.l. “Husbands,
love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for
her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water
with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory,
having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and
blameless. So husbands ought also to
love their own wives as their own bodies. He
who loves his own wife loves himself;…”
(Ephesians
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