Day 256 – Day Off

Normally around about now we’d be having the Eureka BBQ. Suffice to say it ain’t happening this year (at least not yet) but hopefully we’ll be meeting up again very soon anyway!

I was looking through my Facebook feed recently and I remembered that this time a few years ago, I spent the afternoon painting the lounge and dining room at my old house in Northwich. The reason I did it was because I wanted to make the house presentable for new tenants to come in and sign up to renting the property. It’s still rented out to this day!

What I was trying to do was set up an image for the house, so when people walked in they saw clean new carpet and fresh new walls.

The house was (and is!) a decent little place – secure, no major problems with it, and looked after carefully. That said, there are were few problems. There were one of two cracks which I filled in with plaster and painted over. There was a stain on the underlay which the new carpet hid. The kitchen was a little old-fashioned (at the time) and I hoped (again, at the time!) that some new paint and a few new tiles in there might hide the not-so-good bits.

To put it bluntly – by painting and putting new carpets in, I was, to an extent, asking people to see the shiny new stuff and overlook the bits that are not so perfect.

I wonder if that’s not like our lives? Do you present an image to your friends… to your family… to me… that’s not quite the full picture of who you are?

This happens in our Christian lives too. We’ve been reading about Jesus’ ministry this last week and we will continue to do so. Part of Jesus’ message is to avoid outward conformity when inwardly we are refusing to deal with sin, or not trusting in Jesus with our hearts day to day. Sometimes that outward conformity can trick everyone into thinking that you are a model Christian – going to church, going to Eureka, helping at the events. You can even trick yourself! But you can’t trick God. One day that carpet will be pulled up, and the paint will be chipped away, and the real state of our hearts will be shown for all to see at the judgement seat of Christ. What will be found in you?

Jesus came to give some hard messages, and that paragraph above is hard too. It’s not meant at any one person. In fact I’ve said similar messages on previous One Story years. I’m delighted with the way you are handling this reading plan with maturity and dedication, even if you’re a bit behind. But in these familiar passages we’re reading, I want you to continue to see Jesus’ hard demands of you, and for you to be challenged. Are there times when you feel like you’re pretending to be a Christian? Or does your heart yearn to put Christ first in all things – even if that means missing out on something else, or putting sin to death that you’d rather keep close?

Don’t just read the passages and my notes over the coming weeks and learn *about* Jesus – challenge yourself to be the man or woman that Christ *wants you to be*.