Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A life that matters”
Our Bible verse for today: “So rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.” 1 Peter 2:1 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Walk the talk”
Today I want to challenge each of us to sincerely invite the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and reveal to us sinful patterns of thinking, and the corresponding patterns of behaving, that need to get cleaned up in our lives. Folks, we have to walk the talk. Doctrine must translate into practice. What we profess to believe must determine how we actually behave.
Those of you who have read my book “Walking with Paul” may remember that in the introduction I told a story about the owner of a Christian bookstore who I used to know. One day she told me about the problem the store was having with shoplifting. I was stunned when she said that because it had never occurred to me that shoplifting would be a problem in a Christian bookstore. I mean presumably the customers are all Christians!
I once knew a man who held a leadership position in a Christian ministry but he had the habit of peppering his speech with mild profanity. He did it intentionally because evidently he thought it made him seem edgy and cool. It didn’t. It made him appear sinful and hypocritical, but those of us who had to deal with him on a regular basis never were able to get him to stop doing it. (He’s no longer in ministry by the way).
On and off over the years I’ve also had to deal with a person who has the bad habit of shading the truth. This person will sometimes twist the facts, just a little bit, to make a situation appear different than it really is. At other times he will provide incomplete explanations in an effort to achieve the same purpose. And sometimes he will even tell “little white lies”. In his mind he is apparently able to rationalize that behavior. He must think he has some “Christian” objective he’s achieving and so he’s just lying in the name of Jesus, I guess.
I know another person who is a modern-day Jacob. Do you remember Jacob from the book of Genesis? He was known for being deceitful and manipulative. This person is like that too. She too says one thing to your face but then quietly maneuvers and manipulates behind the scenes to achieve other objectives.
There are endless examples of dishonest Christian business owners; or spouses who commit adultery; or Christians who cheat on their taxes. The list goes on.
My point is that there are patterns of thinking and behavior in all of our lives that do not honor God – they are sinful and they need to get cleaned up. Doctrine has to translate into practice. What we profess to believe must determine how we actually behave. We must walk the talk.
I want to encourage all of us to sincerely invite the Spirit to convict us of those things in our own lives which are not right and which need to change. Then make a commitment to really work on getting that issue corrected in your life in 2017.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 