Friday, January 10th: Guest Writer, Mrs. Lois Ormsby

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” ~ Matthew 5:16

Recently one of you asked me a great question: why does the world judge Christians for things that they (the world) do themselves? Things like drinking, going to a night club, missing church, etc…

The reason that the world judges us is simple – they know that we are supposed to be different. They might not know why, but they know that “real Christians” do things differently. Maybe they are looking to see a Christian who follows what he says he follows, not a Christian who goes to church on Sunday and Wednesday but then hits up the lottery machines on the week days. The world is looking for the real deal – because in their hearts, they want to be the real deal too. More than once, the Bible even talks about how sometimes the world is wiser than Christians, because the world knows how Christians should act better than we do!

But why do we have to be on “display” all the time? The Bible verse above answers why. Like it or not, we, as children of God, represent Christ! We are always representing Him, either in a good, glorifying way or in a bad, shameful way. God calls us to be holy; He doesn’t give us a choice about that – it’s a command! He gets sad when we, as His children, do not obey this command and instead live life the way we want to. He is hurt when we live life on the “edge of the rules”, so to speak, because our heart is more interested in pleasing ourselves than it is to glorify God in everything that we do.

If we are following the verse above, the world will look at our life and think, “Wow, maybe there really is something true about their God.” Do you think there are people in your life who might be thinking that? Wouldn’t it be awesome for one of your friends at school or at work to get saved because you lived a faithful, different, holy life before them?

So, before you do something in public – whether it is at school, at work, at the mall, at the gas station, at the grocery store, at the theme park, or wherever! – ask yourself: Would I want Jesus Christ to come with me to this place and do this with me? Would it cause people to look to God if I do this?

 

 

Scripture Reading for the Day:

 

Proverbs 10

II Timothy 2