Day 17 authentic

One of the benefits of getting older is that by now we have hopefully shed a few unhelpful and useless habits/beliefs/behaviours and we have become more of our authentic selves.  The whole point of this christian malarkey is that we are becoming more like Jesus.  That there is less of us and more of Him.  And ironically and mystically, by there being less of 'us' we actually become more truly 'us'. 😀  We should all be more like the people God created us to be now than we were twenty years ago.  Or last week. 


The dictionary defines authentic as  
The Bible tells us that in the last days many will be deceived by people who come claiming to teach the truth ( some even claiming to be the Messiah) so it seems to me that it is crucial that the church knows, in these times, how to discern the authentic from the fake. We know that we have an enemy who loves to dress up in garments of light to trick and deceive God's people, luring them away from the truth.   How do we recognise the fake from the real?  Well here are a couple of things which might help us.

1)  Know the Word.  The more steeped and soaked in the truth of the word of God we are, the less likely we are to be led astray.  

2) Stick together.  We are in much more danger when we wander off from the flock than if we stay close to the rest of the sheep and stick with the Pastor of the flock.  The lion is prowling about looking for the strays and stragglers to devour.  Dont be tempted to try to go it alone.  We all need to be part of a church family.   However difficult and annoying that can be at times :)

3) Pray for discernment.   Discernment is a spiritual gift we should be asking for - along with wisdom.  If we ask for it God will give it to us.   And boy, do we need it!

4) Become acquainted with the real thing.   People who are trained to spot forged bank notes do not spend hours and hours studying fakes.  They spend hours and hours and hours studying real bank notes.   The look of them, the feel of them, the smell of them.   They handle hundreds of thousands of real notes so that when a fake one comes across their path they can identify it easily.    As Christians we need to fill ourselves with good, biblical, Godly teaching and fellowship.  We need to ask advice and opinions of more mature christians and be accountable to others about what we are watching/listening to/reading.   There are lots of ' fads' in the Christian church.  There is always another bandwagon to jump on.  Some of the bandwagons are not bad in themselves, they just might not be terribly relevant to where we are at.   So lets look before we leap.

5) Trust your instincts.  If something makes you feel uncomfortable in your spirit, if you find your peace is disturbed then trust that feeling and steer clear.   Some people just don't sit well with us.  Some teaching, ' ministries', organisations and movements just make us feel unsettled and suspicious.  If you feel like that, then regardless of how many other people might be being blessed and however spectacularly God might be working it is probably just not for you at this time.  In order to be authentic yourself you have to be true to what God is doing IN YOU.   He gives us peace in our spirits to keep us on the right track.  When we lose that sense of peace we are heading in the wrong direction.  

Final thought -  I believe it was the authenticity of Jesus which was the big attraction to the people around Him.  He was utterly true to Himself.  He did not compromise or pretend or hide or exaggerate.  Jesus is Truth and Light so there is no falsehood or shadow in Him.  That is deeply attractive in a world which dissembles and cheats and lies and flatters.   Jesus offers us real life.  A life free from pretending and hiding.  An authentic, honest, vulnerable life.   When we can grasp this and start to live it we become deeply attractive people to those who are lost.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 6 who cares about us?!

Image
 I have no idea if my experience is 'normal' or not.  But Ive moved churches a few times in the past 25 years and each time Ive found it harder to make properly deep and meaningful friendships.   Maybe I was spoiled in my youth by having been blessed with a few ' soul mates'.  Those long lasting, tell-all, do-or-die, give you a kidney if you need one friendships are probably mostly made in our teens and twenties.  Dont get me wrong, Ive still got those precious soul mates in my life.  Its just that these days they are miles away and as busy as I am and they arent at the coffee bar at the end of a Sunday service ready to pray with me or chew over the issues of the day. As time has gone on my definition of church has shifted somewhat.  It used to be that my church consisted of those people who went to the same sunday service and housegroup as me.  Nowadays I know that my church consists not only of those people, but of a whole raft of other chr...
Read more

Day 8 Parents

Image
 Isnt God just so kind? Over the last few years I have lost my Dad, my Mum and more recently my lovely step-mum.  My Mum was definitely not a Christian for most of her days.   My Dad and his wife went to church regularly but I never was able to quite fathom what Dad believed.  He liked liturgy, didnt have much time for sermons. I got the feeling that church for him was a cultural habit rather than anything living and active - but I couldn't be sure.   I didn't see much evidence of the fruit of the spirit in either parent - but I'm also aware that people looking at my life from the outside might not see much fruit either, so I opted not to judge and to leave in to Jesus to decide their ultimate eternal fate.   Dad died during covid.  I wasn't with him.  I spoke to him on the phone a few days before he died and I cant honestly remember if I asked him to promise me he would go with Jesus.  He was on a morphine pump at the end of h...
Read more

Day 3

Image
 On Ash Wednesday there was a short evening service at our church.  I went.  I wasnt in the best of moods and I sat there wondering what it was all about.  The songs we sang, the liturgy and the prayers.  Then the rather odd ( to my thinking) being marked with a cross on the forehead with ashes.  Communion and then singing and home again.   I spent most of the time wondering if this is what God was wanting or requiring of us.   And the rest feeling guilty for even thinking these things. I find myself in this headspace more and more these days.  Gone is the unquestioning, faithfully following, endlessly saying yes, ways of my youth.  For decades I have been to church, tried to be helpful, listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit as much as Ive been able to, served, participated...... and I think right now Im just a bit weary of it all.   And sometimes I wonder if God is a bit weary of it all too. 😊 Dont get me wrong. ...
Read more