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Monday, February 4, 2008

From James MacDonalds Blog www.walkintheword.com

from my fave! So good as always!

God Hates Fake Stuff

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:1-4

Everybody hates a fake.

My wife is so tricky sometimes! She puts out all this counterfeit fruit in bowls in our kitchen and I get so confused. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up a great looking pear and almost broken my tooth when I tried to bite into it! How worthless is that? I hope you don’t have fake fruit at your house.

I also hate fake grass. Football should be played on real turf.

I hate fake laugh tracks on TV shows. What?-is the comedy so bad that it needs canned laughter?

I just hate fake stuff.

God hates fake stuff, too. Not so much the surfacey, silly things that bother me-God hates soul fakeness. He detests the gap in our lives between what we know to be true and how we’re living it. The biblical term is hypocrisy.

There should be some kind of alarm that’s goes off in your heart when there’s a substantive gap between what you say and what you do; between what you profess and what you actually live; between the appearances that you keep up at church in front of other people and what it’s really like at your house. God hates that phoniness. That’s why Jesus says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them” (Matthew 6:1).

People will see you live your life; that’s not the problem. You don’t have to keep secret the fact that you go to church, or raise your hands in worship or get on your knees to pray, or open your written-in Bible. But when you do all those things so that people will see you-that is a problem. Doing-spiritual-things-so-other-people-notice goes right to motive. If you’re acting godly with the desire to get attention or affirmation or strokes from folks-you just got all the reward you deserve and lost God’s approval in the process.

So this begs the question, “Why is hypocrisy such a hard thing to shake?”

It’s because of the weight you and I put on people’s opinions of us rather than feeling the weight of what God thinks of us.

The solution: Don’t do anything “to be seen.” Have a better, more pure reason to do whatever it is you choose to do for God. Anything less than pleasing Him will only get you canned applause.

9 comments:

Emily said...

hey Jenny, saw this quote on Rachel's blog that you posted,

"Beware in your prayer, above everything, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things, above all that we ask or think. Each time you intercede, be quiet first and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, of how He delights to hear Christ, of your place in Christ; and expect great things." Andrew Murray

That is awesome! Hope you are having a great day!

Fran said...

He is just so dern good. Fake is gross! I lived as one for so many years and she was not a good person. Thank goodness my heart and mind were changed and I have no desire to go back there....I can be tempted....but it is sure easier to say "no thanks" now.

Thanks so much for sharing. I just love it when you do. :)

Hope all is good.
Hugs~
Fran

Amy said...

just like what Beth was talking about last week! even if the fake person we show to the world is who we want to be it is still hypocrisy!

connorcolesmom said...

So true I agree - I do not like anything fake either!
I have to confess when I first started reading and James McDonald wrote my wife... I thought is Jenny's husband writing this post - LOL!!!
Ok I can be slow sometimes :)
Have a great day!
Kim

twinkle said...

Imitations bug me, too. I like the real thang. Don't be fake and don't imitate...

Jenny, you are the real thang! And the only one you imitate is Jesus. And it's ok to imitate Him :).

Jessica said...

Ughh! We all hate a fake, don't we? Knowing that God will spit us out of His mouth if we are lukewarm is all the motivation I need to be holy and pure and righteous. Thank you, Jesus, that you desire and commnad holiness.

NYC said...

This is so, so true! If we as human beings can detect and detest fakeness, how much more can God.

I like James McDonald as well :)

He Knows My Name said...

i just caught up on beth's q&a. macdonald's her fav too! i need to tune him in more. i hope your classes at church and home are going well. i hope you didn't see any of that bad wheather! luv ~janel

Bev Brandon @ The Fray said...

I love that AM quote...don't know James McDonald but wow he is really good, especially to take a look into our frightful fearful fray of our hearts to not do anything to be seen---that so speaks to me! Will have to check out his web...thanks...