Otherwise Known as Hyprocrisy

Now I don’t know about you, but I truly enjoy thought provoking questions/statements. I find excitement in attempting to find the cause or solution to whatever made the gears of my mind start spinning. I tell you this because a while ago I came across an idea that had never crossed my mind, but that now I completely agree with.

In the book Basic Christianity by John Stott, an entire chapter is devoted to explaining and evaluating the Ten Commandments. It was all pretty basic, stuff I’d heard while growing up in the church; until I came to the third one; you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. This seems pretty self-explanatory, but once I read further, my eyes were opened. I like this point so much that I don’t want to cause confusion by using my own words, so instead I will quote straight from his book.

“His holy name can be profaned by our loose language, and most of us could do worse than revise our vocabulary from time to time. But to take God’s name in vain is not just a matter of words, but also of thoughts and deeds. Whenever our behavior is inconsistent with our belief, or our practice contradicts our preaching, we take God’s name in vain.” (p83)

Did you get that? Our practice contradicts our preaching and we take the Lord’s name in vain. This is also known as hypocrisy and I’m sure we can all list instances when we’ve seen hypocritical Christians. But you know, after reading this I realized that I’ve probably done the exact same thing in my heart. “To call God ‘Father’ and be filled with anxiety and doubts is to deny his name.” (p84) Denying God is not just done with the tongue, but perhaps even more with our actions.

Today I encourage you to practice what you preach; to glorify God rather than deny Him; to fall before Him in worship and praise.

The Cost of Money

The love of money is the root of all evil.

Unfortunately, money makes our world turn. We have been brought up in a society that measures success and happiness by monetary wealth. From the time we are talking we are told to do well in school and get a degree so that you will make ample amounts of money. For believers, I feel like this is a skewed mindset. Let me clarify before moving on.

Having money is not a problem; it is the lust for money that corrupts. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs”- 1 Timothy 6:10. Yes you should do well in school. We all need food, shelter, and clothing and having a college degree makes acquiring money to purchase those things much easier. However, I’m not talking about having just enough for the necessities. My point is that as Americans we are programed, more or less, to achieve the “American Dream.” Everyone wants the newest sports car, the highest paying job in town, a house with more bedrooms and bathrooms than the amount of people living there (including pets), so on and so forth. By continually reaching for these material possessions, we become susceptible to greed. Greed then worms its way into our minds and convinces us that it’s okay to step on others or to ignore other’s needs as long as our fortune keeps growing. “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction”- 1 Timothy 6:9.

Recently, I read Radical by David Platt and in one of the chapters he discusses how Americans hoard all their excess stuff while people across the world are dying by the thousands per hour because they do not have food or clean water. He does a better job of outlining the issue than I can, so I’ll just recommend that you read the book for the full picture. I myself am a hoarder, yet it’s so easy for me to forget about how all my excess could change lives if I gave it away for God. Giving away my money/possessions costs me little if anything; not giving away my money/possessions could cost someone in a third world country their life. This might sound dramatic, but in all seriousness giving to organizations that fight hunger or provide medical care to the poor will actually save lives.

This book opened my eyes and my prayer is that the Lord will keep my eyes open and my heart willing to give.