In 1974 Coca Cola came out with a commercial song called It’s the Real Thing. This little ditty took the airwaves by storm for several years and had everybody in the country humming the tune and pattin’ their feet. “It’s the real thing … what the world wants today,” the young people sang. And so it is today. People everywhere are looking for something real …”the real thing.”
Click the link below, pat your foot along with me, and listen to the song. Then click back into today’s Dose of Encouragement as we start our week with a question. How do you know “the real thing” when you see it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDSnjjdGh5M
LISTEN TO THE RIGHT GUY!
“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.”
2 Peter 2:1
Well, I might as well address the white elephant in the room. It’s silly season. Our nation is embroiled in a viciously divided election battle that is bringing hypocrites out of the woodwork. In our day, we have republicans and democrats, conservatives and liberals. In Jesus’ day, they had Pharisees (conservatives) and Sadducees (liberals). And they fought just like their counterparts fight today.
Everybody claims to be a pundit – a teacher of authority who starts sentences with “I think”, or “I believe.” But I am not going to do that. It’s not about me or what I believe. What I am going to do is listen to the One Who really is the authority so I won’t be deceived. And I will offer His words for our encouragement and for our wisdom.
Again and again the Gospels record Jesus’ strong rebuke of those who said they were people of God yet lived and led others in direct opposition to the Word of God. The majority chose to follow the popular agenda being spouted by the leaders instead of standing on the Truth of His Word. And they ended up losing their country because of it. Sound familiar?
As we go to the polls next year, I beg you not to listen to the political parties of our day, but listen to the truth of God’s Word. Not a single one of the candidates running will line up totally to it because we all fall short of perfection. But we can vote for those candidates who line up most closely with the truths of His Word this country was founded upon, and who – and this is where the rubber meets the road – live and govern the way they SAY they believe. Remember our verse this week from I John 2:4? Listen also to Jesus’ voice in John 10:27-28:
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish;
no one will snatch them out of my hand.”(NLT)
Some don’t like to hear this, but our country was founded on the truths of God’s Word. It was founded on the principle that the God of the Bible is our God. To prove it and cast it in stone, Bible verses were chiseled in concrete monuments all over our capital city of Washington D.C. – and still point us to what this country was founded upon.
Until tomorrow,
Your Traveling Companion,
Brenda
John 12:4-6 gives us the key; Judas was a pretender. He pretended to believe what Jesus taught, but he didn’t. He pretended to be a God follower, but he wasn’t. He hung around for what he could get out of it personally. Judas was more interested in his own agenda than he was in the purpose to which Jesus had called him. The deceptive hypocrisy led to his utter destruction.
Why is it so important to be the real thing – to listen and live in the truth? Look around. I think we’d all agree there is a shortage of people who are what they say they are and how is that working out for us? We live in an age when so many say whatever they want others to believe, whether it’s the truth or not. Many think it’s okay to lie as long as it furthers their own agendas. So if we aren’t careful, we wonder who to believe.