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Wearing a Mask


People outside of the church think church go-ers are hypocrites.

Preachers ask church members to be real with one another and to those who come to the Lord’s house to worship.

Leaders in the church ask church members to step up and participate in groups, get to really know fellow church members, and reach out a helping hand to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Paul had to write to Timothy and remind him to not be fearful or timid, to not be ashamed of his testimony about God, and to remember the Holy Spirit gives us a spirit of power, love, and sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Scripture says to confess our trespasses to one another and to pray for one another (James 5:16).

Somehow we all still treat church as a place ‘to go’. A place to go dressed up in our very best clothes with fake smiles and false ‘I’m doing well today’. We do this all to hide the ‘worst’ of our selves. The part of ourselves that we’re afraid others may not like or understand. We cover up our struggles. We hide the truth. We wear masks.


Why do we continually choose to wear masks? Why do we hide our true selves? As John writes in 1 John 1:5 ‘God is light and in him is no darkness at all.’ John continues to explain ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’ 1 John 1:8 In other words, when you say that you’re fine even though you’re really struggling, you’re putting on a fake mask and hiding behind it. God doesn’t want us hidden behind a mask. God didn’t send His only Son to die on the cross for our sins so we could lie to our brothers and sisters in Christ and not be hones about our struggles. Also, God definitely did not allow the Holy Spirit to dwell inside us, so that we could cover it up with our Sunday best, our fake ‘Good mornings’, and all our other masks.

Look at the Armor of God. (Ephesians 6:10-18). There was no mask in there! I don’t think that is a coincidence. Do you?

Please come back tomorrow. We’ll talk more about the Armor of God.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 2, 2013 at 10:56 PM

    Love this!
    It's so true. We are all guilty of wearing masks especially at church or in any situation where we want to impress others. Being open and honestly truthful would be much more attractive.

    ReplyDelete

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